LOS ANGELES — Cris Collinsworth is familiar with unlikely Super Bowl runs by the Cincinnati Bengals.
He was part of the first two during his eight-year career with the franchise and has seen their highs and lows during the past 33 years as a commentator and as a northern Kentucky resident.
It is only fitting that Collinsworth will be in the broadcast booth for Sunday’s matchup against the Los Angeles Rams. The game will be his fifth Super Bowl as an analyst and fourth with NBC as Al Michaels' partner.
Even though Collinsworth lives less than 20 minutes from Paul Brown Stadium, almost all of his advance research the past couple weeks has been on the Bengals. The last Cincinnati game he called was in 2018 against Kansas City.
Cincinnati was on NBC for the wild-card round game against Las Vegas, but the crew for that game was Mike Tirico and Drew Brees.
The Bengals are the third team since NBC's "Sunday Night Football" package started in 2006 to not make an appearance the year it made the Super Bowl. The Rams have been the opposite. Los Angeles has played seven regular-season Sunday night games since 2018. Collinsworth and Michaels have called the Rams three times this season, including their divisional round win over Tampa Bay three weeks ago.
