NBC’s Mike Tirico talks Eagles-Cowboys, going to the Phillies game, and his two lifelong Philly TV friends

For the first time in nearly six years, Mike Tirico is coming to Philadelphia to call a football game.

Tirico, who took over this season for Al Michaels as the play-by-play announcer for NBC’s Sunday Night Football, will be in the booth alongside Cris Collinsworth when the Eagles take on the Dallas Cowboys under the lights at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday.

The last time he called an NFL game at the Linc was in 2016, when he and Collinsworth worked a largely meaningless Eagles win after they had been eliminated from the playoffs. This game will be more consequential, with the Eagles undefeated and the Cowboys 4-1. But Tirico thinks the bigger story is the return of the NFC East.

“Philadelphia’s young guys have come together off the momentum of last year with [head coach] Nick Sirianni. Dallas’ questions, and there were a lot of questions after Week 1, look at the last four weeks — now that’s kind of come together. And [head coach] Brian Daboll has done terrific things with the Giants,” Tirico said. “When the NFC East is good, the NFL is good.”

» READ MORE: Eagles’ Jordan Davis is making ‘scary’ progress, which could be pivotal against the Cowboys

Tirico, who has been with NBC since 2016 after calling Monday Night Football games on ESPN for 10 seasons, has called his fair share of games in Philadelphia. But when he visits the city, instead of booking a table at his favorite restaurant, he cares more about seeing two old friends who go back to his college days — NBC10 anchor Tracy Davidson and Fox 29 meteorologist Kathy Orr.

“Tracy was the first news anchor when I started as a sports anchor in Syracuse. And the very first person I sat next to in the very first college class that I had at Syracuse was Kathy,” Tirico said. “So I have truly lifelong friends in Philadelphia... When I get to town and see them on the air, it fills me with pride, since those are people I saw when they were first starting in the business, and to have a long run like they’ve had in local TV is so rare.”

Tirico talked about w keeping it light working with Collinsworth, calling an important game for a rabid fan base, and getting tickets for Friday’s Phillies playoff game against the Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Yes, yes he did [laughs]. That was one of the funnier deals because you talk about being demonstrative in the booth and we were just talking about pitching the ball, like an option pitch, and Cris seriously just moved his hand forward and the pen came flying out.

I didn’t say anything. It was the next play... and Cris just burst into when the play stopped. It just became a good laugh for the rest of the night... That’s the beauty of live TV.

Absolutely. People are going to ask questions, right? I mean, the audience is really smart and nuanced, and with a show like this, people do make it appointment viewing.

We’re in their living room for 19 to 20 weeks in a row, if you include the playoffs, so it only makes sense to just let you hair down a little bit, because I don’t have any [laughs], and share a little big with the audience.

» READ MORE: NBC’s Cris Collinsworth struggled through vocal issues

Oh, god, I don’t care. It takes on a life of its own.

My personal preference is you’re going to spend three and a half hours with both of us. I love starting the game with both of us, and it’s a short period of time. So if it gives Cris another 10 or 15 seconds to set up the game, and the two of us are doing it together, that I’m all for.

It’s always good to know we have the ability to just wake up everyone on social media, all the slide aficionados, to see if they’re paying attention. So you never know when we can bring it out.

We had the Monday night game in Washington where Michael Vick had like the best half of all time. That’s one of those when the anniversary comes up, somebody tags me on social media going back to some of the plays... That night was super exciting.

When you’re broadcasting a Philly game, whether it was the Sixers back in my NBA days, I did a couple of Flyers games, but especially the Eagles — you know that a rabid, passionate, educated fan base is hanging on every play, and that’s all you want.

It’s not that, that’s the basic. That’s a standard of the job every week... I think what’s changed is there are so many more people covering the team on a day-to-day basis.... I can’t remember what happened to Jordan Mailata in OTAs, because there are 32 teams to do that on.

One thing about doing a national broadcast where it kind-of balances a little bit is we can compare it to the Chiefs, with the Bills, or the best team’s in the league we’ve just seen in the last few weeks.

They also don’t have the same access we do. They haven’t gone to a Cowboys practice like we do before the game, or they haven’t visited with the Buccaneers three times this year... You get to see that stuff in person, and it makes that comparative on the national scale.

When you take Football Night in America and Notre Dame football games out of the equation, it really becomes a manageable schedule. You concentrate on football in the fall, and then in the off season are the Triple Crown races, the Indy 500, and some golf events.

In Olympic years, it gets busier. Last year was the oddest because we have two Olympic games in seven and a half months, and a Super Bowl thrown in there as well. We’re never going to have that again.

The lack of clarity.

I can make an argument that 2-3 Cincinnati may be just as good as some of the teams that only have one loss... I think there are still 20 some odd teams in that middle region that are not as bad or as good as we think they are right now.

We’ve seen some separation. The Eagles are one of those very good teams in the NFC. After that, I’ve seen holes in everybody — from Tampa, from Green Bay. I know Dallas has won their last four, but the biggest surprise is that Dallas is 4-1 after we watched them play Tampa Bay on opening night and their quarterback got hurt.

I think we’re going to have a whole mess of teams get to Thanksgiving and still have a reasonable shot at grabbing one of the 14 playoff spots.

Absolutely. I got about two dozen messages on social media and from people I know...

I have reached out to a couple of folks who I know to try to get some tickets. If the game doesn’t conflict with our Eagles meetings, I will absolutely be there. The one thing I am still at 55 is a massive sports fan, and if I have the chance to be in Philly and go to a baseball playoff game, I will be out there in a beer and a ball cap and loving every second of it.