CBS has already suffered a few technical issues in and around its Super Bowl LIII coverage. For example, about 10 (football) minutes into the first quarter, color commentator-extraordinaire Tony Romo lost the use of his microphone.
After not hearing from the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback for a little bit, viewers got the following explanation out of Jim Nantz’s broadcasting partner:
“Well, my mic works again, so I can talk,” Romo said on a thankfully hot mic. “This works out perfect. I was saying such good stuff on that play earlier, Jim. It was fantastic.”
We’ll never know what play-predicting brilliance the 100 million-plus of us missed out on. But Romo’s really good at the the gig, so we’ll take him at his word.
Romo’s mic cut off with 5:52 remaining in the big game’s opening quarter. He got it back with 4:14 left. So, it wasn’t too bad — or at least, not too long a drought.
When reached by TheWrap, CBS Sports did not have a comment on what went wrong there. A person with knowledge of the production shrugged the lost 98 seconds-or-so as a “small issue” with Romo’s headset.
Romo switched to a back-up pretty swiftly. In the interim, Nantz did a halftime promo.
Hey, they’re pros.
The first quarter ended with no score, which was unexpected given the explosiveness of these two high-powered offenses.
Super Bowl LIII is in Atlanta, Georgia, the home of the NFC South Falcons.