The departure of Joe Buck means that Kevin Burkhardt will occupy one of the most treasured positions in sports broadcasting — Super Bowl play-by-play voice.
Burkhardt will succeed Buck as the lead FOX NFL play-by-play voice, the New York Post reported Monday, a position that will allow him to call two out of the next three Super Bowl broadcasts. Per the report, Burkhardt and FOX are working on a long-term contract extension.
Buck occupied the lead NFL role for Fox from the retirement of Pat Summerall in 2002 through this past season, but departed earlier this month to follow his longtime partner Troy Aikman to ESPN.
It is not yet clear who Burkhardt will work with on the #1 FOX team, as his partner last season Greg Olsen is not a sure thing for the lead role.
Burkhardt has been with FOX since 2013 and steadily rose up the depth chart to become the network’s secondary NFL play-by-play voice. In addition to his role on the NFL, he has also anchored the FOX Major League Baseball studio show since 2014.
He is the first new entrant into the Super Bowl rotation since Jim Nantz replaced Greg Gumbel as the lead NFL on CBS voice in the mid-2000s. He joins Buck, Nantz and fellow newcomer Mike Tirico in the expanded four-network rotation of Super Bowl voices.
It should be noted that FOX would not ordinarily carry two Super Bowl games in three years. The coming Super Bowl on FOX is the last under the NFL’s 2011 media rights deals. The 2025 game is the second under the league’s new rights deals that kick in with the 2023 season.
[News from NYP 3.28]
