Burkhardt strong in first broadcast of the Super Bowl

Kevin Burkhardt is hardly a rookie broadcaster — he just finished his 11th season as an NFL playby-play announcer for Fox — but he is in his first year on his network’s No. 1 crew.

You never would have known that by listening to Sunday night’s Super Bowl telecast on Fox.

The network lost its perennial No. 1 team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to ESPN in the offseason and elevated Burkhardt and equally unproven analyst Greg Olsen to its premier telecasts.

Burkhardt validated that you don’t need a marquee name to call the biggest game in sports.

In the Kansas City Chiefs’ come-frombehind and controversial 38-35 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, Burkhardt was spot on with all the key calls. He kept viewers abreast in an understated way, saving his voice inflection for the game’s biggest moments.

Olsen, who is merely keeping Fox’s No. 1 analyst chair warm for Tom Brady beginning in the 2024 season, was solid if not spectacular. He seemed to talk slightly less than he did on regular-season games, which is a good thing, but still needs to work on completing sentences.

Both were on target on the game’s biggest play, a questionable third-down defensive holding call against the Eagles’ James Bradberry, allowing the Chiefs essentially to run out the clock.

“That is a game-altering penalty,” Olsen said.

“That’s a tough way to finish what’s been a classic,” Burkhardt added.

Olsen even got into a mini-debate with Fox rules analyst Mike Pereira over the call.

“I don’t know, Mike,” Olsen said. “Listen, I think on this stage, I think you let them play.”

“You’ve got to see the whole thing,” Pereira replied. “It seemed to me at the initial break, he grabbed the back of the jersey and pulled it. If we see that, I think that is a hold.”

Unfortunately, the debate didn’t continue, even though no jersey-pulling was seen on replay.

Before that point, the two first-time Super Bowl announcers met the challenge.

Let’s start with Burkhardt, familiar to Capital Region viewers from his years as a Mets reporter on SNY. He used his words efficiently while describing the plays as they developed.

After Olsen noted that Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was in motion, Burkhardt told us, “Looking that way, throwing that way, Kelce … touchdown!”

Burkhardt, on Jalen Hurts’ TD pass to A.J. Brown: “Hurts has all day, loading it up, taking a shot, looking for A.J. Brown, he’s got it. Touchdown!”

The ability to recognize an intended receiver before he even gets the ball is rare and much appreciated by the viewer. Burkhardt consistently did that throughout the game.

Olsen, just two years removed from a standout career as an NFL tight end, has a bright future in the TV game. He may be an upgrade from Aikman, whose insights rarely offer new information.

He needs polish, which comes with experience. Olsen made some excellent points throughout the telecast — maybe a little too technical for casual fans — but stumbled from time to time.

On a face-mask penalty against Eagles lineman Ndamukong Suh, he was at a loss for words. “You’ll see Ndamukong Suh just getting that left hand right up in his face mask,” Olsen said.

Yes, we can see that. Better just to stay quiet and let the telecast breathe a little.

The crew was slow to talk about what appeared to be a slippery playing field. Finally sideline reporter Tom Rinaldi addressed it early in the third quarter.

After Nick Bolton returned an Eagles fumble for a Chiefs touchdown — another spot-on call by Burkhardt — Fox never offered a replay.

The network had Pereira, who created and molded the position of officiating analyst, in the booth. His insights were valuable, but his decisiveness was not.

On a replay review late in the first half, Pereira analyzed what the officiating crew was seeing but never offered an opinion on whether the on-field reception would be overturned.

Early in the third quarter, Pereira was quicker to pronounce an apparent second defensive touchdown by Bolton as an incomplete pass.

The good fortune for Fox is that this game was among the best in Super Bowl history. When that happens, it doesn’t matter who is calling the game.