Coverage starts early, so set your alarm clock
The first task of Super Bowl Sunday, as always, is to thrash through the 17 or so hours of pregame folderol on NBC, ESPN and NFL Network.
Here’s what to expect:
NBC
Following the traditional “Road to the Super Bowl” from NFL Films at 11 a.m., Dan Patrick signs on at noon with Liam McHugh serving as the second host.
Analysts Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison will be joined by Mike Florio, Chris Simms and Ravens coach John Harbaugh. Paul Burmeister (Patriots) and Randy Moss (Eagles) will be at team hotels and Kathryn Tappen at the NFL Tailgate Party.
NBC had not as of Friday provided an hourly breakdown for its features lineup but said it will offer interviews with halftime performer Justin Timberlake, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (Patrick), Patriots receiver Danny Amendola of The Woodlands (Harrison), Eagles defensive end Chris Long (Cris Collinsworth) and Eagles quarterback Nick Foles, coach Doug Pederson and cornerback Malcolm Jenkins (Dungy).
Feature topics lead off with players visiting their hometowns, including Foles (Austin Westlake), Brady, Trey Flowers and Malcolm Butler of the Patriots and Jay Ajayi (Frisco Liberty) and Fletcher Cox of the Eagles.
Peter King looks at the events that brought Brady and Bill Belichick to the Patriots in 2000. Former Washington coach Joe Gibbs and quarterback Doug Williams recall the 30th anniversary of their Super Bowl XXII victory. Patriots lineman Nate Solder and his wife, Lexi, discuss their infant son Hudson combatting kidney cancer. Sideline reporter Michele Tafoya, who lives in the Minneapolis area, interviews longtime former Vikings coach Bud Grant.
Eagles tight end Zach Ertz and USA Soccer women’s national team player Julie Ertz discuss balancing their careers. Patriots tight end Chris Hogan and his wife, Ashley, a medical resident who works in Long Island, discuss balancing their respective careers.
NBC also plans a fan feature, a story on the dog masks adopted by Chris Long and Lane Johnson to emphasize the Eagles’ underdog status and several “Coach’s Clicker” segments with Harbaugh. Dungy and Harrison.
ESPN
Chris Berman will host the postgame edition of “NFL Prime Time,” but pregame activities will be in the hands of Suzy Kolber and Samantha Ponder for ESPN’s four-hour “NFL Countdown” show beginning at 8 a.m.
Kolber will host from the stadium with Steve Young, guest analyst Greg Olsen of the Panthers and Louis Riddick, Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter. Ponder will be ensconced at the IDS Center Crystal Court in downtown Minneapolis with Matt Hasselbeck, Randy Moss, Rex Ryan, Charles Woodson and guest analyst Russell Wilson.
Along with considerable rhetoric, feature topics and approximate air times include Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie (with Schefter, 9:45 a.m.), retiring NFL Films cameramen Donnie Marx and Hank McElwee (10:30 a.m.), Tom Brady at 40 (Wright Thompson, 11 a.m.), New Englanders naming their dogs “Gronk” or “Brady” (Michele Steele, 11 a.m.), and Patriots fan Alyssa Silva, who has a condition called spinal muscular atrophy (Lisa Salters, 11:15 a.m.).
NFL Network
Rich Eisen signs on at 8 a.m., anchoring the main set. Colleen Wolfe anchors the outside stadium set.
NFL Network’s announced segments include Melissa Stark’s interview with Bill Belichick, Eagles lineman Chris Long on facing his former Patriots teammates and the history of backup quarterbacks in the Super Bowl.
Chris Rose, Deion Sanders and LaDainian Tomlinson will man NFL Network’s postgame show.