Political statistician goes out for football

Whatever free time Steve Kornacki has on Sundays, he is following the New England Patriots and trying to figure out if they have any hope of keeping their postseason streak alive.

That’s why it made perfect sense for NBC to make him part of the network’s NFL coverage.

Kornacki, the breakout star of MSNBC’s election coverage, will continue to be a part of NBC’s “Football Night in America” after his debut appearance last Sunday. Kornacki will be on for the pregame show and during halftime of Sunday’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills.

“I’ve been a football fan pretty much my whole life. So to get a shot to be on something that I’d be watching anyway is pretty cool,” Kornacki said. “What we’re trying to do is attach probabilities to sort of add a layer to the playoff picture, rather than just one through seven and who is in. I hope people found that useful but from my own standpoint, I had a blast doing it.”

Kornacki said discussions began about appearing on Sunday nights shortly after the election. NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood said the idea came out of a meeting when Greg Hughes, NBC Sports senior vice president of communications, mentioned that Kornacki was a big football fan.

“It’s a different canvas to paint on, and he certainly painted a cool picture,” Flood said. “It was wonderful to have Steve engaged in every process of it. You know, designing the graphics that were user friendly to him that made him feel like he was in an environment that they could execute.”

Kornacki’s analysis of polls and voting on the big board has been a part of MSNBC’s election coverage since 2014, but the political correspondent rocketed to popularity this year with the increased focus on the election. Kornacki’s touch screen and beige khakis became trending topics on social media. Even MSNBC got in the act by showing a “Kornacki

Cam” on the lower right portion of the screen during commercials.

Kornacki is amazed that he has become a pop culture icon.

“I did not foresee any of that or could not have planned any of that,” he said.