SI

Bills’ ‘Wide-Right’ Field Goal Brings Out the Best in Jim Nantz and Kevin Harlan

Also in Traina Thoughts: ‘SI Media With Jimmy Traina’; Chiefs fan helps push field goal wide right; ’NFL Today’ TV special and more.

Jimmy Traina

1. Chiefs-Bills lived up to the billing yet again and gave us a moment that play-by-play folks dream of with Buffalo attempting a game-tying field goal with just over a minute left in regulation.

As you know, Tyler Bass’s 44-yard kick sailed wide right to essentially give Kansas City yet another trip to the AFC championship game.

“Wide right” obviously has great significance in Buffalo, and that wasn’t lost on Jim Nantz, calling the game for CBS, and Kevin Harlan, calling the game on Westwood One.

Nantz nailed his call with the shock in his voice and his words: “Wide right. The two most dreaded words in Buffalo.”

On the radio side, Harlan, with his signature pipes, summed up the madness perfectly, “The snap is good, the ball put down, the kick is up and NO GOOD. WIDE RIGHT! WIDE RIGHT! THE BILLS’ KICKER MISSED A FIELD GOAL WIDE RIGHT!”

The local Buffalo radio call was just pure dejection. It was almost as if the play-by-play guy and analyst were completely numb.

Obviously, the mood was much different in the Chiefs’ radio booth.

2. One more note on Tyler Bass’s missed field goal. Those videos of fans smashing TVs after their team losses are so tired and lame.

Antics like this are much more amusing and creative.

3. Some idiot Bills fans tried pelting Patrick Mahomes with snowballs as he was running off the field after the Chiefs beat the Bills.

As if Buffalo fans weren’t already having a rough enough day, Chiefs linebacker Drue Tranquill then insulted their snowball-throwing skills.

4. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast featured an interview with Fox’s No. 1 NFL broadcast team, Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen. We spent some time discussing the fact that the duo did not have many close games during the season. Just five of the 19 games they called were decided by a touchdown or fewer. Meanwhile, nine of the 19 were decided by 20 or more points. 

So it was great to see the duo get a close game Saturday night with the Niners coming back to beat the Packers, 24–21. It was also nice to see some of my pod listeners acknowledge what was going on.

Content is unavailable

You can listen to the podcast with Burkhardt and Olsen below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated’s YouTube channel.

5. Two other items on Burkhardt-Olsen and the podcast.

One, that Packers-Niners game drew 37.5 million viewers for Fox. It was the most-watched Saturday telecast on any network since the 1994 Winter Olympics and was up 31% over last year’s Giants-Eagles divisional round playoff game on Fox. Earlier in the day, Texans-Ravens drew 31.8 million viewers for ABC/ESPN.

Two, yes, this is accurate. Very accurate.

6. I’m looking very forward to this. CBS will air a one-hour special, “You Are Looking Live!” on Super Bowl Sunday at 1 p.m., about the history of the granddaddy of all studio shows, NFL Today.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: It was 35 years ago today that Budweiser aired the first Bud Bowl commercial.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

Published
Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

Home/NFL