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Jim Nantz on Tony Romo Criticism: 'I Couldn't Be Happier. I Love Working With Tony.'

Also in Traina Thoughts: Mad Dog has the best take on Super Bowl parties; Brent Musburger snubbed; Charles Barkley shocked by ticket prices and more.

Jimmy Traina

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1. Before calling Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, Jim Nantz appeared on the latest episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina.

With all indications that this will be the most-watched Super Bowl of all time, Nantz and broadcast partner Tony Romo will be under an intense spotlight.

This will be nothing new for the duo, who will be calling their third Super Bowl together. This will be the seventh Super Bowl overall for Nantz.

However, after starting his career as a fan and media darling, Romo has faced increased scrutiny from viewers and critics. (This was heavily discussed on last week's SI Media With Jimmy Traina with The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis.)

I asked Nantz if the recent Romo backlash has bothered either of them.

“Never had one conversation with Tony about it,” said Nantz. “Not one.

"I mean, I take it kind of as a foregone conclusion from what people tell me that everybody gets [criticism]. You've told me that before. You're the one that's told me before, 'Don't go on [social media].'

"Now people say, 'Oh, wait a minute, don't people send you sometimes clips or something on Twitter?' Sure. But how I would get from there to see what people are saying about Tony? No. I wouldn't even think about it. I'm gonna use my own judgment of how the broadcasts are going and I couldn't be happier.

"I love working with Tony. For anybody to ever even think that ... well, again, I'm not even sure this is what they're saying. Our chemistry is great. Our time together is just like it is on the air. We have a lot of laughter, a lot of fun. We see silliness. Sometimes we bring that silliness to the air. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. That's humor. But, no, I don't wanna say any more about it because you're asking me something that I'm not familiar with.

"We're trying the best we can. I think we've had, I know we've had, a super year and I really feel good about it going into the game."

Other topics discussed with Nantz during the podcast include how his approach to calling a Super Bowl has changed over the years, his surprise that the NFL has embraced Las Vegas, whether he wants to call the game in Brazil next season, the situation at Fox involving Kevin Burkhardt, Greg Olsen and Tom Brady and much more.

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

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

2. There are a million sports shows hunkered down in Las Vegas and they will interview a billion people this week leading up to the Super Bowl.

There will not be a better three-minute clip to come out of any of these shows than this exchange between ESPN's Kevin Clark and Chris "Mad Dog" Russo, who explained why he hates going to Super Bowl parties.

3. Speaking of Russo, all is now well between him and ESPN's Dan Orlovsky after this incident earlier this week:

Orlovsky appeared on Russo's SiriusXM show Wednesday and patched things up and had some fun. 

4. The Detroit Pistons are 7–43, so I don’t know if they need to be trolled. The team has obviously gone through enough, so there’s no need to kick them while they are down.

Having said that, we have to give the Kings credit for creativity. Sacramento played Brandon Aiyuk’s wild catch from the NFC championship game against the Lions on a loop while the Pistons were being introduced last night.

5. I was not aware that Brent Musburger has been snubbed by the NFL so much until I saw this tweet from Dan Patrick Show producer, Paul Pabst.

This a complete disgrace and the NFL should recognize Musburger, who helmed the all-time greatest NFL pregame show, ASAP.

As for Musburger's appearance on the Dan Patrick Show, the legendary broadcaster reminisced about the time Eminem joined him in the booth.

6. As usual, Charles Barkley has the correct take. This time the topic is the cost of Super Bowl tickets.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Great stuff here from Jason Alexander on when he first realized that George Costanza was Larry David.

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.

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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.

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