Cris Collinsworth

Early life

Collinsworth was born in Dayton, Ohio, the son of Abraham Lincoln "Abe" Collinsworth (who was born on Abraham Lincoln's birthday) and his wife, Donetta Browning Collinsworth. Abe, known as "Lincoln" in high school, was one of the top scorers in Kentucky high school basketball history and played for the Kentucky Wildcats "Fiddling Five" that won the 1958 national championship. Both were educators; Donetta was a teacher and Abe was a teacher and coach and later a principal and superintendent.

The family, which also included Collinsworth's brother, moved to Titusville, Florida in 1963. Cris attended Astronaut High School in Titusville, where his father was principal and later assistant superintendent. Collinsworth was a high school football All-American quarterback and the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) Class 3A 100-yard-dash state champion for the Astronaut War Eagles in 1976.

College career

Collinsworth's exceptional height and speed attracted the attention of college football coaches throughout the South. He accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach Doug Dickey and coach Charley Pell's Florida Gators football teams from 1977 to 1980. He was recruited as a quarterback and in his first game as a Gator, Collinsworth threw a 99-yard touchdown pass to Derrick Gaffney against the Rice Owls, which remains tied for the longest touchdown pass in NCAA history.

He later switched to wide receiver as the Gators transitioned from a run-oriented option offense to an offensive scheme that employed more passing. As a wide receiver, he was a first-team All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) selection in 1978, 1979 and 1980, and a first-team All-American, a first-team Academic All-American, and a team captain in 1980. During his career at Florida, he caught 120 passes for 1,937 yards and 14 touchdowns, while also scoring two rushing touchdowns and one on a kickoff return. He also returned 30 kickoffs for 726 yards for an average of 24.2 yards per return.

As a senior in 1980, Collinsworth was a member of the Gators team that posted the biggest one-year turnaround in the history of NCAA Division I football, from 0–10–1 in 1979 to an 8–4 bowl team in 1980.

While he was an undergraduate, Collinsworth was an active member of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity (Florida Alpha Omega Chapter), and was inducted into the University of Florida Hall of Fame. He graduated from Florida with a bachelor's degree in accounting in 1981, and was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 1991. As part of its article series about the top 100 Gators of the first century of Florida football published in 2006, The Gainesville Sun recognized him as the No. 12 all-time Gator player.

Professional career

Collinsworth was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the second round (37th pick overall) of the 1981 NFL Draft, and spent his entire eight-year NFL career with the Bengals. He surpassed 1,000 yards receiving four times (in 1981, 1983, 1985, and 1986) and was named to the Pro Bowl in 1981, 1982 and 1983. At six feet, five inches in height, Collinsworth often created mismatches against much smaller cornerbacks. In addition to his height advantage, Collinsworth was a legitimate deep threat due to his speed.

In Super Bowl XVI, Collinsworth caught five passes for 107 yards, but committed a costly fumble when he was hit by San Francisco defensive back Eric Wright.

In 1985, Collinsworth signed with the Tampa Bay Bandits of the United States Football League (USFL), but the contract was voided when he failed the physical due to a bad ankle. He returned to the Bengals and played for them until the end of the 1988 season, catching three passes for 40 yards in Super Bowl XXIII, the final game of his career. He finished his eight-season NFL career with 417 receptions for 6,698 yards and 36 touchdowns in 107 games.

Broadcasting career

After his retirement as an NFL player, Collinsworth began a broadcasting career as a sports radio talk show host on Cincinnati station WLW. Initially, he was a guest host for Bob Trumpy (also a Bengals alumnus), but took over the show full-time as Trumpy accepted more television assignments. He then became a reporter for HBO's (now Showtime's) Inside the NFL in 1989.

In 1990, he became a part of the NBC network's NFL broadcasts, as well as some of the college programming. He joined the NBC pregame show in 1996.

In 1998, Collinsworth joined the NFL on Fox team after NBC lost their broadcast rights to CBS. After several years as a color commentator on the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show, Collinsworth was assigned to the network's lead game broadcasting crew (teaming with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman) in 2002. He worked on Fox's Super Bowl XXXIX telecast three years later. Collinsworth was also the host of the television show Guinness World Records Primetime during his stay at Fox.

In 2006, Collinsworth could be seen on three networks during football season. In addition to co-hosting Inside the NFL on HBO, he returned to NBC as a studio analyst for that network's Sunday night NFL coverage and did color commentary on the NFL Network. He also served as color commentator for NFL Network Thursday night games (and one Saturday-night game) alongside play-by-play man Bryant Gumbel and Bob Papa.

In the NBC broadcasts of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Collinsworth appeared alongside Bob Costas as a commentator on numerous occasions. Collinsworth and Costas paired again during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. He also continued his work on Inside the NFL when it debuted on its new home on Showtime.

Collinsworth is also the color commentator on Madden NFL 09 and Madden NFL 10 with Tom Hammond, as well as in Madden NFL 11 and Madden NFL 12 with Gus Johnson.

It was announced on April 16, 2009 that Collinsworth would fill the role vacated by John Madden on NBC's Sunday Night Football, and as of 2016 is in his eighth season of the high-profile telecast.

On January 16, 2016, Collinsworth along with his play-by-play commentator Al Michaels, called the NFC Divisional Round game between the Green Bay Packers and Arizona Cardinals, where Packers QB Aaron Rodgers threw a 41 yd Hail Mary to Packers WR Jeff Janis at the end of regulation to force overtime with the score tied at 20. Collinsworth called it "One of the great throws ever made."

Collinsworth was the host of Inside the Vault on WGN America.

Collinsworth is on the Board of Selectors of Jefferson Awards for Public Service.

Honors

Collinsworth received a Sports Emmy Award in April 1998 as "Outstanding Studio Analyst" and his second in 1999. In 2001, he was inducted into the Academic All-America Hall of Fame He was also recognized with his third and fourth Sports Emmy Awards in 2003 and 2004 as "Outstanding Sports Personality/Studio Analyst." In May 2006, he added a fifth with an Emmy Award again in the category "Outstanding Sports Personality/Studio Analyst" for his work on HBO. Collinsworth served as a correspondent for NBC Sports coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Personal life

Collinsworth earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 1991. He currently lives in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, with his wife, Holly (Bankemper) Collinsworth, an attorney, and their four children. His son, Austin Collinsworth, is a former football player and team captain at the University of Notre Dame, from which he earned an MBA in Investments.

On March 12, 2011, it was reported that Collinsworth was among 83 people rescued from Jeff Ruby's Waterfront restaurant in Covington, Kentucky, when the floating restaurant tore loose from its moorings and began to drift on the Ohio River, only to be stopped by the Brent Spence Bridge that links Ohio to Kentucky. Collinsworth also has a steak named after him by the same restaurant.

Cris's father, Abe, died at age 76 on October 14, 2012. Cris's brother, Greg, died at age 44 of cancer on October 29, 2004.