Entertainment

Turns Out, That ‘Chris Collinsworth Slide’ Everyone Is Talking About Is Fake

(Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Jena Greene Reporter
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It seems like everybody was talking about NBC’s commentators Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth this NFL season, or more particularly, the “Chris Collinsworth slide.”

In case you’re not yet familiar with it, the “Chris Collinsworth slide,” happens at the beginning of every football game, when play-by-play commentator Al Michaels introduces his co-host. It goes a little something like this:

Those slides became viral sensations this fall; everybody seemed to be talking about them. Turns out, everything is not what it seems. The famous slide is basically a figment of millions of viewers’ imaginations. (RELATED: The Numbers Are In For ‘Sunday Night Football.’ The Ratings Will Make The NFL Smile)

“The reality is the booths we are in, it is a very tiny, thin area in which the two of us have to sit,” Al Michaels explained to the New York Post. “When we come on the air, we like to do it when I do the overview [of the game] in a one shot. Otherwise, the other guy sits there for 30 seconds doing nothing.”

So, if it is fake, what makes Collinsworth look like he’s sliding in?

“We’ve always done it that way and it works effectively,” Michaels explains. “So, for Chris, he has to sit next to me because it’s not wide enough. So his torso might be next to mine, so he has to lean out at about a 45-degree angle. So, it looks like he’s sliding, but he’s actually angling in.”

Al Michaels can try to convince me all he wants about Chris Collinsworth not sliding in. To me, this is a slide, and it always will be:

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