If an evil wind kicks up at Super Bowl LX, coordinating producer Rob Hyland of NBC Sports will be ready to rock and roll.
Like other network producers before him on Super Sunday, Hyland has several new TV “enhancements” ready for the Big Game. One of them is a piece of technology called Weather Applied Metrics, which measures the wind inside Levi’s Stadium.
During Sunday’s AFC championship game, the swirling winds and wintry conditions in Denver played a role in both teams missing four out of five combined field-goal attempts. If the wind starts blowing Feb. 8, Hyland will have this “WAM” device as another tool in the production truck.
“They’ve actually been working with the 49ers for years, measuring airflow within the stadium. Especially since they put in a new video board in preparation for the Super Bowl and this year’s World Cup. Weather Applied Metrics can interpret data and speed of wind. It’s so different at ground level than it is at 20 feet, 30 feet, 40 feet,” Hyland told Front Office Sports. “If we have a windy day, we’ll be able to graphically illustrate how those wind patterns are coming into the stadium—and can potentially affect the ball flight. That’s one of a number of situational pieces of technology that we have at our disposal.”
For those who dismiss the wind as a factor, consider the 1963 NFL Championship Game between the Giants and Bears. With 36 TD passes that season, Giants QB Y.A.Tittle had turned New York into a passing team. But the driving wind and cold at Yankee Stadium, and a tough Bears defense, humbled Tittle, who threw five interceptions. The Bears won 14–10.
Tom Brady, Fox’s No. 1 game analyst, recently staged an on-air clinic on how QBs can try to bore passes through the wind. Gauging how wind will impact kicks and passes at field level is another example of how networks like NBC raise their game on Super Bowl Sunday. In 2024, CBS Sports embedded “doink cams” inside the goalposts at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. That way more than 100 million TV viewers could get an up-close view if a kicker doinked one of the goalposts.
Hyland just wrapped his fourth season as coordinating producer of NBC’s Sunday Night Football, the most-watched TV show in prime time for a record 15 years in a row. But the 29-year NBC veteran knows the pressure will be on in Santa Clara.
This will be Hyland’s first time serving as coordinating producer of a Super Bowl. He’ll join NBC legend Tommy Roy as the only NBC executive to serve as coordinating producer of a Super Bowl and primetime producer of an Olympic Games.
Here’s a look inside Hyland and NBC’s coverage game plan for Super Bowl LX:
- Five-hour pregame show: NBC and Peacock will air a five-hour pregame show from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET. Maria Taylor will serve as a lead host of the pregame show and the on-field presentation of the Vince Lombardi Trophy to the Patriots or Seahawks. It will be the first time for Taylor in both roles. She’ll be joined on the desk by cohosts Jac Collinsworth and Noah Eagle, plus analysts Tony Dungy, Jason Garrett, Rodney Harrison, and Devin McCourty. More than 700 NBC employees will be scattered across seven locations around the Bay Area to cover the game. NBC will employ more than 80 cameras compared to 30 for SNF. Parent company NBCUniversal is planning more than 90 hours of Super Bowl–driven content across multiple platforms.
- Friends and family: Hyland has worked a dozen Olympics for NBC. Borrowing from NBC’s Olympic approach, he’ll outfit several family members of Patriots and Seahawks players with microphones, and then weave their reaction into coverage. “Part of the fabric of our storytelling is connecting the athletes competing to their loved ones and family members. We have extensive plans to showcase friends and family,” he says. “We are hopeful that we will have connections from each team wearing microphones during the game to really feel what they’re feeling watching their son on the field on Super Bowl Sunday. We’ll have a dedicated team monitoring those camera and audio sources, and a producer assigned to turn around the best stuff. Hopefully that begins when those family members get to the stadium.”
- Mike Tirico’s big day: NBC’s 21st overall Super Bowl telecast will kick off at 6:30 p.m. ET on NBC, Peacock, Telemundo and Universo. Play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico will call his first Super Bowl alongside Cris Collinsworth in the broadcast booth. Out of Collinsworth’s six Super Bowl telecasts, five have involved the Patriots, including their previous 2015 classic vs. the Seahawks. Veteran Melissa Stark and Super Bowl rookie Kaylee Hartung will serve as sideline reporters. Terry McAulay will serve as rules analyst. Following the presentation of the Lombardi Trophy, Tirico will immediately jump into hosting Primetime in Milan from the stadium.
Hyland, a former college football player, told FOS he’s dreamed about producing a Super Bowl since graduating from Williams College and entering the TV business. Why not? Sports TV is literally in his genes.
His father, Robert Hyland III, ran TV and radio stations in New York and Los Angeles. At KCBS in Los Angeles, he hired future sports TV legend Jim Lampley.
His grandfather, Robert Hyland II, was the legendary GM of KMOX Radio in St. Louis, where he hired a young Joe Buck and Bob Costas.
His great-grandfather, Robert Hyland I, was a doctor for the St. Louis Cardinals’ famed “Gashouse Gang” in 1930. His patients included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Ty Cobb. “Doc Hyland” was so renowned for his work with ballplayers, he was dubbed the “Surgeon General of Baseball” by MLB commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
Hyland initially thought he would become a doctor. But he fell in love with sports TV right out of college. During the Milan Cortina Olympic Games, Hyland will be watching his 6-month-old son, Robert Hyland V, who goes by “Bo.” Could another Rob Hyland someday produce the biggest TV show in the country?
“That would be pretty cool,” says Hyland. “Super Bowl 100 will have Bo Hyland’s name in the credits.”
