Jim Nantz

James William Nantz III (born May 17, 1959) is an American sportscaster who has worked on telecasts of the National Football League (NFL), NCAA Division I men's basketball, the NBA, and the PGA Tour for CBS Sports since the 1980s. He has anchored CBS's coverage of the Masters Tournament since 1989 and been the lead play-by-play announcer on CBS's NFL coverage since 2004. He was also the lead broadcaster for the NCAA men's basketball tournament from 1990 to 2023.

Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Nantz grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, Colts Neck Township, New Jersey, and Marlboro Township, New Jersey, where he attended Marlboro High School. In high school, he was co-captain of the basketball team and co-captain and number one player on the golf team. He was a member of Bamm Hollow Country Club.

Nantz then matriculated at the University of Houston where he played on the Cougars men's golf team, rooming with future professional golfers Fred Couples and Blaine McCallister. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Radio and Television Broadcasting in 1981. It was during this time that Nantz got his first experience in sports broadcasting with the CBS Radio Network, transmitting taped interviews to Win Elliot for the latter's Sports Central USA weekend reports.

Nantz started as an anchor and sportscaster for KHOU in Houston, Texas in the early 1980s and then became a weekend sports anchor on KSL-TV in Salt Lake City (1982–1985) where he called BYU football games and Utah Jazz games along with Hot Rod Hundley.

Nantz joined CBS Sports in 1985, initially working as a studio host for CBS's college football and basketball coverage, and as an on-course reporter for PGA Tour golf, as well as calling NFL games on Westwood One (from 1988 to 1990, when he was moved to television, Nantz called Sunday Night Football games for what was then called CBS Radio Sports). In 1989, he moved from the college football studio show to play-by-play for two seasons, calling a full season of games including the Army-Navy game and the Cotton Bowl, with analysts Pat Haden (in 1989) and Tim Brant (in 1990).

Nantz has anchored CBS' coverage of the Masters Tournament since 1989. Following Brent Musburger's ouster from CBS in 1990, Nantz moved into the lead play-by-play role on the NCAA Final Four men's basketball finals, working with Billy Packer (1991–2008), Clark Kellogg (2009–2013), Steve Kerr (2011–2014), and Greg Anthony (2013–2014). Nantz's most recent partners on March Madness coverage were Bill Raftery and Grant Hill. In October 2022, Nantz announced his intention to step away from basketball coverage to spend time with family and will be replaced by Ian Eagle.[ 11]

Nantz opens each of his broadcasts by saying, "Hello, friends". The greeting came about as a way for Nantz to identify himself to his father, who had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease.[ 12]

Nantz's broadcast style includes a penchant for informing listeners of historical facts or statistics regarding athletes or situations as a competition progresses.

On October 4, 1987, Nantz made his first on-air appearance during an NFL game when he served as a reporter during the Dallas Cowboys at New York Jets game during the NFL strike in a game which featured replacement players, he appeared outside the stadium and in the crowd interviewing fans, in a time before sideline reporters were commonplace at regular season games. It would be his only appearance on CBS's NFL coverage during the 1987 season. In 1988, Nantz would work his first NFL play-by-play assignments, covering the October 16 Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Indianapolis Colts game (with his college football partner Haden) and the December 4 Dallas Cowboys at Cleveland Browns game (with analyst Ken Stabler). In 1989, Nantz would call three more NFL games (with Haden), and in 1990 he would call two games with analyst Tim Brant. Nantz would work a full schedule of NFL games on play-by-play for the first time in 1991, calling games with analyst Hank Stram and would then work again with Stram during the 1992 season, also paring with Dan Fouts for two games in September 1992 (when Pat Summerall was calling US Open tennis).

On October 4, 1992, he paired with analyst Randy Cross when Cross' regular broadcast partner, Dick Stockton, was covering MLB baseball. For the 1993 season, Nantz would join Cross full-time, and they would be assigned to the January 16, 1994 NFC Divisional Playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys.

CBS would lose the NFL contract after the 1993 season, and Nantz would return to college football and call three games during the next two seasons, the 1994 Sun Bowl (with analyst Doug Flutie), and during the 1995 season, both the Sun Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl, with analyst Terry Donahue. He would work with Donahue again for a full season of play-by-play in 1996, while in 1997 he would return to hosting the College Football studio show.

After hosting CBS's pre-game program The NFL Today from 1998 to 2003, he became The NFL on CBS' top play-by-play announcer in 2004. That move sent Greg Gumbel to the studio, and Nantz to the stadium booth with Phil Simms.

On February 4, 2007, Nantz called the play-by-play of Super Bowl XLI. He joins Curt Gowdy, Kevin Harlan, and Dick Enberg as the only play-by-play announcers to ever call both a Super Bowl and an NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Game. (Greg Gumbel called CBS's previous Super Bowls, Super Bowl XXXV and Super Bowl XXXVIII.) Nantz is also one of two men to host a Super Bowl, announce an NCAA Men's Basketball Championship game, and host coverage of The Masters from Butler Cabin with Brent Musburger being the other. Musburger also accomplished all three feats with CBS. During Super Bowl XLVII, Joe Flacco unknowingly hit Nantz with the Vince Lombardi Trophy during the presentation, but Nantz simply brushed it off.

In 2014, Nantz and broadcast partner Phil Simms called Thursday Night Football games in a deal with CBS and the NFL Network. Tracy Wolfson was the sideline reporter for the Thursday games along with the Sunday games on CBS.

In 2017, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo replaced Phil Simms as Nantz's color commentator for CBS' NFL telecasts.[ 13]

Nantz and Romo called Super Bowl LIII in 2019, Super Bowl LV in 2021, and Super Bowl LVIII in 2024.

On January 3, 2021, Nantz worked with Boomer Esiason, who filled in for Romo, for a Week 17 game featuring the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams. On January 9, 2022, Tom McCarthy filled in for Nantz for a Week 18 game featuring the Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.[ 14] Both Romo in 2021 and Nantz in 2022 had to sit out of the final week of the regular season due to COVID-19 protocols, and Romo also had to work the 2020 Wild Card game between the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints remotely for the same reason.[ 15]

Nantz has appeared on episodes of The Price Is Right to present a Showcase prize that involves CBS Sports properties, one to attend the 2009 Final Four in Detroit and another in 2010 for Super Bowl XLIV (with Phil Simms),[ 16] as part of changes to the long-time game show to use product placement models and CBS crossovers, including sports packages. Nantz appeared as himself in the 1996 film Tin Cup[ 17] and has appeared in episodes of several television series including Arliss, Yes, Dear, Criminal Minds, and How I Met Your Mother (season 5, episode 14 + 15 and season 9, episode 24). He portrayed the announcer for the fictional baseball team in the short-lived series Clubhouse, and his voice can be heard in the 1998 film Scrapple. He also appeared in Fantasy Football, a film produced by CBS' sister network Nickelodeon.[ 18]

Since 2009, Nantz has guest commentated on the final round of The Open Championship for the BBC,[ 19] and in 2019, when Fox was broadcasting the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, Nantz made a guest appearance with fellow broadcaster Joe Buck and called a couple of shots, becoming the only person to commentate at all four of golf's majors.

Nantz teamed with Gary McCord to provide extensive commentary in the 1999 PC golf game Jack Nicklaus 6: Golden Bear Challenge, and his commentary is featured in the Golden Tee Golf arcade game series. From 2012 until 2016 (when they were replaced with Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis), Nantz, along with Phil Simms, provided commentary for the Madden NFL series. In 2013, Nantz appeared in a Papa John's Pizza ad with Peyton Manning, quarterback of the Denver Broncos, and founder John Schnatter. He has also been part of Capital One's March Madness ad campaign featuring Charles Barkley, Samuel L. Jackson, and Spike Lee.[ 20]

Nantz's first book, Always By My Side – A Father's Grace and a Sports Journey Unlike Any Other, was released in May 2008. Nantz tells personal stories from football, basketball, and golf, and how he has met people along the way who remind him of the virtues his father instilled in him. The foreword in the book was written by one of his father figures, friend and frequent golf partner, former President George H. W. Bush. Nantz's father, Jim Nantz Jr., died in 2008 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease; he was treated at Houston Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. In January 2011, Nantz and Houston Methodist Hospital launched the Nantz National Alzheimer Center. The mission of the center is to improve care and treatment for patients with Alzheimer's disease through the advancement of research and the investigation of its causes, including the role of concussions and other past neurological trauma.

Nantz was married to Ann-Lorraine "Lorrie" Carlsen Nantz for 26 years before divorcing in 2009. The couple lived in Westport, Connecticut, and had one child, daughter Caroline.[ 29] In November 2009, Nantz was ordered to pay his ex-wife $916,000 a year in child support and alimony. Nantz acknowledged dating a 29-year-old woman before the divorce was final, although the judge concluded the marriage deteriorated years earlier and "this remote event in no way contributed to the breakdown of the marriage." Nantz was said to earn $7 million in 2009.[ 30]

On June 9, 2012, Nantz married Courtney Richards in a ceremony at the Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, California,[ 31] specifically at the tee of the course's famed seventh hole.[ 32] Nantz and his wife have a daughter born in 2014 and a son born in 2016.[ 33] Nantz and his family used to live in a home overlooking the Pebble Beach Links that he bought in October 2011.[ 34] The home's most notable feature is a 50%-scale replica of the seventh hole at Pebble Beach, located in the backyard. The backyard hole is a popular spot for visiting golfers, sports luminaries, and other celebrities. Visitors who make a hole-in-one have their names inscribed on a rock that stands next to the tee box.[ 35] Nantz and his family moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 2021.[ 36] [ 37]

In 2009, Nantz partnered with wine producer Peter Deutsch to launch a private wine label The Calling with its first vintage released in 2012. The wine's name is in reference to Nantz's calling of the Masters Tournament.[ 38]