Phillies: Tom McCarthy to broadcast for rare NFL game

Phillies broadcaster Tom McCarthy will call perhaps one of the most notable games of his career on Tuesday.

When play-by-play broadcaster Tom McCarthy is not broadcasting Philadelphia Phillies games for NBC Sports Philadelphia, chances are you will find him in another broadcast booth. McCarthy has also been a play-by-play announcer for CBS NFL television coverage since 2014, Westwood One Sports NFL radio coverage since 2008, as well as CBS Sports Network college basketball and football coverage since 2006.

Tuesday evening, the broadcast veteran will have the opportunity to call perhaps one of the most notable games of his career.

The Week 5 National Football League matchup between the undefeated Buffalo Bills (4-0) and Tennessee Titans (3-0) was rescheduled from Sunday to Tuesday due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak among Titans players and staff. As a result, the game will be nationally broadcast, but without the No. 1 CBS NFL broadcast crew — Jim Nantz and Tony Romo, who called the Dallas Cowboys-New York Giants game on Sunday. Therefore, the originally slated broadcast team (the No. 7 CBS NFL crew) will receive the “starting nod” — that is, McCarthy as play-by-play announcer and Jay Feely as analyst. Not to mention, Deb Boulac on the CBS crew will become the first woman to produce a primetime game in NFL history.

And, the matchup will be just the second Tuesday NFL game since 1946 — the other coincidentally being the Minnesota Vikings-Philadelphia Eagles game at Lincoln Financial Field that had to moved back due to a blizzard in 2010.

“I’ve been fortunate to do a lot of great baseball games. I was there for Roy Halladay’s perfect game, a lot of really good NCAA games. I was scheduled to do the opening of the First Four on Turner this past year in the NCAA Tournament instead of doing Westwood One but obviously that got postponed because of COVID,” McCarthy recently told The Athletic. “So I’ve done a lot of big games, but a lot of those big games have been regional. This is probably the biggest that I’ve done from a national standpoint with all the eyes that are on us.”

It is not exactly known why Nantz and Romo did not travel to Tennessee to call the game; it could be insufficient time to prepare following the late Sunday afternoon game in Dallas, and/or to complete even COVID-19 protocols.

“I think what’s so cool from a CBS standpoint is that they have such trust in all of us to be able to put this product together like this,” McCarthy added.

McCarthy received a Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award in 2000 and is a two-time winner of the Achievement in Radio Award for Best Local Sports Coverage (2002 and 2004). In 2007, the New Jersey Sportswriters Association bestowed McCarthy the Radio/TV Excellence Award. Four years later, he was inducted into the Trenton Baseball Hall of Fame and had their stadium’s radio booth named in his honor. He has also been named the 2014 Pennsylvania Sportscaster of the Year.

Tuesday night, listen for McCarthy — a regular Phillies-turned-national NFL broadcaster — calling a  game between two teams with a combined 7-0 record. It was not the “Phillies content” we hoped for in mid-October — especially with the Atlanta Braves being up 1-0 against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS — but we will take it.