Mike Carlson

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Mike Carlson is the regular pundit of National Football League (NFL) coverage for the United Kingdom's five TV.

[edit] Career

Mike was working as a large president of European operations for Major League Baseball before beginning his American Football broadcasting career. In 1991 he teamed up with Nick Halling to cover the World League of American Football (WLAF) for defunct satellite station Screensport, a partnership which continued during the early years of the league's successor, NFL Europe, on Sky Sports.

In 1998 the terrestrial station five began covering Monday Night Football for which Mike has been the regular analyst. Currently he presents coverage alongside co-host Nat Coombs and also worked with former hosts Martin Bayfield, Josh Chetwynd , Mark Webster, Simon Golding, and Colin Murray. As a journalist he contributed to now-defunct weekly American football newspaper First Down and writes articles for both NFLUK.com and about NFL Europe for nfl.com.

Carlson has developed a few strange "catchphrases" during his commentary of NFL highlights broadcast during gaps in the live game, including a list of alternative names for stadia, "he couldn't be more alone if he was..." for touchdowns scored by players with nobody around them, with the punchline usually involving a celebrity or famous figure that has been caught with their trousers down, to making special note of anyone involved named "Nate", the name of his son. He often refers to player Torry Holt as "The Torry You Can Support" - a jibe at the Conservative Party's recent misfortunes in UK politics (they are known as the Tories). Another common catchphrase is "and that pass was high, but not in the Ricky Williams sense," referring to the player's use of marijuana. He has also recently developed a fictional award named "Trent of the Week" for the best player in the week's games named Trent. Some of Mike's more elaborate comedic moments involved complex re-wordings of The Raven during a rough patch for the Baltimore Ravens, and singing a re-lyricised version of John Brown's Body - entitled Jeff George Is Marching On.

He started his career in the UK as a sports editor for a television news agency before joining ABC Sports as their director of programming in Europe. On screen he has also appeared occasionally as a baseball pundit on MLB on Five hosted by Jonny Gould, a sport he previously presented on Sky Sports in the mid 1990s. He has covered a variety of other sports on television including Basketball, Poker, Soccer, and Lacrosse. He has also worked behind the scenes on the television coverage of both Olympic games and FIFA World Cup tournaments.

It has been confirmed by the BBC that Mike will be one of the analysts for their inaugural coverage of the Super Bowl in February 2008.

In addition to sport Mike has a love of cinema, authoring several books on the subject, has written for various newspapers about the arts, and is also a published poet. He is also known for his love for professional wrestling (but, based on a recent show conversation, he is not a fan of the largest company World Wrestling Entertainment), and has written more than seventy obituaries for The Guardian.

[edit] Trivia

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