Michele Tafoya returns home as NBC crew preps for Super Bowl

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Veteran sideline reporter and Minnesota resident Michele Tafoya avoids the world famous Mall of America the way Las Vegas residents avoid the Strip.

Yet she gladly ventured to the gaudy shopping center Tuesday to tout the Twin Cities to a national audience.

“It’s been a long time since Minnesota has known they were going to have (Super Bowl LII),” she said. “I enjoy that the world gets to see what this place is all about.”

The 53-year-old Tafoya, whose prolific sportscasting career blossomed in Minneapolis, is teaming with legendary announcer Al Michaels and color commentator Cris Collinsworth to broadcast Super Bowl LII for NBC from U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday.

The broadcast crew met with the media Tuesday and shared laughs, insights and stories. Tafoya told tales of motherhood and Minneapolis, and Michaels relayed several Super Bowl stories as he explained how he delivers dramatic calls.

“I’ve had the chance to do Super Bowls, a couple of them, that have ended on the last play of the game or very close to the last play of the game,” said the 73-year-old luminary, who will call his 10th Super Bowl when the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles meet Sunday.

“I can’t predict these things before the game. They just happen. You have to let your emotion take over at that point and call it with your heart and not your head.”

Michaels had hoped to broadcast the first overtime game in Super Bowl history, but Joe Buck beat him to it when the Patriots rallied to beat the Atlanta Falcons last year.

On Fox.

“I was not a happy camper last year when I saw the coin flip,” Michaels said. “I’m sitting on my couch at home going, ‘Wait a sec, this should be our game, not theirs.’ … The only thing left to do now is the longest game in NFL history. I want to see it go to triple OT.”

As unprecedented as that would be, Michaels is hoping the Patriots and Eagles play an “exciting, dramatic, close” game, and is pleased to be in Minneapolis — home of what he says is a top-two stadium in the NFL.

And, of course, he’s not the only one happy to be here.

“I am just so proud of Minnesota and they way they’ve stepped up to this,” Tafoya said. “I love it.”

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.