James William Nantz III 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.
Nantz joined CBS Sports in 1985, initially working as a studio host for the network’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
He has anchored CBS’s coverage of the Masters Tournament since 1989 and has been the lead play-by-play announcer on CBS’s NFL coverage since 2004.
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.
During Super Bowl XLVII, Joe Flacco unknowingly hit Nantz with the Vince Lombardi Trophy during the presentation, but Nantz simply brushed it off.
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.
What is Jim Nantz known for?
Since 1989, James Nantz has been an anchor for the CBS Masters Tournament coverage. From 1991 to 2008, he worked with Billy Packer and commentated for the NCAA Final Four men’s basketball finals.
His analyst from 2008 to 2013 was Clark Kellogg. From 2010 to 2013, the famous basketball head coach and former NBA player Steve Kerr joined them from Turner Sports during the Final Four.
After this, Greg Anthony teamed up with Nantz from 2013 to 2014. Greg Anthony was then suspended, and Bill Raftery and Grant Hill were selected as his replacement to team up with James Nantz.
Besides that, he gained a lot of popularity for roasting NFL player Jamaal Charles who cost his team a win after he coughed up the ball.