‘Sunday Night Football’ Crew Makes Maria Taylor Cry Right Before Maternity Leave

Maria Taylor was brought to tears during halftime of the Jacksonville Jaguars – Baltimore Ravens game and it had nothing to do with Trevor Lawrence. Taylor, who hosts Sunday Night Football, is going on maternity leave and was surprised her with prerecorded messages from the rest of the SNF crew.

Jaosn Garrett and Jac Collinsworth started things off with standard congratulations before Mike Florio requested her child call him “Uncle Florio.” Then Tony Dungy compared her to a quarterback entering the transfer portal. Ten it was back to heartfelt and friendly well-wishes from Devin McCourty, Chris Simms and Rodney Harrison.

The final message came from Matthew Berry who dropped a “Roll Tide” while wearing an Alabama sweatshirt. As you may recall, Alabama beat Georgia a couple weeks ago to end their hopes of a third straight National Championship. Taylor definitely remembers since she went to Georgia. Taylor said she was in tears until the “Roll Tide” part, but still needed a tissue as someone brought out blue balloons.

What a great sendoff for Taylor, who NBC will certainly miss for the rest of football season. With the 2024 Olympics coming in July she should be back*, but she will definitely be sleep deprived.

*Paternity leave in the US should be a full year.