Amid NFL game telecasts, special teams happenings are like the vegetables that finicky diners push to the side en route to the main course and dessert.
This year’s Super Bowl, sadly, is shaping up to be more of the same.
NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth is a former NFL wide receiver who, understandably, will dig into the offense-versus-defense chess between the Seahawks and Patriots.
As a former NFL officiating supervisor, Terry McAulay will explain the why behind the yellow flags and non-flags.
For injury scoops, the global audience will hear from sideline reporters Melissa Stark and Kaylee Hartung.
Elsewhere in the telecast, there’ll be no shortage of NFL alums.
Tony Dungy won a Super Bowl as a head coach and started games at safety. Jason Garrett logged duty as a backup quarterback, offensive playcaller and head coach. As leaders of Super Bowl-winning defenses, former safeties Rodney Harrison and Devin McCourty became football gurus.
We likely won’t hear from a former NFL kicker, punter or special teams coordinator.
If nothing else, a pair of special teams aces from San Diego should further induce Collinsworth and Mike Tirico, a sharp and diligent play-by-play man, to bone up on what used to be called “the kicking game.”
Without kicker Jason Myers and return man Rashid Shaheed boosting Seattle’s special teams this season and postseason, the Seahawks may be elsewhere Sunday than in Santa Clara with a great chance to win their second Super Bowl trophy.
Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Rashid Shaheed (22) runs drills during an NFL Super Bowl football practice on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in San Jose, Calif., ahead of Super Bowl 60 between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Shaheed, the speedster from Mt. Carmel High School in Rancho Penasquitos, had three touchdowns off kickoffs or punts in just 11 games after John Schneider, the team’s general manager, acquired him in a November trade. All told, the 5-foot-11, 180-pound Shaheed, 27, who also catches passes and runs reverses, had a big say in Seattle’s two extra-large wins over the Rams.
Chula Vista’s Myers, meantime, converted every one of his 56 one-point kicks: the 47 PATs in the regular season and all nine across two playoff games.
Beloved in the South Bay, the Mater Dei Catholic High School graduate was 7 for 10 from 50 to 61 yards this year.
Though a few other teams had their punter handle kickoffs — a tactic that didn’t work out very well for the Rams — the 31-year-old Myers hit all scoring kicks and kickoffs without wearing down across 19 games.
Within the NFL’s new “Dynamic Kickoff Format,” which increased the rewards for distance control and accuracy, the two-time Pro Bowler and Seahawks tacklers created field-position victories at a high rate.
Special teams are an acquired taste that most football fans never acquire.
I’ve lived that life.
As a former child who fed peas and lima beans to a reluctant dog under the kitchen table, I appreciate why punts and kicks may not be an appetizing part of football consumption.
Many decades ago, a sportswriting gig in Greater Los Angeles clued me into the wonders of teams.
Allowed to stand mere yards from the end zone in the fourth quarter of Raiders games at the L.A. Coliseum, I became astounded that anyone would: a) choose to return NFL punts; b) could muff them so seldomly; and c) avoid being planted deep into the turf.
Intricacies of special teams, as graciously explained by NFL coordinators such as Kevin Spencer and Rich Bisaccia and return stars such as Eddie Royal and Darren Sproles, hooked me on the strategies and tactics.
Exploiting market inefficiencies on “teams,” Bill Belichick made enough hay to stuff an industrial barn in a coaching career that brought him eight Super Bowl trophies.
On the flip side, longtime San Diegans know all too well that special teams failures harmed several Chargers teams in the playoffs — beginning with the franchise’s very first postseason game of the post-merger era, when a short field-goal try was blocked by the underdog Houston Oilers.
Someday, the TV folks will find a former special teams coordinator with the gift of TV punditry will shine as the rules analysts do, if only in brief snippets.
As a Super Bowl appetizer, I’d recommend San Diegan Diante Lee’s work at The Ringer.
Lee, who coaches the Bonita Vista High School’s football team, qualifies as special-teams sicko — a term of endearment. Who else posts videos of Seahawks blocking schemes on kick and punt returns, as he did this week in a salute to Seahawks special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh’s Xs and O’s?
“Crossing my fingers that we get to see a few Rashid Shaheed/Jay Harbaugh kick return designs,” Lee wrote on X.
It’s not just the Seahawks. The Patriots boast a top-tier return man, too, in Marcus Jones.
Even if each team refuses to kick the ball to the other team’s return ace, pay attention to the special teams on Sunday.
And, if Shaheed or Myers do their thing, raise a San Diego craft beer.