Wide Left: Fox's Curt Menefee Talks NFL, UFC, & More

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I had the opportunity this week to chat with Curt Menefee, host of the NFL on Fox. We discussed everything from working with the likes of Terry Bradshaw and Jimmy Johnson to his career path going from calling games to working in the studio to Joe Buck to Tim Tebow and a whole lot more.

I've always liked the job Menefee has done juggling the personalities on the Fox pre-game show, but it wasn't until this conversation that I really got a sense that he's way more than a guy who reads a prompter at the end of a desk directing traffic. He's extremely candid in this conversation and doesn't back away from any questions. Of all the interviews I've done, this is one of my favorites. He is really that great.

I do ask why everything on the set is so damn funny and he explains that they are all good friends off the air and much of what you see on the set is natural. But does that make it good TV?

We talk about how difficult it is to drive the bus with so many huge personalities and so much ad-lib banter and discuss how to balance the light-hearted nature of the show with actual football news and analysis.

I ask if he watches the other pre-game shows, which spins into a conversation about James Brown, and how Menefee's career – and level of comfort – has changed since taking over for JB.

I ask if he misses being in the booth, which dovetails into a conversation about his favorite play-by-play announcers in football. That turns into an interesting conversation about the similarities between Joe Buck and Pat Summerall, something I've been screaming about for years (and I do some screaming here too). Oh, and Frank Caliendo gets mentioned. Sorry.

We talk about Menefee's other assignments, including the recent UFC event and his much-maligned job as host of the UEFA Champions League final. (I admit that I dance around the question a bit, mainly because it's impossible to ask the question of whether people disliked the UCL production because of Fox's decision to dumb it down or because Menefee, himself, was the reason it got dumbed down.)

He answers my questions candidly, admitting that the people involved knew it wasn't what it should have been and assuring that things will be different for future soccer events on Fox. We do discuss the decision to cater to a wider audience instead of a soccer audience and if that will change now that Fox will have the World Cup in eight years.

Oh…right…the NFL.

I ask if the Packers are closer to being one of the best teams of all time or the Colts closer to being one of the worst. We talk about Tim Tebow, wondering if Menefee wishes the Broncos had more games on Fox because the guy is obviously a TV goldmine. We talk about how, at the time of this recording, no head coaches had been fired (sorry Jack Del Rio) and when the firings would begin.

Last, we talk about how annoying it is to read the Fox scroll during games, asking us if we have any questions for Mike Pereira on Twitter. It's there all game! It's on there more than fantasy updates! Why can't Menefee get a little love during the games?

Thanks for listening.