Maria Taylor will handle the Lombardi Trophy presentation after Super Bowl 60 wraps tonight at Levi’s Stadium. This is her first time hosting the Super Bowl pregame show and presenting the Lombardi Trophy.
Taylor anchored the NBC and Peacock coverage from inside the stadium alongside co-hosts Noah Eagle and Jac Collinsworth, with analysts Tony Dungy, Jason Garrett, Rodney Harrison, and Devin McCourty breaking down the matchup between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks. Then, she’ll stick around for the trophy ceremony, which Mike Tirico handled when NBC last broadcast the Super Bowl in 2022.
Inside Maria Taylor’s Trophy Presentation Gig
Taylor explained to SI’s Jimmy Traina that the postgame ceremony presents unique challenges. The pregame show runs on a script with clear segments and commercial breaks. The trophy presentation is controlled chaos.
She must manage emotions while hitting sponsor reads and specific names, all while players are celebrating around her. The logistics require quick thinking. The production demands precision. And there’s one cardinal rule she joked about with Traina: “Don’t let them take the mic. That is the key. You just have to have a strong wrist.”
Taylor brings advantages to the role. She’s 6’2″, a former All-SEC volleyball player at Georgia who ranked fourth in program history with 1,729 career kills. That physical presence helps when you’re surrounded by celebrating football players in the immediate aftermath of winning a championship.
The Super Bowl assignment sits in the middle of the most demanding month of Taylor’s career. She hosted the debut of Basketball Night in America on Feb. 1. After the trophy presentation tonight, she flies directly to Italy to become the late-night host for NBC’s Winter Olympics coverage beginning Feb. 10. This marks her fourth Olympics assignment since joining NBC in 2021.
NBC brought Taylor over from ESPN five years ago, and she’s become the network’s most versatile host. She took over Football Night in America in 2022 when Tirico moved to the Sunday Night Football booth. The show averaged 8.8 million viewers in 2025, its largest audience ever and up 14% from the previous season. In 2025, NBC named her the lead studio host for NBA and WNBA coverage when the network secured rights to both leagues.
Taylor won a Sports Emmy as part of NBCUniversal’s coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics, which was honored as Outstanding Live Special.
The trajectory from ESPN to this moment validates the decision Taylor made to leave after a contract dispute in 2021. She walked away from her dream job following a controversy involving Rachel Nichols, who implied in leaked audio that ESPN gave Taylor the 2020 NBA Finals hosting role because of her race.
ESPN reportedly offered Taylor a contract worth approximately $5 million annually, according to reports at the time. She declined and left the network the day after the 2021 NBA Finals concluded.
Two days later, Taylor joined NBC Sports, making her debut during the Tokyo Olympics coverage. Taylor later revealed that she cried for two weeks while covering those Olympics, grieving the loss of what she considered her dream job.
But she also realized something fundamental about her career. In a TikTok video last year reflecting on that decision, Taylor said the moment she stopped caring whether anyone saw her on television again, she knew she was ready to move on. The work mattered more than the platform.
Recently, Taylor called her role at the Super Bowl a tremendous privilege and described this as a pinch-me moment. She’s earned both the privilege and the moment.
Five years after leaving ESPN, Taylor has built herself into NBC’s most indispensable studio host across multiple sports. Tonight she proves it on the biggest stage in American television.
