Curt Menefee (born July 22, 1965) is an American sportscaster who is currently the play-by-play commentator for

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

preseason football, play-by-play commentator of the 2020 XFL on Fox, the 2022 return of the USFL on Fox and is the host of the

Fox Network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...

's NFL show ''

Fox NFL Sunday ''Fox NFL Sunday'' is an American sports television program broadcast on the Fox television network. The show debuted on September 4, 1994, and serves as the pre-game show for the network's National Football League (NFL) game telecasts under the ...

''. His co-host is

Terry Bradshaw Terry Paxton Bradshaw (born September 2, 1948) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League (NFL). Since 1994, he has been a television sports analyst an ...

, with analysts Jimmy Johnson,

Howie Long Howard Matthew Moses Long (born January 6, 1960) is an American sports analyst and former professional football player. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons as a defensive end, spending his entire career with the Raider ...

Michael Strahan Michael T. Strahan ( ; born November 21, 1971) is an American television personality, journalist, and former professional football player. He played his entire 15-year professional career as a defensive end for the New York Giants of the Nation ...

, and formerly

Tony Gonzalez Anthony David Gonzalez (born February 27, 1976) is an American former football tight end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 17 seasons. Regarded as one of the greatest tight ends of all time, he is the NFL's all-time leader ...

Early life and education

Menefee was born and raised in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. Menefee earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from

Coe College Coe College is a private liberal arts college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was founded in 1851 and is historically affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The college is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and the Associat ...

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids () is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County, Iowa, Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River (Iowa River), Cedar River, north of Iowa City, Iowa, Iowa City and north ...

. At Coe, he was a member of the

Sigma Nu Sigma Nu () is an undergraduate Fraternities and sororities in North America, college fraternity founded at the Virginia Military Institute on January 1, 1869. The fraternity was founded by James Frank Hopkins, Greenfield Quarles and James McIlva ...

fraternity and inducted into the Sigma Nu Hall of Fame in 2016. He gave the commencement speech at Coe College in 2010 and was awarded an honorary doctorate in Journalism. In 2021, Menefee was attending

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

enrolled in the university's Master's in Public Policy & Administration program with plans to relocate to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

full-time.

Career

Prior to joining Fox Sports full-time, he was a sports reporter for

MSG Network The MSG Network (MSG) is an American regional cable and satellite television network, and radio service owned by MSG Entertainment, Inc.—a spin-off of the main Madison Square Garden Company operation (itself a spin-off of local cable provider ...

's ''

SportsDesk New England Sports Network, popularly known as NESN , is an American regional sports cable and satellite television network owned by a joint venture of Fenway Sports Group (which owns a controlling 80% interest, and is the owner of Boston Red ...

'' show. Prior to that, he was the sports anchor for

WNYW WNYW (channel 5) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Secaucus, New Jersey–licensed MyNetworkTV flagship W ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

's Fox flagship station. He also appeared on-air on

WTLV WTLV (channel 12) is a television station in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Orange Park–licensed ABC affiliate WJXX (channel 25). Both stations share studios on East Adams Stre ...

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

. He also hosted a radio show on the popular

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on-ai ...

station KTCK ("1310 The Ticket"). He worked at WISC-TV (CBS) in Madison, Wisconsin as a sports anchor and reporter. He was also the sports anchor for Dallas-Fort Worth's then-independent station and now CBS affiliate

KTVT KTVT (channel 11) is a television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, United States, broadcasting CBS programming to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent outl ...

Fox Sports

He began his career at Fox Sports in 1997 as a sideline reporter, then moved to play-by-play for Fox's

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally f ...

and '' Fox NFL'' coverage on FOX Sports and FSN. In 2007, Menefee became the host of ''

''. On May 24, 2008, Menefee made an appearance on ''

MLB on Fox ''MLB on Fox'' (also known as ''Fox MLB'') is an American presentation of Major League Baseball (MLB) games produced by Fox Sports, the sports division of the Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox), since June 1, 1996. The broadcaster has aired the Worl ...

''. He held play-by-play duties alongside José Mota during a game between the

Los Angeles Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team ha ...

and the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

. On May 22, 2010, Menefee hosted Fox's coverage of the 2010

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

Final between FC Internazionale Milano and

FC Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which play ...

in the first broadcast of that tournament's final on over-the-air broadcast television in the United States. On November 12, 2011, Menefee became the host of the ''

UFC on Fox ''Fox UFC Fight Night '' (previously referred as ''Fox UFC Saturday'' for broadcasts on Fox or ''FS1 UFC Fight Night'' for broadcasts on other Fox-owned properties) was the branding used for telecasts of mixed martial art competitions from the ...

'' with

Randy Couture Randall Duane Couture (; born June 22, 1963) is an American actor, former United States Army, U.S. Army sergeant, former mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist and former Collegiate wrestling, collegiate and Greco-Roman wrestling, Greco-Roman ...

and

Jon Jones Jonathan Dwight Jones (born July 19, 1987) is an American professional mixed martial artist currently signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), in which he has competed in the light heavyweight division. He is a former two-time UFC L ...

. He continued to serve as host until ESPN took the rights to broadcast UFC. In 2015, he hosted the inaugural coverage of FOX Sports coverage of the U.S. Open Championship in 2015. On February 8, 2020, Menefee called an XFL game between the LA Wildcats and the

Houston Roughnecks The Houston Roughnecks are a professional American football team based in Houston, Texas. The team is an owned-and-operated member of the new XFL founded by Vince McMahon's Alpha Entertainment and plays its home games at TDECU Stadium. History ...

NFL Preseason Football

Menefee called the NFL preseason for the Jaguars TV network from 2005 to 2007. He currently does play-by-play for Seattle Seahawks preseason games with Michael Robinson, Dave Wyman, and Matt Devlin doing color commentary on

KCPQ KCPQ (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Tacoma, Washington, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Seattle area. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV outlet ...

and

KZJO KZJO (channel 22) is a television station in Seattle, Washington, United States, broadcasting the MyNetworkTV programming service. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Tacoma-licensed Fox outlet KCPQ (channel 13). Bo ...

(replay).

Boxing

Menefee also provided ringside commentary for

Top Rank Top Rank, Inc. is a boxing promotional company founded by Jabir Herbert Muhammad and Bob Arum, which was incorporated in 1973, and is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Since its founding, Top Rank has promoted many world class fighters, including Muh ...

's coverage of the Pacquiao-Hatton fight. He was also the play-by-play announcer for ''

Showtime Championship Boxing ''Showtime Championship Boxing'' is a television boxing program airing on Showtime. Debuting in March 1986, it is broadcast live on the first Saturday of every month. ''Showtime Championship Boxing'', which is very similar to ''HBO World Champi ...

''. On January 7, 2012, Menefee announced he was leaving ''ShoBox''.

Personal life

Menefee resides in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Menefee, Curt 1965 births Living people African-American sports journalists African-American television personalities American sports journalists American sports radio personalities American television sports anchors American television sports announcers Association football commentators Boxing commentators Coe College alumni Golf writers and broadcasters Jacksonville Jaguars announcers Major League Baseball broadcasters Mixed martial arts broadcasters National Football League announcers Television anchors from New York City NFL Europe broadcasters XFL (2020) broadcasters 21st-century American journalists 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people