FORT WORTH, Texas — Mike Tirico has zero influence on the matchups, but he’s done this job long enough to know that well before the season begins the Dallas Cowboys will be on his personal schedule, seemingly regardless of record.

NBC Sports’ top NFL play-by-play voice, and now its main studio maestro for its premier events, Tirico understands the intrigue behind a team that has not delivered since 1996.

“It’s like the Raiders or Pittsburgh; the sport took off on the backs of the great Steelers teams of the ‘70s, and the Cowboys and the 49ers in the decades to follow,” Tirico said this week in a phone interview. “They were the excellence in the game. Larger than life celebrities.

“I live in Michigan, and the bar for the (Detroit) Lions is a lot lower than it is for the Cowboys. Here (with the Cowboys), unless you are a Super Bowl champion, you are not on the level as Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith. I have relatives who have never lived in Texas; they live in New York, but they love the Dallas Cowboys.”

That is not apt to change. Tirico will be on the call for NBC when the Cowboys (3-3) play the 49ers (3-4) on Sunday night in Santa Clara, Calif.

Tirico famously was a recipient of the Robert Costas Scholarship at Syracuse University and now has all but assumed the same chair that Costas owned for decades. Tirico is one of the few remaining Jim McKay-type sports TV broadcasters who can easily slip between the booth and the desk.

He also has the distinction of having never been accused of hating your team. He talked about that an array of other subjects.

— Star-Telegram; When you were a kid, was where you are now what you envisioned?

— Mike Tirico: I wanted to be a sportscaster from when I was a little kid. I loved playing games as well but when I reached a point when the writing was on the wall that I was not going to be a great athlete, I started to pursue covering sports. Worked at local newspaper. Weekly paper in (New York). After finding out that Costas, Marv Albert and Marty Glickman, who were from New York and went to Syracuse, that was the goal.

— S-T: Did it ever occur to you that as someone who was the first recipient of the Robert Costas Scholarship at Syracuse University that in some way you have inherited his spot on the network he was a face of for a long time?

— MT: As I like to share, it was not a full scholarship, but it was important for someone who was the first in my family to go to college. I was paying off student loans when I worked at ESPN.

(Syracuse) was a big reach; we didn’t have the money. I was raised by my mom. Those scholarships meant a lot to us, not just who it came from, but financially. I got to meet Bob when I was a junior, and some 35 years later he is a friend.

When it came to (hosting) the Olympics and now Football Night in America, of course I (recognized the similar) path. We both grew up in New York, and we are both short.

— S-T: Go back to when you were starting out, what was the smallest, ‘off off Broadway’ event that you covered?

— MT: I was the beat reporter for the Syracuse University women’s field hockey team. Then it was college radio. And after that I did some play-by-play for the GP Express, a semi-pro football team in Syracuse.

— S-T: You have done it and we have seen a few other sports TV broadcasters do it — Joe Buck and Kirk Herbstreit come to mind — where you will work insane schedules in 24-, 36- or 72-hour stretches. What’s the appeal of doing it, or is it?

— MT: Talk about the influence of Costas, or growing up in New York (with) Marv Albert. He would do a Knicks game one night, the six and the 11 o’clock sportscast the next night, and the (New York) Rangers game the next night. Then a boxing match over the weekend. Marv was always doing a game, and I thought that’s the way the job is done.

— S-T: You are used to people recognizing you and talking to you like they know you. When do you remember that started and did it change your life at all?

— MT: It happened to me when I started in local television. I had been doing cable TV and sports in Syracuse. We do this because we love it; we don’t do it to be recognized. I truly enjoy going to pick up a salad near our house in Michigan, just like anybody else does. We just have a job that people see, it’s less important than a lot of jobs out there.

— S-T: You have avoided the dreaded, ‘He hates my team’ criticism that can be thrown at national play-by-play voices, or analysts; what is your secret to ducking this?

— MT: Some of that happens just by associating with moments that happen. When you are on big games for so many years it just happens. It happens that it’s a preconceived notion. I grew up in New York and I loved the Jets and Mets. I was at ESPN for 25 years, and the sportscasters there are now encouraged to root for their home team.

I was not raised like that, and I don’t like it but it’s OK. There is one team I root for unapologetically, Syracuse. I was critical of the team when I called their games.

I go into a game believing I am the home announcer for both teams. We as sportscasters, our lives don’t materially change by who wins or loses. That’s true of fans, unless you wager on the team. You still go to work the next day regardless of the outcome.

— S-T: Because you were at ESPN for so long you covered almost everything; is there any event that you would like to do for your own personal bucket list?

— MT: I had a list of things when I was at ESPN; to be able to see in person the Kentucky Derby, the Indianapolis 500 and the Olympics. I have had the opportunity to work at all three of those in the last several years. The other one was the Today Show, and I have had that chance with the Olympics.

The other one is to call a Super Bowl, and lord willing I will have that chance next year when NBC hosts it.

— S-T: Thanks so much for your time and best of luck with the call on Sunday night.

— MT: Thank you very much.

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