This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Jim Nantz is a numbers guy. When the rest of CBS Sports was celebrating getting back into the NFL game in 1998, Nantz was doing some math in his head.

CBS, which had been outbid for the NFC by Fox in 1993, outbid NBC for the AFC in 1998. As part of that, CBS would telecast Super Bowl XXVI in 2001 and every third Super Bowl after that.

"I can crunch numbers really quickly," said Nantz, who "couldn't help but extrapolate from this in about 15 seconds" that if CBS held onto its part of the NFL TV contract (and it did); if the three-network rotation continued (and it did); and if "the stars were aligned, we would be ... broadcasting Super Bowl 50."

The former KSL sportscaster (1983-85) was CBS' NFL studio host from 1998-2003. He started calling NFL games for CBS in 2004, and he's called three Super Bowls since then.

He'll call his fourth when Carolina faces Denver in Super Bowl 50 on Sunday (4:30 p.m., CBS/Ch. 2). And 50 has been a lucky number for Nantz — although he didn't realize that until he "stumbled on it" back in September. Nantz was in Kansas City to call a Chiefs game, and he was being interviewed by the local CBS affiliate.

"They asked me a question about Super Bowl 50, and the fact that I was in Kansas City made me realize — wait a minute. I was part of the 50th Final Four," he said, "And then, in mid-sentence ... I just realized I had been there for the 50th Masters."

Not a lot of people were thinking about the 2016 Super Bowl in 1998, but Nantz was. There aren't a lot of people who care about this kind of stuff, but Nantz does.

In 1988, Nantz was the studio host when Kansas — a No. 6 seed — upset heavily favored Oklahoma 83-79 to win the national championship.

In 1986, Nantz was the studio host for the 50th Masters, which he believes "might have been the greatest golf tournament of all time." Five different players held at a least share of the lead in the final round, and Jack Nicklaus came from behind to win his sixth green jacket.

"All of those golden events have been very special," Nantz said. "I can only hope that the 50th Super Bowl is as memorable as the 50th Masters and the 50th Final Four."

While he's not in the business of predicting winners, the CBS sportscaster is comfortable predicting that the Broncos and Panthers matchup will produce a good game.

"I've got good vibes" from the other 50th anniversaries, he said. "I've got a feeling about this. It's going to be a good game."

And CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus came as close as he could to promising that there won't be a repeat of the last Super Bowl his network telecast — a game that included a 34-minute delay in the third quarter because of a power failure at the New Orleans Superdome.

"I can't speak for the power in the stadium," McManus said, but his team is "as sure as we possible can [be] that we in the CBS compound will not have a power failure. We've got three redundant sources of power — land power, battery power and diesel-powered generators. If one of those sources goes out, the other one kicks in automatically."

And, he promised, "We're going to be more prepared for it than we were the last time. We'll have a plan in place."

That doesn't mean that he's guaranteeing power won't fail in Levi's Stadium, but if it does CBS will cover it without interruption.

"We learned a lot of lessons — I'll be honest — from the blackout," McManus said.

Scott D. Pierce covers TV for The Salt Lake Tribune. Email him at spierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.