NBC Sports host Maria Taylor was overcome with emotion when the “Sunday Night Football” broadcast team surprised her with a sweet sendoff before going on maternity leave.
Taylor, who’s expecting a baby boy in January with her husband, John, teared up Sunday when she received a bouquet of blue balloons and a video of her NBC colleagues sharing celebratory messages as she prepares to welcome her first child.
“Maria, so excited for you and John. We love you guys,” Jason Garrett said, while Jac Collinsworth added, “Been working so hard and now you get a chance to start the greatest job of all.”
Mike Florio then said he hopes Taylor’s son calls him “Uncle Florio.”
Tony Dungy referred to Taylor as the team’s “quarterback” in his message.
“Maria, I can’t believe you’re going into the transfer portal, leaving your teammates to be a mom,” Dungy said. “We’re going to miss you. What are we doing to do without our quarterback?”
Taylor also received congratulatory messages from Devin McCourty, Chris Simms and Rodney Harrison.
“I love you guys so much,” she said while wiping tears from her eyes. “Thank you for getting me through it, I couldn’t have done it without you guys.”
Simms likened Taylor to Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes while illustrating her importance to the NBC team.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Simms said. “You’re literally like the Mahomes of the show.”
Taylor laughed and quipped, “I don’t know what you’re going to do either. Maria Magic is leaving, OK!”
“But you guys have a great rest of the season and I love you all,” she said.
Taylor gushed over the sendoff in an Instagram post, which included photos from her last show before maternity leave.
“I’m not crying…you’re crying!” she wrote. “Thank you to my @nbcsports and @snfonnbc Family for this wonderful send off! I love and appreciate each and every one of you. It’s been amazing to be your Sunday Night QB week to week, while growing my own franchise player. I have never felt more blessed!
“Thank you everyone for the well wishes for my family and I. We will see you next season.”
McCourty also posted a photo from Taylor’s sendoff to his Instagram Story, praising her for her work.
“Our QB is going to lead another team for the rest of the season,” he wrote. “@mariataylor you’ll be a MVP at that too.”
Taylor announced her pregnancy on social media in July following multiple failed rounds of in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles.
“The last 3 years have been some of the most physically, mentally, and emotionally challenging years of my life,” Taylor wrote at the time on social media, where she included a collage of photos with her husband that showed a sonogram and Nike baby sneakers.
“My journey to motherhood has not been a straight path. It’s been diverted by surgeries, multiple egg retrievals, and failed IVF cycles.
“There were times when I felt like my body was betraying me, that God didn’t want me to become a mom and that I ultimately didn’t deserve to be a mom.”
Taylor and John tied the knot in February 2021, according to her Instagram.
The former ESPN personality is in her third season as host of “Sunday Night Football” for NBC — and became the first full-time woman to host the network’s “Football Night in America” studio show.
Taylor left ESPN, where she worked from 2013-2021, after then-colleague Rachel Nichols made disparaging “diversity” comments about her in a leaked audio video, which was made public in July 2021.
