Superbowl LIX Broadcast Honors ‘Greatest Handheld Cameraman’ As He Films Final Game

Fox honored retiring cameraman Don Cornelli during Super Bowl. He was filming his last game.

Fox Sports’ Super Bowl LIX broadcast honored the “greatest handheld cameraman” as he filmed the final game of his career before retiring.

Don Cornelli, a veteran sports television camera operator and Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer, worked the final NFL game of his career on Sunday night, operating a handheld during Fox Sports’ broadcast of Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.

"That's a Hall of Famer right there…Nobody better and there might not ever be anyone better."

Shooting his last game, cameraman Don Cornelli gets a shoutout.pic.twitter.com/B3L2GAyNLF

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 10, 2025

During the broadcast of the Super Bowl, Fox Sports gave an on-air shoutout to longtime handheld cameraman Cornelli as he filmed for the last time before retirement.

‘Nobody Better and Might Not Ever be Anyone Better’

As the broadcast returned to the Super Bowl after a commercial break, Fox Sports play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt used the opportunity to highlight Cornelli’s career and contribution as a handheld cameraman.

“That’s a Hall of Famer right there,” Burkhardt tells viewers. “The great Don Cornelli, who got started in 1987 with CBS, has done as many big games as anyone. The greatest handheld cameraperson in the history of what we do.”

The Fox Sports broadcast then cut to Cornelli’s shot of Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Devonta Smith’s long touchdown reception from earlier in the game. As the shot plays on screen, Burkhardt describes how Cornelli is retiring and that there is “nobody better and there might not ever be anyone better” than the cameraman.

“Don, we love you,” Burkhardt says as he finishes his tribute to the longtime cameraman.

As sports news outlet Awful Announcing notes, it’s uncommon for a broadcast to spotlight a behind-the-scenes crew member — especially during the Super Bowl. But Fox Sports seized the opportunity to give Cornelli a well-deserved farewell in his final appearance as a handheld cameraman.

According to Sports Video Group (SVG) news, Cornelli has been an industry veteran for more than three decades. He has shot 23 Super Bowls and has been a fixture on NFL on Fox Sports since 1993. Cornelli was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame Class of 2020.

Cornelli’s most famous shot of his career was filming wide receiver Plaxico Burress’s game-winning touchdown catch in the New York Giants’ victory over the undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII — a game which is regarded as one of the biggest upsets in the history of the sport.

Image credits: Header photo via Fox Sports.