Mike Pereira on the pain of his lost season: ‘I almost gave up life as I knew it’

In his darkest moment, when the worst thoughts flooded his soul, Mike Pereira wondered if it was time to give up. Nothing eased his back pain – not yoga, not pilates, not any of the various pain management methods his doctors recommended. Something we take for granted when we get out of bed every morning became too unbearable to bear.

Pereira had spent 14 years as an NFL sideline judge and vice president before transitioning to a broadcasting pioneer – the first rules analyst for NFL broadcasts when Fox Sports hired him in 2010. But last year, at age 73 and in deep pain, his thoughts wandered to a dark place. He said he had suicidal thoughts.

“I had never experienced anything like the pain I was in,” Pereira said. “I almost gave up. I mean, I almost gave up on life as I knew it. I became such a burden to everyone around me and was in so much pain that I lay in bed and asked, “Is it really worth this?” I never saw myself as someone who would consider that. When you are in so much pain and it comes to your mind once, it continues to haunt your mind. You have to fight it.”

Now, after missing the entire 2023 NFL season, Pereira is back on television for Fox, working a full schedule of college football and NFL games. That’s the result of successful spinal surgery in November at a San Francisco hospital, an 8.5-hour procedure that fused seven levels of Pereira’s spine. Pereira spent a week in the hospital after the surgery, followed by another week at a rehabilitation center in Sacramento, California.

He was told the surgery was successful, but it didn’t feel that way as he lay helpless in his hospital bed in November. He couldn’t sleep, he could barely move, and his blood pressure dropped every time he tried to get out of bed. He was finally able to get into a wheelchair, after which he switched to navigating with a walker.

“I felt a sense of satisfaction over the simplest things,” he said. “When you’ve been that low and you feel the satisfaction of being able to achieve something you couldn’t achieve before, your attitude changes.”

Healing continued and Pereira was strong enough to travel to the NFC Championship Game in San Francisco in January. He surprised Fox’s top NFL crew during a production meeting at their hotel and was overwhelmed by his colleagues who jumped out of their seats to greet him.

“The genuine and sincere love I felt in that moment was overwhelming,” Pereira said. “That moment convinced me that I was going to go back to work.”

I’m back in Cleveland. I am so grateful! pic.twitter.com/N7bggnmRo4

— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) September 8, 2024

Pereira said his top bosses at Fox Sports – CEO Eric Shanks and executive producer Brad Zager – asked him before the season how much travel he wanted to do, and he has opted for eight or nine regular-season games on the road (he’s switching up with fellow rules analyst Dean Blandino) and the rest work out of Fox’s Century City studios. (When Pereira and Blandino work from the studio, they watch games from what Fox Sports staffers call the “Sky Box,” where the pregame show is done.) His road trips so far include Cleveland for Week 1 and Dallas last week . This week, Pereira will work out of Los Angeles: one college game on Friday night, nine college games on Saturday and four NFL games on Sunday.

“I’m now almost 10 1/2 months out from surgery and I can walk 2 miles a day,” he said. “I can do just about everything I could do before, except I can’t put on shoes by myself. I went after Howie Long to give me some Skechersbut he’s not through yet (laughs). But I don’t care about the little problems because I have my life back. I mean, it was gone and now I have it back.

We now take rules analysts who work in sports television and streaming for granted, but Pereira was a real game-changer when Fox created the role for him in 2010. Viewers had longed for broadcasters to provide accurate explanations of the NFL’s byzantine rulebook, and Pereira took the burden off the announcers. Joe Buck once told me he considered Pereira the best signing in Fox Sports history. Pereira said he could never have seen his hiring in 2010 as a precursor to the many rules analysts we now see on television in the sport.

Mike Pereira before the Week 1 game between the Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland Browns. He missed the 2023 season due to his injury. (Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)

“It’s amazing, because I never saw this job coming in my mind,” says Pereira. “I never thought that when it was my time to retire from the NFL, I would have something like this available. Not only am I proud of what it has meant to us as former football officials and the role of trying to educate the fans, but I am also proud of the fact that I am watching a football match and there is a rules analyst. Same with the NBA. I now see networks with wave control analysts. Fox started it, but at least I was good enough at it that everyone thought it was a good idea. I’m proud of that. Really and truly.”

Talking to Pereira these days, it’s hard not to come away with some perspective on mortality. He said he feels like a new person and has so little pain that he no longer needs to take Tylenol or any other painkiller. There was even an unexpected result of the operation: he is 5 centimeters taller.

“There are things I can’t do, but I’m living my absolute best life, both at home and at work,” Pereira said. “Some people may say that, but because of the appreciation for where I’ve been, I truly believe I’m living my best life today.”

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

(Top photo of Mike Pereira on the field before last week’s Baltimore Ravens-Dallas Cowboys game: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)