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So I guess Tony Romo is being hired as a sports commentator to replace Phil Sims. I'm so sick of seeing washed up athletes who aren't nearly as good as real commentators dominating every sports show. Some of the NFL shows have a table of 6 guys, all former athletes who just ramble on and suck.
former players have an insight that non players dont have when it comes to the sports they commentate on. troy aikman has done very well as a commentator, ans has chris collinsworth. how will romo do? that remains to be seen, but i am willing to give him a chance.
i didnt think jeff gordon would do well commentating on nascar races, but he gives good insight on races, and when teamed with darrel waltrip, they both give good insight from a long retired and a recently retired drivers point of view.
I rarely watch any of the pregame shows - same old stuff every weekend.....and the guys on set are pretty immature and the shows are geared toward morons, imo (thinking of Bradshaw).
Watching any program on television is voluntary, turn off the television or change the channel, problem solved.
Well I voluntarily want to watch sports programs with real commentators, but that isn't possible if here are none. How does changing the channel or turning off the TV solve that problem smatguy?
former players have an insight that non players dont have when it comes to the sports they commentate on. troy aikman has done very well as a commentator, ans has chris collinsworth. how will romo do? that remains to be seen, but i am willing to give him a chance.
i didnt think jeff gordon would do well commentating on nascar races, but he gives good insight on races, and when teamed with darrel waltrip, they both give good insight from a long retired and a recently retired drivers point of view.
They only have insight on how to play their positions. Coaches would have much better insight than players.
So I guess Tony Romo is being hired as a sports commentator to replace Phil Sims. I'm so sick of seeing washed up athletes who aren't nearly as good as real commentators dominating every sports show. Some of the NFL shows have a table of 6 guys, all former athletes who just ramble on and suck.
If you go back to the earliest beginnings regarding NFL televised games, you'll find two things. All of the play by play announcers never played in the NFL. And all of the commentators never did any play by play. They did commentary-only commentary. There might be an exception or two, but I don't believe there is, at least in the first 75 years of the league.
With NBC you had two of the best broadcasters in the business run consecutively-Curt Gowdy and Dick Enberg. Gowdy was the lead ABC announcer in the early years of the American Football League. When NBC was awarded the contract in 1964, all the announcers transferred there. The numbers 2 and 3 team featured Charlie Jones and Jim Simpson, both very qualified play by play men.
I like rbohm's observation about how a quarterback makes the best commentary man. And a lot of them were. With Gowdy you had Paul Christman and George Ratterman. When Gowdy retired and Dick Enberg came along Enberg worked for several years with first Len Dawson, then John Brodie. When Merlin Olsen came along in 1980 or so a lot of NFL insiders felt an offensive lineman would not be effective but Olsen did a great job for NBC, just as Dan Dierdorf did for CBS, then later for NBC, and then back with CBS. He was also involved with Monday Night Football on ABC for several years in the 1980's and 1990's. Bill Walsh replaced Olsen in 1991, then Bob Trumpy came along the next year, with Phil Simms taking the job in 1995 and went for two decades with it.
I do agree with jman with the point of the amount of broadcasters involved on prime time games, particularly ESPN, and I've opined on this issue before. At the pregame you have 3 or 4 announcers from the ESPN studios, 3 men in the broadcast booth, 2 sideline reporters, and 3 or 4 more on the field for halftime commentary, then post game wrap up. I've said before that is way too many, I still feel that way today.
If you go back to the earliest beginnings regarding NFL televised games, you'll find two things. All of the play by play announcers never played in the NFL. And all of the commentators never did any play by play. They did commentary-only commentary. There might be an exception or two, but I don't believe there is, at least in the first 75 years of the league.
With NBC you had two of the best broadcasters in the business run consecutively-Curt Gowdy and Dick Enberg. Gowdy was the lead ABC announcer in the early years of the American Football League. When NBC was awarded the contract in 1964, all the announcers transferred there. The numbers 2 and 3 team featured Charlie Jones and Jim Simpson, both very qualified play by play men.
I like rbohm's observation about how a quarterback makes the best commentary man. And a lot of them were. With Gowdy you had Paul Christman and George Ratterman. When Gowdy retired and Dick Enberg came along Enberg worked for several years with first Len Dawson, then John Brodie. When Merlin Olsen came along in 1980 or so a lot of NFL insiders felt an offensive lineman would not be effective but Olsen did a great job for NBC, just as Dan Dierdorf did for CBS, then later for NBC, and then back with CBS. He was also involved with Monday Night Football on ABC for several years in the 1980's and 1990's. Bill Walsh replaced Olsen in 1991, then Bob Trumpy came along the next year, with Phil Simms taking the job in 1995 and went for two decades with it.
I do agree with jman with the point of the amount of broadcasters involved on prime time games, particularly ESPN, and I've opined on this issue before. At the pregame you have 3 or 4 announcers from the ESPN studios, 3 men in the broadcast booth, 2 sideline reporters, and 3 or 4 more on the field for halftime commentary, then post game wrap up. I've said before that is way too many, I still feel that way today.
well said. one of the reasons quarterbacks tend to make the best commentary announcers is that they have to understand every position on both sides of the ball in order to do their job on the field properly.
its like the best coaches in basketball tend to be point guards because they had the responsibility of running the team on the floor, and as such they had to understand each position on the floor.
this is not to say that other former players cant do the job well, chris collingsworth was a wide receiver for many years, and he is one of the best commentary announcers around, because like howard cosell who never played football, he does his homework.
in the end i think any player with good intelligence, and who is willing to do their homework, and can communicate well with others, can do very well as an announcer.
i personally could never be a good announcer, even though i was a crew chief, i do my homework, and i have good intelligence, i dont communicate as well as i would need to, to be an announcer.
So I guess Tony Romo is being hired as a sports commentator to replace Phil Sims. I'm so sick of seeing washed up athletes who aren't nearly as good as real commentators dominating every sports show. Some of the NFL shows have a table of 6 guys, all former athletes who just ramble on and suck.
It depends on the athlete. I don't get why he is replacing Simms though, as I think Simms does pretty good. There are some I don't like. There are some who have jaded pasts that I prefer not to see or hear from and they don't have anything intelligent to say.
Others are fine. I like Rodney Harrison on NBC (pregame), I like Aikman, Collinsworth and others, but Bradshaw and Shannon Sharpe are pretty annoying at times.
Most of the former coaches I like listening to, but I hate when a great coach like Bill Cowher or Tony Dungy settles for the booth instead of coaching. Totally their choice, but would prefer to see them coaching still.
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