Comparing TV Booths- Who’s better All time and Now?

cowboyec said:

always liked Dick Stockton...love his voice.
i also liked Dan Dierdorf as a color guy...very smart....always learned alot when he did a game.
i also liked Joe Theisman....on MNF and espn's Sunday Night games back in the late 80s.

best MNF group...Frank Howard and Dandy were the best.....never be beat.

also loved Mike Patrick as a play by play man...that was a good crew with him,Theisman and Paul Macguire.

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Yea although I found Stockton better suited for NBA.

The MNF crew of Dandy, Giffer and Cosell were a classic. Best MNF all time.

Diehardblues said:

My favorite play by play announcer now is Mike Tirico although he’s currently waiting in the wings at NBC for Michaels to retire.

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The sexual harassment rumors at ESPN made them hide him for a while. All of that started to swirl before the #Metoo movement with several of them and they needed to make that go away the old fashioned way, pay them off and let things cool down.

I agree that he is very good and has this natural talent for transferring what he is seeing to his voice very quickly and he uses his spotters better than anyone in the business.

CouchCoach said:

We are as subjective about the people that do the games as the people that play them. We either like them or we don't.

However, with my broadcast experience of 25 years, just from the viewpoint of doing the job right as it was originally designed, Aikman and Buck are the gold standard. I don't care whether people like them or not, they do the job better than all of the others because first and foremost, you do not have to work to hear them. Projecting their voices without yelling is job 1 and they're both very well trained at that. Michaels is right there with Buck. I don't really care for what Daryl Johnston has to say most of the time but he is very good at saying it. He responded to the training as well as Aikman did.

When they tried Aikman out in his first gig, Europe, they were really surprised because his broadcast voice was not his natural. He's pretty soft spoken, not as raspy as Romo, but he used proper technique to project his voice and created more energy. He learned to be a broadcaster just as he had being a QB, proper mechanics and technique.

Aikman treats broadcasting as more of a science and Romo treats it as art, just as they did the QB role.

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Yea, Michaels is probably the premiere Play by Play at this time. Too bad we couldn’t match him with Troy. They could possibly be the Dream Team. Buck is professional but his first love is baseball.

CouchCoach said:

The sexual harassment rumors at ESPN made them hide him for a while. All of that started to swirl before the #Metoo movement with several of them and they needed to make that go away the old fashioned way, pay them off and let things cool down.

I agree that he is very good and has this natural talent for transferring what he is seeing to his voice very quickly and he uses his spotters better than anyone in the business.

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I wasn’t aware of those rumors with Tirico.

Diehardblues said:

I wasn’t aware of those rumors with Tirico.

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Yep but they were just rumors and there were quite a few of them with the testosterone driven ESPN. And just what constitutes sexual harassment in the workplace is left open to interpretation.

I've mentioned this but they were a client of mine as well as FOX Sports and I had a couple of good friends that developed out of that and the stories were beyond interesting.

Two of my favs are about Irvin and Collinsworth. Irvin had this habit at ESPN of putting his hand on the arm of the guy next to him to shut him up so he could interrupt and run his mouth. It got so bad that one night Young told him to take his hand off his arm and the next week he had transferred to being out in the field at the venue for the game. It was hilarious and the next guy had to sit next to Irvin.

Howie Long detested Collinsworth so much that he threatened to kick his butt on camera when he was on the panel at FOX and he decided to move on and off the panel. I don't dislike Collinsworth but he can get that "I'm smarter than you" look on his face when making a point and I think he did it once too often with Long.

Someone needs to write the definitive book on ESPN, from the creation through all of the turbulence they've had with management, employees and personalities. Add to that what they've had to do to defend themselves under attack from every direction and what they will have to do moving forward. To me, it is the most interesting business in the US.

I generally dislike "color analysts". Play by play guys are always better. Aikman might be an exception. Romo even gets grating after a while.

Summerall
Michaels

the rest.

I have friends of many different teams. The one thing we can all agree on is that Joe Buck absolutely sucks. The only people I know that like him are STL Cardinal fans. I love it when he stops doing football during the MLB playoffs.

Don Criqui and Lyndsey Nelson back on the day had unique voices, I always enjoyed listening to them do a game.

Nothing beats Pat Summeral teeing up a big game Sunday afternoon.

CouchCoach said:

Aikman treats broadcasting as more of a science and Romo treats it as art, just as they did the QB role.

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Well said

Bobhaze said:

Joe Buck and Troy Aikman- I know a lot of people hate Joe B but I’m not one of them. He’s funny, interesting, and all the haters wear “fan glasses”- meaning they don’t like him saying the opponents QB has had a good game against us...when they did. Aikman is the current best color analyst. Smart, insightful, and underrated in the funny department.

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Agree with you wholeheartedly. Buck is pretty dang good if you can watch without fan glasses. What I really like is that he knows fans hate him and trolls them to boot. How can you not like that? I wish more players trolled fans for the abuse fans sling at them, but I get it. Someone always goes too far (Beasley's wife, lol).

Bobhaze said:

I think Romo could use some broadcast coaching. He’s smart and insightful on occasion, but IMO “less is more” in the TV booth. Romo wears me out. By mid- first qtr I’m exhausted from all the pre-snap yelling about what’s going to happen.

The best TV broadcasters in my book help the viewers understand what their seeing without over-describing. That’s what made Pat Summerall great. And I think Joe Buck does that too. TheJoe Buck hate I hear every year usually centers on fans P’oed when their team is losing hearing the broadcasters saying nice things about the hated opponent.

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Again, agree with you and I think CBS told Romo to tone it down his rookie year because he was doing it too much. With a big play coming up, I want to be surprised, especially if the game is on the line. Just let the moment happen. I'm okay with a general prognostication of what a team wants to do, e.g., "They want to get about 20 yards here to set up for a field goal" but leave it at that and let it unfold.

Surprised there's no love in here for Dick Enberg. I thought his level was great when exciting plays happened and matched the crowd excitement. "Oh my!"

INCowboysFan said:

I have friends of many different teams. The one thing we can all agree on is that Joe Buck absolutely sucks. The only people I know that like him are STL Cardinal fans. I love it when he stops doing football during the MLB playoffs.

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Sorry, apparently we can’t all agree because I think Joe Buck is excellent.

MarcusRock said:

Agree with you wholeheartedly. Buck is pretty dang good if you can watch without fan glasses. What I really like is that he knows fans hate him and trolls them to boot. How can you not like that? I wish more players trolled fans for the abuse fans sling at them, but I get it. Someone always goes too far (Beasley's wife, lol).



Again, agree with you and I think CBS told Romo to tone it down his rookie year because he was doing it too much. With a big play coming up, I want to be surprised, especially if the game is on the line. Just let the moment happen. I'm okay with a general prognostication of what a team wants to do, e.g., "They want to get about 20 yards here to set up for a field goal" but leave it at that and let it unfold.

Surprised there's no love in here for Dick Enberg. I thought his level was great when exciting plays happened and matched the crowd excitement. "Oh my!"

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His "Oh My" was as ubiquitous as Jackson's "Whoa Nellie" and I loved them both. "Oh my" was my trigger to just shake it once and get back to the game.

I think that predicting the play act of Romo's didn't play well with the coaching staffs since they get access to practice and they're the ones that delivered the message to CBS "if he continues to do that, he's not getting access at practice".

People act as if he's the only one that knows or suspects what they're going to run and most of the ex O guys know exactly what's going on because they need to look out for it. How many times do we hear them talk about what they saw at practice when an unusual play happens?

I do not watch football to hear what anyone thinks is going to happen as I enjoy the tension and surprise of the game but thankfully, he's not a good broadcaster so I don't hear most of what he says when he's showing off.

romo is the best today. hard to pick between sham and glieber for the cowboys. hansen was and still remains a buffoon. summerall and madden were great, but romo may become better than either. cosell was also a buffoon. dandy dan was there for entertainment value and was a great foil for cossell. gifford was very good, but a little sexual peccadillo brought him down. kathie lee was the original elin nordegren. hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

MarcusRock said:

Agree with you wholeheartedly. Buck is pretty dang good if you can watch without fan glasses. What I really like is that he knows fans hate him and trolls them to boot. How can you not like that? I wish more players trolled fans for the abuse fans sling at them, but I get it. Someone always goes too far (Beasley's wife, lol).



Again, agree with you and I think CBS told Romo to tone it down his rookie year because he was doing it too much. With a big play coming up, I want to be surprised, especially if the game is on the line. Just let the moment happen. I'm okay with a general prognostication of what a team wants to do, e.g., "They want to get about 20 yards here to set up for a field goal" but leave it at that and let it unfold.

Surprised there's no love in here for Dick Enberg. I thought his level was great when exciting plays happened and matched the crowd excitement. "Oh my!"

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What’s interesting about Joe Buck and our fans- So many of our fans say “he loves the packers”, yet according to Buck he gets tons of “hate” from packer fans, lol. I think Buck makes fans mad when their team is losing and he is praising what the opponent just did to their favorite team.

Great point on Dick Enberg. I should have mentioned him. “Oh my!” Was his signature. And his color analyst HOFer Merlin Olson was very good too.

Bobhaze said:

Sorry, apparently we can’t all agree because I think Joe Buck is excellent.

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In the context of my post, I thought it was clear that my friends and I are the ones that all agree that Joe Buck is terrible.

i get tired of hearing buck say "i'm sitting here with the hall of famer troy aikman". kissy, kissy. aikman seems not to have tired of hearing it.

Bobhaze said:

First of all, Im so anxious to hear some NFL football, I would settle for hearing almost anyone in the broadcast booth. Assuming we have a season starting in September, I thought it would be fun to handicap the best/worst broadcast teams.

Opinion Alert: This is all subjective, so don’t get your Cowboys boxers out of whack over broadcasters.

First of all, I’m going to throw down what I think are the BEST Of the Old NFL football booth teams:

1. Pat Summerall and John Madden- Summerall was the best at just presenting what happened without fluff or grandiosity. With the voice of God. Madden was the fun former coach with sound effects and fat guy jokes. These two together made any game interesting. THE BEST IMO.
2. Frank Gifford, Dandy Don Meredith and Howard Cosell- the Monday night broadcast booth from the early 70s was gold. Gifford was a boring play by play guy, but Dandy and Howard more than made up for it. Danny Don was the “OG” creative color analysts- funny and accurate. Cosell was the jerk everyone loved to hate. The back and forth between Howard and Dandy was greatness. This was when MNF was the best!
3. Jack Buck and Hank Stram- Joe Buck’s dad was one of the best at both baseball and football. He had that great gravelly voice that sounded like a general. Hank Stram was similar to John Madden- funny, unpredictable and a little crazy. Stram was calling plays out way before Tony Romo- (“Something left Jack”) Good chemistry between them.

The Current Best Booth Teams IMO:

1. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman- I know a lot of people hate Joe B but I’m not one of them. He’s funny, interesting, and all the haters wear “fan glasses”- meaning they don’t like him saying the opponents QB has had a good game against us...when they did. Aikman is the current best color analyst. Smart, insightful, and underrated in the funny department.
   
2. Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth- Michaels is one of the smoothest and best prepared broadcasters. Collinsworth is annoying half the time, but he can occasionally be ok. Michaels is the talent here.
3. Jim Nance and Tony Romo- Nance is super smooth and great at transitions. Romo...I hate to say it- he wears me out with the constant over the top “Jim it looks like a deep out here against this soft zone” before each play. It was kind of novel at first, but now it’s a beating.

THE ALL TIME BEST COWBOYS RADIO BROADCASTERS:

1. Frank Gleiber- THE BEST- Gleiber did play by play from the late 60s to Early 70s. He was one of the all time great Cowboys announcers. Smooth, fun and always prepared. Died of cancer too young at 51 in 1985.
2. Verne Lunquist- before he gained national fame as a college football broadcaster, Verne did play by play for the Cowboys in the mid 70s hey days. His color analysis was provided by Brad Sham. They made a really good team.
3. Dale Hansen- He was the funny “color guy” -never play by play- but in the 90s, his honest and funny analysis made those 90s broadcasts so much fun. It’s never been the same without him.
4. Brad Sham- believe it or not, can’t stand this guy. Try tuning into a game midway through the second qtr and see how long it takes before he gives a score. On top of that, off the air, he’s a notorious jerk. Arrogant with fans while acting like the players are all his best friends. Saw him in person at a remote broadcast with KRLD back in the 80s. A complete jerk off the air. Not a Sham fan.

So who are your favorite broadcast teams....and least favorites? And why.

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I agree with the Brad Sham take. Some really like him, some can’t. I’m in the “he’s average at best” camp. Had no idea he was an a-hole outside of the booth. I believe he’s a Chicago guy. Meaning from Chicago.

Pat Summerall and John Madden were clearly the best but you left out Summerall and Tom Brookshire. In my opinion they were the gold standard for Sunday games before Madden joined Summerall.