Bryant Gumbel out at NFL Network
According to The New York Times, Bryant Gumbel has resigned as play-by-play man at NFL Netowork.
“What happened is we had a conversation and we agreed to go in different directions. It’s really as simple as that,” Gumble said in the article.
Tom Hammond, who filled in for Gumbel once last season when he was sick, is a strong possibility to fill the role, according to the report.
I'm sure this post is likely to get a lot of reader reaction. When I wrote about Gumbel during the season, several of you chimed in (mostly with negative feedback).
Gumbel's show Real Sports remains the best program of its kind. You learn something new every time you watch it. That being said, he struggled as a play-by-play guy. The voice annoyed some listeners, he seemed to get things wrong during the course of a game and he would often announce action well after it happened. He also had an annoying habit of saying "It appears he picked up 5 yards on the play" instead of just saying "He picked up 5 yards on the play." But that might just be my personal pet peeve. Gumbel seems like a nice guy, and I'm sure he was doing his best, but play-by-play obviously wasn't a good fit.
Overall though, I'm not sure we have many great announcers in the NFL. Jim Nantz is probably the best. And while I like Mike Tirico, I know from past posts that several of you aren't huge fans of the Monday night team with him, Ron Jaworski and Tony Kornheiser. Who are the other great NFL play-by-play men out there?
It's odd when you think about it because the NBA has guys I really enjoy like Marv Albert and Mike Breen. Baseball has local legends throughout the country. But I really struggled to think of great NFL play-by-play men.
I linked to this article before, but it's probably worth doing so again -- Dr. Z's NFL announcing rankings on SI.com.
Hopefully after the draft, we can explore the state of NFL announcing a little more on this blog.
Comments
"The voice annoyed some listeners..."
What do you mean? People don't like listening to Kermit the Frog do play-by-play?
Posted by: Danielle | April 12, 2008 1:32 PM
Al Michaels is still pretty good, even if the team's best days are behind it. Also Marv Albert is an outstanding play by play guy for football too. Perhaps the best play by play man across the board working today.
----
Absolutely agree with you on Marv. Since I work the night shift at baltimoresun.com, I'd listen to Albert on the radio as I drove home during the season for MNF broadcasts. He's the best.
--Sheil
Posted by: Anonymous | April 12, 2008 2:03 PM
The voice was not as annoying as the total Bungling of obvious situations and names like he could care less about the action, and that he was pompous.
Real Sports is an interesting show and his smug journalistic apporach is not nearly as out of place there.
I love T Kornheiser on PTI, and he is pretty good on radio, but also has no place in the booth during a game.
Tirico is at least very professional and prepared, and Jaws breaks down film 18 hours a day and brings plenty of insider x and o observations, but TK's hack comedy act gets real tiresome and cumbersome to the flow.
I still love Madden the most. I really don't like how he talked about the Ravens and slighted them at every turn, but he makes me chuckle and brings enough good points to make up for his redundant or ridiculous ones.
Michals is annoying and robotic, but smart, and he is the one who made me start saying dubiuos before I knew the definition.
Posted by: Jeremiah | April 12, 2008 3:28 PM
Mike Patrick is still my favorite play-by-play man in the business. Al Michaels is still good, but he sometimes fails to note details that fans might have missed.
Posted by: Jason | April 12, 2008 5:47 PM
Mike Patrick
Posted by: JWBBZ | April 12, 2008 6:24 PM
Gumbel was definitely out of his element doing play by play. It was painful to listen. One guy I could never understand how he kept his job for a couple of years were Jerry Glanville. He was dreadful.
Obviously Hank Stram as an analyst on MNF games years ago was excellent. Pat Summerall was another quality announcer. The best ones keep their ego in check.
Some people liked the game with the 3 Mikes doing the game but I thought they were horrible.
Rich
Posted by: Rich | April 12, 2008 7:22 PM
Mike Patrick. Mike called the NFL on Sunday nights for ESPN for 19 years. Replacing him when the network got Monday Night Football was stupid. Whatever clown at ESPN made that decision should have been canned immediately. Mike is arguably the best play-by-play announcer in the country. If ESPN was smart, they would get on their hands and knees and beg Mike to return to their NFL broadcasts because the team of Tirico, Kornheiser, and Jaworski is nearly as bad as Gumbel and Company on the NFL Network Fortunately, the disastrous Gumbel experiment is over. The answer to your question is -- Mike Patrick!!!
Posted by: SRB | April 13, 2008 7:19 AM
Gus Johnson!
Posted by: Sugarbear | April 13, 2008 8:32 AM
THANK GOD!
Posted by: Jordy | April 13, 2008 4:57 PM