Al Michaels out for NFL playoffs on NBC in move he wasn't expecting

[Bferra13]

6 hours ago, Buffalo ill said:

I didn't realize he is 79.  The dude looks great.

And never touched a vegetable in his life before!

[sullim4]

15 hours ago, Solomon Grundy said:

I heard Steve Tasker, yesterday, say that CBS let him go because he was "aged" out

I loved Steve Tasker as a player, but Steve Tasker the announcer could barely put together a coherent thought.

 

Mind you the Tiffany network has Greg Gumbel announcing games at 77, had Verne Lundquist until he was 81, and had Dick Enberg announcing until he was nearly 80.

[davefan66]

Don’t really care for any network commentators any more. Romo was probably the last guy I liked, but he doesn’t give his insight as well as he did when he started.

 

As far as Al.  Like I said before he had his one big call in the Olympics and has been nothing special since.  Just my opinion.

[Buffalo Ballin]

Al Michaels should be commentating for this playoffs. We understand if he's not there for next season.

 

 c'mon man.

[Chandler#81]

He’s 79 yet his Mom just died last year? Thats some serious genealogy!

[Chandler#81]

23 hours ago, machine gun kelly said:

Yep Edog.  He’s in the same ballpark as Frank Gifford, Dandy Don, John Madden, Pat Summerall and the great…

 

 

The legend that is Howard.

In 1970, when MNF 1st began, bars all over the nation would have a patron blast a television with a shotgun when Cosell would 1st appear on the broadcast. It/he was a phenomenon!

[FireChans]

On 12/29/2023 at 11:45 PM, GunnerBill said:

 

Agreed. Al was great. But he has always fely like he is half assing it on Prime. Herbstreet is so low energy. The combo doesn't work. We all end up bored.

Nothing was worse than Al and Dungy last year in the playoffs during the Jags comeback.

 

Not surprising that performance ended his postseason career. They were like CSPAN commentators. 

[GunnerBill]

18 minutes ago, FireChans said:

Nothing was worse than Al and Dungy last year in the playoffs during the Jags comeback.

 

Not surprising that performance ended his postseason career. They were like CSPAN commentators. 

 

Yea they sounded bored in an exciting game. I did a very small bit of local radio soccer commentary back in my journalism days and the bit if advice the old boy who had been doing it for years gave me before my first gig was "make sure your excitement level is appropriate to the moment and the game, nobody wants Crewe 1 Shrewsbury 0 to sound like it was a world cup final on the radio."

 

And it is the same the other way around. If you get a miraculous play off comeback don't sound like you are watching the Bills-Browns 6-3 game.

[uticaclub]

9 hours ago, sullim4 said:

I loved Steve Tasker as a player, but Steve Tasker the announcer could barely put together a coherent thought.

 

Mind you the Tiffany network has Greg Gumbel announcing games at 77, had Verne Lundquist until he was 81, and had Dick Enberg announcing until he was nearly 80.

Dick Enberg called Padre games until the end. Also Tasker was a sideline reporter, a job once reserved for former players now only filled by attractive women (not complaining, would rather look at Pam Oliver than Steve)

[chongli]

1 hour ago, uticaclub said:

Dick Enberg called Padre games until the end. Also Tasker was a sideline reporter, a job once reserved for former players now only filled by attractive women (not complaining, would rather look at Pam Oliver than Steve)

 

This is true! Evan Washburn, Tom Rinaldi, Shannon Spake, James Palmer, and Steve Wyche, who all were side-line reporters this year, actually underwent sex changed before the season! 😄

Edited December 31, 2023 by chongli

[Einstein]

24 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Yea they sounded bored in an exciting game. I did a very small bit of local radio soccer commentary back in my journalism days and the bit if advice the old boy who had been doing it for years gave me before my first gig was "make sure your excitement level is appropriate to the moment and the game, nobody wants Crewe 1 Shrewsbury 0 to sound like it was a world cup final on the radio."

 

And it is the same the other way around. If you get a miraculous play off comeback don't sound like you are watching the Bills-Browns 6-3 game.

When you have a chance, go back and listen to the last few minutes of Brady’s first Super Bowl.

It was an announcing nightmare.

 

We had Madden advising the Patriots to kneel out the game, with almost 2 minutes remaining, rather than drive 45 yards for a game winning field goal.

 

Then we had Summeral announcing the game winning field goal as if the Patriots just won their first preseason game.

 

Its hard to listen to in retrospect, but at the time I didn’t think anything of it.

[SoCal Deek]

6 minutes ago, Einstein said:

When you have a chance, go back and listen to the last few minutes of Brady’s first Super Bowl.

It was an announcing nightmare.

 

We had Madden advising the Patriots to kneel out the game, with almost 2 minutes remaining, rather than drive 45 yards for a game winning field goal.

 

Then we had Summeral announcing the game winning field goal as if the Patriots just won their first preseason game.

 

Its hard to listen to in retrospect, but at the time I didn’t think anything of it.

I forgot about Summeral. He became a sure fire afternoon nap near the end of his announcing career. (zzzzzz)  Happens to so many of these guys. 

[stuvian]

Some guys hang on a little too long. Can we put Terry Bradshaw out to pasture too?

[BRH]

11 hours ago, TheFunPolice said:

I for one will enjoy listening to Al Michaels, even if he's not the same as he once was. One day we won't be able to. 

 

There's a lot of bad announcing out there. 

 

soon Tom Brady will be a #1 guy calling games for Fox and doing the "old school football guy" routine 

I kind of think the networks have already realized that Brady sucks on camera.  He tells stories that have no point and he thinks he’s hilarious.  He makes Joe Montana look good. 

[uticaclub]

1 hour ago, chongli said:

 

This is true! Evan Washburn, Tom Rinaldi, Shannon Spake, James Palmer, and Steve Wyche, who all were side-line reporters this year, actually underwent sex changed before the season! 😄

Shannon is a women & Tom always works with Erin Andrews. So sorry there are still 3 male sideline reports out of a possible 16

Edited December 31, 2023 by uticaclub

[chongli]

8 minutes ago, uticaclub said:

Shannon is a women & Tom always works with Erin Andrews. So sorry there are still 3 male sideline reports out of a possible 16

 

I stand corrected on Spake, but Rinaldi is an SLR; the fact he does reporting with Andrews does not diminish this. There are less male SLR's, but your original sratement said they were only female SLR's, which was not true.

Edited December 31, 2023 by chongli

[FireChans]

2 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Yea they sounded bored in an exciting game. I did a very small bit of local radio soccer commentary back in my journalism days and the bit if advice the old boy who had been doing it for years gave me before my first gig was "make sure your excitement level is appropriate to the moment and the game, nobody wants Crewe 1 Shrewsbury 0 to sound like it was a world cup final on the radio."

 

And it is the same the other way around. If you get a miraculous play off comeback don't sound like you are watching the Bills-Browns 6-3 game.

I don’t think Al has it in him to call night games. He’s reached the age where travel + staying up late means he’s done with the game at 10 pm and there’s still an hr or two plus to go. 
 

Even the last TNF game, he sounded like he just wanted to get off the air and go to bed.

[TheFunPolice]

2 hours ago, BRH said:

I kind of think the networks have already realized that Brady sucks on camera.  He tells stories that have no point and he thinks he’s hilarious.  He makes Joe Montana look good. 

 

It's weird because now he's all about the defense getting robbed by bad calls which is hilarious.

 

 

[jlgarsh]

8 hours ago, davefan66 said:

Don’t really care for any network commentators any more. Romo was probably the last guy I liked, but he doesn’t give his insight as well as he did when he started.

 

As far as Al.  Like I said before he had his one big call in the Olympics and has been nothing special since.  Just my opinion.

CBS told him to dumb down his commentary.

[chongli]

4 hours ago, stuvian said:

Some guys hang on a little too long. Can we put Terry Bradshaw out to pasture too?