Does anyone have any idea what the announcing teams will be for next year will be on Sunday and Monday Night? I heard a rumor that the Monday Night crew will be Al Michaels with Joe Theisman, and I almost cried at the thought of Theisman ruining MNF. I have no clue what the Sunday night crew will be, although I do vaguely remember hearing a rumor about Madden moving to NBC. Of the current Sunday Night crew, only Mike Patrick is worth anything. Do any of you know anything?
BTW- The best announcing crew, or at least, my favorite announcing crew- hands down, the NFL on TNT booth with Verne Lundquist, Pat Haden, and Mark May. That was from back in the day when TNT had the first 8 Sunday night games, and ESPN had the second eight. What I wouldn’t give to have those guys back.
*** Update ***
Appaently they aren’t rumors- Michaels and Theisman for MNF, madden to NBC. Guess I could have googled that myself, but I thought it was all unofficial. At least I can listen to the radio broadcasts.
Gold Star for Robot Boy
Es verdad, John
Gold Star for Robot Boy
Forgot the blockquote…
Gold Star for Robot Boy
JC, you were right about Madden moving to NBC and Sunday night.
coolcajun
Given that Joe T. will be color commentator, I will likely not watch MNF unless its a great game and then I will try to endure his idiot commentary.
p.lukasiak
Personally, I think that speculating about Teri Hatcher’s next boyfriend on Desperate Housewives is much more edifying that this football crap…
Mr Furious
Theisman is awful, but nobody is worse than Paul Maguire. The fact that that guy has a job in any booth is a travesty of justice.
Interesting Theisman story from my sports mag days that I haven’t thought about in years. Some of you older guys can probably verify or refute this one… Apparently Theisman had always gone by Joe Theesman. He changed the pronounciation of his name in college so that it rhymed with Heisman, as in the trophy.
I checked. It’s true.
Ian
The way I understand is that NBC, ESPN, and FOX will have football and CBS will lose it, just like NBC lost to them a decade ago.
Gold Star for Robot Boy
CBS keeps its AFC/Sunday afternoon package.
So, the only network out of the NFL game is ABC.
Jon
It looks pretty grim from here. ESPN’s crew isn’t anything to write home about, and while I am sure Al Michaels will gamely undertake whoever he’s stuck with (remember the horror of the Esiason season(s)?) I expect it will suck. As for Sunday night, I still think Madden is worth having. But NBC’s sports department is absolutely the worst in the business, and I expect they will treat the NFL like any other entity they have rights for: as a loss-leader to promote their insipid prime-time lineup. If you don’t believe me, look at 1997, when they had the World Series and Don Ohlmeyer publically rooted for a sweep so they could get Seinfeld back on the air…
Of course, anything’s better than Joe Buck. I’ve heard of cheering in the booth, but not for a team that wasn’t even on the field…Red Sox fans, am I right?
MM
But Randy Moss prentended to show his butt to rivals. How vile!!!!1!!111. Really, Joe Buck has zero ability, but a great announcer voice and a family name to keep him employed and vaguely indignant for years to come.
Al Michaels is a great play by play announcer for any sport, regardless of who he’s got doing color, and Joe Theisman plays an arrogant ass, but the again he’s had to play off of Paul Maguire as Shemp for forever also.
I’d like to see if he adds something as the solo color guy.
I feel bad for whoever the play by play guy on NBC is, since that guy will be stuck with John Madden, AKA the only football color commentator who seems less interested in football every year.
“So you have Orlando Pace who’s strong enough to be a pace car, but he’s not a pace car even though his name is Pace. I bet somebody in NASCAR would like to put a Tide logo on his back. But he does blow people up like he’s full of gasoline BOOM! I sure hope the new Kansas City Coach eats the barbecue in the KC parking lot, cause there’s two kinds of deep fried turkey here. The tasty kind and the playbook that Mike Shanahan runs wheneve he comes here. And since Shanahan’s playbook has been devoured, I hope it’s been devoured like the turkey. Which was tasty. I bet some of these guys outside would give Larry Johnson some Turkey after that run, if he eats deep fried turkey, which he may not.”
Poor play by play guy.
talboito
I agree about ye olde thyme TNT announcing crew being the best in memory.
Its a shame Mark May is stuck doing College Football these days. He has a soft-spoken style that no one else really approximates. Why TV execs think we would rather have some annoying yokel screaming in our ears for 3 hours rather than a Mark May is beyond me.
The Other Steve
Looks like the Bush curse finally took out Mike Tice.
gogozilla
Every time I hear Theismann in the booth I think “Where’s Lawrence Taylor when you really need him?”
Otto Man
Every time I see Theeesman, I think of David Letterman’s bit about the “Joe Theisman Pencil Sharpener,” the one where his leg replaced the hand crank. God, that was beautiful.
I hate Theisman, but as I’ve said before, there’s no one I hate more than Madden. Theisman will be an improvement, simply by not being him.
Ian
Gold Star for Robot Boy : So NBC only gets Sunday Night Football?
Gold Star for Robot Boy
Ian,
Yep.
Brian
Cris Collinsworth is on NBC Sunday nights as well, that is why he isn’t with Aikman and Buck this year. Just yesterday, Aikman made a joke saying that “no one could find Collinsworth anywhere.”
I don’t care who shows the games or who calls them. I’ll watch most of the time like I always do.
Tim Dunn
WOW? If you don’t like Theisman, you know absolutely nothing about the game of football. Maybe he is irrogant or even a bad guy – but lets get real, he knows the game and does a terrific job. So I guess the people who continue to hire him for these jobs are millionaire idiots.
Oh, okay I get it now.