5 worst NFL announcers in the booth

[Sackem90]

Five Worst Announcers in NFL Broadcast Booths: Kornheiser Leads the Way
Posted Dec 19th 2006 7:29PM by Michael David Smith
Filed under: NFL Media Watch

As the NFL season draws to a close, here is the NFL FanHouse list of the five worst announcers in the game:

1. Tony Kornheiser, ESPN: My colleague MJD has said it all. This has been an unmitigated disaster. When he's not genuflecting to James Belushi, he's delivering trite monologues about the importance of having a Super Bowl ring to the career of a quarterback. Kornheiser is good on the radio. He's good on Pardon the Interruption. Send him back there full time, ESPN.

2. Dick Vermeil, NFL Network (laryngitis edition): If you missed Saturday night's Cowboys-Falcons game, it's difficult to describe just how bad Vermeil's voice was. Vermeil is a knowledgeable, likable analyst, but if he can't talk, it's kind of beside the point. They finally put him out of his misery at halftime, but it was absurd that NFL Network put him on the air at all.

3. Tony Siragusa, Fox: I don't get why Siragusa is on the field instead of in the booth. He doesn't handle the typical sideline reporter role, he just kind of pontificates on whatever subject crosses his mind -- only he does it from the field instead of the booth. He feels out of place and rarely offers insight on the one area where he presumably has some expertise, line play.

4. Dan Dierdorf, CBS: Dierdorf seems like a nice enough guy, but he always sounds like he's expressing his opinions because he feels the need to express an opinion -- not because he actually feels strongly about the topic. He also has an annoying habit of always assuming the referee's decision is correct, even when a replay clearly shows otherwise.

5. Dick Enberg, CBS: There was a time when Dick Enberg was a great play-by-play man. That time was 30 years ago. Now he makes numerous mistakes, always seems a little confused, and generally acts like he'd rather tell you about a player's close relationship with his junior high school gym teacher than about what's going on down there on the field.

 

[chipshot]

Enburg and Vermeil are two of my favorites.

 

[kshead]

Siragusa in the booth? Try outside the stadium. Preferably miles away.

 

[Sackem90]

On the flip side, the 5 best

Five Best Announcers in NFL Broadcast Booths: Vermeil and Jaworski Shine
Posted Dec 19th 2006 7:09PM by Michael David Smith
Filed under: NFL Media Watch

As the NFL season draws to a close, here is the NFL FanHouse list of the five best announcers in the game:

1. Dick Vermeil, ESPN (non-laryngitis edition): It was the first Monday night of the season, and ESPN had two games. So in addition to the much hyped-crew of Tony Kornheiser, Mike Tirico and Joe Theismann, we got the rare treat of a broadcast team of Brad Nessler, Dick Vermeil and Ron Jaworski. Vermeil was insightful and polished...

2. Ron Jaworski, ESPN: ... and Jaworski knew just how to converse with him. The two have obvious chemistry from the days when Vermeil coached Jaworski with the Eagles, and the two of them gave wonderful explanations of the subtleties of the game, like the way Raiders quarterback Aaron Brooks would throw a quick pass to Randy Moss any time the cornerback opposite Moss was more than seven yards from the line of scrimmage.

3. Ron Pitts, Fox: Like the great Pat Summerall, he's the rare play-by-play man who actually played in the NFL. And I think he's the heir to Summerall as the best play-by-play man in all of football. He's simple and understated (again like Summerall), but he'll express an opinion when it's warranted. Now if only we could convince Fox to put him on better games than the dogs he usually gets. (Like Lions-Packers Sunday.)

4. Gus Johnson, CBS: Johnson has such enthusiasm in his voice. If you watched Sunday's Jacksonville-Tennessee game and you didn't get excited when Johnson described Tennessee's three return touchdowns, then football isn't the game for you.

5. Marshall Faulk, NFL Network: I was impressed with the way Faulk came in to replace Vermeil Saturday night and made a lot of solid, credible comments even though he hadn't known Vermeil's voice would press him into duty.

 

[mathmajors]

Thiessman should be #1.

 

[Playa]

Put that Blonky Gumble in there. He's actually made me like Collinsworth.

 

[Coach Micool]

Put that Blonky Gumble in there. He's actually made me like Collinsworth.

gumble's not bad at what he says, but he sounds like an elf.

 

[Black&Blue]

Ron Pitts

When he's not cheering for the Panthers to lose, I think he does a good job. The heir to Summerall may be a bit over the top, imo. Joe Buck is already that.

 

[McFly41]

1) Theisman
2) Maas
3) Theisman
4) Maas
5) Tie (Theisman/Maas)

 

[Sackem90]

When he's not cheering for the Panthers to lose,

That's what our problem is/was this year. We didn't have Arm Pitts cheering us on to lose. He didn't do but a few games this year. In the past years, we've had him and Tim Ryan calling 95% of our games.