Greg Gumbel has been an NFL announcer for fairly a while, however he doesn’t consider individuals in his place transfer the needle.
During a latest look on the Sports Illustrated media podcast, Gumbel was requested about broadcasters corresponding to Joe Buck and Al Michaels getting gobs of cash to name games, contemplating he was the top-team, play-by-play man for CBS 20 years in the past.
“I will tell you, it has gotten crazy. I don’t have any need to be jealous of it. I’ve been treated really nicely and have always been appreciative of what I’ve been able to do for a long, long time,” Gumbel mentioned.
“So I think that doesn’t apply to me. What does tickle my thought process is, I’ve never felt in my entire life there is an announcer who can bring someone to the TV set to watch a game that that viewer wasn’t already going to watch. And I believe the only thing a broadcaster can do is chase people away.”
Although no announcers are magnets, some are repellants for him.
“I know this for a fact because — I won’t name them — but there are three or four announcers, ‘Oh, I’m really interested in watching, oops, nope, click, gone.’ I truly believe that. I don’t think that someone is tuning in just to hear a particular person call a football game,” Gumbel mentioned.
Gumbel additionally notes how nice announcers are elevated by the stellar games they’re assigned.
“There are some other things that happened, too. The games that the people who are making this money are calling are really good games. People have said to me, ‘Oh, Al [Michaels] and Cris [Collinsworth] did a great job on Sunday night.’ Yeah, they always do a great job. However, they do the best game of the week,” he mentioned.
“All the approach again to the days of Pat Summerall and John Madden. Pat and John had been terrific. I wished to sample myself after Pat Summerall. He didn’t overtalk. He was understated. He was particular about the issues that he mentioned. And they had been terrific. But how will you not be terrific once you’re doing Giants-Cowboys, Bears-Packers, Rams-49ers, Eagles-Giants?
“Moe, Larry and Curly—no offense to anyone calling games—Moe, Larry and Curly can do a good football game.”
Much like the wild strikes taking on NFL free company this offseason, Buck and Michaels are amongst the greatest broadcasters scoring new offers at totally different networks.
Buck left Fox for ESPN final month, inking a five-year deal in the $60-$75 million vary to affix his former teammate, Troy Aikman, in the “Monday Night Football” sales space. Michaels, in the meantime, will probably be leaping to Amazon from NBC Sports, the place he’ll be calling “Thursday Night Football” this fall, The Post’s Andrew Marchand beforehand reported.
