With the premier of Sunday Night Football on NBC and the new Monday Night Football on ESPN this week, we decided to have the NFL Roundtable focus on the ideal broadcasting team. If you could pick the best broadcasting team, who would you pick? Who would do color commentary, play-by-play, sideline reporting, etc.? Would have a "personality" in the booth, ala Dennis Miller or MNF's Tony Kornheiser? What innovations would you use to spice up the show? New graphics? A hot chick giving weather reports? Mascot fight to the death? A Jason Whitlock v. Mike Wilbon pie eating contest?
The SB Nation football writers weighed in. Shrug at Field Gulls:
I personally have never liked Madden, but there is no denying he has appeal. His often silly comments can have a funny way of staying with you. Kirkendall at Cincy Jungle gives an example:
For the SkinsPatrol at HogsHaven, it seems anyone BUT Joe Theismann should do color commentary:
I have to agree with SkinsPatrol here. Last night, I had trouble listening to Theismann talk because he had Brad Johnson's nuts stuffed in his mouth. Brad Johnson played a very fine game last night, but I half expect Theismann to dry hump him afterwards with all the praise he showered on Brad Johnson throughout the contest. SeanYuille at Pride of Detroit thinks the folks at NBC have something good going on:
As far as sideline reporters go, Grizz at Blogging The Boys has his eyes on only one:
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Woah! Suzy better watch out the next time she does sideline work at a Cowboys game. That crazy Cowboy fan full of "Christmas cheer" trying to tongue her on the sidelines might just be GRIZZ! As for innovations, Grizz offers some fun ones:
Gotta agree regarding the kids. Just for fun, they should wheel out Jeff George and have him sling the ball around to the little rug rats before halftime ends. A defensive scheme run by 10-year-olds is about the only kind of defense Jeff could read.
As for me, my ideal broadcasting team feature Costas as the play-by-play with Dick Vermeil doing the commentary. Costas is outstanding at calling games, and Vermeil does such an excellent game articulating clearly the complexities of football in a language anyone can understand. James Brown runs the studio with Dan Marino, Emmitt Smith, and Jim Mora commenting in studio. The sheer comedy of having Mora to a PLAYOFFS segment would be a ratings boom.
Sideline reporting is easy: Melissa Stark. Man, was she hot! And smart too. He had that whole "I'm hot and you have no chance with me loser but I'll flirt and flaunt my intelligence at you as I give injury updates on camera" attitude about her. She's like Catherine Kenner in Being John Malkovich, and we (the viewers) were the John Cusack character.
My mascot cage match didn't fly with the other SB Nation writers. Oh well. Maybe sideline reporter cage match would work better. I have a strong feeling Michele Tafoya would kick the crap out of most of the other sideline reporters, including Suzy (sorry Grizz).
Next roundtable hosted at Kirkendall's house: Cincy Jungle.