Who are your most favorite/least favorite football color guys? (1 Viewer)

[timschochet]

Just wondering about this, because every time there is a game (like tonight) there are always people in the Shark Pool eager to rip to shreds the color commentator, no matter who it is. So I'm wondering who your favorite is, and least favorite, and why? But please stick to the national guys that everybody is familiar with. College or pro is fine.

 

[offdee]

I think Jesse Palmer is really good. Speaks well and knows his stuff.

 

[timschochet]

I think Jesse Palmer is really good. Speaks well and knows his stuff.

My wife likes him...

 

[rockaction]

Huh? There's a thread in the FFA talking about stupid comments from sportscasters. Usually, the snark comes from FFA guys over in the game threads in the SP. Which is fine, IMO.

And there was almost no snark tonight about the announcing. I corrected Gruden once and then said he didn't understand why Rex was using defensive pressure. But it then became fully apparent to Gruden why Rex was doing that.

And someone complained about Gruden completely botching a screen pass call and then not correcting himself while he watched it in slo-mo.

Long story short, the SP is no worse than the FFA. Not sure your premise is accurate.

 

[Fennis]

OP's title sounds like my grandfather

 

[timschochet]

Huh? There's a thread in the FFA talking about stupid comments from sportscasters. Usually, the snark comes from FFA guys over in the game threads in the SP. Which is fine, IMO.

And there was almost no snark tonight about the announcing. I corrected Gruden once and then said he didn't understand why Rex was using defensive pressure. But it then became fully apparent to Gruden why Rex was doing that.

And someone complained about Gruden completely botching a screen pass call and then not correcting himself while he watched it in slo-mo.

Long story short, the SP is no worse than the FFA. Not sure your premise is accurate.

Think you misunderstood. I don't care that some in the SP or the FFA complain about color guys. This isn't a criticism of the Shark Pool. It just made me think about who people like. Nobody seems to like Collinsworth. A lot of people really dislike Gruden. I've heard Aikman get ripped. So I'm just wondering, who DO people like? Who is considered really good at this?

 

[Corporation]

Best

NFL - Cris Collinsworth

CFB - Kirk Herbstreit

I think these guys are pretty insightful, and tend not to say just blatantly moronic things. Aikman doesn't say terribly dumb things either, but he is pretty bland. Gruden comes off to me as disingenuous.

Worst - probably not the worst by himself but I'm forced to listen to Gary Danielson and his awful partner Verne Lundquist all the time. Verne is worse but that duo is terrible.

 

[Time Kibitzer]

Gruden and Collinsworth are both unbearably bad due to their incredulous hyperbolic nature. Going by their math the accolade of being "one of the best players in the NFL" includes 50% of all NFL players.

Phil Simms is just dumb.

That's all I can think of right now.

ETA: If we include college ball Gary Danielson is probably the worst color commentator of all though. Really can't think of a single good thing to say about him.

 

[Wingnut]

I like Aikman, Collinsworth, Boomer Eaison, Moose Johnston, and Al Michaels.

Don't care for Mike Mayock or Joe Buck.

 

[Raider Nation]

Palmer never shuts up. Phil Mushnick regularly crushes him in his columns, rightly so. Here are two of my favorites.

If ESPN’s instructions to Notre Dame-Rutgers analyst Jesse Palmer were, “Talk yourself hoarse, speak short-story-long faux-hip, contradictory football gibberish — ‘defense has to get off the field,’ ‘escapability,’ ‘run downhill,’ ” nonsense — and deliver a speech after every play in order to make the telecast insufferable,” then Palmer nailed it!

In on-site and studio college analyst Jesse Palmer, ESPN has another non-stop talker of genuine football gibberish. From ABC/ESPN’s studio, Saturday, Palmer, who previously stressed “gap integrity,” twice identified “eye discipline” as the key to games.

 

[Mr. Pickles]

Al Michaels is basically the gold standard of sports broadcasting.

 

[timschochet]

Al Michaels is basically the gold standard of sports broadcasting.

Yes, but he's not a color guy.

 

[Spartans Rule]

He only called games for one season, but Urban Meyer was my favorite.

I think maybe its because he was only there for a year that Meyer was so good. He still thought like a coach. He just watched the game and explained what was happening at a really high level, and it was awesome. It seems like once guys have been in the booth for a while, they stop thinking like coaches and start thinking like announcers, worrying too much about cadence and catch phrases and sounding clever instead of just analyzing the game.

 

[Spartans Rule]

Worst - probably not the worst by himself but I'm forced to listen to Gary Danielson and his awful partner Verne Lundquist all the time. Verne is worse but that duo is terrible.

There was a time when Verne Lundquist was really good at his job, but it was several decades ago. He's been senile for a long time now.

 

[AAABatteries]

I think they prefer to be called African-American.

 

[ClownCausedChaos2]

Now imagine this thread title included an "-ed".

 

[The General]

I guess I really don't notice the good ones because none come to mind. Collinsworth is pretty decent I think. Daryl Johnston is good.

Don't really remember the bad ones either unless they are consistently wrong or just can't see something obvious on replay. I'm convinced the Mayock guy on the NFL network is legally blind. Phil Simms seems to say stupid stuff a lot but doesn't bug me as much as others.

 

[fantasycurse42]

Steve Young is by far my favorite.

 

[Steve Tasker]

Herbstreit =

 

[McGarnicle]

Can't stand Collinsworth and I notice Simms is getting dumber. Worst all-time are Theismann and Jaworski.