Football Announcers

In their recent issue, Sports Illustrated listed three of the best football announcing teams in the league and three of the worst. It's disappointing that most of the broadcast teams throughout the networks are mediocre at best.

Here are the three best according to Sports Ilustrated:

Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth
Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts
Brad Nessler and Mike Mayock

Michaels and Collinsworth are automatics. They are terrific together and each would make a nice team with anybody if they were ever separated. I don't really know the Fouts and Eagle team very well. I always liked Fouts when paired with others earlier in his broadcasting career. I think that Mayock is fantastic whenever he is talking about football. It doesn't matter if he's on the NFL Network set or in the broadcast booth. He may need further work on his delivery but he has few peers in football knowledge. As Sports Illustrated says, "A viewer always ends up learning when Mayock is around." There aren't many that do that. I also like Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden. Like John Madden before him, I can't help but be entertained by Gruden. His enthusiasm for football is infectious. He may be goofy at times but it stems from his incredible love of the game. The Troy Aikman and Joe Buck team is another that I like. Buck is often annoying but as a team they work.

And the worst:

Dick Stockton and John Lynch
Kenny Albert, Darryl Johnston and Tony Siragusa
Chris Berman and anyone

I greatly enjoyed the Berman and anyone. It's so true. Sports Illustrated specifically mentions the way that Stockton and Lynch butchered the end of the New Orleans Saints-Tampa Bay Buccaneers two weeks ago. I watched the end of that game. It was a controversial ending but a straightforward one for an even moderately knowledgeable announcer. They went off the air without explaining a thing. It was ridiculous. One announcer that really annoys me is Brian Billick. I'm not sure if he even cares about the job. He spent all of, at least, two games referring to Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen as Gerald Allen. Who does that?

It's kind of sad that there are far more poor announcers than good ones. Fortunately there are a handful that actually add something to the game. Maybe the rest should listen more to the best before they approach a broadcast booth. Get better at their job.