J
Joseph_Gallant
Guest
With Al Michaels remaining at ABC/ESPN (and to do play-by-play of Monday-night NFL games when they moved to ESPN in September, 2006), who will do play-by-play of Sunday-night NFL games when they move to NBC??
One possibility may be Mike Patrick, who now calls the Sunday-night games on ESPN. But I don't think he's really be the one NBC would want.
Tom Hammond is already with NBC, and calls Notre Dame games for them. It's certainly possible that he could do double-duty---Notre Dame on the six Saturdays a year when they're at home and a Sunday-night game with a red-eye flight in between.
Remember that Curt Gowdy and the late Paul Christman did double-duty, doing college football on Saturdays and the old American Football League on Sundays for ABC in 1960 and 1961, and again for NBC in 1965.
I'd guess that if Hammond gets the Sunday-night NFL job, there would be a new play-by-play man for Notre Dame.
Marv Albert? He had his ups-and-downs with NBC, but has done NFL games on network radio in recent years (didn't he do the last couple of Super Bowls on network radio for Westwood One/CBS??). Given his extensive experience, I think he would be a candidate.
Another candidate is Sean McDonough. Best known here in Boston as the former TV play-by-play voice of Boston Red Sox baseball, McDonough has done a lot of college football on television. I also believe he did play-by-play for a few regional NFL games for CBS in the early 1990's. When CBS regained the NFL in 1998, everyone expected that McDonough and Phil Simms would become the network's lead NFL announcing team. Simms did become the number-one analyst, but McDonough did not get an NFL play-by-play job, lead or otherwise. This snub led to his leaving CBS.
Someone from another network?? I believe Fox's Joe Buck and CBS' Jim Nantz are tied-up with long-term deals and neither of them would be available for the NBC Sunday-night gig. But there may be someone "further down the ranks" at either network who NBC might consider.
A local NFL broadcaster?? Not impossible, but I doubt it.
With Al Michaels no longer available, I think McDonbough, Hammond, and Albert, in that order, are now the three likeliest to get the Sunday-night play-by-play job.
One possibility may be Mike Patrick, who now calls the Sunday-night games on ESPN. But I don't think he's really be the one NBC would want.
Tom Hammond is already with NBC, and calls Notre Dame games for them. It's certainly possible that he could do double-duty---Notre Dame on the six Saturdays a year when they're at home and a Sunday-night game with a red-eye flight in between.
Remember that Curt Gowdy and the late Paul Christman did double-duty, doing college football on Saturdays and the old American Football League on Sundays for ABC in 1960 and 1961, and again for NBC in 1965.
I'd guess that if Hammond gets the Sunday-night NFL job, there would be a new play-by-play man for Notre Dame.
Marv Albert? He had his ups-and-downs with NBC, but has done NFL games on network radio in recent years (didn't he do the last couple of Super Bowls on network radio for Westwood One/CBS??). Given his extensive experience, I think he would be a candidate.
Another candidate is Sean McDonough. Best known here in Boston as the former TV play-by-play voice of Boston Red Sox baseball, McDonough has done a lot of college football on television. I also believe he did play-by-play for a few regional NFL games for CBS in the early 1990's. When CBS regained the NFL in 1998, everyone expected that McDonough and Phil Simms would become the network's lead NFL announcing team. Simms did become the number-one analyst, but McDonough did not get an NFL play-by-play job, lead or otherwise. This snub led to his leaving CBS.
Someone from another network?? I believe Fox's Joe Buck and CBS' Jim Nantz are tied-up with long-term deals and neither of them would be available for the NBC Sunday-night gig. But there may be someone "further down the ranks" at either network who NBC might consider.
A local NFL broadcaster?? Not impossible, but I doubt it.
With Al Michaels no longer available, I think McDonbough, Hammond, and Albert, in that order, are now the three likeliest to get the Sunday-night play-by-play job.