Posted on 12/31/2007 9:49:30 AM PST by Diago
One of the risks the NFL Network faced by having CBS and NBC simulcast the Patriots-Giants game Saturday night was the exposure to a wider world it would give Bryant Gumbel, the channel’s play-by-play announcer.
While 34.5 million watched the NFL Network's feed of the Patriots beating the Giants, they also saw Bryant Gumbel stumble through the telecast.
The NFL Network reaches 43 million cable and satellite subscribers, but the simulcast increased the viewing universe to 113 million TV homes.
In all, an average of 34.5 million viewers watched on CBS, NBC, the NFL Network, Channel 9 in New York, WCVB-TV in Boston and WMUR-TV in Manchester, N.H. — the most for any regular-season N.F.L. broadcast since 1995.
Let’s put that number in perspective. It required six channels in prime time to surpass the 33.8 million who watched the Nov. 4 Patriots-Colts afternoon game on CBS.
Few among the 34.5 million could have been disappointed. But what could those viewers have thought of the usually well-spoken Gumbel, who said early in the game, “The Patriots with their high-powered offense come back on the field for the first time this evening”?
They heard someone who shouldn’t be in this seat, not beside Cris Collinsworth, who has proved through his work on the NFL Network, NBC and HBO that he is the best N.F.L. analyst around.
But Gumbel, one of the most talented studio personalities of the last 25 years, is struggling to learn what he should be doing after the network’s two seasons.
He doesn’t see the field well, which leads him to be imprecise (or wrong) about yardage gained on a play or the yard line. More often than not, he will not even try to provide the yardage.
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His imprecision leads him to fall back on ambiguities like “the ball is inside the 10” or “way short of the first-down marker,” phrases that more experienced announcers only occasionally use. Gumbel uses them as crutches. He repeatedly locates a play as going to “this side” or the “far side,” when “right” or “left” will suffice. He too frequently uses “stone” as a verb to denote a runner gaining little or no yardage. How about “stacked up” or “stopped”?
With the Giants ahead by 28-23, he said the Patriots were “within one score.” Within a touchdown, please. When New England scored to make it 38-28, he said, “They’ve moved ahead by two scores.” Which two scores? Most every fan knew, but his pattern of vagueness had long before set in.
Gumbel says things that no experienced announcer would. After Kevin Boss’s touchdown catch gave the Giants a 21-16 lead, Gumbel said a holding penalty on the Patriots was “waved off.” The Giants declined it; the referee didn’t declare the flag to be thrown in error.
When Randy Moss scored on a 4-yard pass in the second quarter, Gumbel crowed, “How often do you get three N.F.L. records to fall on one play?” Too bad only one record, the one for team scoring, was broken on that touchdown; Moss tied Jerry Rice for most touchdown receptions and Tom Brady tied Peyton Manning for most touchdown passes.
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On Domenik Hixon’s 74-yard kickoff return for a touchdown for the Giants, Gumbel was behind at every point. When Hixon was at his 42, Gumbel noted that he received the ball at his 26; when Gumbel said, “He’s breaking past midfield,” Hixon was already at the 35. When Gumbel said, “Only one more man to beat,” he never said who that man was.
On Moss’s 65-yard touchdown catch, which put the Patriots ahead for good, Gumbel’s call ignored James Butler, the defensive back Moss beat. And the NFL Network’s replays were too close or at too low an angle to see how Moss came free.
Gumbel’s lack of field vision meant that Collinsworth could have done the two-man job on his own.
As for the importance of this game to the NFL Network, that is uncertain. Fans who receive the channel seemed to abandon it; on Nov. 29, 10.1 million watched Dallas beat Green Bay on the NFL Network, but only 4.5 million stayed loyal for New England’s history-making game.
Where did they go? To CBS, which drew about 15.68 million; NBC (13.2 million); and Channel 9, WCVB and WMUR (about 1.2 million).
E-mail: sportsbiz@nytimes.com
Stud is a football term.
However, the uppity types call it racist when you refer to a black player as a stud.
Gil and Gino are getting long in the tooth I’m sad to say. They were a great duo though.
| Terrible | 46% | 24,290 |
| Poor | 24% | 12,528 |
| Fair | 17% | 8,966 |
| Good | 8% | 4,408 |
| Excellent | 5% | 2,389 |
While it's true that Gummyballs sucks out loud, I spent half the game yelling at the TV, "Shut the F up, Collinsworth!"
Not coming from Collinsworth it ain’t.
Well not to defend Gumbel but he was right on that one, Eli is a second rate QB. Though with the way his receivers are dropping balls lately they’re making him look even worse, which is quite an accomplishment.
Bryant GumBall knows little to nothing about football!!!! What he does know about is how to be an @sshole to conservative guests when he was a morning show anchor. Get rid of him on NFL Network, and I’ll be more likely to petition my local carrier for it. Depends on who replaces him.
By far the worst broadcast of a football game I've ever heard.
I can’t believe that 40% rated him good, fair or excellent, although excellent was only at 5%.
Every time he said something like “he’ll come up a little short of the first down marker” I took a big gulp of beer. I was feeling pretty good by the end of the game.
Per Urban Dictionary, TFB means Too F**king Bad.
That's how you express the Patriots 16-0 season to FReepers.
Stay classy, misterrob.
Knowing how horrific his announcing is, I made sure I was feeling good at kickoff...just to make it through the game. ;o)
I posted the exact same thing on another thread.
It's beyond comprehension how Gumbel got that job. You'd think he would at least study up on the players, stats, ect. just to make it sound like he knows what he's talking about.
What confuses me (I guess) about how bad he is, is that he started out as a sportscaster in Los Angeles, on KNBC. We watched him every night for several years. One would think he would still remember that he would have to do his homework to sound semi-knowledgeable.
What was the NFL Network thinking.
Some people on FR acted like moonbats with their conspiracy theories so my response at this point is:
The Patriots are 16-0. TFB Crybabies!!!!
Thank you for sharing.....
Katie Couric is as bad as watching Hillary. Something which I avoid.
I turn down the sound on the NFL Network games.
ping
My trifecta is having Troy Aikman and Joe Buck call the game on Fox with Ed Hockles reffing.
I strongly suspect Gumbel won’t be with the NFL Network covered games next season.
He comes across as unprepared, and uncaring about it.
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