Best & Worst Sports Announcers

When watching a sporting event, the announcers can be very important. There are three kinds of announcers: ones that add to the game you're watching with great calls and excitement, ones that hurt the game you're watching with dumb anecdotes and annoying calls, and those who stay in the background and let the game entertain you instead of them entertaining you. The analysts can be good or bad, but the ones you notice the most are the play-by-play guys, so those are the fellows I've given my opinion on. This is long, but there are a lot of announcers.

THE BEST

Keith Jackson - No doubt in anybody's mind he's the greatest college football announcer of all time. He's been retired for over 10 years but has come back to do some west coast games over the last decade. He doesn't take the game too seriously and he's great at letting the game sell itself rather than him trying to take over with some magical call. When he came on the air for the '05 Rose Bowl between USC and Texas I knew it would be a great game.

Jim Nantz - Nantz is the #1 guy at CBS, and deservedly so. He is professional and calls the game the way it should be called. He gets excited when the games calls for it, and is calm when he needs to be as well, and lets the game be the focus not trying to make signature calls. He also does a great job setting up a play or event, especially in golf.

Brad Nessler - Nessler is the best ESPN has to offer. He is equally great at college football and basketball. If I were going to be an announcer, I'd want to be like him.

Pat Summerall - Pat is retired but he was one of the best. He's probably the only really good announcer to ever work at FOX, but probably because he was trained at CBS. I miss him on NFL Sundays since we've got Joe Buck for the next 20 years. He had a great voice and was enjoyable to listen to.

Dick Endberg - It is sad that Dick Endberg is retiring because he's one of the best ever. He knows how to call a game, he's professional, and he's very much in the background allowing the viewer to enjoy the game instead trying to tell some dumb anecdotes.

Al Michaels - Al Michaels is great at what he does. He's been a top announcer for years because he's great with the game flow and he's very knowledgeable. However, I don't really care for his efforts to make a memorable call at the end of exciting games. Yes, the miracle on ice call was classic, but just let it happen.

Bob Costas - Bob Costas is solid, but he loves big words and allusions the viewers may know nothing about. He's great in the studio, and pretty good in the booth. But he's rarely seen anymore since NBC only does Olympics and horse racing.

Craig Bolerjack - Bolerjack is the most under-rated announcer in the country. The only time I get to hear him is when there are two SEC football games on CBS in one day (about twice a year) and during the NCAA tournament he does the 1st and 2nd round games. Other than that he is the voice of the Utah Jazz. He always knows just when to get excited, he does a great job setting up plays, and he's got a great voice for broadcasting. If he's announcing I'll watch it just to hear his call.

Sean McDonough - While his New England accent works against him, he does a great job calling games for the most part. He has bounced around and usually ends up calling crappy games, but he is pretty good aside from his occasional premature excitement outburst and voice-cracking.

Dave Neal - A lot of people don't like Dave Neal, but I don't think he's that bad. He knows who he is, he's not trying to be a big shot. Plus he really loves SEC football and keeps the focus on the game.

Verne Lunquist - Old Verne is 70, but looks like he is 85 years old. He is pretty good for the most part but I think his time has passed, or maybe he should just stick to golf and tennis. The outrageous calls like "By George!" and "Oh My!" really have to go. And then you'll be watching the SEC game of the week, there's a 5 yard run where the player goes out of bounds and you'll get a "Wow!" from Verne. Really?

Mike Tirico - He's not too bad, usually they stick him with some real doufuses. He's good at staying in the background and not trying to make the next greatest call. The problem is I can't hardly watch Monday Night Football because he's paired with the worst analysts ESPN can find.

Mike Breen - Breen does all the top NBA on ABC games including the Finals and he does a good job. I think he does a better job than Al Michaels did. He's good about not intruding on the game with stupid and annoying anecdotes and cultural references like his sidekicks do.

Brent Musberger - Musberger is pretty good, being the top college football man at ABC and doing college basketball on ESPN. He was much better in his younger days when he was more like Brad Nessler. Now, he interjects too many of his opinions and always talks about the Vegas odds. He'll spend an entire quarter of football taking about other teams instead of the ones on the field. It's like the 'Brent Musberger show with a game going on'.

Dick Stockton - We should call him 'average Dick'. He's not that great, he's not that bad. He's like a 'C' on your report card. He does an adequate job at NFL football and NBA basketball. But I'd rather him be on the "A-team" for FOX NFL than Joe Buck.

Gus Johnson - I enjoy Gus' enthusiasm, however it goes overboard at times. When you're watching an NCAA tournament game and you get "The shot from _________!!...this is incredible!" at the top of his lungs with 5 minutes to go, it's a little too much. Start ramping up the excitement in the final minute. But I'll put him on this side of the argument for the part of the game when he's not wetting his pants.

THE WORST

Chris Berman - I can't stand this guy. He is almost tolerable in the studio, but when he gets in a booth he goes into super annoying mode. He mostly does baseball games, but has one of the worst signature calls: "back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, and outta here!". Not to mention his terrible nicknames for every player and his talking so much without taking a breath that it takes 10 seconds to get the last three words of his sentence out.

Joe Buck - The beneficiary of being Jack Buck's son, he was able to break Sean McDonough's record for the youngest person ever to call a major sports championship when he did the 1996 World Series at age 27. He is the top guy on FOX, but that really isn't saying much. He is arrogant, boring and generally displays a lack of interest or respect for the game he is calling.

Bryant Gumbel - The worst announcer I have ever heard. Can't you hear that high-pitched voice saying, "Well gee, Cris, am I the one who always has to point out there aren't enough black coaches? I've talked to numerous reporters that suggest black coaching minds are on the rise, it really bothers me!" Thanks, buddy. Nothing like a little politics mixed with my football by an arrogant nancy-boy like yourself. How he is related to Greg Gumbel is beyond me because Greg is actually pretty good and has a man's voice.

Mike Patrick - How many times have we heard "This guy is just incredible, the effort he has shown tonight is unmatched! Another 40 yard punt, he just keeps doing it!"? The non-stop love affair with athletes is sickening. Maybe he's just prone to hyperbole, but tone it down a notch and just call the game without being amazed the quarterback can throw the ball 20 yards.

Chip Carey - Perhaps his family heritage, like Joe Buck's, got him a job when FOX started carrying baseball in 1996. From there he followed his grandfather's footsteps with the Cubs and then his father's with the Braves. He was even TBS' top position when they started carrying MLB playoff games, however, he got fired after last fall. Now he's with the Braves only, and he continues to be annoying. He is more of a professional then the rest of his family, but his annoying love of baseball and asking the analyst obvious questions he already knows the answers to really turns me off.

Jon Miller - How he got into the Hall of Fame I don't know. "Oh boy, Joe, another pitching change! Well this sure is a twist I wasn't expecting." Right on, this is baseball, right? And I don't know whether he's taken some Rosetta Stone Spanish courses or what but he's always making an emphatic point to correctly enunciate the names of Latin players. So instead of calling their names like everyone else, we get to hear his take, subtly hinting we are all idiots for not using proper annunciation.

In my opinion, CBS has always had the best announcers, and they carry the best sporting events. The worst is FOX and will probably always be. ABC has pretty good announcers and NBC doesn't do enough stuff to even be noticed but their guys arn't so bad. I rate ESPN's announcers just ahead of FOX. I'll do the best and worst analysts next week.

JB