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
Damn good guess!
:o)
One's a black running back, and the other is a bloated, pompous @$$hat, kinda like Gumbel himself.
I had no dog in this fight, but Gyrant Bumbel’s anti-Giants bias was palpable. From his introduction of Manning as a second-rate quarterback — “more interceptions than touchdowns” — to his disbelief that the Giants were putting their starters on the field (”why would they put their starters at risk?”), he seemed incensed that the Giants would dare play for a victory. What a goofball.
I want to know what down it is, how many yards to go, who the ball was thrown to, or run by, and who made the stop. Anything else is just an annoying noise.
I’ve seen Gumbel on other NFL network broadcasts and thought he had dumped the arrogance. I really didn’t give it much of a thought, but when I TiVoed the game, I chose WCVB, channel five because it was reported (incorrectly) that they would use their own local announcers, while CBS and NBC would just have the NFL network feed.
I always thought the announcers were the weakest part of the NFL network, the match ups have mostly been second rate as well. The network has not taken off and Gumbel seems to be eating a big portion of [well deserved] humble pie.
My local talk radio guys were counting up the errors in the Packers/Cowboys game Gumbel did. Just brutal. Collinsworth is very solid tho. It would be nice if they could get brother Greg to replace Bryant.
He’s so bad, I’d rather listen to Shannon Sharpe.
Olberman was doing some post game junk on NBC yesterday. His recap of the game was just a slam of the losing team and a couple players in particular. The guy just hates people.
Yeah, his calling Brady a 'stud' really added color alright. Rainbow comes to mind.
It was a big joke when he was on the Today show masquerading as a “journalist” when in fact he made no pretense of even being impartial. It was obvious he was a bigtime lib. Although to my knowledge, at least he has never dressed up in an idiotic costume the way Matt Lauer does for their Halloween shows.
Gumbel was atrocious on the Cowboys/Packers game. The Cowboys were running out of the tunnel before the game and Gumbel said, here come the Packers!
Then he said, head coach Mike McCarthy says Marion Barber is the heart of this offense. (Umm Gumbel, Marion Barber plays for Dallas and their coach is Wade Phillips).
Then he called Tony Romo.... Rick Romo.
Go Cowboys!!!!
I have to agree. Gumbel and his partner are the absolute worst. Madden and his cohort are soothing voices, you never listen to what they say, but their voices are comforting.
Give me a break guys, I am just a lady giving an opinion on football personalities. LOL!
Oh, I guess that is why mute buttons are so essential.
The only reason he wasn’t rated lower is because there wasn’t a “bag of ass” or “can we kill him?” rating.
He’s so bad, I’d rather listen to Shannon Sharpe.
Sharpe is a nice guy....just cannot understand a thing he says!!!!
As I said, he does still have a few "quirks"... ;-)
http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/Commentary/Columns/2007/jackson2225.htm
Here’s more:
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Bryant Gumbel predicted he would be better in his second year of play-by-play on NFL Network. But if Gumbel is better, it’s only marginally so.
What’s wrong with Gumbel? Where should we start?
He rarely says how many yards were gained a play or immediately identifies the ensuing down and distance after a play ends. He talks over referees’ penalty calls, doesn’t consistently identify defenders in pass coverage, confused the Cowboys’ running backs; called Dallas QB Tony Romo “Rick”; identified 49ers RB Frank Gore as “Al”; called a Redskins field goal “good” even though it wasn’t; and doesn’t always identify who committed a penalty.
What’s more, he displays no enthusiasm on big plays, and his bland delivery would be better-suited to a book reading.
Otherwise, he’s perfect for the job!
I hadnt seen Gumbel in a long time either. He does not look well, and he sounds like hes had some illness other than liberalism. Very painful to watch and hear
Gumballs is also a blatant anti-white racist (even though he is married to one). He should have been fired for his racist comments last year (just like Jimmy the Greek was) but because Gumballs is black he got a free pass. “Race” is probably the biggest double standard issue when it comes to the mental disorder known as “liberalism”. White racism = bad, minority racism = legal.
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