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Al Michaels and John Madden couldn't provide much in the way of an informed and big picture play by play or expertly analyzed NFL football game if they were positioned on the field, directly behind the middle linebacker.

Al Michaels and John Madden don't have the potential of getting shot at while providing commentary during an NFL game. There's a big difference between what they're doing and what an embed reporter does.

Moreover if you hold the lives of journalists so sacred, the DOD could have kept all of them out of the coalition sandbox for their own individual safety . However, they permitted journalists into the field under their rules so that most of them should live to the end of the war.

To date, five non-embedded journalists have been killed in combat. Three journalists were held as POWs by the Iraqis and released and four journalists were found illegally behind coalition lines by MPs and detained. The battlefield is a very dangerous place for soldiers yet journalists regulary ignore this fact at their peril.

There is a case to be made for embeds who are print reporters, or like Ollie North who sign on after an event, when events can be collated from the accounts of several participants ... any one of which in the chaos and stress and battle adrenaline only sees their slice of the whole. I would wager that the eye witness accounts from battlefield journalists in previous wars would be largely inaccurate when compared to later historical accounts that are reconstructed from the recollections and views of many participants.

The analysis that sober professional military and intelligence professionals provide to FOX is little predicated on any new intelligence or revelations that an embed provides. Most all first field reports from battle scenes are inaccurate. Everybody sees something different.

Al Michaels and John Madden don't have the potential of getting shot at while providing commentary during an NFL game.

Have you ever LISTENED to John Madden? ;^)

My point is that all they would see is the action directly in front of them - and their observational skills would be severely influenced by their sacred desire to avoid a pancaking by 240-300 pound world class atheletes running through their personal space at bursts of around 25 miles per hour.

The only thing that ABC announcing crew can report on a typical play is ... "When the ball was snapped, all hell broke loose, and there was a huge blur that sped past me, it might have been Ray Lewis, and he only missed running full speed over me by less than 2 inches. That was close. To repeat, I saw what appeared to be a running play, but then all I saw was a lot of fast and violent movemement, and what could have been Ray Lewis barely missed me. To add further details, I heard plastic protective pads and helmets loudly cracking, a pounding of feet on the turf - and a horrible grunting. The outcome of the play and the location of the ball is at this point not clear."

That's what real time war journalism is worth. The risks to these guys and the soldiers who protect them isn't worth the return in news.