Hard to believe that this is the 8th year of the awards. While some announcers and networks are constants in the NFL, other announcers just come and go. It’s here where we recognize the Best and Worst in NFL announcing and production. There are some new winners and here which is a good thing.
Unlike the Emmys, we try to have different winners each year. You can check last year’s winners for a comparison. The nominees for this year’s awards are here and also listed below. So without further ado, here are the Winners and Losers in the 8th Annual Fang’s Bites TV Awards.
The Pat Summerall Award for Best Play-by-Play: Nominees are Kevin Burkhardt (Fox), Ian Eagle (CBS), Kevin Harlan (CBS), Al Michaels (NBC) and Mike Tirico (ESPN). Last year, Mike Tirico won this award and he’s very solid and could have won it again this year, but his fellow Syracuse alum Ian Eagle takes this category for the 2014 season. He and his partner Dan Fouts were promoted to the “B” team and they did not disappoint. Due to NBC’s entrance into the Divisional Playoff round, the Bird and the Beard won’t call a postseason game on TV, but they will on radio, just not together. Still, Eagle and Fouts are an entertaining team and showed on the San Diego-San Francisco game in Week 16 that they are indeed primetime worthy. We would not mind if CBS chose them to call some Thursday Night Football games in 2015. Ian Eagle is the deserved winner of this category.
Best Game Analyst: For this category, our nominees are Cris Collinsworth (NBC), David Diehl (Fox), Dan Fouts (CBS), Rich Gannon (CBS), Daryl Johnston (Fox). With Ian Eagle winning Best Play-by-Play, it would be easy to think that Dan Fouts would take this category and he almost did, but we’re going with Daryl Johnston of Fox. Johnston sees the field quite well and even though he has to deal with comedic foil Tony Siragusa, he’s quite good. While Johnston along with Kenny Albert and Siragusa are no longer the “B” team for Fox, they make for a very strong “C” team. We give Moose his first Award in this category.
Best Sunday Pregame Show: During the season, your humble blogger had the opportunity to watch and grade most of the studio shows for a series at Awful Announcing. While it was mostly painful to do this, there were some rewards. The nominees here are Fantasy Football Now (ESPN2), Fox NFL Kickoff (Fox Sports 1), Fox NFL Sunday (Fox), NFL GameDay First (NFL Network) and That Other Pregame Show (CBS Sports Network). Based on the grades from the Awful Announcing Sunday Studio Spectacular, the best show is Fantasy Football Now from ESPN2. This is the second consecutive award for this program and it’s much deserved. Robert Flores and Sara Walsh are perfect as co-hosts. Matthew Berry is great on the fantasy analysis and Stephania Bell does a tremendous job in explaining the effect of injuries on players. It’s a very enjoyable show.
Best Studio Show, Weekly or Daily: The nominees are Inside the NFL (Showtime/CBS/NFL Network), NFL Monday QB (CBS Sports Network), NFL Total Access (NFL Network) and NFL Turning Point (NBCSN/NFL Films). The winner is the revamped Inside the NFL airing multiple times on Showtime and NFL Network. Greg Gumbel is the new host. Phil Simms makes only occasional appearances with his Thursday Night Football schedule. Cris Collinsworth has left, but Boomer Esiason, Ed Reed, Michael Irvin and Chicago Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall have come in and picked up the slack. The show with the NFL Films highlights plus the fresh analysis from the crew has stepped up its game.
Best Highlights Show: Just three nominees in this category and they are Football Night in America (NBC), NFL GameDay Final (NFL Network) and NFL Primetime (ESPN). The winner is despite its host and cast, NFL GameDay Final on NFL Network. The show began with Rich Eisen, Steve Mariucci and Deion Sanders. It now has Chris Rose, Sanders, Marshall Faulk and Michael Irvin. This has resulted in an all-out mess, but the highlights are the key and the GameDay Final can go as long or as short as it wants on certain games. The show wins despite the weak cast on this show.
Best Studio Host: To one of the major categories here. The nominees are James Brown (CBS), Rich Eisen (NFL Network), Curt Menefee (Fox), Joel Klatt (Fox Sports 1) and Andrew Siciliano (DirecTV). I omitted Dan Patrick of Football Night in America so he’s added to this category. The award goes to James Brown of CBS. He hosts the NFL Today in the studio in New York. JB also hosts the Thursday Night Kickoff show at the site of each Thursday Night Football game. JB has won this before and he’s a delight to watch. Before the first TNF game in Baltimore, Brown made a powerful commentary as the Ray Rice story was developing. The fact that he makes hosting the NFL Today in the studio and TNF at the game so effortless is a true talent. He’s one of the best studio hosts and he’s the winner in this category.
Best Studio Analyst: Our nominees here are Matthew Berry (ESPN), Tony Dungy (NBC), Randy Moss (Fox Sports 1), Amy Trask (CBS Sports Network) and Kurt Warner (NFL Network). We have a first-time winner here and it’s Amy Trask of That Other Pregame Show on CBS Sports Network. Trask has been an executive with the Oakland Raiders and she understands the machinations of the NFL as a true insider. Knowing the rules from an executive point of view gives her a different perspective than an ex-player. She’s not afraid to take a stand and criticize when necessary. But one thing you should not do is ask her about the Tuck Rule. She’s outstanding on TOPS and should be utilized on the NFL Today.
Most Valuable Network: The nominees are CBS, ESPN, Fox and NBC. For its first foray into primetime and getting high ratings despite massive blowouts for Thursday Night Football, this goes to CBS. The network has the best announcing bench and has developed talent to call games through CBS Sports Network. The Tiffany Network takes this award.
Best NFL Insider: The nominees here are Jay Glazer (Fox), Jason La Canfora (CBS), Ian Rapoport (NFL Network) and Adam Schefter (ESPN). The winner for the second straight year is Adam Schefter of ESPN. Schefter develops sources, reports scoops and just plain reports. He’s always on top of things. He wins this by a razor-thin margin over past winner Jay Glazer.
Best Sideline Reporter: Our nominees are Jenny Dell (CBS), Laura Okmin (Fox), Pam Oliver (Fox), Lisa Salters (ESPN), Michele Tafoya (NBC), Evan Washburn (CBS) and Tracy Wolfson (CBS). In her final season in covering the sidelines, the winner is Pam Oliver of Fox. Originally forced out from the “A” team in favor of Erin Andrews, Oliver just kept her nose to the grindstone and kept working. She’ll have one more postseason game with Fox and then that will be it. Pam deserves better treatment than this, but she goes out on top with the award in this category.
Best Announcing Team: The nominees are Al Michaels/Cris Collinsworth//Michele Tafoya (NBC), Ian Eagle/Dan Fouts//Jenny Dell (CBS), Kenny Albert/Daryl Johnston (Fox), Kevin Burkhardt/John Lynch//Pam Oliver (Fox), Kevin Harlan/Rich Gannon (CBS) and Mike Tirico/Jon Gruden//Lisa Salters (ESPN). Good choices and all deserved in one way or another, but we give this to The Bird, the Beard and new sideline reporter Jenny Dell. Very good chemistry among this team. Eagle has drawn some humor out of Fouts and that has not been easy. Normally Fouts is a straight-shooter, but with Eagle, great to see that the Beard can have a sense of humor.
Best Game Production: The nominees are America’s Game of the Week (Fox), Monday Night Football (ESPN), Sunday Night Football (NBC) and Thursday Night Football (CBS). In its first year in this category, the winner is Thursday Night Football on CBS. With CBS taking over the production this season, we got a playoff feel for the games and despite massive blowouts, the production never failed. It’s for this reason, we feel that the NFL will sign a long-term contract with CBS in 2015 after picking up a one-year option and also reward the network with an additional Wild Card Playoff Game when the postseason is expanded.
Best Debut (Announcer): The nominees are Andrew Catalon (CBS), Jenny Dell (CBS), David Diehl (Fox) and Brandon Marshall (Inside the NFL). The winner is Andrew Catalon in his first year of calling play-by-play for the NFL on CBS. Teamed with Steve Tasker and Steve Beuerlein, Catalon didn’t have the most attractive games to call, but he made them sound important and didn’t slouch as the records of the teams got worse as the season went along. There were times when Catalon and the two Steves appeared to be the official announcers for the Jacksonville Jaguars, but they didn’t make light of the situation, they always treated each game with respect. And Catalon did a very good job in his debut on the NFL.
Best Debut (Show): Just two nominees here, CBS on Thursday Night Football and Inside the NFL on NFL Network. We go with Thursday Night Football on CBS for the reasons stated above.
Worst Play-by-Play: Chris Berman (ESPN), Mike Goldberg (Fox), Chris Myers (Fox) and Dick Stockton (Fox). The “winner” is Mike Goldberg. He only did one game and boy, did he crash and burn. Had Goldberg not melted down on social media the following day, he might have had another opportunity to call another contest and improve upon his first performance, but Fox put a painful end to the experiment and Goldberg did not call another game this season. Chris Berman had the potential to return with “and the punt is blocked,” but it was not to be this season. Maybe next season.
Worst Game Analyst: The nominees are Ronde Barber (Fox), Trent Green (CBS), Tony Siragusa (Fox) and Solomon Wilcots (CBS). The award goes to Ronde Barber.
And there you have it, the Best and Worst in NFL announcing and production for 2014. We’ll do it again in 2015.
