Looks like the NFL has blocked now NBC play-by-play guy, Mike Tirico, from being the voice of Thursday Night Football, despite widespread reports that Tirico went over to NBC to do just that.
http://deadspin.com/report-nfl...tm_medium=socialflow
Really getting tired of these a-holes.
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Triico was the only good thing about the booth on Monday Night Football. Gruden makes me .
Oh for f-cks sake. This is outrageous. IMO Tirico is the best guy calling league games now, it's not even really close.
Wonder if the Bristol boys put some payback pressure on.
Add to that Al Micheals is 71. So needless to say he's hardly looking to ADD to his workload by now being forced to do 2 games a week. If I were him, I'd just retire and give the league the one fingered salute. It would serve them right.
Agree on Tirico. One of the few good ones to come out of ESPNs cesspool of schit.
I'm ok with Tirico. Wasn't a big fan of the high pitched yelling early in his time, but he's toned that down some.
I still think Nessler is the best out there today. But seems to be more suited to the College games.
Wow.
Talking about Micheals/Tirico, one PFT wit said: "Just be happy it's not Joe Buck!"
How the hell is this the NFL's call?
El-Ka-Bong posted:How the hell is this the NFL's call?
Must have league approval in the contracts with the networks, I'd guess.
Unless it's just Rog going rogue again
Taking the argument to the extreme, suppose one of the networks wanted to use, say, Aaron Hernandez as a color commentator. (Not that he's available, of course; this is just to take an extreme example.) You don't think the league would want to say, "no, I don't think so"?
Now, I don't understand why they'd say no to Tirico unless there's something negative about his past they know about that we don't.
El-Ka-Bong posted:How the hell is this the NFL's call?
crazy isn't it ?
The league is pimping TNF big time and chose among the 3 bidders for the best option ( $$). They need this to succeed because the rights fees went from $300 million to $450 million this time around for TNF package. a 50% increase !
Both the league and the network will pull out all the stops to make it a success. Network will win Thursday night ratings and the league can tell the players who bitch about the 4 day turnaround; "cash your check and STFU"
Tirico, while very talented, is associated with MNF ( a 2nd tier event).
Al Michaels is associated with the biggest events in sports ( Super Bowl, Olympics etc) . Cache begets Cash in their world
Tirico and the Bob's in the booth (Costas and Uecker).
It would kill
Play-by-play has roots in radio, long before television, when mastodons roamed the Earth. It's time to re-invent the mousetrap.
First guy I'd hire is Caliendo. We would get a 'guest' announcer every week, and eliminates the need for Gruden. Win-win. Then let him and the color guy (or lady!) drink. Heavily. Uecker should fit in easily, as Bong suggested above. Or Bert...
I'd much prefer to have somebody classic like George Gobel or Foster Brooks, but, alas, they are long gone.
Or perhaps we could go with a big, booming voice like James Earl Jones.
Or this guy. I mean if he can do that for golf, imagine what he could do for football...
Maybe the women at NBC asked the NFL for protection.
NFL fine with this booth genius.
Whatever.
That's because he announces the Tennessee Titan games.
