http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090416/SPT0201/304160049/1066/SPT02

Well, at least there's one thing notable about the Bengals that you can talk about with other fans.....

BMN

Collinsworth can't hold a candle to Madden's larger-than-life persona. I find him to be a pretty annoying announcer and I disagree with a lot of what he says. Plus I hear he's an arrogant prick. Hopefully he doesn't last long.

"The answer to the general manager problem is the same answer that we have to have for all these criticisms. We have to win. When we manage to do that, we won't hear so much about that kind of talk." - football genius Mike Brown

Chris Collinsworth is actually one of my favorite sports announcers, period (I also like Dick Enberg for football and a couple of hockey announcers...Mike Lange who does Penguins radio and Mike Emerick who does NBC and VS national games as well as most Devils TV games).

Anyways, I agree with Collinsworth much of the time. He's funny, and his smugness is well-placed. He overreacts sometimes (but not to the extent of Joe Buck or Al Michaels or anyone at ESPN).

As a whole, great announcer!

As for Madden, good luck in retirement. Madden wasn't great but I did come to appreciate his voice and his quirks.

Madden says some wacky things and can be Captain Obvious at times, but he flat-out knows football and has a great intuition about game strategy and penalties. I've watched Collinsworth get instant replay calls wrong and be way off in predicting plays much too frequently to respect him as a football announcer. He's got a good voice but to me that's the extent of his merits.

We must have totally different tastes, because Enberg made me cringe when he did Wimbledon, and I consider Al Michaels one of the best football play-by-play men of all time. Ah well, to each their own...

"The answer to the general manager problem is the same answer that we have to have for all these criticisms. We have to win. When we manage to do that, we won't hear so much about that kind of talk." - football genius Mike Brown

BA,

In defense of Enberg, I think that age has caught up to him some (I remember a game maybe three years ago in which he was awful...he was just out there that day). And also, I only watch him announce football and sometimes golf, so I can't comment on how good/bad he is a Wimbledon.

The older I get, the more critical I become of sports announcers. They're all bad when they talk too much, and they all talk incessantly!

When I was a kid, Al Michaels was quite the homer as radio play-by-play man for the Reds. I didn't mind back then, but I cared later on when he overcompensated as a national announcer. Too many catty comments about the Reds and Bengals. His arrogance comes across today by the way he treats his booth mates. Even with John Madden, you could almost see Michaels roll his eyes sometimes when Madden started to talk. Apparently the conversation wasn't up to his standards.

I remember when Collinsworth started out as a radio talk show host. He rarely had anything insightful or interesting to say. And very off-putting with the way he stated his opinions. I was surprised by his improvement once he started on TV. He seems to get better with every job switch. Now I think of him as one of the better announcers because he's one of the least annoying.

Now we'll see how good he looks next to Big Al. If Mr. "Do You Believe in Miracles" decides he doesn't like him, watch out.

Madden is one of the greatest football commentators of all time, and for a very simple reason: the man stuck to talking about the football game.

Even if he was Captain Obvious at times, and at other times seems to just kind of be making stuff up, at least it was ALWAYS related to football. You could count him to stick to the damn sport, no matter how boring the game or whatever.

Whenever I hear a commentator veer over to Britney Spears or some other nonsense I puke a little bit in my mouth. No one is watching you to hear what you have to say about politics or the economy or pop culture, no one cares, just talk about the damn game, that is what you are paid to do.

I for one will miss him, and his senior moments, which imo only got more hilarious as time went by.

"We do do, and we do it at a very, very high level," Lewis said.

My theory is that Madden will unretire if Favre chooses to unretire again...

BMN

What I'll remember about Madden is one minute he was talking about eating a Turkey Leg on Thanksgiving--then making a comment about the Cover 2 Zone and how the Cornerback didn't hold up the receiver at the LOS.

If you remember correctly, Madden was making comments about the Pittsburgh Zone having a big hole right in the center of the field in the Super Bowl. 2 FULL QUARTERS LATER, Larry Fitzgerald goes for the Porno TD. With Big Al covering up that "....and Larry Fitzgerald watches himself go into the end zone on the big screen.....". LOL!!!!!!

Going back to Madden's Super Bowl Comment--the dude may have been a goofball around the Thanksgiving Day Game--but the dude knew his sh*t. I mean--if you're not going to joke around on Thanksgiving, then how else are you going to survive the Lions vs. Whomever Game?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

BTW--Cris Collinsworth came into our business about 10 years ago. He was sitting on our couch in the waiting room--waiting for our CEO to come out and greet him--and a few HR people as well.

Cris didn't say a damned thing to anybody--just hung out with the elites. Whatever. But the way he handled himself that day didn't give me a great impression. Even when other people obviously wanted to shake his hand. He wasn't having any of that--and was very unapproachable.

Since I was a fan of his back in the day, I was kinda disappointed.

As a commentator, I'm not much of a fan of his. He's sort of Capt. Obvious when he makes gametime comments and doesn't really add too much to the game. IMO, he's still living off his playing days.

I thought he was very underrated as a player. Overrated as a commentator. Loved those over the shoulder passes that he would catch.





"So he got fired? Big deal. It's happened to the best of us. So he got kicked out of his house by his 400 lb'ed wife?!?!? That's probably better for him anyways."-OldSchooler on ChrisMBHater's absence

I like Chris.
Hate him doing the Notre Dame games years ago, b/c it was obvious that he hated Notre Dame, but he is a good announcer....

I think he will be the mainstay for the next 10-15 years.

Madden was fun, but annoying at times.

The worst ever......RANDY CROSS/DAN DIERDORF

Murf,

I hated Dierdorf (I still do). I wasnt a huge fan of Madden either - all he did was state the obvious.

"On third down, the Bengals got 7 yards, they have 3 to go. So, its 4th and 3. If the Bengals get 3 yards or more, they get a first down. If they dont get 3 yards, then they turn it over..."

Thanks, John - I just lost 20 seconds of my life I will never get back...

"The American Cancer Society says uninsured patients are 60 percent more likely to die within five years of their diagnosis."

I'm torn.

Personally, I think Collinsworth was an EXCELLENT "Football Night in America" host, clean and concise. As a color man, I haven't seen enough of him to make a full judgment. But he did have to sit alongside Bryant Gumbel so that's like boot camp training in the highest.

BMN

Ha Ha! Yes...Bryant Gumble is the worst of the worst!

The best sports broadcast experience I ever had was during an NFL football game a few years ago (I think on CBS...) when there were technical difficulties that led to the announcers being unable to talk on screen. It was the closest I've felt to being at a game while watching one on TV. I was so used to having announcers that I had never considered a broadcast without one. But for the 5-10 minutes during which there were no announcers, it changed my outlook forever. I now crave the day when technology will allow you to select whether you hear the announcers, how loud the crowd noise is, choosing which camera you are watching from, and who knows what else.

During that period, all you heard was the game action and crowd noise. It was like you were at the game. Just picture being at a football game...how annoying would it be for someone to be telling you every detail of what you are already watching?? If my friend kept saying "gain of 2, that'll bring up 3rd down", I would probably have to punch him before the end of the 1st quarter. I would say most people watching a game (regardless of the sport) don't need an announcer telling them what they are watching, because they know enough about the sport.

Golf is the only sport in which I truly appreciate the announcers and their insights. Each group has a field announcer walking around with them, and they serve a vital purpose. They can report the lie of a ball, what club the player/caddie are thinking about selecting, the wind by the player, and other details you would not have just by watching. Also, baseball probably needs announcers because games are too quiet and long - TV ratings would die. The only time it would be exciting enough to work would be in the playoffs or world series with a raucous crowd.