RELATED: CBS is Ready for Some Football
Marv Albert is returning to the NFL's television booth this season, a fact that's even a little surprising to him.
Speaking
at CBS' annual NFL media day Tuesday in New York, Albert said that "it
kind of came from nowhere," on being back on the gridiron. That doesn't
mean, however, that he is not excited for the new opportunity. "The
packed houses and the huge TV ratings, its fun," said Albert.
The
idea came up, according to Albert, after the landmark TV deal between
the NCAA, CBS and Turner that saw coverage of the Men's Basketball
Championship split up between the networks for the first time (CBS had
held exclusive rights since 1991).
As
part of the deal, Albert (who calls NBA games for TNT) worked games for
the tournament, and CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus wanted to make him
part of his network's NFL team. "After the first weekend of games, I
got a call saying [he] wanted to talk to me," said Albert, who
will still serve as TNT's main play-by-play announcer for the NBA on
Thursday nights, should this season be played.
Albert
effectively replaces Gus Johnson, who left for Fox in May. He will team
with former Oakland Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon. "I just met him a
couple of days ago, and we bonded," said Albert.
This
marks the first time Albert will call football games for TV since 1997
for NBC (when it had coverage of the AFC, which CBS took over in 1998),
although he had been calling NFL for Westwood One Radio from 2002-2009.
The
rest of CBS' NFL broadcasting team remains status quo, as once again
Jim Nantz and Phil Simms will partner up as the network's #1 team. The
rest of the teams in descending order are: Greg Gumbel/Dan Dierdorf; Ian
Eagle/Dan Fouts; Kevin Harlan/Solomon Wilcots; Bill Macatee/Steve
Tasker; Spero Dedes/Steve Beurlein; and Don Criqui/Randy Cross (the
Albert/Gannon duo is listed as the #4 announcing team).
Jim Brown will return as host for The NFL Today,
the network's pre and post-game studio show. Dan Marino, Bill Cowher,
Boomer Esiason and Shannon Sharpe will all return as analysts.
