ESPN has been making waves this offseason with the addition of several former NFL players and coaches to add to their prodigious stable of analysts.  This time, ESPN has gone to the well of former players for the greatest wide receiver of all-time, Jerry Rice.  Rice is the biggest name addition to an evergrowing list of ESPN NFL analysts to take their talents to Bristol.  Richard Deitsch broke the news...

The network has hired Jerry Rice as an analyst, SI.com has learned. The formal announcement will be made later this week.

Rice will appear on NFL Live, SportsCenter and ESPN's Audibles show, which will air weekly this fall on Thursday nights. On Audibles, Rice will be reunited with his former Niners quarterback Steve Young. He is scheduled to start at ESPN on Sept. 15 and will be based on the West Coast.

The Hall of Famer's sports media experience includes co-hosting Sports Sunday on NBC Bay Area after 49ers games last season. He has served as an analyst for BBC Television's coverage of the NFL and co-hosted an afternoon show on Sirius NFL Radio.

Great players aren't always great analysts.  Joe Montana and Emmitt Smith quickly come to mind as all-time great players that didn't have what was needed to succeed on television.  Rice can at least speak in sentences, which should put him ahead of Emmitt Smith already.  I had no idea about his prior experience working for the BBC either, so he isn't a full-fledged rookie.  Seeing as how he will be "based on the West Coast," I can envision him contributing to the LA SportsCenter on a regular basis.

Rice immediately becomes the most accomplished of the NFL analysts at the leader in terms of on-field achievements.  Looking at the big picture, one has to wonder if there is enough TV time for all of these ex-players and coaches.  Seriously, there has never been a bigger collection of television talent in one particular field on one network.  ESPN could almost fill an entire 53 man roster!  There are hundreds of hours ESPN needs to fill in a day, but this list is just preposterously huge.  These are the NFL analysts listed on ESPN's website and those we know have just been added to the arsenal...

Jon Gruden, Ron Jaworski, Cris Carter, Mike Ditka, Tom Jackson, Keyshawn Johnson, Matt Millen, Steve Young, Eric Allen, Tedy Bruschi, Trent Dilfer, Mike Golic, Herm Edwards, Tim Hasselbeck, Merril Hoge, Antonio Pierce, Mark Schlereth, Marcellus WIly, Darren Woodson, Andrew Brandt, Lomas Brown, Derrick Brooks, Warrick Dunn, Jon Ritchie, Kordell Stewart, Ross Tucker, Damien Woody, Hugh Douglas, Eric Mangini, Jerry Rice, The San Diego Chicken, Red Grange, Rich Kotite, This Guy, He Hate Me, Leon Taylor, Rex Ryan, Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder and Terry Tate, Office Linebacker

Of course, there may be one too many names on that list, but at this point it's hard to keep track...

[Sports Illustrated]

If only to confirm the torture NFL fans are in store for with the upcoming season, FOX released their announcing lineup today for NFL on FOX coverage.  And while the new pairings reflect some changes from last season, the alterations to the lineup look more like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic than actually beneficial change.  After all, the top three announcing teams all remain untouched from last season while the rest of FOX's talent pool leaves a lot to be desired.  Let's run down the announcing tandems and trios one-by-one and let you know our preliminary opinions on the potentially awful announcing we're in store for this year.

(1) Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, and Pam Oliver
-So, what else is new?  The only difference between Joe Buck's baseball broadcasting and his football broadcasting is that he'll be a trending topic on Twitter on Sunday instead of Saturday.  Let's at least hope Buck's mysterious voice ailment finally heals before the NFL starts, because the tempo and excitement of football will exacerbate the problem much more than baseball.  As far as Aikman and Oliver...meh.  Aikman can be insightful at times, while other times boring, especially when being dragged down by inane chatter with Buck.  Oliver is the best sideline reporter FOX has to offer, which is by no means an accomplishment for Oliver.

(2) Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, and Tony Siragusa
-Much like the #1 announcing team is all about displeasure with Joe Buck continuing as FOX's #1 in everything, the groaning of fans getting the B team of Albert, Johnston, and Siragusa will be largely directed at the Goose.  As readers of AA will know, we're not big fans of Siragusa's on-field reporting/analysis/gasbaggery.  Perhaps no announcer says less while speaking more than Siragusa, who's main goal seems to be to ruin the viewing experience for fans of both teams subjected to his "analysis".  And while there's nothing terribly wrong with the team of Albert and Johnston, they'd be no better than 4th or 5th on the depth chart at CBS, yet they're #2 at FOX with the albatross of Siragusa hanging around their neck.

(3) Thom Brennaman, Brian Billick, and Laura Okmin
-Another top 3 team, another mixed bag.  In a very short time, Billick has proven to be one of the best game analysts in the NFL.  Much like Jon Gruden, the qualities that made him an abrasive genius as a head coach have translated well to the broadcast booth with Billick's ability to read the game and relate what he's seeing to viewers at home.  In fact, it's a surprise Billick hasn't been moved up already to join Buck and Aikman on the A team.  Unforunately, Billick is hampered by working with Mr. Monotone, Thom Brennaman.  Perhaps Brennaman wouldn't be so terrible if he didn't stick to canned storylines while sounding like someone quite familiar to AA's Twitter followers.

 

Monday August 8

Boston Red Sox @ Minnesota Twins (ESPN 7PM) Sean McDonough, Aaron Boone, Rick Sutcliffe
Pittsburgh Pirates @ San Francisco Giants (MLBN 10PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Philadelphia @ LA Dodgers]

Tuesday August 9

Detroit Tigers @ Cleveland Indians (MLBN 7PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: LA Angels @ NY Yankees]

Wednesday August 10

Los Angeles Angels @ New York Yankees (ESPN 7PM) Karl Ravech, Nomar Garciaparra
Washington Nationals @ Chicago Cubs (WGNA 8PM) Len Kasper, Bob Brenly

Thursday August 11 

San Diego Padres @ New York Mets (MLBN Noon) Local Broadcast [Alt: Kansas City @ Tampa Bay]
Milwaukee Brewers @ St. Louis Cardinals (MLBN 8PM) Matt Vasgersian, John Smoltz [Alt: Detroit @ Cleveland - 7PM]

Friday August 12

Tampa Bay Rays @ New York Yankees (MLBN 7PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Washington @ Philadelphia]

Saturday August 13

Tampa Bay Rays @ New York Yankees (FOX 4PM) Kenny Albert, Tim McCarver
Texas Rangers @ Oakland A's (FOX 4PM) TBA
Pittsburgh Pirates @ Milwaukee Brewers (FOX 4PM) TBA
Chicago Cubs @ Atlanta Braves (WGNA 7PM) Len Kasper, Bob Brenly
Washington Nationals @ Philadelphia Phillies (MLBN 7PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Minnesota @ Cleveland]

Sunday August 14

Tampa Bay Rays @ New York Yankees (TBS 1PM) Dick Stockton, Dennis Eckersley
Chicago Cubs @ Atlanta Braves (WGNA 1:30PM) Len Kasper, Bob Brenly
Colorado Rockies @ St. Louis Cardinals (ESPN 8PM) Dan Shulman, Orel Hershiser, Bobby Valentine

H/T Sammy! 

Two very bizarre videos from the world of NASCAR this past weekend to share with you this morning.  First is the incomprehendable finish to the Nationwide Series race in Iowa.  Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was leading the race coming out of Turn 4 and blew a tire engine coming to the checkered flag.  As Stenhouse slows, Carl Edwards slams into the back of his car and pushes him across the finish line to the win.  I've never seen anything like this, but it's another in the wild finishes we've seen in racing this year.  They all seem to be following ESPN's Marty Reid, who was on the call again...



Then on Sunday, things got weirder with the Sprint Cup at Pocono.  Brad Keselowski won the race in decidingly normal fashion, but it was what happened before the race that was interesting.  ESPN had some massive technical problems with their prerace show as advertisements and commercials interrupted the broadcast at all the wrong times.  This led to hliariously mistimed breaks, awkward segues, and catching the studio trio of Nicole Briscoe, Rusty Wallace, and Brad Daugherty in off camera chit chat (including Rusty and Brad talking about a surely well-deserved pay raise).  The whole episode makes your high school local access sports report look like the 11 pm SportsCenter.  SportsGrid has the video...

Last week we introduced a new way for you to interact with Awful Announcing and let your voice be heard.  The AA Fan Forum will be the place to go for you to rant about or praise announcers.  Throughout August, we'll be featuring your submissions into our AA Inbox regarding the local MLB announcing teams that we may not have time to cover extensively.  This first edition features baseball fans, AA readers, and fellow bloggers giving their take on their MLB announcers and below you can find your way to submit your own thoughts to us for the AA Fan Forum.  Without further adieu, here's what the fans have to say...


Phillies: Tom McCarthy and Chris Wheeler.  Wheels has been on our TVs since the 1970's and has made us want to hit the mute button ever since.  The chriswheelerglossary.com website lists many of his catch phrases.  Tom McCarthy has had the unenviable task of following Harry Kalas as lead PBP guy, but his cadence (and the SIIIIIIDE is RETIRED...) and awful segues (Hey, speaking of...) are brutal.

Tom Asher
Twitter: tom_asher 

When people think of Brewers announcers, the first name they'll come up with is Bob Uecker, and rightfully so -- he's an institution in Milwaukee, and from an entertainment standpoint, I don't know if there's anyone better. In terms of play-by-play, though, he's starting to slip in his advancing age. He'll have trouble reading flyballs from time-to-time, to the point of starting up his "Get up, get up, get outta here, gone" home run call, only to have to correct himself to "get off that wall" halfway through. Overall, though, he's still worth listening to. Cory Provus does a very good job playing the straight man to Uecker, and his play-by-play is typically crisp and informative, which is a plus on radio.

On the TV end, the consensus seems to be that Brian Anderson and Bill Schroeder make a pretty solid team, at least among those who have had the misfortune of listening to other teams' crews on MLB.TV. Anderson has always done a good job of letting the pictures do most of the speaking, which is an underrated attribute when it comes to TV announcers. Schroeder is your typical homer color analyst (to be expected from a former Brewers catcher), although he won't refer to the Brewers as "we" like some others. Together, they seem to work much better together than Schroeder and Daron Sutton ever did before Sutton left for Arizona. Sutton was (and still is, from what I can tell) truly an Awful Announcer. Anderson, on the other hand, is very good, and it's no surprise that TBS has started to trust him with some more important postseason series.

Jaymes Langrehr
The Brewers Bar
Twitter: BrewersBar

If you want to be an NFL analyst on a pre game show, you'd be smart to pad your resume with a Hall of Fame career. Today NFL Network's Deion Sanders and Marshall Faulk were enshrined into the Hall of Fame along with CBS's Shannon Sharpe. Also inducted from the sports media world was Ed Sabol, the visionary behind NFL Films (something that no other pro league has anything similar to).

If you actually look across the NFL Sunday preview shows, you'll see it's actually a bastion of Pro Hall of Famers.

Sharpe, Sanders, and Faulk join the likes of Mike Ditka, Steve Young, Dan Marino, Michael Irvin, Terry Bradshaw, and Howie Long as Hall Famers working Sunday mornings. Rod Woodson recently left this group to take a job with the Raiders.

In the years to come you may see other studio analysts like Michael Strahan, Warren Sapp, and Bill Cowher joining the select fraternity within the fraternity. 

Being on the west coast where a night out will often mitigate the need for a pre game show starting at 9am, I don't really have a strong take on any of the trio of new entries.

Who has a long term career in the industry and who could you see fizzling out? Should Marshall Faulk worry about an anti running back conspiracy as Emmitt Smith, Jerome Bettis (not inducted just yet), and Marcus Allen were quickly shown the door after brief stints.

Given there are now four channels utilizing similar formats, how about some innovation instead of imitation for a change? 

My idea is that you have one host and four first round busts getting hammered at a bar. How about Petros Papadakis along with Cade McNown, Joey Harrington, Ryan Leaf, and recently "retired" Carson Palmer who can keep the seat warm for Matt Leinart. A little west coast flavor to greet your morning hangover perhaps?

All kidding aside, congratulations to Canton's newest class and especially Ed Sabol who is the one guy whose impact to the game of football and sports media is impossible to measure. Ed has had some health issues and unfortunately his son and heir apparent, Steve, is battling cancer. It was uplifting to see them on stage together given Steve's condition and his comments about the significance of his father's induction.

"Though Sabol hasn’t asked for information on his long-term prognosis, he has asked if he’ll make it to August, when the induction ceremony will be held.  “You’ll make it,” Sabol was told by his doctors."

I couldn't help but take a step back and think about what we've seen this week in sports with two people that say a lot about the sports media and the way we view athletes.  Both have seen the entire spectrum of athlete superstardom.  They've been at the absolute top of their sport, and they've been kicked around with glee.  Those people are Tiger Woods and Tim Tebow.  The way these two athletes have been covered this week in particular has spoke volumes for the way the media covers superstar athletes and the way we view superstar athletes as fans.  Simply put, there's nothing we love more than the vicious cycle of building up and tearing down...

Let's start briefly with why these two are in the news.  Tiger Woods made another return after a lengthy layoff, this time from injury, at the WGC event at Firestone in Akron.  Firestone is where Woods has seen the most success in his career, but through the first two days of the tournament Tiger is a so-so (-1), seven shots out of the lead and tied for 36th. 

Presumably, Tim Tebow was going to be given the keys to Denver's offense going into the 2011 season as Kyle Orton was going to be traded to Miami (producing bizarre chants in Miami of "We Want Orton," wrap your minds around that).  Orton wasn't traded and outplayed Tebow in practice, creating the awkward situation where Tebow isn't exactly the starting QB anymore.  On top of that, Merrill Hoge woke up one morning and decided it was his mission to destroy Tebow, ripping him with a series of Tweets and subsequent interviews.

The changing narratives of Tiger and Tebow are stunning.  Take a look at their respective careers and where they are now.  They symbolize more than anyone else this manipulative and cynical need to continually build up and tear down athletes.  This shouldn't be a mystery to many of you, but it has truly flashed like a bright neon sign with sirens this week.  And we as fans should be able to see through it...

A former coach that Browns fans called "Mangina" and a former player with a last named of Woody. Somehow I veered away from an immature title to this article and played it straight.

Every year ESPN reshuffles their lineup of analysts covering a sport and this year have added former Jets and Browns coach Eric Mangini as well and former Jet's lineman Damien Woody. ESPN had this to say in regards to Mangini's particular role.

"He will appear on "NFL Live," "SportsCenter," "First Take" and other programs throughout the year and also will contribute analysis on ESPN Radio and other platforms. He is scheduled to start Aug. 17."

Woody will apparently have a similar beat although will not do radio and will spend some time on ESPN News as well.

ESPN has increasingly shown preference to adding recently removed head coaches as guys like Herm Edwards and Jon Gruden have been well received by viewers. Mangini's addition will give ESPN a second former coach as a studio analyst with Gruden mostly utilized on Monday Night Football.

Woody's addition had been speculated for awhile, even by himself when interviewed by the NFL Live crew last week in regards to the new CBA and if he'd play another year or would be wearing a suit as an analyst.

I'll let Stephen explain exactly why he has control of the MLB's twitter account for the day.

So far, Stephen has used this new platform to inform the MLB's 1.4 million+ followers on the score of the Seattle Salamanders vs. Albuquerque Balloons game (7 to aught) and instructed fans looking for highlights to follow his link that leads to this video of a ducky and a doggy playing. We can look forward to a day of hating on the Cubs (Colbert has a crippling fear of bears) and hopefully the first of a 30 part series as Colbert gets us to know the MLB teams better.

I give a tip of the hat to the MLB for having a sense of humor and giving me a reason to visit their twitter page for the first time ever.