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CBS Shakes Up NFL Pairings for 2009

Aug 26, 2009, 2:00 PM UTC

Can you believe The NFL on CBS has been around for 50 years? Actually, CBS started covering the sport in 1956, but after losing the NFC to Fox, it took the Eye three years to get NFL games back, featuring AFC games since the 1998 season. I think it took them that long to finally get HD cameras* at every stadium, too.â†µ

â†µCBS has decided to shake things up a bit for season 50. Per Awful Announcing, here are your 2009 CBS broadcast crews:â†µ

â†µâ†µJim Nantz, Phil Simmsâ†µ
â†µGreg Gumbel, Dan Dierdorfâ†µ
â†µDick Enberg, Dan Foutsâ†µ
â†µKevin Harlan, Solomon Wilcotsâ†µ
â†µIan Eagle, Rich Gannonâ†µ
â†µGus Johnson, Steve Taskerâ†µ
â†µDon Criqui, Randy Crossâ†µ
â†µBill Macatee, Steve Beuerleinâ†µ

â†µâ†µFor the last few years, the CBS crews have remained the same. According to a source with knowledge of the situation, CBS was looking to “mix it up a bit and tinker with some of the pairings. They haven’t had many changes to their game announcing crews for quite some time and felt like this was a good time to do it.”â†µ

â†µâ†µThe top few crews will remain the same, and CBS’ formulaic pairings of trusted play-by-play man sitting beside generic former offensive player (or special teamer in the case of Tasker) has remained in tact. It seems just the name of the generic former offensive player has changed for some of the teams.â†µ

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â†µPart of the decision may stem from the fact that Randy Cross will be doing more work with CBS College Sports, including both studio and color analyst responsibilities on Saturdays, precluding him from properly covering an NFL game on Sunday. (Insert Randy Cross pun here.)â†µ

â†µâ†µAnd going through the entire season, according to website hdsportsguide.com, CBS won’t need the crews of Criqui and Cross or Macatee and Beuerlein that often. CBS has eight announcing crews, but only eight games slated for their network twice this season, both coming in the last two weeks of the year. And while CBS will broadcast at least five or six games every week of the year, there are only six weeks – including the aforementioned final two – where the network will broadcast seven or more games. â†µ

â†µâ†µHere’s hoping CBS learns from the shakeup and does even more of it in the future. I’d love to see Nantz paired with Gary McCord and David Feherty for a few football games.â†µ

â†µâ†µ* - Note: While it did take CBS forever to get HD cameras at every game, according to hdsportsguide.com, they will be showing all of their games this year in 1080i. NBC also broadcasts in 1080i, with Fox and ESPN sending out 720p.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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