Nine NFL Broadcasting Thoughts as the Regular Season Comes to a Close: TRAINA THOUGHTS

1. With the NFL regular season finished, I have some thoughts and observations on the networks, broadcasters and more.

• It’s amazing to me that Fox, CBS, ESPN and NFL Network are all trotting out identical pregame shows. You’d think that in 2022, one of these networks would try something different to stand out, but the recipe—a million cast members sitting at a big desk giving injury updates, weather updates, plugging their gambling partnerships, doing picks without point spreads and a couple of interviews—remains the same. It would be great to see one of these networks scrap the typical format and trying something—anything—different.

• I’ve said it before and I’ll say again after he was masterful during last night’s Chargers-Raiders game: It’s pretty disgraceful that NBC is going to boot Al Michaels (last week's SI Media Podcast guest) from Sunday Night Football because of, in my opinion, his age. Michaels is as sharp as ever and there is no justification for demoting him to Amazon, where he is reportedly headed next season to call Thursday Night Football.

• If ESPN decided it wanted to change up its traditional Monday Night Football booth for next season, here’s a free suggestion for a new team: Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit. I know ESPN would never pull Herbsteit off its college football games, so in this scenario, he’d have to pull double duty on Saturdays and Mondays. But this past Saturday while calling Chiefs-Broncos, he showed again that he can easily make that transition. Herbstreit has now called two NFL games for ESPN, and he’s been outstanding both times. 

• CBS’s Ian Eagle is as good as any of the lead play-by-play callers—Michaels, Joe Buck, Jim Nantz—in the NFL. But what’s even more impressive after listening to him call Sunday’s Steelers-Ravens game, is that Eagle is somehow getting better at his craft. It will be fascinating to see how long CBS can keep Eagle as a “No. 2” guy.

• CBS’s Andrew Catalon is the most underrated play-by-play man on any network that airs the NFL. He is a great play caller, brings the perfect amount of excitement to games when they get wild and is also excellent at dropping in random pop culture references. CBS needs to stop wasting him on its fifth- or sixth-best game each week.

• It was so damn good to have Gus Johnson back calling a handful of NFL games this season. Let’s hope Fox gives Gus and Aqib Talib another run next season.

• I’m 100% biased here because I’m friends with both guys and they come on the SI Media Podcast all the time, but here’s another free idea for the networks that air the NFL: Bring the success of Good Morning Football to the games. Find a play–by-play person to join Peter Schrager and Kyle Brandt in the booth. The chemistry is already there, and the booth would be a breath of fresh air compared to all the traditional booths out there. The networks are terrified to experiment, but it would be nice to see them experiment with something outside the box.

• I don’t want anyone to lose their jobs, but it’s impossible not to notice that rules “experts” have zero impact on network broadcasts. They never criticize awful officiating, get things wrong many more times than “experts” should and don’t add nearly as much to telecasts as network executives think.

• I don’t know why it happened, but for some reason, I found myself watching ESPN’s Monday Night Football halftime show every week this season to watch and hear Chris Berman do highlights for games that were more than 24 hours old. And it was awesome. You can’t underestimate the power of nostalgia in sports, and hearing Berman do his frantic bit just hit right week after week.

2. Kudos to NBC for catching this moment when Chargers running back Austin Ekeler learned the Raiders were going to to a knee and a tie instead of kicking a field goal until Los Angeles coach Brandon Staley called a timeout. Amazing visual here.

3. Current NFL players took nine straight weeks off from appearing on the ManningCast, so the jinx was put on hold for a bit. But it was back in full force this week thanks to Aaron Rodgers, who appeared with Peyton and Eli last Monday and lost to the Lions yesterday, 37–30.

4. This graphic summing up LeBron's dominance and longevity is simply amazing.

And in his two games since that graphic was posted, LeBron has put up 32 points, nine rebounds and eight assists—and then 35 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Ridiculous.

5. Great stuff here from Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs.

6. This week's SI Media Podcast, which dropped Thursday afternoon, is a roundtable edition featuring Al Michaels and Tom Rinaldi on the career of John Madden.

Michaels, who worked with Madden for seven seasons, and Rinaldi, who was a director on the recent Fox Sports documentary about Madden, share behind-the-scenes stories, give us insight into Madden's personality and discuss some of the memorable relationships Madden had throughout his career.

Everything from Madden's fear of flying to the Madden Cruiser to his partnership with Pat Summerall and much more is covered.

Following Michaels and Rinaldi is the weekly "Traina Thoughts" segment with Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY TV in New York. This week, Sal and I talk about his bout with COVID-19, reaction to a Wizards broadcaster making an innocent mistake, Kirk Herbstreit's recent controversial comments and the best things we watched over the holidays.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Stitcher.

You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: On this date, Jan. 10, in 1999, the greatest show in the history of television debuted on HBO. Here is the best line from that episode.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.