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Neil Best of Newsday reports that NFL Network has hired Giants play-by-play announcer Bob Papa to handle the call for the eight regular-season games to be aired on the league-owned network.
Papa replaces Bryant Gumbel, who was a half-click below dreadful during two seasons on the job. Papa presumably will work with holdover Cris Collinsworth.
We’d previously reported that NFLN had offered the job to Al Michaels of NBC, but that Michaels turned it down.
Other finalists were Tom Hammond and Spero Dedes.
Papa also co-hosts The Opening Drive on Sirius NFL Radio with Randy Cross and Peter King, and Papa handles boxing for HBO.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Nice, I didnt know Papa was even in the running. This guy LOVES football and it comes through. Hopefully they wont muzzle him too much and just let him call it the way he sees it.
Papa and Collinsworth will be the best combo, you heard it hear first!
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Rating: 2.8 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
June 25th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Bad enough Strahan and now Papa..he is ok on Sirius radio, but he is a homer tride and true
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
June 25th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I’ve seen this guy quite a bit on HBO, I had to look him up to see what he looks like, but he’s good. I think they did a great job getting this guy.
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Rating: 2.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 25th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
he does a great job on Sirius. congrats to him and NFLN for finally getting it right
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Rating: 2.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 25th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Uh Florio - he likes it when you call him “Big Papa”.
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Rating: 3.4 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
June 25th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Great voice, hope he’s good on play by play because he’s terrible on the Opening Drive program…wordy, off point, rarely has any in depth knowledge of NFL teams other than the Giants. He seems like he would rather talk about just anything other than football (again, unless its the Giants), he drags down his co-hosts even the smart, experienced Peter King.
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
June 25th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
They should have hired Emmitt Smith. I would pay good money to watch those games.
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Rating: 2.5 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
June 25th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
bob papa is quite a few clicks above most of the other
football announcers.the public will like him.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
June 25th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I know he’s primarily a baseball guy, but Harry Kalas does a great job for the Phillies and NFL films.
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Rating: Not yet rated
June 25th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
he is excellent, very good choice. one of those announcers who you don’t notice (which is the way it should be)
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
June 25th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Great. Now in addition to Sirius radio, we can hear all about the Giants during the NFLN broadcast of other teams to.
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Rating: 3.4 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
June 25th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
And I thought I was the only one who thinks Bryant Gumbel is dimwit.
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Rating: 2.35 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 25th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
The only thing that matters in this whole article are the words “replaces Bryant Gumbel”. You could put anything in front of that and it would sense. Like “A potted plant replaces Bryant Gumbel.” or “Patricia Hilton replaces Bryant Gumbel.”
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Rating: 4.35 / 5 with 6 rating(s)
June 25th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Remember how Bryant Gumbel always referred to a team punting on 4th down, as “giving it up on downs” ?
I’m gonna miss that…
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Rating: 3.75 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
June 25th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Re Chesapeake:
“he drags down his co-hosts even the smart, experienced Peter King.”
Huh, are you crazy? Peter King may be experienced but thats about it. The guy has an unhealthy love for Favre and makes ridiculous predictions that never come true. (Not that he is all that different from a lot of other analysts in that regard.)
I stopped reading MMQB two years ago once sites like this and football outsiders came along. Personally I cant stand the guy.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
June 25th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I’ll hold judgement on Papa until I see evidence that he’s a giants homer. ANYTHING is better than ANY gumbel. But where did NFLN ever get the idea Dedes would be a good announcer? He is absolutely lame. He has a weak, wimpy high pitched voice which turns my stomach every time I hear him. He should get a job on “E” channel or the Oxygen network…seriously…
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
June 25th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
There are so many poor announcers that the bar is lowered for ALL announcers (see: Tony Siragusa). Even Bobcat Goldthwaite would be an upgrade after the “ho-hum” delivery Kermit the Frog brought to the table. Papa is set up to succeed, though NFLN games on the whole still need some polish.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 25th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Don’t know anything about Papa, so hopefully it will be a decent move. I get nervous though when I hear about people having a bias (the “homer” comment earlier). Doesn’t Collinsworthless already have enough bias for everyone? It would be a nice change to have some objective people in the booth.
Now they only need to replace Collinsworthless. He is awful.
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Rating: 3.35 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 26th, 2008 at 12:20 am
ESPN definitely lowered the bar for sports announcers…the time tested tradition (popular when Howard Cosell was around) of turning down the sound on the game and cranking some good tunes is still my preferred method to watch the NFL…Dark Side of the Moon, Animals and The Wall just about gets ya through the early games…
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Rating: Not yet rated
June 26th, 2008 at 1:28 am
I’m just pissed I have to have one more sports announcer with an intolerable ny/nj accent. sorry, there are other cities in the states and they have great announcers.
sirius is based in nyc, and i can (barely) cope with the cheap contracts they probably pay for schmucks like pat kirwan, bruce murray, adam schein, steve cohen, etc.
but the nfln is based in la. quit giving me these brutal, intolerable, nyc accents. mike fratello made me want to blow my brains out in the nba playoffs, and it seems like they just added breen to the later nba finals to have an annoying sopranos voice on the broadcast.
the rest of the country doesn’t like it. even people in new york didn’t grow up there, folks. if you were a huge dimaggio fan, blow it out your ass. we don’t care.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 26th, 2008 at 3:08 am
Great! Now on Sirius Randy Cross can stroke him some more.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 26th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Along with the Giants, Papa also loves to talk about the other three teams in the NFC East - Cowboys, Eagles and Skins. He does have a good voice, and I hear he is great for play by play with the Giants, so we will see.
Speaking of Sirius, can anyone figure out that grunt that Dave Hagan does before his two minute drill bit. He lets out a little Uhhhh (long pause) Dave Hagan. I think he may be saying “I’m . . . . . Dave Hagan” but its extremely annoying. I think he is trying to make some special handle for himself to move up to the big leagues.
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Rating: Not yet rated
June 26th, 2008 at 10:06 am
I’m not a great fan of his on the Opening Drive…BUT, having caught a bit of his play-by-play from a Giants game on Sirius, I came away very impressed. He’s quite a bit better there.
The OD is funny…Randy Cross is much better when he’s in the driver’s seat (say, when Papa is away). He tends not to be so wishy-washy. As it is, that’s one of the weaker shows on Sirius.
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Rating: Not yet rated
June 26th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I’ve only seen the NFL Network once - Gumbal was horrible, akin to Emmit Smith on Sunday night football.
As to making this move - how will it really matter? Since NFL Network and the NFL are so pigheaded about not making these games available, who actually gets to watch the broadcast? Less than 1% of the country?
I’m with the cable companies - until they make all the games available to “everyone” who wants to watch and is willing to pay - if we can get them outside of Direct TV - the NFL Network will continue to be a bust along with their fellow dummies at The Big 10 Network who have in one season set back Big Ten Sports by 60 years.
I want to see the games my favorite teams play - college or pro - period. These money grubbers are preventing that. Until they come around and make everything equal - the NFL’s anti-trust exemption should be suspended.
That will clear the way for The Dallas Cowboys Network to get rolling - at least then Dallas fans every where will be able to access their teams games via the net each week. Jerry Jones and Pepsi will be bigger than the Beijing Olympics in a few weeks.
As for the rest of the league - the Patriot Network would die on the vine because of lack of subscribers outside of their small local area and most of the rest of the teams wouldn’t be able to afford their own team networks. Except Green Bay, which would probably team with PBS because they are the only team without a whore for an owner.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
June 26th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
I just hope Papa is better prepared with information during the NFLN broadcasts; during the Opening Drive, he spends so much time on inane chatter I usually end up changing the channel. There are times when an entire segment, from commercial to commercial, goes by where there isn’t one football-related item discussed! Call me crazy but when you’re the lead host on a drive time morning show on NFL Radio, shouldn’t you concentrate on the NFL? There are 32 teams, over 1700 players, over 300 coaches, a couple of hundred front office personnel, hundreds of scouts, reporters and team announcers for every team in every city, over 200 recent draft picks, at least that many free agent rookies…with a little research and curiosity, can’t you glean consistent stories and info nuggets there? Throw in trade rumors, players recovering from injuries, OTAs finishing up and training camps starting next month…if you’re an NFL geek (and let’s face it, if you read PFT or listen to NFL Radio you’re at least a semi-geek which is meant as a compliment) this is probably what you want to hear.
I don’t mean to be picking on Papa, who seems like a nice guy and, if I was a Giants fan, I’d probably like a lot. And since his first paycheck is coming from the Giants as their announcer, I even understand why he’s in their pocket. But any radio channel’s “prime time” is drive time in the morning and afternoon; these programs are typically the strongest which means the hosts, particularly the lead guy, should be the best. Unfortunately, he is far from that in this role and time will tell if he puts the time in to research the teams in the games he will be announcing for NFLN…and he is capable of leaving his obvious Giants bias aside.
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Rating: Not yet rated