On Wednesday, the NFL formally announced that Bob Papa, who handles the play-by-play on Giants radio broadcasts, will succeed Bryant Gumbel as the play-by-play announcer for the eight NFL Network regular-season games.

The news was first reported last month by Neil Best of Newsday.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to join NFL Network and call the Thursday night games with the talented Cris Collinsworth,” Papa said.  ”Being the new play-by-play voice on prime-time national NFL games after announcing one of the most exciting games in NFL history, Super Bowl XLII, it doesn’t get much better than that.”

Papa also will provide pre-game and post-game reports on Giants games for NFL Network.

Gumbel’s tenure ended after two lackluster seasons on the job.  He famously got player names wrong (e.g., Rick Romo and Al Gore), and Gumbel’s delivery was, to put it as kindly as possible, uncompelling.  (Contrary to appearances, however, he never burped on the air.) 

NFLN initially attempted to hire Al Michaels, who also handles play-by-play of the weekly Sunday night games on NBC.  Michaels declined the opportunity.