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The original was posted on /r/nfl by /u/MannOSteel on 2024-11-02 17:33:58+00:00.
For those not old enough to remember, CBS used to cover the NFC (dating back to the pre-merger NFL) and NBC covered the AFC (dating back to the American Football League). However, FOX outbid CBS for the NFC in 1994, acquiring Pat Summerall, John Madden, and the majority of the NFL on CBS crew.
When CBS got back into the NFL by outbidding NBC for the AFC in 1998, why did they choose Greg Gumbel to be their lead play-by-play announcer over Dick Enberg? Prior to NBC losing the NFL, Enberg called eight Super Bowls, from XIII to XXXII, and would go onto announce for another 20 years with CBS and ESPN.
Obviously hindsight is 20/20, but Gumbel would be replaced by Jim Nantz only a few years later. Did they simply want someone younger, because it wasn’t as if Gumbel was that much younger. It was just odd to see an iconic announcer passed over when Summerall and Al Michaels were afforded the opportunity to be lead announcers until much later in life with FOX and NBC.