Greg Gumbel, a broadcasting legend who has been involved in NFL telecasts for decades, is staying at CBS but exiting the network’s NFL coverage.
John Ourand of Sports Business Journal reports that Gumbel has signed an extension with CBS, but that he will step down as a play-by-play announcer for NFL games.
At CBS, he hosted The NFL Today from 1990 through 1993. He then joined NBC after CBS lost the NFC package to Fox. In 1998, Gumbel returned to CBS, after it acquired the AFC package from NBC.
Gumbel worked with Phil Simms as lead play-by-play announcer at CBS from 1998 through 2003. He returned to studio hosting in 2004 and 2005, and he has been calling NFL games with CBS every year since 2006.
Along the way, he called two Super Bowls (XXXV and XXXVIII).
Greg Gumbel, 76, is the older brother of Bryant Gumbel.
Last year, Greg Gumbel had some candid thoughts regarding the money being given to NFL broadcasters.
“I’ve never felt in my entire life there is an announcer who can bring someone to the TV set to watch a game that that viewer wasn’t already going to watch,” he told Jimmy Traina of SI.com. “And I believe the only thing a broadcaster can do is chase people away. . . . I won’t name them — but there are three or four announcers, ‘Oh, I’m really interested in watching, oops, nope, click, gone. I truly believe that. I don’t think that someone is tuning in just to hear a particular person call a football game.”
Congratulations to Greg Gumbel on a great run as one of the voices of pro football, for more than 30 years.
