Fans, one of the most talked about sports radio topics on a national scale over the last couple of years is how awful Bryant Gumbel was calling play-by-play on the NFL Network's national broadcasts of 8 prime time games from Thanksgiving night to the final Saturday of the regular season. While Bryant has since hung up the microphone and will no longer call the 8 NFLN broadcasts, I don't know if who the network has picked to replace him is much better. According to USA Today's Michael Hiestand, the league has picked Bob Papa, the radio voice of the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants on WFAN SportsRadio, has been picked as the new play-by-play voice of the NFL Network's prime time broadcasts, starting Thanksgiving night, Thursday, November 27th. While anyone other than Bryant would be considered an upgrade, I'm not as familiar with Bob's work as others who call NFL Football on a national level. I know Cris Collinsworth, whom Papa will be working with, is outspoken as an analyst and I thought called out the Bears for "unprofessional football" during a game he & Bryant called on NFLN last December at FedEx Field vs. the Washington Redskins that sealed the Bears' fate. Truth be told, I thought a more familiar voice, such as NBC's Tom Hammond, FOX's Kenny Albert, and onetime Westwood One "Monday Night Football" radio voice Howard David, would be better choices than Bob Papa.

Anyone other than Bryant Gumble would be a considerable upgrade. His poor delivery, lack of intonation, and minimal grasp of the game made him very ill-suited for the play-by-play role. He made Al Michaels listenable for me, and generally I loathe listening to a Michaels broadcast.

My god man, throw in an "enter" key once in awhile and just tell us the main stuff and leave all the reporter fluff elsewhere.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Howard David would've been my choice. Shit, I'd even rather have Larry David than Bryant Gumble again.

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-"God is great. Beer is good. And People are crazy!"

I don't understand why CBS Radio Sports/Westwood One dumped Howard from its "Monday Night Football" broadcasts, even though Marv Albert and Boomer Esiason have done a good job in making it listenable. Was Howard that outspoken to lose the "MNF" gig on the radio? I wish he was the voice of the Bears over Jeff Joniak...

This joke seems awfully familiar. Are you giving us repeats for the summer?

Colonel, Bryant Gumbel's awful play-by-play call on NFL Network's broadcasts of live Thursday & Saturday night primetime games was a constant target of criticism on both local & national sports talk radio shows everywhere before he "decided" not to return for a third season this November. I know very little about Bob Papa, other than the fact he's the radio voice of the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants. Anyone other than Bryant would be an upgrade, but I wish NFLN had a more familiar voice calling its own games.