Ain't no soul here to let out a joyful bellow at this excellent news?

Yes! We no longer will be subjected to mistakes such as calling missed field goals good, calling Frank Gore "Al Gore," etc. We no longer will have to hear Gumbel say that someone "appears to have the first down" when the player is tackled four yards beyond the first down marker, or that a play "appears to be short of the first down" when the player is tackled three yards short of the first down.

Hopefully, Gumbel's replacement will be a huge upgrade. As long as the new play-by-play announcer is competent, that will be the case.

I, for one, am not ready to say this is such a great move... I watched a game called by (i think) Tom Hammond, (Colts-Cheifs playoff a couple of years ago) and I must say I wasn't impressed. If this is where NFLN is going, it's not that much of an upwards move

"We at Football Outsiders wish Greg the best in his future endeavors."

That should be Bryant. Or is that mistake intentional to mock Bryant Gumbel's penchant for such mistakes?

I would like to take his spot. Think I have any chance?

ding dong the witch is dead

6,

Well look at the bright side, at least ol' Rick won't be playing anytime soon.

Someone send Raiderjoes's resume to NFLN!

Well, played FO.

Kind of sucks for Gumbel, though. Didn't he also lose his other gig on HBO?

I for one don't applaud the news, especially if Hammond ends up being the replacement.

Yeah, Gumbel made too many mistakes and his voice is at best tolerable, but he and Collinsworth had the best interplay of any of announcing team currently in action. Neither guy needs much provocation to give some controversial opinions, and Gumbel was pretty excellent at opening interesting doors for Collinsworth to walk into.

Hammond, in the game he subbed on NFLNet, made just as many mistakes as Gumbel in the play-by-play and was boring to boot. Gumbel's performance can be improved upon, but Hammond is not the one to do it

Kind of sucks for Gumbel, though. Didn’t he also lose his other gig on HBO?

I hear they're bringing back Gumbel 2 Gumbel

I have lived in Germany all my life, but if Raiderjoe gets that gig, I am moving to the US right away just to be able to watch NFLN.

I would like to nominate this guy for consideration for Bryant's old job.

If only we had some kind of statistic to evaluate announders. A kind of team-adjusted play-by-play value over average, to compare how he did versus some generic replacement announcer.

There are so many things to say, but I think YAY expresses them all.

Halleluiah!! Praise the Lord!!

My prayers have been answered. He is the worst sportscaster ever!

I'd rather listen to Japanese announcers talk about people getting hit in the nuts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdFW-hrGX7g

I fear it will take some seriously powerful arguments to convince me that the worst sportscaster ever is anyone other than David Pleat. You guys over there have no idea how lucky you are.

If Raiderjoe gets the job, I'm getting NFLN. I don't care what it would cost.

Re 15 - thanks for sharing!

Well they are at it they should sign Collinsworth to a lifetime contract.

He is without a doubt the best color guy in the business.

My dream lineup would be Al Michaels with Collinsworth and Aikman.

Re #3/etc
Hammond is the main PBP guy for Notre Dame games. I doubt NBC and the Golden Dome will let him go.

This is most excellent news! Oh, and re #18: that is a seriously strange video.

now all that's needed is a way to make the NFL network go away...

gumbel wasn't that good at play-by-play. unless you've got a reason to care--say you can't see your tv--why do you care so much? he said more interesting, controversial stuff than any other play-by-play guy i can think of. i valued that more--even when i disagreed with his takes, as i frequently did--than someone who gets the spot down to the yard before the next play's set up.

Collinsworth's pretty good, but I still think the best colour commentary I have ever heard was from Marshall Faulk in that . . . Falcons-Cowboys, was it ? . . . game in 2006, when he stepped in for Dick Vermeil at half-time. They should get as much booth action as they can out of him before some team wises up and hires him for their front office.

27: Yes, because Matt Millen's track record proves that being a good color commentator is the sole qualification needed to be an outstanding team executive. :)

Collinsworth is horrible. Every so often he makes an interesting observation, but for the most part he just regurgitates whatever storyline his producers tell him. The worst thing about Gumbel was that he couldn't accurately tell you anything about the game. I think they should try to get Brian Billick and team him up with a competent play by play guy and a knowledgeable ex-player like Faulk or Dan Fouts. Billick knows the Xs and Os and has the ego to call out the teams when they make questionable calls. Yeah, he's a jerk, and I'm glad Baltimore canned him, but he will probably be a great color guy because of it.

26:

If I want to hear controversial stories, I'll watch a controversial sports story tv show. When I watch a game, I want the play-by-play guy to give me the damned play-by-play.

#27: The best color commentary I've ever heard was Terry Bradshaw during the one time he did the Sugar Bowl with Howie Long. Absolutely fantastic. He called a touchdown before it happened, paused for the play to actually finish, noted actual, relevant information from previous interviews with the players - everything a color commentary guy is supposed to do. And he even corrected his own mistakes when he made them.

30: ok, sam, that's cool, you want what you want and i would rather have someone telling me something i might find interesting than providing a voiceover for what i'm watching.

i certainly admit my stance isn't commonly held.

I have to agree with Dave on this. They splash the down and distance on the field for mike's sake.
I know a thing or 2 about football and my eyes work.

I fear it will take some seriously powerful arguments to convince me that the worst sportscaster ever is anyone other than David Pleat. You guys over there have no idea how lucky you are.

A thousand times yes.

I wish someone would give him a go at commentating on the NFL, though. It's possible that trying to pronounce, say, "Roethlisberger" might actually cause his head to explode.

Surprisingly I really liked Deion Sanders when the NFLN had him doing color for one game. I'm not a big fan of the whole 'Primetime' persona but he was extremely knowledgable and insightful in the booth.

Re:19&34 David Pleat is quite bad.

I have to say I often found myself shouting at the radio whenever Graham Taylor was commentating. But that he does have a similar voice to Pleat and I now begin to wonder if they are but one and the same ...

PS Kevin Keegan had his faux pas moments during Euro 2000 ("Only one team could win this match from here, and that's England."
Moments before Romania scored the equalising goal, eventually going on to win..)

I have to say I often found myself shouting at the radio whenever Graham Taylor was commentating. But that he does have a similar voice to Pleat and I now begin to wonder if they are but one and the same …

You. Outside. Now.

(Full disclosure: Watford fan).