NEW YORK — The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences handed out the Sports Emmy Awards Tuesday night. There were many worthy winners at the 39th annual event, but the Academy whiffed, in my book, on two of the biggest awards: Game Analyst and Play-by-Play.
I would have selected Tony Romo as best sports event analyst and Jim Nantz as best play-by-play announcer for their next-level analysis on NFL games last season on CBS. Instead, the Academy honored Kirk Herbstreit of ESPN/ABC and Mike “Doc” Emrick of NBC Sports for their work respectively on Saturday night college football and NHL game telecasts.
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Look, this is not to denigrate the achievements of Emrick or Herbstreit. Emrick is one of the gold standards for play-by-play announcing. With his record-tying fifth consecutive Emmy, he joins Fox Sports’ Joe Buck. Moreover, that makes six, count 'em, six wins for Emrick in the past eight years. For Herbstreit, it’s now three (he won his first two as a studio analyst on “College GameDay”). I wrote a few weeks ago that Herbstreit was the best analyst on either ESPN or NFL Network during Draft coverage. That’s saying something since it was his first crack at the event.
But this was the year of Romo and Nantz. In their first year in the broadcast booth together, they changed the game. The former Cowboys quarterback immediately educated viewers on what to look for in today’s pass-happy NFL, predicting passes and runs before they happened, reading complicated defensive coverages and blitz schemes in the blink of an eye and calling games with the kind of mischievous joy that reminded me of John Madden in his prime. This is sports. It’s supposed to be fun. Romo made even the worst games enjoyable, like the Jaguars' 10-3 playoff snoozer over the Bills. The bigger and better the game, the better they performed. Romo's and Nantz's work during the Patriots-Jags AFC Championship Game helped CBS win the Emmy for Outstanding Playoff coverage.
If Romo was Rookie of the Year, Nantz was CBS’ secret weapon. Nantz mentored Romo during the offseason, getting him ready for a rough maiden season in which they called both Thursday Night Football and Sunday afternoon games. Romo was raw at first, clumsily stepping on Nantz’s play calls and mumbling into the mic. But they quickly jelled as a team. Fans noticed. By the midway point of the season, many were already calling Romo the best NFL game analyst. That’s a credit to Nantz as well as Romo. Nantz also had to finesse the tricky corporate handoff to Romo from Phil Simms, his play-by-play partner of 20 years, who wasn’t thrilled about losing his No. 1 analyst job. Rather than quitting or pouting, Simms carved an entertaining new role for himself on "The NFL Today" pregame show, where he has great chemistry with James Brown, Boomer Esiason, Bill Cowher and Nate Burleson.
Remember, CBS was criticized for years by those suffering real or imagined “Simms Fatigue.” The network misfired with failed former referee Mike Carey, who reminded nobody of Fox rules analyst Mike Pereira. CBS Sports boss Sean McManus rolled the dice with Romo. It paid off big time. The Romo/Nantz team's success is already changing the sports TV game.
Anybody think Jason Witten, Romo’s Cowboys road roommate, gets ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” gig if his old QB didn’t blaze the path this season? Me neither.
Now, three of the Big 4 NFL color analyst positions are held by ex-Cowboys: Romo at CBS; Witten at ESPN and Troy Aikman at Fox. These jobs only come along every decade or so. Maybe we should just pencil in Dak Prescott as Cris Collinsworth’s future successor at NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.” That’s not to mention all the ex-members of “America's Team” working in sports TV, like Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders and DeMarcus Ware at NFL Network and Jimmy Johnson and Daryl Johnston at Fox.
WINNER VIDEO: Outstanding Sports Personality - Studio Host Bob Ley @BobLeyESPN @ESPN #SportsEmmys pic.twitter.com/rj4IhwBWi7
— Sports Emmys (@sportsemmys) May 9, 2018
Then there's the “Romo Effect.” Across the industry, sports TV networks are now clamoring for players like Romo who are literally right off the field and familiar with today’s NFL. That’s bad news for old warhorses like Ron Jaworski of ESPN, who last played decades ago. But good news for retiring players like Witten, Joe Thomas of the Browns and Carson Palmer of the Cardinals, who want to move directly from the gridiron to the broadcast booth/TV studio.
This year’s Sports Emmys drew the usual list of TV A-Listers to Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall. Among them: new ESPN boss Jimmy Pitaro. Here's a rundown on some major winners:
— Play-by-Play. Winner: Mike 'Doc' Emrick, NBC / Nominees: Jim Nantz, CBS; Joe Buck, Fox; Brad Nessler, CBS; Mike Breen, ESPN/ABC
— Game Analyst. Winner: Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN / Nominees: Tony Romo, CBS; Jon Gruden, ESPN; John Smoltz, Fox/FS1/MLB Network; Gary Danielson, CBS
— Studio Host. Winner: Bob Ley, ESPN / Nominees: Curt Menefee, Fox; Dan Patrick, NBC; Ernie Johnson, Turner Sports; Rece Davis, ESPN
WINNER VIDEO: Outstanding Live Sports Series @NBCSports Sunday Night Football @SNFonNBC #SportsEmmys pic.twitter.com/ZnjsI4b9RS
— Sports Emmys (@sportsemmys) May 9, 2018
— Studio Analyst. Winner: Harold Reynolds, MLB Network / Nominees: Michael Strahan, Fox; Tom Verducci, MLB Network/Fox; Al Leiter, MLB Network; Alexi Lalas, Fox
— Sports Reporter. Winner: Tom Verducci, MLB Network/Fox. / Nominees: Lisa Salters, ESPN/ABC; Michele Tafoya, NBC; Ken Rosenthal, Fox/FS1/MLB Network; Allie LaForce, TBS/CBS/TNT/truTV
