Announcerless Game (NYJ@Mia, '80) discussion

[Gary Najman]

I have these questions: How it was before all the commercials started? What was the approximate time for a game (I know that in the Heidi Game, the time duration of a game was 2 hours 45 minutes, and rarely reached 3 hours). As a kid in the 70s, I remember that usully they were 3 hours, and in the 80s-90s they were 3 hours 15 minutes or 3 hours 20 minutes for non-overtime games, as it is today.

[Mark L. Ford]

What is needed is a one announcer game. Play by Play only, no "color".

Also, if MLS can broadcast games with no commercials during a half, no reason why the NFL cant at least try it once.

Actually, NBC followed up its "Silence Bowl" with a one announcer game on December 12, 1981, with the N.Y. Jets at Cleveland. Dick Enberg handled it all for that broadcast. I never saw it, just heard about it afterward.

Regarding the prospect for a commercial-free game, ESPN has to recoup costs of about one million for an MLS game, but $100 million for one of its Monday Night Football games ($1.9 billion a year for 17 regular season games).

[BD Sullivan]

What is needed is a one announcer game. Play by Play only, no "color".

Also, if MLS can broadcast games with no commercials during a half, no reason why the NFL cant at least try it once.

Actually, NBC followed up its "Silence Bowl" with a one announcer game on December 12, 1981, with the N.Y. Jets at Cleveland. Dick Enberg handled it all for that broadcast. I never saw it, just heard about it afterward.

That 1981 game wasn't planned as such. Merlin Olsen was busy filming his series Father Murphy and couldn't make it. Afterward, Enberg offered comments that indicated he wasn't a big fan of going solo.

[Rupert Patrick]

I seem to recall that back when this game occurred there was a backlash from the public toward TV announcers, particularly the lightning rod of Cosell. His act was wearing thin on viewers by that point, and I remember a segment on "Real People" I think it was about the "TV Bricks" which were foam bricks that you could throw at the TV when an announcer (particularly Cosell) said something you didn't like. It just seemed like a lot of people just wanted announcers in general, and Cosell in particular, to shut the heck up.

So the announcer-less game went off, and I remember it seemed to ignite a surge in a sentiment of "Oh no, this was even worse than droning announcers" further underlining the old adage of be careful what you wish for.

I remember the anti-Cosell sentiment by that time. I think there was a bar that would have an old TV every week for someone to throw something and break the TV screen when Cosell came on. It was a weekly ritual.

I watched some of the announcerless game. It was oddly off-putting. It didn't work for me.

I remember in the Woody Allen movie "Sleeper" where Woody plays a guy from the 1970's who goes into some sort of suspended animation for 200 years and wakes up in the future. These scientists from the future sit down with him and ask him questions about the past because the past history is very fragmented and they're trying to piece things together. They showed him a clip of Howard Cosell droning on about something, and told Woody Allen they weren't sure what this video was, that they felt it must have been some sort of punishment, that when people committed very serious crimes, this was their punishment, to be forced to sit and watch Howard Cosell talk endlessly. Woody Allen confirmed that the scientists were indeed correct.

[BD Sullivan]

I remember in the Woody Allen movie "Sleeper" where Woody plays a guy from the 1970's who goes into some sort of suspended animation for 200 years and wakes up in the future. These scientists from the future sit down with him and ask him questions about the past because the past history is very fragmented and they're trying to piece things together. They showed him a clip of Howard Cosell droning on about something, and told Woody Allen they weren't sure what this video was, that they felt it must have been some sort of punishment, that when people committed very serious crimes, this was their punishment, to be forced to sit and watch Howard Cosell talk endlessly. Woody Allen confirmed that the scientists were indeed correct.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kwcLW9I0n8

[MarbleEye]

What is needed is a one announcer game. Play by Play only, no "color".

Also, if MLS can broadcast games with no commercials during a half, no reason why the NFL cant at least try it once.

Actually, NBC followed up its "Silence Bowl" with a one announcer game on December 12, 1981, with the N.Y. Jets at Cleveland. Dick Enberg handled it all for that broadcast. I never saw it, just heard about it afterward.

Regarding the prospect for a commercial-free game, ESPN has to recoup costs of about one million for an MLS game, but $100 million for one of its Monday Night Football games ($1.9 billion a year for 17 regular season games).

Trying to think back to Dec 1981 as to what I was doing and I have no memory of the Enberg game, (The Browns were a disappointing 5-11 that year, a December game probably wasn't all that appealing that late in a bad season for a Cleveland native such as myself. Especially with the "Siper Bowl" mania of the previous season.) but sure would have liked to have seen it. Dick Enberg was a great announcer but I'm sure there are/were announcers out there that would relish the chance to do a game alone. Vin Scully worked alone on Dodger baseball toward the end of his career.

As for commercial free halves of NFL football, I'm under no illusions that it will ever be tried, of course due to financial reasons. Another reason it won't be tried is audiences have been conditioned and inured to having a "60 minute" game that features between 11 and 17 minutes of actual action take 3 hours or more to broadcast. No one today thinks that's outrageous. I watched games for years oblivious to that when one day I just suddenly twigged to it. I love the game of football and believe that the overwhelming amount of commercials on an NFL broadcast is an opportunity that a competing or alternative league could exploit in it's own TV presentation to try and draw viewers. But with the NFL's TV template as accepted as it is, the temptation for any potential competitor to match the NFL commercial for commercial has to be very high. It will be interesting to see what the upcoming XFL does (or doesn't do) along these lines.

[Todd Pence]

I remember the 1981 Jets-Browns game, and I even remember the final score clearly (Jets 14, Browns 13). But I don't remember Enberg announcing on his own.

[BD Sullivan]

Small clarification about the 81 game. It turns out that both Mark I are right, since NBC did make plans to do it as an experiment. However, that decision was made because a few weeks earlier Merlin Olsen had said that production on his show was running behind and he wanted to take that game off.

[Throwin_Samoan]

Also, if MLS can broadcast games with no commercials during a half, no reason why the NFL cant at least try it once.

There are literally several billion reasons why the NFL can't do this.

There are no breaks in a soccer match. And MLS is not being paid billions for broadcast rights.

[RRMarshall]

For younger members of this group if you would like to experience the 1980 "Announcerless Game" here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4bLvEB_xlE