5. Curt Gowdy
One of the original broadcasters in the business, Gowdy is recognized as being at the top of his field during his era of prominence.
Gowdy began his career as a broadcaster for the Boston Red Sox. And in 1960, he switched over to announcing American Football League games with Paul Christman. His warm, inviting style of calling games resonated with viewers, and he entered his prime in 1965 after joining the NBC Sports team. NFL fans will never forget his legendary call of the “Heidi” game in 1968.
Gowdy was so revered that when NBC’s top football broadcasters had to miss the beginning of the 1988 NFL season due to committing to covering the Olympics—many wondered where he was and why he wasn’t behind the microphone calling games during that time.
He gave a great interview about what it was like to cover multiple Super Bowls.
4. Jim Nantz
The reason why Nantz makes this list whereas other top sportscasters of his generation such as Al Michaels and Joe Buck do not is because he is primarily recognized as a strictly football broadcaster. Michaels may have called prime-time football longer than many others, but he still, through no fault of his own, is going to be most recognized for baseball and his call in the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Nantz, on the other hand, has had such a prominent role in football and he was even a driving force behind getting NFL’s overtime rule changed.
Nantz first joined CBS in 1985 as a studio host to discuss college football, basketball and golf. He then began calling NFL games on Westwood One in 1988. Ten years later he would join the NFL on CBS team—where he currently resides—and the rest is history.
And he’s garnered plenty of prominent awards during the course of his career. In 2011, he won the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Sports Personality (play-by-play) in 2008 and 2009.
Nantz has even appeared in various television sitcoms, including How I Met Your Mother and Arliss. He’s a football icon. Nearly every sports fan of this generation knows who Nantz is, and there’s a reason for that.
3. Pat Summerall
It was once said that Mel Allen’s voice was the soundtrack of baseball. Summerall’s is the soundtrack of football. Go back to any team’s highlight film of the ’70s. Chances are Summerall is the narrator.
A master of the setup with a comforting tone, Summerall excelled as both a color commentator and play-by-play broadcaster—a difficult transition. After making the switch to play-by-play, Summerall was such a good technical broadcaster as he knew how to let the game and commentator speak for themselves and not be overbearing.
Still, he was able to relate enough of his own experiences as a former player to insure credibility without devolving into a “back when I played” shtick.
And he gave an amazing “farewell” speech after John Madden announced his retirement.
While Summerall’s playing career in the glory days of the New York Giants franchise unquestionably opened broadcasting doors for him, he possessed the on-air talent and football IQ to make it onto network television without them. He earned everything he accomplished.
2. John Madden
Madden became football’s most recognizable color commentator after the Howard Cosell era by essentially becoming everything Cosell wasn’t. He was part of the “jockocracy” as a former coach that was so devoted to his craft. His commentary often seemed to come right out of the old Batman TV series, “Bam! Boom! Whap! Bang!”.
But when the common man watches football, he thinks “Bam!” and “Boom!” whenever he sees a hard tackle or pancake block. Such simplistic commentary was genius in that it related to the majority of the audience.
Here’s a highlight reel from one of his vintage calls—the 1985 NFC Championship Game at Soldier Field (Rams vs Bears).
Madden was also the first to make prominent use of the telestrator, which allowed fans to see plays drawn up for the first time. The fact that it was done by a Super Bowl-winning coach made the act phenomenally credible.
Another skill of Madden’s was to highlight a hard-working underdog player and make them prominent. If he did it enough, that player would earn stardom as a member of Madden’s annual “All-Madden Team” which aired on prime-time television at the end of the season.
Why else would a network put up with a broadcaster who refused to fly to games? When Madden was in the booth, viewers knew the best of the NFL was on display. And Madden would keep them engaged and entertained during the entirety of it.
1. Howard Cosell
Cosell was an original and the first of his kind—a broadcaster who intertwined sports and pop culture. He also delivered the news without sugarcoating or watering it down.
He was an innovator, and many of the freedoms football broadcasters have today are because of Cosell. When Leroy Kelly had a poor showing in the very first telecast of ABC’s Monday Night Football, Cosell stated the Cleveland Browns’ running back “had not been a compelling figure” in the game.
Today, that is a standard comment from a color commentator. In fact, someone unwilling to make such a comment would be labeled ‘vanilla.’ But those were different times. Cosell kept it real and did not water down broadcasts.
Cosell was a ringleader in the booth not from a play-by-play standpoint but rather for his style as a color commentator. He was often branded as critical, but any review of his work would reveal a wealth of positive comments and playful banter with the rest of his cohorts on any Monday Night Football broadcast.
He would even poke fun at himself. Once guest starring on The Odd Couple, Cosell congratulated a young man who had won a “Why I Want to Be Like Howard Cosell” essay contest.
Attempts to duplicate him on Monday Night Football with the likes of Tony Kornheiser and Dennis Miller have been epic failures. We will likely never again see a sportscaster attain the level of cultural prominence that Cosell was able to achieve.
He called the games as he saw them. And during a time period filled with fluff commentary, it was extremely refreshing and it’s what made him great.