Broadcast Booths will Never be the Same

The sports world will miss these iconic titans that have retired in the recent months, some enthralling personalities that got you excited when they were on the television. The games and highlights were intriguing because of the matchups, but you tuned out everything else around you to listen to them because you wanted to hear what these guys said. You got even more excited when their voices filled the living room.

Their input had value, their presentation added to the game and they articulated drama through their microphones better than anyone else in their time. More than anything, even into their 60s and 70s they brought life and energy to the games.

Yesterday the news broke that Brent Musburger will retire after he calls the UGA/Kentucky basketball game on January 31st. No longer will fans hear “You are looking live…” as the view from a Goodyear Blimp looks down on a big college football game so that bettors knew the weather conditions. And no longer will we get to hear Uncle Brent’s obviously subtle references to “his friends in the desert.”

This came a little more than a week after ESPN announced Chris Berman would no longer be the host of NFL Countdown, basically his last regular gig with the company. Even though his “Fastest 2-minutes” shtick got old about ten years ago, it was a shtick that stood out from the rest and made highlights fun.

His chemistry and ‘sound-effects’ with Tom Jackson almost never got old for me, his back-back-back at Homerun Derbies can never be matched, and much like Uncle Brent – he taught me a lot about the spread.

Let’s also not forget that Verne Lundquist is no longer gracing us with his presence on SEC Saturdays. Verne’s football play-by-play retirement was less of a shock than the other two because it was a season long swan-song, with it finally ending at the Army-Navy game. Even though we knew it was a coming, it didn’t make it any easier to lose Verne.

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It’s reported that Musburger will move to Las Vegas to run a sportsbook with his family and possibly a program sharing his picks, so he’ll still be there for us to consume his content. Also, Verne will still be there for two of the best weekends in sports: March Madness and the Masters. So not all is lost.

While it is a huge bummer that their voices won’t welcome us as we turn on games and they won’t be there to close out the drama of closing seconds - don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.

Also worth mentioning, are the retirements of Vin Scully and Dick Enberg – while they’re also legendary broadcasters, because they were team specific, they didn’t have the same effect as the aforementioned broadcasters. But hearing Vin list grocery items is always great: