NFL Sunday Pre-game Shows Have Gotten Out of Hand

Remember the days when you actually enjoyed watching Sunday NFL pre-game shows?

When it was just three guys, four at the most?

When it was James, Terry, Howie, and Ronnie?

They were educated guys who had a solid opinion about football because they came from the sport. Now the shows are just a mad grab for attention. Coaches and players alike all yell back and forth trying to get their opinion heard whether it’s right or wrong.

This season when Michael Strahan joined the Fox NFL Pre-game show, it seemed to be a good mix. Michael is a very charismatic guy who would interject more personality and knowledge into the show. He also would not disturb the chemistry of the guys on the show.

While Strahan seems to be a good fit, when will we reach a point where the networks realize that enough is enough? Five egos on one set all wanting to give their opinion on each and every NFL game of the day begins to get old after awhile.

ESPN, the "Worldwide Leader in Sports," has to be the worst at this “art.”

There are about five guys who occupy the Sunday set, four in the field at any given time, five on Monday night, and about 10 different people who make up the NFL Live crew.

Back before football became a national obsession, I remember when I would long for an episode of NFL Live in the summer.

Now I long for NFL Live to go away in the summer time. Trey Wingo and Mark Schlereth are about as enjoyable as a toothache.

The CBS pre-game show may be the worst of them all.

Shannon Sharpe and Bill Cowher seem like they shower Dan Marino and James Brown every Sunday with their “spatter baths.” Some of their games and ideas on how to present game picks and highlights seem to bring the show down a couple of levels.

I will say, however, they have more of an “old school” feel than ESPN and Fox. Shannon Sharpe is just about as bad as Emmitt Smith with his skills on presenting highlights and game analysis.

These seem to be the “big three” of NFL Sunday pre-game shows. Brett Favre seems like he would be terrible sitting in a suit and pretending to enjoy doing highlights, but I bet he is tops on some network executive’s list.

After Matt Millen’s sabbatical to the Lions for seven years, he somehow showed up on the NBC set for their “Football Night in America” show on Sunday night. Millen isn’t a bad sportscaster, so he did not do a bad job, but do we really want to take advice from a guy who was part of the first NFL team to go 0–16?

Same thing goes for Shawn King, Tim Hasselback, Kordell Stewart, and all the other players who didn’t have success in the NFL attempting to serve me an opinion on how Matt Cassel can improve his throwing motion.

For the next network that grabs the rights to broadcast NFL games on Sunday, please take a different approach on how to conduct a pre-game show.

No more than three broadcasters on the set at once, and please, please, please hire former NFL players and coaches who don’t spit when they talk and who lasted more than five years in the league.

Thank you.