Cbs Launches Raid Of Nbc For Nfl Voices

CBS’ NFL announcing team will have a decidedly NBC flavor next season.

Former NBC lead analyst Phil Simms and studio host Greg Gumbel were hired Thursday to form CBS Sports’ No. 1 team as the network brings back pro football.

CBS also announced that it hired NBC analyst Randy Cross to work either on games or in the studio, and that Jim Nantz will anchor the “NFL Today.”

NBC lost the rights to the AFC games earlier this month to CBS, which agreed to pay $500 million a year for the games. That left CBS scrambling for talent and NBC announcers looking for work.

Gumbel and Cross both worked at CBS before the network lost the rights to the NFL in 1993. Gumbel said he has always been grateful to CBS for giving him his first network job in 1989.

Simms, a 15-year NFL veteran as a quarterback for the New York Giants, began his broadcasting career in 1994 at ESPN. He spent the last three years teamed with Dick Enberg and Paul Maguire on NBC’s lead announcing team and has called two Super Bowls, including this year’s game.

Working in a two-man booth will be a change for Simms, but not one he is unprepared for. Last year, Simms worked one game alone with Enberg, which he said gave him confidence that he can adjust.

It is also a role change for Gumbel, who has been an NFL studio host since 1990.

Weather or not

With four years to prepare, there is only one thing worrying CBS Olympic producer Rick Gentile. Unfortunately, it’s something he can’t control.

“My biggest concern is the weather,” Gentile said during a conference call from Nagano, Japan. “The big question is not a lack of snow, but fog on the downhill and wind at the ski jumping venue. There is any combination of elements that can cause us trouble, but there is nothing we can do about it, so we will just roll with the punches. That is the risk involved with doing a Winter Olympics.”

That risk is heightened with the games 14 hours ahead of EST. That means CBS’ prime-time coverage will take place from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. local (Nagano) time, as opposed to after midnight during the last two Winter Games in France and Norway.

While that provides some benefits, such as the first live prime-time coverage of the men’s and women’s downhill, it could create new problems.

The men’s downhill starts 15 minutes into CBS’ first night of event coverage, on Saturday, Feb. 7, and if fog delays the start of the race, CBS will be forced to juggle its schedule.

The time difference means some events will receive unaccustomed live coverage. Others will be stale when they air.

Figure skating was broadcast 5 or 6 hours after it ended in Lillehammer and Albertville. This year, the competition will end at about 8 a.m. EST, 12 hours before CBS goes on the air.

Many viewers not only will know the results but also will have read stories in afternoon newspapers or on the Internet.

Around the dial

ABC’s coverage of the Pro Bowl (Sunday, 3 p.m. PST) will be Frank Gifford’s final game in the booth at ABC after 27 years. ABC estimates that Gifford has announced 588 consecutive NFL games for ABC, since joining the network in 1971… . ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” examines the issue of weight and athletics in the wake of the deaths of three college wrestlers. The show, which airs today at 2:30 p.m. PST, also includes a segment on jockeys, who use self-induced vomiting, extreme dieting, diuretics and saunas to lose weight.