Brian Billick is a really good color commentator

[albionmoonlight]

First, I don't like Brian Billick. I have the impression that, even in the megalomaniac-filled world of pro-football coaches, he stands out as a huge ego and kind of a dickhead.

I must, however, give credit where it is due. He did color for the Saints/Bucs game this Sunday, and he did it very well. He clearly understood the players and coaches of both teams and their strengths and weaknesses. And he also talked intelligently about the game from a film/coaches standpoint.

At one point the play-by-play guy asked him to predict a play, and Billick said that you actually don't go into a situation with a play in mind; you base it on the defensive tendencies and that he hadn't been watching the film that Jon Gruden had been watching, so he wasn't going to guess.

Right afterwards, however, he saw the Bucs' formation and gave an educated guess which turned out to be right. Then, on the replay, he explained why the players were lined up where they were and how that forced the defense into a certain reaction and how that helped him to predict how the play was going to develop all while going into the history of the formation and explaining how Bill Walsh was the first guy to use it.

And there were lots of little things like that all game. Very very good color commentary.

I think that coaches who come right off the sideline and into the booth can sometimes be awful (if they just don't know how to act on camera), but they can sometimes be refreshing because they are still so close to the game that they can really talk about it like a coach and they have not been announcers long enough to become that generic color guy (or, God forbid, get a schtick that ends up becoming bigger than the game).

I imagine that if Billick stays with it, he will start to lose some of his insight because he will start to have to talk about players and coaches that he didn't spend 80 hours a week gameplanning against. And, if he gets popular enough, they will move him to the marquee games, and he will have to spend all of his time bantering with Tony Sarigusa or whatever other jolly fat guy they have doing the sideline stuff at that time.

But, for now, he is good at what he does.

[claphamsa]

I sure missed him in Baltimore yesterday

[Subby]

Yeah I bet that loss stung.

[Butter]

I agree with you albion. What I saw of him yesterday was entertaining and informative without being inane or generic. Of course, I only watched like 10 minutes of that game, but what I saw was good.

[PackerFanatic]

I only caught the end of the Bucs/Saints game (what they showed after DET/ATL) and I had totally even forgotten that he was doing that now, but I agree. The little I saw of him, I liked what I heard, and can only hope that the Packers get him to do one of their games.

[boberot]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

I think that coaches who come right off the sideline and into the booth can sometimes be awful (or, God forbid, get a schtick that ends up becoming bigger than the game).

Some of these old coaches come off the field, become color guys, develop a shtick and BOOM! they're around forever.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Originally Posted by boberot

Some of these old coaches come off the field, become color guys, develop a shtick and BOOM! they're around forever.

And you know, when that happens that means that they'll be there forever.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by M GO BLUE!!!

And you know, when that happens that means that they'll be there forever.

You know another guy who'll be around forever, that's Brett Favre.

[thesloppy]

I stumbled across Bernie Kosar doing color during the preseason, and that dude blew my mind. He was talking about all kinds of things in the level of detail well beyond any other color guy I'd ever heard....the catch was that it was 100% QB-centric, but I was impressed.

[aran]

In New York we are stuck with Carl Banks.

CARL BANKS.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

You know another guy who'll be around forever, that's Brett Favre.

That gave me a good chuckle, just thought you'd like to know.