Rating the ABC/ESPN announcers for Vikings-Rams
Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will have the call Monday night on ABC and ESPN. The game will be carried by KSTP (Ch. 5) in the Twin Cities.
Having covered the sports TV-radio beat for the Star Tribune for eight years, I found there was plenty of interest in that side of the business.
We tune into games to watch the action, but the viewing experience either can be enhanced or diminished by those describing what is going on.
Thus, each week I’m providing a brief analysis of who will be in the booth to call the Vikings’ game and whether the assignment is a good or bad one.
Network and broadcast team: Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will have the call at 7 p.m. Monday on ABC and ESPN. Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge will be the sideline reporters. ABC affiliate KSTP (Ch. 5) will have the game in the Twin Cities.
Rating the duo: 8 on a scale of 1-10.
Why that rating? Buck and Aikman are in their third year calling Monday night games after 20 seasons of being the No. 1 NFL team at FOX. Buck is one of the best in the business and Aikman is solid in the booth.
It will be interesting to hear what Aikman, a three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback with the Cowboys, has to say about Sam Darnold’s poor performance last Sunday night against Detroit.
Darnold figures to be a main focus, as does the relationship between Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell and Rams coach Sean McVay, who was O’Connell’s boss before he left for Minnesota.
Salters is usually the only sideline reporter for this crew, but Rutledge has been added for the playoff game. That will enable ESPN to have a reporter on each sideline.
This should be a top-notch production with plenty of camera angles and pregame hype, given it’s being carried by ESPN. The ESPN production folks could face a significant challenge if the wildfires in Los Angeles force the game to be moved to the Cardinals’ home stadium in Glendale, Ariz.