Let’s get this out of the way right now: Nobody ever asked for this story to be written, and in all likelihood, nobody ever would have. If you’re reading this, perhaps you’re a dork like the author who has an affinity for broadcast television nerd-dom and play-by-play announcers. Be proud of that!
With a Week 17 game that means nothing in the NFL playoff chase, FOX has assigned up-and-comer, Joe Davis, to broadcast the game. He’ll be the 28th different play-by-play announcer to call a Vikings game nationally over the past 12 seasons.
Critiquing announcers tends to be a habit of most fans. The play-by-play man or woman is the one assigned to paint an accurate, unbiased picture of the proceedings, and as you might expect, it’s hard to please everyone. Vikings fans over the years have fun at the expense of Joe Buck, who editorialized a comment about Randy Moss‘s end zone celebration in the 2004 Playoffs (“That is a disgusting act!”). They’ve trolled newbie Mike Goldberg, whose disastrous NFL broadcasting debut in 2014 included a call where Teddy Bridgewater threw a pass to Golden Tate (a member of the opposing Detroit Lions). They’ve ripped Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland for, well, any number of blunders on Monday Night Football broadcasts in 2018-19.
OK, you might not like how a broadcaster delivers a game, but that can be a subjective measure. Let’s get more analytical about this. How do the Vikings actually perform when a certain announcer is calling the game? There is OBVIOUSLY no correlation between the two, but who doesn’t enjoy in-depth research for the sake of facetiousness?
Because I have nothing better to do with the final day of 2020 (Did I mention nobody may ever read this?), I’ve pored over the last 200 Vikings games, identified the play-by-play announcer and compiled stats for each of the 27 voices that have broadcast their games since the final game of 2008. We’ll start with the announcers with whom the Vikings are least successful and work our way up, highlighting some of their most notable calls along the way. Only the 13 announcers that have called five or more Vikings games of the last 200 made the initial rankings, but we’ll make sure to include the rest at the bottom of the story.
Without further ado, the announcer that brings the Vikings the worst luck is…
#13 JIM NANTZ (CBS)
Record: 1-6
Winning Pct: .143
It has not gone well for the Vikings when CBS sends their A-team to cover their game. Jim Nantz has called six consecutive Vikings losses, most recently last year’s Week 4 debacle at Chicago. He called one of only three regular season losses in 2017 (at Carolina), a Thanksgiving Day heartbreaker at Detroit in 2016 and a Thursday night heartbreaker at Arizona in 2015. The last time the Vikings won with Nantz on the mic, they had to go overseas. He called their 34-27 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in London in 2013.
#12 MIKE TIRICO (ESPN)
Record: 1-5
Winning Pct: .167
We’re already learning a lesson about the Vikings: They haven’t performed very well on the big stage. Another A-lister in Mike Tirico, the former voice of Monday Night Football and current understudy for Al Michaels at NBC, has brought the Vikings five straight losses going back to Brett Favre’s first game against the Green Bay Packers in 2009. Since then, he’s called an overtime loss at Chicago and four relative blowouts, including Randy Moss’s first game back with the Vikings in New York. It’s been seven years since he announced a Vikings game.
#11 AL MICHAELS (NBC)
Record: 7-13
Winning Pct: .350
The voice of Sunday Night Football has not brought the Vikings much success either. From 2009 to 2014, the Vikings were 1-7 with Michaels calling the game but have improved a bit since. That didn’t stop Michaels, however, from calling three playoff losses: 2012 at Green Bay, 2015 vs. Seattle (the Blair Walsh Game) and 2019 at San Francisco. Their finest moments with Michaels likely came against the Green Bay Packers, where they clinched a division in primetime back in 2015 and christened U.S. Bank Stadium with a Week 2 win back in 2016. Minnesota is presently on a two-game Michaels losing streak, including this year’s last-second loss at Seattle.
#10 JOE BUCK (FOX)
Record: 9-14
Winning Pct: .391
Here’s the man you love to hate but really shouldn’t because he’s awfully good. Maybe you don’t like him because of all the losses he’s brought the Vikings, including playoff defeats in 2008, 2009 and 2017. Of course, he’s best known for a playoff win that stamped arguably the greatest highlight in Vikings history with his voice (DIGGS! SIDELINE! TOUCHDOWN! UNBELIEVABLE!). Other notable Buck calls include Linval Joseph’s pick six, Adrian Peterson‘s run to 2,000 yards and Brett Favre‘s demolition of the Dallas Cowboys in the 2009 playoffs. Minnesota has lost two in a row with Buck on the call, most recently on Christmas Day against the New Orleans Saints.
#9 KEVIN HARLAN (CBS)
Record: 4-4
Winning Pct: .500
It’s always a treat when Kevin Harlan gets to call a Vikings game. The omnipresent broadcaster finds time to call games for CBS in between his Westwood One radio assignments and TNT NBA schedule and has gotten eight Vikings games over the past decade. His top moment: Minnesota’s 2019 20-point comeback against the Denver Broncos. Their low point: Probably getting destroyed by the Indianapolis Colts in Week 15 of the 2016 season to spoil their playoff hopes.
#8 DICK STOCKTON (FOX)
Record: 8-7
Winning Pct: .533
The quality of assignments has dwindled for Dick Stockton, who used to be FOX’s No. 2. Nowadays, he’s the guy you put on a meaningless Week 17 Vikings-Bears game (which he’s gotten three times since 2014). There aren’t a lot of noteworthy memories with Stockton, save perhaps Minnesota’s Week 2 and Week 3 losses in the 2011 season. Donovan McNabb and the Vikings blew consecutive double-digit leads at home to Tampa Bay and Detroit, sending them toward a 3-13 season. Their best win was probably Mike Zimmer’s first-ever game as Vikings head coach, a 34-6 win at St. Louis.
#7 THOM BRENNAMAN (FOX)
Record: 12-10
Winning Pct: .545
As of 2020, Brennaman is done calling games at FOX because of homophobic remarks he made during a Cincinnati Reds baseball broadcast. He gotten his fair share of Vikings work over the years, though, calling six of seven wins from 2017-19. The Vikings also lost six straight with Brennaman from mid-2010 to mid-2012. Along the way he’s called Brett Favre’s return to Lambeau, Case Keenum’s first game as Vikings starter and a last-second 2013 loss at Chicago.
#6 KENNY ALBERT (FOX)
Record: 11-8
Winning Pct: .579
As one of FOX’s trusty stalwarts, Kenny Albert has gotten consistent Vikings work for well over a decade, including five wins in a row from mid-2009 to mid-2011. Chad Beebe‘s game-winning touchdown came with Albert on the call in November, as did Brett Favre’s 14-point fourth-quarter comeback in 2010 against the Cardinals. On the losing end, Albert called Minnesota’s 2016 overtime loss to Detroit and their game-losing safety at Miami in 2014. (A lot of ire got directed this year to his broadcast partner Jonathan Vilma, a former member of the BountyGate Saints.)
#5 SEAN McDONOUGH (ESPN)
Record: 3-2
Winning Pct: .600
During his short stint as Monday Night Football lead voice, Sean McDonough got five Vikings games to barely qualify for this list. Kai Forbath hit a game-winning field goal on McDonough’s watch in 2017, and Sam Bradford played his last complete football game with McDonough on the call, a 2016 gem against the Saints.
#4 CHRIS MYERS (FOX)
Record: 14-8
Winning Pct: .636
Only Joe Buck has called more of the last 200 Vikings games than Chris Myers. Minnesota has won nine out of the last 13 with Myers calling the game, including Teddy Bridgewater’s big win at Soldier Field, Adam Thielen’s blocked punt touchdown in 2014, and Stefon Diggs‘ amazing diving catch in 2015. But there might not be a lower moment than the 2013 game at Baltimore where the Vikings and Ravens exchanged 36 points in the final two minutes, resulting in a Ravens last-second win.
#3 KEVIN BURKHARDT (FOX)
Record: 9-2-2
Winning Pct: .769
The Vikings have had two ties in the past decade, and Kevin Burkhardt has called them both, which both occurred at Green Bay. The latter was the most dramatic with Daniel Carlson sealing his fate as he missed three field goals. Burkhardt was a steady voice behind the Vikings’ 2017 run, calling four of their wins that season. He also called their upset over Green Bay in Week 8 of this year. Minnesota’s only losses with Burkhardt on the mic were last year at Kansas City (last-second field goal) and 2015 at Denver (last-second strip-sack of Bridgewater).
#2 SAM ROSEN (FOX)
Record: 5-1
Winning Pct: .833
There haven’t been many Sam Rosen games over the years, but they’ve been good for Vikings fans. Four of the five wins have come by double digits, while the fifth will go down in Minnesota Vikings history: Favre’s miracle touchdown pass to Greg Lewis in 2009. “Favre rolls… wants to go deep and does, to the end zone, for Greg Lewis… TOUCHDOWN! TOUCHDOWN! FAVRE DID IT!”
And the No. 1 announcer to bring the Vikings’ luck…
#1 GREG GUMBEL (CBS)
Record: 6-1
Winning Pct: .857
The small sample of Greg Gumbel has been kind to the Vikings. Like Rosen one notch above him, many of the wins have been unremarkable with the exception of one. The team’s Week 6 victory in 2009 was one of the craziest games of that season, a wild back-and-forth fourth quarter with the Baltimore Ravens — quite a bit like the game they lost in 2013. Steven Hauschka missed a field goal at the buzzer to keep the Vikings unbeaten. Minnesota’s only loss with Gumbel was the Vikings’ Week 2 game in 2010 where a sloppy home loss to the Dolphins foreshadowed the awful season that would follow.
And now for the best of the rest. Here are the 14 other broadcasters that have called a Vikings game over the last 12 years.
JOE TESSITORE (ESPN) | 0-3 | .000: Called three Monday Night Football losses in his two-year stint.
TIM BRANDO (CBS) | 0-2 | .000: Called Sammy Watkins game-winning touchdown at Buffalo in 2014.
ANDREW CATALON (CBS) | 0-1 | .000: Announced this season’s Week 3 loss vs. Tennessee (aka Justin Jefferson’s breakout game).
MIKE GOLDBERG (FOX) | 0-1 | .000: Called an unremarkable 2014 loss to the Lions and struggled in doing so.
RON PITTS (FOX) | 1-2 | .333: Doesn’t call games anymore, but his last one with the Vikings was their debut loss in 2011 at San Diego.
BRANDON GAUDIN (FOX) | 1-1 | .500: Called their embarrassing loss to the Falcons in Week 6 and last year’s 42-point outburst at Detroit.
BRAD NESSLER (NFLN) | 1-1 | .500: The former voice of Thursday Night Football, Nessler broadcast a win and a loss in 2012-13.
GUS JOHNSON (FOX) | 2-1 | .667: The iconic voice of college sports has called a smattering of Vikings games, including their final game ever at the Metrodome.
IAN EAGLE (CBS) | 3-1 | .750: The fantastic CBS voice is always a treat to listen to and has called three straight wins for the Vikings.
JUSTIN KUTCHER (FOX) | 1-0 | 1.000: Called Anthony Barr‘s walk-off touchdown in 2014 at Tampa Bay.
BILL MACATEE (CBS) | 1-0 | 1.000: Behind the mic for a random Vikings-Titans game in 2012 (Percy Harvin went off).
STEVE LEVY (ESPN) | 1-0 | 1.000: The new voice of Monday Night Football called his first Vikings game in November, a 19-13 win over the Bears.
BETH MOWINS (CBS) | 1-0 | 1.000: Got an exciting game in Week 13 when the Vikings beat the Jaguars in overtime for her first call of a Vikings game.
SPERO DEDES (CBS) | 2-0 | 1.000: The voice behind Jarius Wright‘s long overtime touchdown in 2014.
And there you have it. Information you didn’t know you needed. Happy New Year to all. Here’s to a better 2021.
