ReutersThe mouth that boomed could be blaring through your TV on the first Monday night of the season.
Veteran ESPN broadcaster Chris Berman reportedly will call the second game of the Week One Monday Night Football doubleheader, in Oakland as the Raiders host the Chargers. The news comes from SportsByBrooks (via U-T San Diego).
ESPN would not confirm the report. ”We will announce the commentator assignment for that game in the coming weeks,” an ESPN spokesman told Michael Gehlken of U-T San Diego on Friday.
Berman will get his feet wet in the preseason, calling an exhibition game on ESPN with Trent Dilfer serving as analyst. Dilfer also will join Berman for the Chargers-Raiders game.
A fixture on the network’s primary NFL studio shows, Berman has called plenty of baseball games over the years. But he’s never done an NFL game. (He has done a Texas prison league game, however.)
Given the size of the stage, his personal lack of experience, and a voice that is at times, well, grating, it’s unclear who will need the Deux Deux Deuxs more: Berman, Dilfer, or anyone at home listening.
Either way, it would be wise to double the seven-second delay. Of course, an F-bomb or two wouldn’t nearly be as bad as a repeat of Ditka rearranging the furniture.
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i wonder who berman will be rooting for….
could it be the chargers who he’s picked for the superbowl the last 5 years and has philip rivers who he loves a little too much?
na, journalists are unbiased /sarcasm
“GRATING” voice? More like find the closest bridge & jump off.
It would be hard for him to be worse than Crisco or Gruden.
Hopefully my tv is broken for that game
Cool! It will be a lopsided game, with the Chargers winning by 3+ touchdowns, but Berman will make it interesting.
Berman AND Dilfer? I will find a bridge if that is true!
Looks like people will get 3 hours to catch up with friends/family as everyone will be muting their tvs.
2 words for Berman – Go Away.
This has the potential to be Dennis Miller bad.
I’ll be sure to watch that one on mute.
Can’t possibly be worse than Dennis Miller…
Anyone but Jon Gruden please. He ruins my football watching experience.
Wait, people actually listen to the announcers? Except for when Martin Tyler is calling an English League football match, I watch all sports with the sound off, I listen to music. Don’t care about crowd noise, certainly don’t care about the endless stats that get thrown out.
What finally drove me over the edge was listening to Rex “Pothead” Hudler during Angels games, he makes Berman seem like someone on PBS introducing Masterpiece Theatre in comparison.
i always thought he should be calling games.
Don’t care who call it just get the season started football.
It been a long time THE GREAT DETROIT LIONS can’t get to the Super Bowl tell the playoff is over.
Ugh…
I hate Chris berman
Berman is nauseating — somehow that guy thinks “rumbling, bumbling, stumbling” is the height of insight and wit.
It isn’t.
And seeing 30+ years of seeing a “skinny/unbald” version of Berman catching a softball floater over-the-shoulder with the Buccaneers is embarassing. A 6 year old could have caught that – it wasn’t that “cool” and shouldn’t be the proudest moment of the guy’s life.
Great… 2 guys that despise the Raiders will be commentating on the opening game of the season. I might have to bring the XM out of the truck and listen to the radio broadcast.
The only way I want to hear Berman call a football came is if he suffers a massive heart attack on the air.
I guess I’ll be watching the game on ESPNDeportes and I don’t even know Spanish.
If it is not ” entertaining “, just use the mute button .
He absolutely sucks as a baseball commentator. His home run derby calls where all he says is back back back are enough to make me wanna burn my ears out with a torch.
Great, just great….
Not only do I have to wait for the fifth straight year until the second Monday Night game to watch the Raiders play, but I get the honor of listening to Berman try to create a fancy nickname for anyone that makes a play.
I hope Chimdi Chekwa makes an ESPN high lite reel play, just so I can hear stuttering Berman in action.
Oh well can’t be any worse then Meatball and the Man Woman? Right?
stoogish story
I’m glad I will be at the game and won’t have to listen to his long running pompous schtick. Time to haul him off to the glue factory.
Sweet.
Why don’t they just throw Hank Bauer in there as well?
Berman is the biggest charger honk in the world of talking heads. His blatant charger bias is going to evident for the entire broadcast, just wait and see.
Good god… Y does san diego always get screwed by espn…. Hate u espn…
Better than the current clown show.
That game will be unwatchable.
Awesome. I have been waiting for him to call games forever. The people that hate Berman are the same that hate Dickie V baby. At least the guys have some personality. I would rather have that than a monotone that can break down a play and put me to sleep.
Inventor of the mute button? A god.
I take anything coming via SportsbyBrooks with a large helping of salt. But if true … can’t ESPN afford to hire legitimate booth talent? First Kornheiser–and anyone sounds great compared with that dolt. Then fingernails-on-the-blackboard Gruden. Now BOOMER Berman. To quote Fujita, “What the hell are you doing,” ESPN?
Is there anybody more past their prime than Berman? Get rid of this dinosaur!
Noooooooooooooo!
He could… Go…. All… The…. Way…….. TOUCHDOWN!!!!!
Berman is awful. His schtick got old about 10 years ago. One stupid nickname, pun, or stretched out saying and I turn to the NFL Network. He also stumbles over his own sentences and cannot adapt to today’s NFL. I seriously don’t like this guy’s work, even as an aspiring Sports Journalist.
I really enjoy watching or listening to Berman, he has a passion for what he does and he shouldnt be knocked for doing a good job at what he loves.
NO! PLEASE NO!!!!!!! His time was done 5 years ago! Not to mention he’s a 49er homer. PLEASE NO!!!!!
Can’t wait (sarcasm). This guy sounds more and more like Curly from the 3 Stooges with all of the stupid noises he incorporates into a telecast than a competent play by play man or studio host.
WHOOoOOP!!!!
This clown must have nude photos of someone at ESPN. He made the US Open last week unlistenable because he’s so self-serving. His lines are beyond predictable too.
Let me guess.. we’ll hear “Hotel California” about three times, the rrraaaidddeeeerrrrsss seven or eight and super Chargers about a dozen times.
Poor Trent Dilfer will do his best Tom Jackson/Roger Maltbie impression of fake laughter every time [D]oomer thinks he’s being whimsical.
Oh Good Lord.
Terrible announcer, terrible person. Everyone at ESPN hates him (trust me) but he simply won’t go away. He gets a life time pass because he was there at the beginning.
I was stuck in an airport once and a former ESPN talking head who was also stuck there told me (over many drinks) that most people there considered him a local Hartford TV hack who got where he was because he was one of the few people willing to work for what ESPN had to pay when they started.
He’s terrible, and his continued presence there is otherwise inexplicable.
Can’t stand berman talking and dilfer was bad in the game he did last year. Saying stuff like you can’t teach height and other obvious thing. That’s a game the Sound will be turn down on tv and radio will be turned up
Berman’s already overexposed position at ESPN seems to have become even more overexposed over the last few months. Did he sign a new contract with the devil that upped his face time on the network? Is he the new celebrity spokesman for the mute button industry?
NOOOOOOOOO! This will be horrific.
On the plus side, maybe he’ll say something stupid and get fired, so we can finally be rid of him altogether.
Thank God my TV has a mute button, Berman and Dilfer, two men with ego the size of a mountain and each will try and talk smarter then the next.
I hope they have the Radio in sync with the game…….. because I will have the volume on my TV set at 0 for that game (or ANY game Berman does).
Berman: Once entertaining. Now stale and grotesque. And apparently a creep with women to boot.
Wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle…yeah!
whats with the berman hate? i can think of alot of guys i would not want to hear before berman. he loves football and i think his shtick although old is still entertaining.
Why? This guy is terrible he’s not funny & he’s become a characature of himself. Why is this guy even on t.v. anymore? He always seems to be weasling his way in and stealing some other commentators thunder.He’s a bumb fire his ass already!
I’ll be watching that one on “mute.”
AHHH and they took away Jaworski???
Please no. Does ESPN do any kind of marketing research? I don’t know a single person who enjoys anything with Chris Berman commentating.
Don’t like Berman, but Tirico is the worst MNF play-by-play man ever. Check that, the worst play-by-play man period.
My sense is that Berman is a bit of a douche in real life, but for my money there has never been a better sports highlight show, thanks to him and the awesome soundtrack, than the old Sunday night ESPN NFL Primetime.
I’ll give him a shot. No way can he possibly approach the levels of ineptness continuously reached by Kornheiser.
And Dilfer is one of the best up and coming analysts in my mind. He really does call things as he sees them and offers original, insightful takes, whereas others tend to simply regurgitate what everyone else is saying.
Ok, put Berman and Gruden in front of two mics and a camera and use that for your pregame promos but never plug in the mics. Then have any other team do the actual vocies. ESPN ratings will skyrocket
Chris will eschew the microphone and just use a megaphone to reach his listeners across the nation.
One of the nicest people Ive ever met. And he does a lot of charity stuff too.
I know he had that big blow up on that you tube leak, and I will agree hes not the best or the most soothing to listen to, but i feel like some people are being too harsh. Good guy!
This guy is so stale. It’s been 20 years since Berman has come up with new material. He, along with all the ESPN clones make me want to puke
Why do people hate on Chris Berman so much? Am I missing something? I love listening to him do the 2 minute drill.
I like Chris Berman. Dilfer I can do without.
What happened to Brad Nessler? He’s a consumate pro.Berman absolutley SUCKS!!
Berman is the worst announcer in the history of broadcasting. His “schtick” grew old 15 years ago. If I happen to be watching ESPN, and Berman comes on for any reason, it’s switch to another channel.
ESPN could be a great network but they insist upon Berman being the face of the network. It kills me when ESPN broadcasts the Master’s, and the other majors, and Berman is allowed to do”play-by-play.” The greatest golf events each year are spoiled by this doofus. Get rid of the idiot NOW!!!!!!!
I’m kind of shocked at the hatred for Berman on here. By the comments I would be interested to see who the consensus pick would be to call games. So far its piss and moan from everyone here on anybody who has ever called a game for espn. Maybe they could get Stuart Scott and Van Pelt (my personal favs) or would they suck as well???
Finally a break for Jerry Sandusky. His jail cell won’t have a TV.
PLEASE – NO!!!!!!!
@MRMORTON – It would be ok to have Stuart Scott as long as I don’t have to look at him….SVP I could definitely live with.
Berman’s not that bad. Plus it’ll be funny to see him get his feelings hurt when Oakland rolls over the Chargers to start the season. “Just win, baby”.
Berman makes whatever show he’s on totally unwatchable. Had the sound muted during US Open on espn last week.
humb0lt says:
Jun 22, 2012 9:27 PM
Cool! It will be a lopsided game, with the Chargers winning by 3+ touchdowns, but Berman will make it interesting.
========
Still not over that smack down Palmer and Denarious Moore laid on you at Qualcomm, and the sweep the previous year?
The window has closed Charger fan, the rightful landlords are coming back and fixing to evict you frauds.
Dilfer is more grading to me.
Maybe Berman will channel his inner Howard Cosell and at least be interesting.
Gus Johnson should broadcast every sporting event
Espn should read this feedback on Berman. He jumped the shark long ago. During last weeks US Open, he must have thought it was the Chris Berman show interrupted by the occasional golf shot. How many times did we hear I-O-U for the bunkers on 18? Once was too many. He’s in love with his own voice.
I would listen to Berman read a phone book before listening to another NFL game called by Tony Kornheiser. And I hate Berman!
Berman has been far past annoying the past 10 years. Since then he has been unbearable. Since NFL Network, I don’t watch BSPN at all. It would be difficult listening to him for an entire game with his well worn diatribe of tired rhetoric.
tatumo64
Evict the Chargers? The raiduhs couldn’t even beat them at home with the playoffs on the line.
I rarely listen to any football games, but this douche damn near ruined the US Open with his commentating. God awful. Eat a salad or get a Rex lapband you pig.