Mike Mayock is in for NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football broadcasts next year, even if the network won’t admit it just yet.
It’s uncertain at this point who will be Mayock’s play-by-play man. Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News writes that Bob Papa, who has held the job the last three years, had to re-audition for the gig last month. For the job he currently holds.
“How can NFLN brainiacs not already be familiar with Papa’s work?” Raissman asks. “Were they sleeping for three years? Are they that dense, dumb, or just acutely indecisive?”
Presumably the network wanted to see how Papa meshed with Mayock, or the re-audition makes absolutely no sense. Raissman believes it shows a lack of class and respect.
Gus Johnson also auditioned, according to Raissman, which backs up the report from SI.com’s Richard Deitsch earlier this week. At this point, Johnson is the only alternative to Papa that has been reported.
(It’s worth noting Papa works daily for SIRIUS NFL Radio and worked for the league on Commissioner Roger Goodell’s conference calls this week, so their relationship appears strong as ever.)
We think Papa and Mayock would make a great team together, although Johnson would be plenty of fun too. The league could be concerned that Papa and Mayock would combine to be almost too “hardcore football” for casual fans. (We don’t believe such a thing exists.)
Of course, the league should be more worried about the casual fans that don’t get NFL Network. Eight years in, and the most highly paid person in the entire league has failed to make the channel available for the majority of fans in New York City and other Time-Warner Cable footholds.
Solving their never-ending distribution problem would help ratings a lot more than the network’s annual shuffling of the Thursday Night Football decks.