It's The Premier NFL Weekend Of The Year And We're Ranking The Announcing Teams From Best To Worst
With all due respect to Week 1 of the NFL Regular season, or Championship Weekend, or even Super Bowl Sunday, this weekend is the best football weekend of the year.
You get two NFL Playoff games on Saturday. Two more on Sunday. And then you get the National Championship on Monday Night. Even before the college playoff, I thought it was the best football weekend of the year. And you can argue it was better when the Top 2 seeds in the conference got byes and hosted games this weekend.
But what we get are four NFL island games over two days, with some of the best announcers in all of sports.
So, where do they rank against each other?
As the former play-by-play voice of the Division III Rivier College Men's Basketball Team in Nashua, NH (shoutout, Raiders) and viewer of thousands of sporting events on TV during my lifetime, I consider myself an expert when it comes to...well, announcers.
So, I present to you the definitive rankings, best to worst, of the announcing teams for NFL Divisional Weekend.
No. 1
Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth
Los Angeles Rams at Chicago Bears; 6:30 p.m. ET on NBC
You only have to go back a few weeks to find Mike Tirico at his best. Tremendous job with the whole Tyler Loop back story into the game-winning field goal attempt. Then he nails the kick call itself. And then, once Loop misses, he lets the crowd noise take over. The best announcers are great at that - I wish more of them would talk less in the big spot. Love that.
He and Cris Collinsworth play well off each other. There are people who seem to HATE Collisworth. I guess too much glazing of Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen?
I miss the slide - and I like his energy talking about quarterbacks. The man loves good quarterback play!
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Maybe the Sunday Night Primetime helps, but every game these guys do sounds like a big game, and they're my clear-cut #1.
No. 2
Joe Buck, Troy Aikman
Houston Texans at New England Patriots; 3 p.m. ET on ESPN
I probably would not take much issue if you flipped my #1 and #2. Buck and Aikman are very good, and as a Patriots fan, I'm thrilled they have the call on Sunday afternoon.
Buck is an all-timer.
Aikman has really grown on me, especially for not being afraid to call out officials for crap calls. Like this ticky-tack taunting call on the Dolphins a few weeks ago.
There are a lot of bad calls. And if I'm annoyed about it, watching from my couch at home, I want the guys in the booth to be annoyed, too. And you get that from Aikman.
He shit all over the NFL product during a game in September for all the flags being thrown.
"The product's just not very good. I'm gonna be honest…I mean, this is ridiculous." And he was 100% right. Not every guy in the booth would do that, and credit for Aikman calling it like he sees it.
No. 3
Kevin Burkhardt, Tom Brady
San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks; 8 p.m. ET on Fox
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Now, you have to luck out and get good games. But when these guys get a good game, they match the energy of the big spot.
And look, I'm a complete Brady Honk, but he has gotten sooooooooo much better. He can still be a little stiff, but listen to his analysis of the play below. No hesitation, 100% confident in what he's seeing. This is the best quarterback of all time, breaking it down at a high level.
Brady explaining how to throw a ball in the wind might have been his best moment on TV.
I don't know how long he'll be doing this. He has ownership in the Raiders. He's repping Pizza Hut in commercials. He's playing flag football in March in Saudi Arabia. But in less than two seasons in the booth, Brady sounds like he belongs with the big boys on this list. He and Burkhardt have solid chemistry and are able to bust balls occasionally - a MUST for a great booth.
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No. 4.
Jim Nantz, Tony Romo
Buffalo Bills at Denver Broncos; Saturday, 4:30 p.m. ET on CBS
I mean, at this point, would you really be that surprised?
Romo is taking a beating this week, and for good reason. He keeps saying things that don't make much sense or don't match what we're all watching on TV.
The favored and at-home Jags winning would not have been an upset. CBS would probably have been upset, losing Josh Allen on Wild Card Weekend.
It's cool to pick on Romo now. Full disclosure - never a Romo guy. Check the date on this bad boy.
His energy and 'ability' to predict the play before it happened got him national praise. But he's SO wishy washy. Constantly contradicts himself - like, within a few seconds, he'll make two different calls. Makes a bunch of weird noises. The noises were cute for a second. Not so much eight years later.
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He and Nantz can have a weird vibe.
Credit Nantz, he tries hard to set Romo up throughout the broadcast. In 2026, I prefer Masters Nantz to NFL Nantz. Still one of the best to ever do it.
But it's crazy how far Romo has fallen in the court of public opinion, but I think it's justified.
Friend of Barstool Greg Olsen has one year left on his deal with Fox. He was pushed out of the No. 1 booth when they hired Brady and reportedly took a $7 million pay cut as a result. My guess is CBS would love to get him for their top team; You could pair him with Nantz, or go Ian Eagle/Olsen as the new #1 booth for the network. Or the #2 pairing until Nantz walks away - he mentioned wanting to call the Masters through 2036.
For the record, I'd have put Joe Davis & Olsen ahead of Nantz/Romo on this list.
So there you have it.
#1 Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth
#2 Joe Buck, Troy Aikman
#3 Kevin Burkhardt, Tom Brady
#4 Jim Nantz, Tony Romo
Take it from someone who called D-3 college hoops, there is no arguing with this list. I'm sure the comments will be in complete agreement.