What if this crazy idea really worked?'īryant Gumbel, the host of NBC's pregame show, appeared on camera - in a form-fitting white, V-neck sweater - before the game, then put his microphone down and walked into the Orange Bowl in Miami. I mean, he was flirting with the rest of our lives. 'We all gathered together, hoping that Ohlmeyer was dead wrong. 'We're paid to talk, so all of us want to fill the air with lots of exciting words. 'My first reaction was of incredible nerve, nervousness,' he said at his home outside of San Diego. 'Part of my thinking was what could we possibly do to get fans to watch this? People could follow a game with pictures, graphics, and hearing the PA announcer in the background.'ĭick Enberg, a current ESPN announcer who was one of NBC's lead football announcers at the time, was not amused. 'Here we had this dog of a game,' Ohlmeyer said. Don Ohlmeyer, former NBC Sports executive producer and current ESPN ombudsman, says he always had believed that announcers talked too much. NBC, with its smaller AFC markets, was giving CBS all it could handle and this might be a way to squeeze a few more points out of an unattractive matchup. And, company man that he was, Ohlmeyer had an eye on the ratings. He always had believed that announcers talked too much here was an attention-seeking vehicle that would drive that point home. Ohlmeyer, currently the ESPN ombudsman, announced the decision in October and it served several purposes for the executive producer of NBC Sports. 'All the stuff I've done in my career,' Ohlmeyer mused recently at ESPN, 'and that's what I'm going to be remembered for. And yet, one of the stunts that will follow him to his grave was a game without a play-by-play crew.

He was the first producer of 'Monday Night Football,' produced and directed three Olympics broadcasts, won 16 Emmy awards and is a member of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

It was a meaningless, season-ending game for two mediocre NFL teams, but Don Ohlmeyer turned it into a happening - and a piece of history. The fact that we try something different and dare to has been greeted with almost every kind of reaction, from good-natured humor to applause to some surprising anger.' - Bryant Gumbel's first on-camera words on Dec. 'We are just moments away from the kickoff of today's Jets-Dolphins game and a telecast that figures to be different.

Nbc sports commentator