Tony Dungy did not last long as the color commentator for Notre Dame football games on NBC. After just one season of serving as Mike Tirico’s sidekick, Dungy is getting replaced by NBC’s newest superstar analyst, recently retired NFL legend and former Purdue Boilermaker, Drew Bress.
Bress made his NFL retirement official on Sunday. A day later, he announced that he will be working Notre Dame games already this fall in addition to working as a studio analyst for Football Night in America on Sunday nights for the network.
The last time Drew Brees stepped foot in Notre Dame Stadium as a player, he left the field a loser at the hands of converted tight end turned quarterback, Gary Godsey in 2000. Notre Dame beat the Boilermakers 23-21 that afternoon. Brees was 1-2 against Notre Dame as a starter at Purdue with an 0-2 mark inside Notre Dame Stadium (losses in 1998 and 2000).
Tyler James of the South Bend Tribune was the first to report that Brees was replacing Dungy and not just being added to the broadcast team.
The NBC booth has seen some turnover in recent years for Notre Dame coverage. Dungy replaced Doug Flutie last year in a move that had the majority of Notre Dame fans rejoicing. Amazingly though, there are some fans who would email me every single time I said that Flutie needed to be replaced on the broadcast team.
Dungy was a solid replacement for Flutie in terms of his knowledge of the game and just his general overall personality. He could have been better from a preparation standpoint in terms of his knowledge of the roster, but the restrictions of covering sports during a pandemic likely made it difficult for him to interact with the players like he otherwise would have. Still, hearing Dungy gush over Tommy Tremble‘s blocking instead of hearing Flutie gush about an opponent’s backup safety was refreshing.
It will be interesting to see how Brees does in the booth. He has always come across as someone who would shine in such a role in his media appearances, but he’s going to be a rookie all over again this fall. I’ll try to keep that in mind in my weekly “5 things I didn’t like column.” As long as Brees doesn’t seem to get overly excited every time a Notre Dame opponent does something positive like Flutie, he’ll be just fine.
NBC won a bidding war with ESPN last year for Brees’s future services as the network is hoping that they have their “Tony Romo” after the former Dallas Cowboy star made a seamless transition from the field to the booth for CBS years ago.
I will particularly be interested to hear Brees’s take on the Notre Dame quarterbacks this fall. Dungy did not breakdown Ian Book‘s game in too much detail during the 2000 season and spoke more in generalities. As a former quarterback, it’ll be interesting to hear if Brees gets technical and critical of the quarterbacks he analyzes or if he sympathizes with them more. Either way, it’ll be interesting to hear his take on whoever ends up starting for the Irish this year.
You omitted my favorite Flutie line…”what-(insert opponent)- has to do to win is……”
There has been consistency in the NBC ND color analysts through the years. The one consistency excluding Dungy is the hiring and rehiring of analysts who hail from ND rivals, be they alumni from SC, BC ( twice ) and now Purdue. It makes perfect sense for NBC to bring in someone to analyze that would gush over any opponent to keep the ND haters tuned in ( Flutie being the most recent and obvious) as ND fandom will stay tuned in anyway. “It’s not personal, it’s business”, I get it. ‘Follow the money’ it’s all about ratings, says Capt. Obvious. Here’s hoping Brees can be informed and at least even-handed in his analysis despite his 1-2 career record vs. ND, something Dougy ( I treasure the memory of his bowl loss to ND ) could never quite get over. Regardless I’ll be listening; I have no plan B
Plan B preparation is critical to success. You must have one or face extinction.
Physician, heal thyself.
MTA: A broadcast of UHND-like fanboy spin and revisionism is what most ND fans would prefer, even if they won’t admit it.
And anything else…..no matter what credentials or reputation they bring….is disparaged and rejected.
Partisan lies is now part of the American diet.
Have the recent color guys on ND broadcasts been elite TV sports talents? No.
But I just see that as a business response to ND games being an objectively less-than-compelling TV product, rather than some sort of diabolical corporate conspiracy.
But then, conspiracy theories are also part of the American diet…..
Siri: What was the most watched college football game of 2020?
Poor Rhonda. She’s at the bottom of the audience barrel….down to Alexa and Siri as her ‘plastics’.
The NBC network is like ND football….increasingly irrelevant, trying to monetize as much value before the party comes to an end.
But unlike ND, and Slidin’ Jack Swarbrick, they’re not so lazy, or afraid to pull the trigger on change, to keep trying.
What, though the odds be great or small, old NBC is still trying!
“I’m a peacock, Captain, you gotta let me fly!”
Cue the complaining.
Rhonda no longer even has the patience to wait for a comment for her tiresome drive-bys.
What a broad.