The WORST ANNOUNCER in NFL on FOX HISTORY | Mike Goldberg

over on Jaguar Gatorade a new college football video is out in this video we talk about a bizarre controversy involving Navy at the 2008 Eagle Bank bowl and how the bowl game broke their contract click the card in the upper right corner to watch and now on with our future presentation there have been plenty and I mean plenty of bad announcers throughout the history of the NFL you know who they are you know who I'm talking about these are the guys that make you want to mute your television make you want to listen to anything else and make you want to cut off your own ears so you don't have to suffer for the next three hours for every great announcer like John Madden and Jim Nance you've got your guys that have no business being in front of a mic and either offer no Insight get things very wrong or seem to have no grasp whatsoever of the English language you have your Jason wittens your Dennis Miller's your Joe greens you have your guys that are just very bad at their job and make the viewing experience a not so pleasant one but here's the thing with those guys as bad as a lot of these announcers are and trust me they can be bad at least they had a full season minimum to show what they could or could not do green was quite possibly the worst color commentator of all time and you can learn more about that by clicking the card in the upper right corner and even he lasted a full season with CBS before they cut their losses and realized that this wasn't going to work out Jason whidden was awful with ESPN but he survived the entirety of his rookie season Dennis Miller and that experiment on Monday Night Football did not work out but he made it two years you get the idea networks are not just going to let you go after your first broadcast because it was a bit shaky no matter how bad it is when you sign on that dotted line you have to do something really really bad and call the worst game ever and then some to actually get fired on your first day of the job and that brings me to this game right here it's October 12 2014. it's week six of the NFL season and we have a big battle on our hands in the NFC North over a TCF Bank Stadium between the Minnesota Vikings and the Detroit Lions now on the field not a whole lot happened in this game as it was a relatively boring Affair that wasn't seen in most of the country unless you happen to be in Minnesota Michigan either of the Dakotas the western part of Iowa or Louisville Kentucky due to the Teddy Bridgewater effect when the final whistle sounded the lines were veiled 17-3 as the number one defense in football put together another clinic forcing three turnovers holding the Vikings to just 212 yards of total offense and sacking Teddy Bridgewater eight times with defensive end Ziggy Ansa having a career day causing tons of trouble with two and a half sacks and a forced fumble but we're not here to talk about what happened on the field because nearly a decade later if you remember this Vikings Lions rivalry game you remember it for one reason and for one reason only this man right here Mike Goldberg because on this day Goldberg called his first ever NFL game making his NFL on Fox play-by-play debut and on this day Goldberg would call his last ever NFL game getting fired almost immediately after for just how terrible he was because this is the story behind what has to be without a doubt the worst broadcaster in the history of the NFL on Fox before I talk about the actual performance and trust me there are going to be tons of examples so get your popcorn ready for that we need some context to just talk about how the heck this even happened in the first place how did Mike Goldberg the famous UFC announcer for two decades wind up calling an NFL game as the play-by-play man well this wasn't exactly Goldberg's first foray into football nor was it his first foray into doing play-by-play work for team sports having broadcast a ton of NHL games most notably with the Detroit Red Wings and the Minnesota Wild he got the job as the play-by-play man for the Arizona Cardinals for their preseason games in 2008. calling games for a few years down in the valley unfortunately I couldn't find any footage of Goldberg calling these games as even though footage exists of the preseason games the audio is either that of the opposing team's broadcast or the radio broadcast however he was at least competent enough to keep the job there for a bit he even got good reviews from some people on internet forums around the time and he had worked previously as a sideline reporter for the NFL on Fox from time to time calling eight games from 2000 to 2002. a lot of his games involved the Vikings since he lived in Minnesota at the time two of his three appearances in 2000 were Vikings games and both of his appearances in 2001 were Vikings games as well five of the Z games total as a sideline reporter we're with the Vikings playing in some capacity so we're a coincidence how that worked out and how he wound up calling a Vikings game as the play-by-play man in 2014. now was he any good at this job well considering the fact that as a sideline reporter you're supposed to ask questions when interviewing the coach and he didn't ask a single question I'm gonna go ahead and say no the offense other than the fumble late and then Carolina scores different football game now there literally wasn't even a question there not really something to see silent reporters do however he still had a good relationship with Fox and the fox Executives really wanted to get him on a game as the play-by-play man but they were waiting for the right time to do it they would need a period where not a whole lot was happening in the UFC and where Fox had a bunch of games on their schedule so he could slide in on the number 17. Goldberg had done games in NFL Europe had done preseason Cardinals games had done silent reporting and had done college football in other words he had been around the block in this sport he just hadn't been in the booth for an NFL regular season game on network television and that's what's about to make this whole ordeal so weird a lot of times with a bad announcing performance like Joe Greene or Jason Witten the guy's never done it before he's getting his feet wet and trying to find his footing and he's being thrown into the wolves in front of a national audience not Mike Goldberg he had paid his dues big time but hadn't gotten the chance but in 2014 that all changed because in August of that year when Fox announced their broadcasting teams for the new season they announced that for two games Goldberg was going to be on the call as the lead man with Goldberg as the play-by-play man Fox's number seven team was set Goldie would call the week six game between the Vikings and the Lions I would call the week 7 game between the Vikings and the bills the wheels were officially in motion and what followed was an absolute disaster of a broadcast that had to be seen to be believed okay maybe I'm being a bit too harsh I mean we haven't even listened to the guy yet let's see the first play and see how it goes the toss to Bell nope oh no oh no no no no oh come on really you got fooled on that you got fooled on that play action toss have you never seen play action before the ball is deflected nope it's in his hands too oh this is gonna be a long day isn't it okay buckle up all right so there are three main problems with this broadcast on Goldberg's end the first and perhaps the most notable was just how absolutely terrible his depth perception was perhaps the most important skill that a play by Playman can have is to tell you how many yards they're picked up on the play it's pretty self-explanatory if you have a play go from the 10 yard line to the 5-yard line it's a gain of five well Goldberg was laughingly bad at this to the point where you genuinely wondered if he was calling this game from a different zip code I'm not talking about him being off by half a yard I'm not nitpicking him when he says the runner picked up a yard and in reality he picked up a short two I'm talking off by multiple yards at a time to the point where I a person who wears glasses to see could take off my glasses and call a better and more accurate game let's take a listen to some of these wonders with some of them being way worse than others if you want to make this Fun close your eyes listen to the calls and try to guess how many yards the player actually picked up on the play single set trying to look up the middle breaks it through Tapas and he'll be close to a first down close to a first down what he picked it up by a full yard either the yellow line is drunk or you're watching a completely different game Joyce Bell the single back and he'll get one maybe two at best he'll get a yard he'll get two yards dude he lost yards this was a negative play a lot of scrimmage stop that the line of scrimmage he lost two yards when someone says they got stopped at the line that's a run for No Gain that is not a loss of two that stopped behind the line of scrimmage very different not Asiata and the pitch back [Music] if he was taken down around the line of scrimmage that's not a line at that point that's a giant rectangle because he picked up three yards on the Run getting three yards is not never has been and never will be the definition of getting taken down around the line of scrimmage the handoff over the left side king of Threes for jeric McKinnon gain of three he has to get to the 25 yard line to get three yards he got one the only way he would have gotten three yards would have been if he had the ability to stretch his arms like Michael Jordan at the end of Space Jam Vikings have two timeouts and nothing here again when someone says that there's nothing there you expect to run for no yards this was a run that went for three but as bad as all of those are trust me nothing compares to his magnum opus in the second half when Joy Bell got the handoff on Detroit's first play of the drive I'm gonna play this one without audio just so you can see what happened on the play all right now that you've seen it guess how many yards Goldberg said this run game go ahead take a guess got a number in your mind good let's see the answer then I'm the dejo Ryan start near Midfield after the interception by Whitehead Detroit Bell with about a six or seven yard game I'm sorry what a six or seven yard game if it was First and Ten and he very clearly crossed the first down line how are you getting six yards on an 11 yard run that's like saying if I'm calling a baseball game and a player hits a home run to left field and it's 3 30 to the left field fence and I say he hit the ball 280 feet that doesn't make any sense the math does not add up I have quite literally never seen an announcer be this bad at saying the distance than Mike Goldberg was again it would be one thing if he said second and nine and it was really second and eight but this is another galaxy that brings us to the second problem and that was the fact that he got a bunch of names wrong either in terms of the pronunciation or in terms of who actually made the play again that's kind of important if you're going to be a play-by-play man let's just take a listen to some of these examples okay two major problems here number one there is no such player on the Vikings as Jerome Fulton it's Jerome Felton and even if it was felden that's not who they give was to on the play Carrie went to McKinnon sir not only did you get the name wrong but you got the player wrong too good job solid drive to open the game for the Vikings and it's intercepted intercepted by Grover Quinn Grover Quinn seriously Grover you're calling the football game here Mike you're not calling an episode of Sesame Street [Applause] good coverage downfield and the SEC by Zeke zigi answer and Sue hold up ninjamikin Sue one of the best players in the NFL and how do you pronounce his name fortunately Sue makes another play later in the first half so maybe I just misheard what he said person 15-5 and nowhere to go stopped immediately by Obama came soon oh God no no I I definitely heard that right that is quite the butchering of that name treasure again and it's Capri what a play by Chase Ford Chase Ford didn't make the play there Mike Rhett Ellison did I mean this is just terrible my head hurts could this possibly get any worse [Music] off of Detroit Lions player the intended receiver was Golden Tate Golden Tate are you actually kidding me Golden Tate he plays for the Lions he plays for the other team and he can't even use the excuse that your chart wasn't flipped to that side of the ball since that wasn't the first play of the drive and you got the name right to play before if you played a drinking game with a professional like gymnancer Joe Buck where you take a shot every time they get the yardage wrong or the player name wrong you're staying relatively sober I'm not taking the keys from you if you're playing the same drinking game with Goldberg you would be dead and this brings us to the third problem which was that when he wasn't getting the yardage wrong and when he wasn't getting the player names wrong he was getting basic info very very wrong to the point where you wondered if you even prepared I know when interviews about what happened afterwards that he said that his problem was that he over prepared but I don't know I've done a ton of broadcasting work myself and I've definitely had broadcasts that were kind of shaky especially when starting out but when I over prepared it was more a matter of not knowing when to bring that information up and wanting to reveal it it wasn't me ever getting basic information wrong let's take a listen to some of these blunders on McKinnon we talked about and Patterson is a dynamic score a dynamic touchdown score hey guess how many rushing and receiving touchdowns he had at this point in 2014. zero if he was a dynamic touchdown scorer then so am I don't worry about that Mike Brendan Peter back to you uh thank you very much Joel there was uh a lot of talk about that exit from the stadium mostly the Lions didn't want to talk about it what are you talking about with the Lion's exit from the stadium in Buffalo from last week that Lions Bills game was in Detroit you got the wrong Stadium there he likes his offense and he's excited to work with Jim Caldwell wait wait what North Turner the offensive coordinator of the Vikings is excited to work with Jim Caldwell the head coach of the Detroit Lions how does that work tell me how that works we're the Viking staff and the Lions staff despite being Rivals are working together please I'm dying to now maybe he misspoke as long as he doesn't make the same mistake again North Turner Jim Caldwell said quite clearly I am very fortunate to have a veteran like North Turner on my staff oh you've got to be kidding me all right so you've gotten just about everything wrong so far this game you've gotten the yardage wrong you've gotten the players wrong you've gotten basic facts and information that is a quick Google search away wrong anything else you have for me welcome back to Minneapolis third and 17. I give up I give up I don't even know what to say anymore you got the down in the distance Wrong by 12 whole yards I'm genuinely amazed that takes skill to do so yeah everything about this game was a disaster and understandably afterwards the complaints came pouring in as Taylor Swift said two months earlier haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate and then do the haters hate here because they show no mercy whatsoever toward Goldberg in his play-by-play debut for the NFL on Fox This truly was a disaster that no one saw coming at least not on this scale I think people had doubts because his style for UFC was somewhat polarizing but again this was a guy that had done play-by-play for years this wasn't just a matter of personal preference and not liking a guy this was a universal bashing of a guy who was absolutely terrible at his job quite literally I could not find a single person defending him for this performance scathing criticism from all corners of the internet Lions fans and Vikings fans in this very moment were United on just how bad Goldberg was with one writer for SB Nation calling it the worst broadcast of a football game I've ever witnessed in my life and I can honestly say that he's not exaggerating there is a fantastic and hysterical Reddit thread from the Lion's subreddit about the criticism and how bad he was and I'll leave a link to it in the description and keep in mind with the examples that I picked I only scratched the surface there were many more blunders it truly was that bad but as bad as Goldberg was he was still in Fox's good graces Fox near the broadcast wasn't good they weren't oblivious and Goldberg admitted years afterwards that the broadcast was a train wreck but everything was still good to go for next week when the Vikings played the bills it was now all about how Goldberg would respond to the criticism and improve on that disaster of a performance now there are many different ways you can handle social media criticism you can do nothing you can apologize for your performance and promise to do better you can make it a meme you can even laugh it off and joke about how bad you were and a mistake that you made on the air as for what Mike Goldberg did yeah he did not go with any of those options because instead he decides to respond to the criticism with some good old-fashioned profanity laced tirades he immediately took to the replies on Twitter to call out anyone who bashed him and his lack of preparation for the game and to anyone who dared to criticize him here's what Mike Goldberg himself had to say about this in 2018. four years after the fact what got me on social media was when people started to say do a little prep yeah work a little bit do your homework because that's something that I did and did and did some more and at that moment Fox knew that they had a massive problem on their hands it's one thing to just be really bad but now you're tarnishing the image of the company and the shield by cursing out fans who called you out because advert Goldberg dug his own grave that was all she wrote it was all over Fox replaced Goldberg for the Vikings Bills game with Tim Brando and that was it for Goldberg's NFL career that was the first and only time ever that Goldberg did play-by-play for a regular season game Goldberg would later say that fox Executives straight up told him when firing him that had he not sent those tweets out that he would have kept his job for the rest of the season which would have been that one more game and I shot that fu yeah in the UFC world that was very mild though that's right in Fox network it wasn't okay do I wish I could have that back absolutely because I was scheduled to do another game in Buffalo a week later okay I can't guarantee you I would had a great game and the shitty game would have been behind me and it wouldn't be you know their number three guy but I would still be getting games the NFL on Fox that's that's what happened I had a bad show just because of that tweet I think the Tweet sealed oh absolutely I was told straight up straight up because now all the attention was on this box guy cussing out people right on social media and when they called me to tell me I wasn't going to do the next game I was straight out told if that tweet didn't happen even though it was a rough one you would still be working in Buffalo that next weekend you know I created my own you know my own ending to something that I dreamed of doing for a long long time but once those tweets were sent the thing with how much of a PR hit the NFL took in the early part of the 2014 season there was no going back you couldn't have someone like that on the error representing your company you just couldn't I honestly don't know if we're ever going to see anything like this again in some ways Mike Goldberg was so bad that he was good in some ways because this game was so terrible to watch if you were not a Vikings fan or a lions fan you might have gotten some actual enjoyment over listening to the broadcast just to hear what dumb thing Goldberg would say next and how he would mess it up this time but I think it's safe to say that we're not going to hear Mike Goldberg on any NFL games anytime soon he waited over two decades for his chance and he blew it badly because when you consider the circumstances in the near 30-year history of the NFL on Fox this has to be without a doubt the worst announcer of all time get your official Jaguar gear 9 merchandise by going to jg9shop.com and be sure to like this video ring the notification Bell And subscribe down below if you haven't already as it helps to share out a lot and be sure to check out twitch every Wednesday night at 9pm Eastern if you're a chance to play NFL trivia and make cash prizes Link in the description below if you want to see videos like this condense down to 60 seconds then follow me on Tick Tock at showgater9 to see college football videos subscribe to jaguargator 8 to see highlight videos of 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