New member of Bucs broadcast team — for one game.
So Chucky is going back to the broadcast booth, at least for a night.
Because long-time TV voice of Bucs preseason football, Chris Myers, has an assignment conflict with his employer, FOX Sports, he cannot work the Aug. 22 game when the Bucs host the Chiefs.
Enter Chucky. Joe was told that former Bucs great Rondé Barber, worked hard behind the scenes to get Chucky into the broadcast booth to join him when Myers is absent.
Barber apparently twisted the right arms.
Still, no one knows what this broadcast will be like. Neither Chucky nor Barber has experience as a play-by-play guy, but both have network game broadcast experience. Chucky was a BSPN analyst on Monday Night Football and Barber was a color analyst for FOX.
Chucky even feigned surprise yesterday in a press conference at One Buc Palace that he would be calling play-by-play.
(Asked if he did any practice games with Barber, Chucky said, “I had a beer with him.”)
If the Bucs/WFLA play their cards right, this could be very interesting and maybe groundbreaking. Joe was thinking Chucky and Barber should do a sports radio show (without callers) during the game. The subjects would be determined by the plays on the field. Or, Chucky and Barber could do like Chucky’s employer, Barstool Sports does: They have dudes sitting around the TV talking about the game.
That Barstool Sports format is weirdly entertaining.
One thing’s for sure: Chucky is going to be pro-Bucs.
“God knows what’s going to happen,” Chucky said. “We’re going to celebrate the Bucs.”
Early this summer when Ira Kaufman had a sitdown with Chucky, he told Ira, “Why not play-by-play?” Chucky reminded Ira he was a broadcast major at Dayton.
So Joe asked Chucky who some of his favorite play-by-play men were that he idolized growing up?
“I used to imitate a lot of these guys,” Chucky said. “Lindsey Nelson and Vin Scully, Curt Gowdy. My favorite of all time was Frank Gifford. A lot of people thought Frank was the color guy. Frank was the play-by-play guy.”
(Trivia: Frank Gifford was the second Monday Night Football play-by-play guy. The original was Keith Jackson.)
“Frank, I got to know a little bit during my days at Monday Night Football,” Chucky said. “He was clearly my favorite guy.”
The reference to Nelson is interesting. Chucky is a Notre Dame fan because his dad Jim used to coach running backs there. So Joe guesses Chucky used to watch those old Notre Dame-produced syndicated broadcasts on Sunday mornings that whittled the games down to one hour.
“After an exchange of punts with neither team advancing the ball, we move ahead to midway through the fourth quarter with the Irish leading Georgia Tech 21-17.”
This broadcast with Chucky and Barber will certainly be unorthodox and could be trend-setting. Chucky is looking forward to it.
“I’m fired up because it is football season, especially for the Buccaneers.”