Fox Sports and NFL Network insider Peter Schrager returned to the broadcast booth in Week 3 of the preseason for the New York Jets broadcast of their final exhibition games against the Giants, earning praise for his performance.
Schrager also sparked a conversation around when a reporter might get a full-time announcing gig again.
In a recent episode of his podcast The Season , Schrager confirmed his interest in being the guy for that job.
Schrager also used his podcast to detail his strategy for calling the game and why the usual formula of sports broadcasts is not “everybody’s cup of tea” and could use a refresh.
“Our approach to the game is not the same as the (Tony) Romo, the (Troy) Aikman, the (Cris) Collinsworth, the Tom Brady,” Schrager explained. “I also sometimes watch sports TV and I don’t really understand who’s watching some of these breakdowns … when we get in the weeds talking about, like, offensive line play, I don’t know. That’s not necessarily everybody’s cup of tea. And I think most of these broadcasts are trying to teach you how a play happened or instruct you like your high school coach, when my thing was, I was going to tell some stories and give you some insight from the front offices.”
Schrager was not necessarily stating he would be the man to come in and fix NFL broadcasting, but simply offering the idea that his perspective as a game analyst could be useful as a balance for all the former players calling games.
“Does that work over a full course of a season? I don’t know, it may be a big swing and a miss,” Schrager said. “But it sure worked for that preseason game in particular.”
As for his approach, Schrager said he studied up, made many calls, and prepared a ton of talking points. He also tried to balance that information overload with being entertaining alongside Ian Eagle on local TV.
“No one has prepared for a football game like I just prepared for Giants-Jets preseason Week 3,” he said. “But there’s also this resistance of, I have all this information … but I’m not looking to show off, I’m not looking to just dump data and stats and stories. And I also wanted to make sure that I brought what I bring to this and what I bring to all the podcast appearances that I do to that broadcast, which is just banter. I want you to want to hang out with me. I want you to want to sit and talk with me. I just want to tell stories and be a cool hang.”
In the past, Schrager called preseason games alongside retired NFL athletes Anthony Becht and Nate Burleson. This year, he appreciated the chance to mix it up and carry a game himself.
“I didn’t use the telestrator once. I didn’t say the word ‘pad level’ once. We didn’t really show many replays, and break down how something happened at all,” Schrager said. “It’s not what you’re getting anywhere else, and I don’t look at that as a weakness.”
Many, including us here at Awful Announcing , are proponents of a changeup in the broadcast team format. But there are hundreds of smart, entertaining former NFL stars around to call games. It will be hard to convince a network to take a chance on someone like Schrager, even as the third member of a booth or a part-time analyst.
Schrager clearly isn’t afraid to advocate for himself and take some shots at the usual way of doing things in the process.
[ The Season with Peter Schrager ]
The post Peter Schrager open to more NFL broadcasts, says traditional booth not ‘everybody’s cup of tea’ appeared first on Awful Announcing .
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