The guys doing those cover every game (year in, year out, good seasons and bad, more often than not) and know all kinds of stuff qbout the team that even the good national talking heads simply don't.

Back when I was watching Braves games regularly, I was spoiled by the superb team at TBS. Not only did they broadcast 150-odd Braves games a year, meaning their crews were simply better at doing baseball than even the big boys, but their announcing team had spent years covering the Braves. When the games were on off-local networks (Fox South, Turner South) or even ESPN, there was a huge dropoff.

I'll have to give this a try sometime with football. I must say, though, that both Fox and CBS do a pretty good job with Cowboys games. Sadly, the exception is Monday/Sunday/Thursday Night Football. Those crews just aren't as good as the A-teams at the other networks.

As with Gumbel on NFLN's games, there is an easy -- and inexpensive -- solution to this problem: Turn off the sound on your TV and listen to the game on Sirius NFL Radio (you can even choose which side's homer sportscasters you want).

I really enjoy listening to the radio broadcasts. The guys doing those cover every game (year in, year out, good seasons and bad, more often than not) and know all kinds of stuff qbout the team that even the good national talking heads simply don't.

Pre-empting the best part of a game featuring the most popular team in the sport

Oh, I thought you meant my Chargers.

That nonsense of the "talk show" with the game as a background which is mostly ignored is a regular feature of Charger preseason. These morons do it all the time, as does ESPN during the regular season, which is why I never watch MNF since ESPN took it over. I'll have to a couple times this year, since the Chargers are on the schedule, but...

This is the problem with Cowboys fans... they think the entire sport revolves around them. ;-)

It doesn't? Even in really bad years, the Cowboys are a huge draw. I remember a few years back when a Cowboys-Redskins game, when both teams were awful, outdrew a baseball league championship game on at the same time.

They should probably have scheduled more slack time between the games to prevent this from happening. But, unlike a regular season game, the best part of a preseason game is the early part. It's been months since fans got to see their stars on the field; it doesn't make sense to preempt that to show guys who are likely going to be gone at the first cut. At the very minimum, though, they should have immediately switched to the next game when clock struck zero.

This is how markets work: A company makes a product and its customers provide various forms of feedback about it, leading (hopefully) to the improvement of said product. Companies that pay attention to this feedback prosper; companies that don't, lose market share. If this concept is difficult for you, try comparing the market performance of the NFL and the NYT over the last 10-15 years. That should clear everything up.

Not having to listen to Gumbel anymore is worth this.

Pre-empting the best part of a game featuring the most popular team in the sport

This is the problem with Cowboys fans... they think the entire sport revolves around them. ;-)