It’s never easy to replace a legend. When the time came for Brad Nessler to slide into the chair previously occupied by the great Verne Lundquist, he handled it well. Nessler paid tribute to Lundquist and acknowledged he had big shoes to fill. Nessler has made the transition over the last four years into the lead SEC chair on CBS look easy, because he’s one of the most professional announcers in the industry. To me, he’s one of the more unheralded play-by-play guys around. While he may not get the headlines like, Al Michaels, Mike Trico and others, Nessler just continues to do a solid job.
It’s not that the others don’t deserve the press they get. They do, but you can’t forget about guys like Nessler. He’s been around the block, calling everything from the NFL to the NCAA Tournament. He’s carved out a niche for himself using his big voice for some big moments in college and professional sports.
ROAD TO THE SEC ON CBS
Brad Nessler began his professional broadcasting career sharing play-by-play radio duties with Al Ciraldo on Georgia Tech basketball on WGST from 1980–85 and handled the play–by–play for the Atlanta Falcons from 1982 to 1988 on WGST and WSB before taking the same position for the Minnestoa Vikings during the 1988 and 1989 seasons.
In 1990 and 1991, Nessler spent his first tour of duty with CBS, calling the NFL, College Football and College Basketball, both men’s and women’s.
Nessler left CBS for ESPN in 1992. His career there began with calling college hoops and also Big Ten and Thursday night football games. When ESPN and ABC moved under the same umbrella, Nessler’s assignments expanded. When he started calling college football on ABC in 1997, he was the #3 play-by-play announcer, behind Keith Jackson and Brent Musburger. Nessler moved up to #2 when Jackson scaled back his workload in 1999.
In July 2009, ESPN announced that Nessler would move to the top play-by-play man for ESPN’s coverage of college football, being primarily responsible for ESPN’s Saturday Primetime game. Upon the announcement of Nessler’s move to ESPN’s Saturday Primetime telecasts, it was also announced that he would be teamed with former Penn State quarterback Todd Blackledge and sideline reporter Erin Andrews beginning with the 2009 college football season; this crew also called the January 1, 2010 Capital One Bowl on ABC.
From 2002 to 2004, Brad Nessler was a broadcaster for the NBA including calling the 2003 NBA Finals. Starting in 2006, Nessler provided play-by-play for SEC games on Super Tuesday and Thursday Night Showcase. He also covered Saturday afternoon games for ESPN during the regular college basketball season, and previously appeared on ABC.
On September 11, 2006, ESPN began its coverage of Monday Night Football with a Week 1 doubleheader. Nessler teamed with Ron Jaworski, Dick Vermeil and Bonnie Bernstein to call the second game, featuring the Chargers and Raiders. Nessler worked several more of the doubleheader NFL games for the network.
In 2011, Nessler was hired by NFL Network to call its Thursday Night Football telecasts. He continued to call the game package in 2012 and 2013, expanded to thirteen games, before CBS Sports took over responsibility for the package in the 2014 NFL season.
Nessler made his return to CBS Sports in 2016. He would serve as lead play-by-play announcer for SEC college football games beginning in the 2017 season, replacing the outgoing Verne Lundquist. He was then reunited with Danielson, who he worked with at ABC from 1997–1999. Nessler also provides play-by-play for college basketball for the network and called his first NCAA March Madness action since 1992 in March of 2018 on TBS as part of the CBS/Turner partnership.
WHY IS HE SO GOOD?
Brad Nessler is smooth, authoritative and in control of his broadcasts. You can tell he does his homework and in the opens to his television games, there’s a bit of a swagger that is noticeable if you watch closely. It is the type of swagger that’s not saying “I’m the man, look at me.” Instead, it is one that I believe says, “watch this broadcast, I know what I’m talking about and you’ll enjoy it.”
I watched the 2021 SEC title game a second time and paid attention to tempo, energy and mood setting. I thought Nessler did an excellent job of setting up the match up. He stayed within himself, not letting the hype and noise inside the stadium get the best of him. It seemed to me like he and Gary Danielson set a very good tone and set the mood well.
Nessler was up to the big moments in the game, like a first-half strike for Alabama to Jameison Williams. The Tide receiver pulled away. “Extra speed, on the gas and gone!” exclaimed Nessler. I really thought he and Danielson were on point for most of the game. I also appreciated that even with all that was on the line for the teams, Nessler and Danielson really allowed the game to breathe at times. Meaning, they weren’t just talking to cover up dead spots, there was enough in the way of crowd energy to make up for the silence from the booth.
I thought the storylines were fairly even, to each of the teams. For someone like me with no skin in the game, the coverage and excitement level seemed very balanced. I know that fans of both Alabama and Georgia will disagree with that last statement, but that’s the way I saw it.
In general terms, I’ve always liked the way Nessler calls games. There is that tone that I spoke of, which is really hard to describe. It almost creates a sense of “I know this game is important” to the audience. That is not to say Nessler and his analysts can’t break into a little levity when the time calls for it. He knows when it’s time to have fun and when it’s time to dedicate himself to the game. He has a nice balance in his broadcasts.
His love of the games he calls really shines through as much as than anything. There was a little bit of giddiness in his voice just before that SEC Title game in Atlanta. But that never gets in the way of him doing what he’s there to do. He is there to use his personality to compliment the game, not get in the way of the game call because that’s what the audience expects and deserves. The other great thing about him is it doesn’t matter who he’s working with, that person knows he/she has a great partner in Nessler.
There isn’t just one obvious thing that makes Brad Nessler stick out from the rest of those that call games. The combination of his voice, knowledge and personality really works for him. There’s not a lot of flash to his calls, which is not a bad thing. As I wrote about him in March, just before the NCAA Tournament started, “smooth and always under control is Nessler. You always know you’re getting a good broadcast when he is on the call.”
I’ll stand by that statement today.
CONCLUSION
Nessler has always been one of those guys who has seemingly flown under the radar. He’s not jumping up and down, coming up with a ton of catchphrases (he does have ‘I mean…’) saying look at me, not the game. Unfortunately, it seems more and more that guys in that latter category are getting ahead, because producers and networks want more personality from their announcers. Brad Nessler represents the best of voice and subtle personality, that actually makes the GAME the star of the show. The way it’s supposed to be.
Andy Masur is a columnist for BSM and works for WGN Radio as an anchor and play-by-play announcer. He also teaches broadcasting at the Illinois Media School. During his career he has called games for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox. He can be found on Twitter @Andy_Masur1 or you can reach him by email at Andy@Andy-Masur.com.
