During his Steak Tips segment while on The Morning Shift on 92.9 The Game in Atlanta, Steak Shapiro brought up the passing of Bill Walton and the media career of Tom Brady getting started soon. This brought up the topic of who the best athletes are that became great broadcasters. Troy Aikman was the consensus choice.
“The greatest combination of superstar player and great broadcaster, who comes to mind?” Shapiro asked Tiffany Blackmon, Mike Johnson and Beau Morgan. “There are those who have excelled absolutely at the highest level on both levels and there are those where you are like, ‘great player, but don’t give them a microphone.’ Joe Montana was an example, Dan Marino really had a very short stint, didn’t really come together…It’s a combination of great in the booth and great on the field. I’m talking about a guy sitting there calling games.”
When someone suggested Aikman, Shapiro responded, “I think he is probably at the top of the food chain. Three Super Bowls and now the No. 1 color guy for how many years now? Is he going on 20 years?”
Another name that was brought up and hits close to home in Atlanta is former Braves pitcher John Smoltz. “John Smoltz is a great one,” Shapiro said. “Hall of Famer, and by the way, nobody ascended to the No. 1 team faster than John Smoltz. Famous line by Bob Costas, ‘I would have been happy to pay my dues, but nobody asked me to.'”
When it came to Brady and talking about the start of his media career, Shapiro noted how rare it is for someone considered to be in the very upper echelon of their sport to move to the broadcasting booth.
“Brady is in a weird spot,” he said. “Greg Olsen just won the Emmy for best broadcaster in the booth and he gets sent to the second team. Brady can’t be better than Greg Olsen because Olsen was just given the Emmy as the best.”
Other names brought into the conversation included Kirk Herbstreit, Pat Summerall and Rich Gannon, but all agreed none of them excelled in sports to the level of a Walton or Aikman. Phil Simms, who spent time in the No. 1 booth for both NBC and CBS and was the Super Bowl XXI MVP was mentioned. Shapiro also threw out Reggie Miller’s name and said he has been excellent calling NBA playoff games this year.
“It’s a hard combination,” Shapiro said. “And then the question is, ‘why do the absolute top, top guys who have hundreds of millions of dollars decide they need to stay in the game?’ I’ve been around enough ex-athletes, a lot of times it’s good for your brain, it’s good for not having to get away from the game too much.”
Matt Ryan was then brought up as someone who there are high expectations for as a broadcaster. CBS is bringing Ryan in as a replacement for Boomer Esiason and Phil Simms on The NFL Today. “Listen, Boomer Esiason and Phil Simms did a great job, but it’s not a lifetime job all the time. Get a guy that was literally under center two years ago, he played against 90% of the guys he’s going to be [talking about].”
Shapiro added, “I said it about Dick Clark and Regis. Just because you’ve been doing it a long time doesn’t mean you get to do it forever. Other than me, I can do this forever.”
