Kevin Burkhardt is set to become the new lead play-by-play voice for NFL games on Fox, though the network has yet to make a formal announcement. This comes after the departure of Joe Buck for ESPN.
On Cleveland’s 92.3 The Fan, Ken Carman and Anthony Lima offered their reaction to the news. Lima feels like Burkhardt is a voice local fans are unfamiliar with from a football standpoint, considering more of the Browns’ games during the season air on CBS.
“I don’t think many of our fans even know who he is,” Lima said. “And again, I think he’s very good. But, like, way more know who Gus Johnson is.”
Carman said that given the big names that have shuffled around this offseason and the kind of money attached to those big names, it seemed like Fox was kind of tied to promoting from within.
“Wouldn’t you rather build through your own farm system? There’s only so many big names that you can go out and poach and pay $15 million a year to,” he said. “And so if you’re Fox you’re going, ‘He does a solid job. Let’s bump Kevin Burkhardt up.’ It’s a bit of a gamble.”
Carman added that the unfamiliarity factor would be good for the network and its audience. He felt like Burkhardt would do a fine job calling Super Bowls, which he’ll do in two of the next three years.
“He’s not the biggest name, but he’s very good and he’s very polished,” he said, adding that Burkhardt’s cadence fits the stage. “I think he would provide the right amount of ‘Here it is, away you go’ and let the Super Bowl take over.”
A formal announcement of Fox’s new number one NFL broadcast team will likely be coming once the network has chosen a color commentator. That vacancy came open following Troy Aikman’s own exit to ESPN, eventually joining Buck on Monday Night Football.
The Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima ranked No. 1 on the BSM Top 20 Mid Market Morning Shows of 2021 list.