Jim Brandstatter fired by WJR
Sounds like he's only been fired from his role doing color for the Lions, not from doing the play-by-play for Michigan football. I'm not sure why WJR canned him. I always thought he was good on color commentary. Not a fan of his play-by-play work. No idea why Frank Beckmann was let go. He was really good
No Mas, LOMAS ???? LOL....
This is a terrible decision. Fire the idiot who made that decision and give Brandy his job back. 31 years....31 years he had to sit through Lions football games. 31 years every Sunday watching garbage for the majority of the time.
Brandy is one of the best color analysts I've ever heard. It makes zero sense.
Imagine the shithole his life was in 2008.
Poor dude had to sit through a 3-25 win loss record that fall. Ouch.
Maybe Brandy was holding them back. Super Bowl, here we come!
Loved Brando having to do the post game interviews week after week following another typical Lions loss. "Tough one today coach. What do you say to the guys after a heartbreaking loss like that? You were so close and a bad bounce here or there and you drop a game that could have easily been a win if one or two things happened differently."
Rewind, week after week.
My initial thought was yay until i read the post. I believe most Michigan fans would agree that we love brandstatter. He is a Michigan Man. He is excellent as a color commentator but his play by play sucks! He does a good job on Inside Michigan Football as well. I would love to have a Beckman esk type play by play guy take over.
Another reason to hate Lomas Brown.
At least Brandy tells me who is playing on the O line for M.
Otherwise, yes, He can improve on pbp.
Good that Dierdorf is there to help him out.
Ive never enjoyed Brandstatter on TV or radio as a personality. Id prefer someone else over him as color or play by play.
Hate to make a negative comment, but I am not surprised. Brandstatter was great, but he sounded a little rough last year. Mixing up names (e.g. Chris Perry vs Grant Perry). Not sure if too much tailgating, dementia, or back to back games and travel taking its toll.
Well, this can't be an easy job. Can you imagine how hard it would be to describe a Lions game without using swears?
Fuck no I can't
Brandy & Dierdorf are brutal. I would give Mat Shep a good look. He’s very good at M basketball.
I prefer Dierdorf as a color guy over Brandy to be honest.
I really like Dierdorf. He pulls no punches. But I also agree that Brandy is below-average on PBP. You can follow a game with him but his calls just aren't that sharp.
Brandy is a Michigan Guy. I have been ok with his work on the Lions, but have two thoughts.
First, doing both was probably taxing and didn't allow for as much preparation/focus as an exclusive broadcaster.
Second, Branding. Yes, that might have some negative connotations, but the "Lions" brand has not been good and breaking with the past may not be a bad thing.
Sad to me, but I think I am ok with it at this point, given my limited information.
By "breaking with the past" do you mean bringing back Lomas Brown to better remind us of Lion's struggles, even in the years with a Pro-Bowler on the OL?
This is totally backwards.
I agree that color is the best work he does. He seems to get some of the play by play facts wrong too often -- down, yard line, whatever -- when he does M games. He certainly has had a long career with the Lions but it's not like firing Ernie Harwell. The broadcast booth is the last place you would expect changes to improve a team, however. Or are they listening as they play?
I think Brandy is great in the color role, but awful at PBP. I'd slide Brandy back over to color and bring in Shep or Dickerson to do PBP in a heartbeat.
Yeah, it's not like Dickerson will have much to do in October.
How Brandy was able to stay engaged during Lion broadcasts will remain a mystery to me. They lost me decades ago.
The fact that it is now a MSU station certainly played a role.
Um, doubt it. MSU has had their football and basketball games on there for 12 years now.
I'll say it again as many times as it takes to happen, can we get Dan Dickerson to do play by play?
I like DD overall, but he is a HUGE MSU slappy in his personal life. I’ll take Dery or Shep, please. That’s not to say I disagree that Dickerson is fantastic and would to a great job. I just think that I’d prefer someone who would more naturally prefer that Michigan win.
How about the ghost of Van Patrick?
interesting.
he still seems like the sound of michigan football to me, but play-by-play didn't seem to be his thing. i'd rather he slid back to color and they hired a straight-ahead guy to do play-by-play.
This is... weird.
Brandstatter is a natural color guy. He is very good at it - fills in detail during the time between plays with fairly insightful details, opinionated without being brash, funny and smart, for a broadcaster. And he really understands the Lions franchise history and fans...
That said, he is actually pretty crappy at play-by-play. His actual description of the action is adequate, but he's just not as polished as most professional play by play guys. Then he and Deirdorf (also a good color guy), just stumble all over each other, essentially both trying to do color. Someone should be fired from the Michigan football broadcast booth and replaced with an actual pro PBP guy. I would keep Brandy and get rid of Dierdorf.
No one, however, is worse at their broadcasting job than Will Tiemen (sp?), MSU's hoops play by play guy. Worst I have ever heard.
Agree with the point about Brandy always trying to do Dan's job and making the role of both harder. Sadly Dan would be better at PbP than Jim is and I'm sure about the only reason he took the job was to work with his friend, but even as a color guy Dan's best days are behind him.
However the firing part, well we could never fire an alum that is a HoFer as both a player and a broadcaster as that would be a Dave Brandon type PR nightmare.
Fired from the wrong job