An interesting thing to watch over the years has been how shows handle honors for their cast. There have been moments of on-air notification, and broadcasters pretending to learn about their selections on air. And CBS’ The NFL Today did something interesting there Sunday, having panelist JJ Watt appear live from the Pittsburgh Steelers-Houston Texans game where the Texans were inducting him to their Ring of Honor, and talking to him not just about that, but about his brother TJ (the Steelers’ defensive end) and, in a more sideline reporter fashion, about Houston QB C.J. Stroud:
CBS' "The NFL Today" had panelist J.J. Watt appear live on location from Houston ahead of the Steelers-Texans game where he was being inducted into Houston's Ring of Honor: pic.twitter.com/NlVQAfadYf
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 1, 2023
While we’ve seen those aforementioned on-air notifications (some actually notifying, some not so much), it’s a little more unusual to see a NFL pregame show featuring one of its members live from a game where they’re being honored. This was a neat way to do that for The NFL Today, and it also gave them a good on-location look at the Steelers and Texans clash.
As for Watt, he’s received strong reviews for his NFL on CBS work thus far, despite initially saying he didn’t want to be an analyst. He’s talked about feeling like he could still play, so he might wind up in the category of analysts rumored to rejoin leagues (along with CBS colleague Matt Ryan, ESPN’s Robert Griffin III and more.) But for now at least, he’s serving as a solid part of The NFL Today, and he did so in an interesting way Sunday.
[Awful Announcing on Twitter]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.