Breaking Down the Giants Announcers SUS Style

Bob Papa



White Boy: A- A very technically sound, accurate and fair announcer. Papa is a breath of fresh air from the over the top homers that fill the local National Football League airwaves around the nation. He sounds almost as excited when the opposing team does something extraordinary as he does when his Giants pull off a great play. However, he adds just an extra tinge of passion to his calls of Giants victories and/or great plays which is enough to let his listeners know where his loyalties lie. He has a solid though not trailblazing voice. Most of all, Papa knows his Giants and football history and is very good about keeping up with the confusing penalty calls or challenged plays. Although he is not quite at that special tier of announcing, he is a fine play by play man and I hope he remains with the G-men into the foreseeable future.

Devo: A- It seems like he's covered the Giants for my entire Giants career. (Or White Boy's Giants Career plus 3 seasons.) But he's only been at it since 1995. He's one of those announcers that I love simply because I always associate his voice with my team. As a play-by-play guy, he's pretty good; not Marv Albert, certainly not John Stereling. He tends to suffer from Ian Eagle Syndrome: he raises his voice and gets overly excited during anything close to a big play. But I'm okay with that because I tend to get the same way when the Giants are involved.

Carl Banks

This is one of Carl's lesser moments:

White Boy: B+
Carl is a funny guy. His back and forth tussles with Joe Benningo on WFAN’s mid day show about the Knicks should be sent to the broadcasting hall of fame for their sheer entertainment value. Although Carl is a huge Knicks (if not Isaiah) homer, he does a good job of remaining fairly neutral during the Giant’s broadcasts. This is not necessarily an easy task for someone who spent most of his career with the Giants. Banks occasionally spouts off truisms like “they came to play today” or “who wants it more?” Still, he generally is good at breaking down a game and getting into the mindset of the player on the field. He just needs to stop defending the aforementioned Knicks GM; though I guess if James Dolan isn’t going to stop defending him, why should I expect Banks too? Still, Carl is a solid analyst who adds a lot to the broadcast.

Devo: B+
As an analyst, he’s pretty good. He tends to point out certain things about the game that only an ex-player would know, and that’s really all that you can ask of an analyst. But more than his Giants analysis, I have to give props for his work with on the WFAN Mid-day Show with Evan & Joe on football Fridays and Mondays. Sure, he’s the ultimate Giants and Knicks (Isaiah) apologist, but it complements Evan and Joe’s good-if-overly-critical coverage of these teams. Best two hours of radio each week.


And we'll leave you with Carl Banks: linebacker, analyst, Knicks fan, food salesman, renaissance man.