NFL on FOX assigns Dick Stockton, Mark Schlereth to Seahawks at Broncos

The NFL on FOX released its broadcast pairings for the 2018 NFL season, and not much has really changed apart from the inclusion of Cris Carter as a new in-game analyst. His first assignment is the Tennessee Titans at Miami Dolphins.

To the surprise of no one, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman get “America’s Game of the Week,” which is the Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys. For the Seattle Seahawks’ season opener at the Denver Broncos... they get pretty much the bottom of the pile. It’s an ancient Dick Stockton and former Broncos offensive lineman Mark Schlereth.

Stockton is 75 years old and extremely past his best. I distinctly remember him calling Brandon Mebane “Patrick Mebane” in a Seahawks game either in 2008 or 2009. If we’re not careful, he might go full Ron Burgundy on us, as he did in the Rams-Jaguars game last year.

Sometimes the game gets far too chaotic for him and he’ll make a mess out of a play like this and paint a totally different picture of what’s going on. How he’s hung on this long is beyond me.

The following week sees Seattle travel to Chicago to take on the Bears in a Monday Night Football showdown. With Sean McDonough back on college football and Jon Gruden leading the Oakland Raiders again, ESPN significantly switched things up with their broadcast team. Joe Tessitore (Tess Effect!) is the new play-by-play voice, while legendary Cowboys TE Jason Witten is the new analyst. Booger McFarland is the field-level analyst, while Lisa Salters is still the sideline reporter. We’ll see this crew again in December, when the Minnesota Vikings travel to CenturyLink Field.

In all likelihood, Buck and Aikman are going to call Cowboys-Seahawks in Week 3, although that’s not confirmed. It is in the feature 1:25 PM PT slot, and it is the Cowboys, so it must be “America’s Game of the Week.”

If none of these guys is of any interest to you, there’s always finding a way to sync the TV and radio so you can listen to Steve Raible.