The WORST ANNOUNCER in NFL on CBS HISTORY | Joe Greene

In 1982, Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame defensive tackle Joe Greene became a color commentator for the NFL on CBS, and joined the CBS Sports family. He was so bad that he was fired after just six games. This is the story behind the time Mean Joe Greene became an announcer, and failed horribly at it
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[@Ghost_of_a_Flea]

Kudos to him for trying something he always wanted to do that was out of his comfort zone and putting in the effort. No shame in that.

[@grinningchicken]

The genii said Joe you can take any 2 A. Tall dark and handsome B. A great football player C. A great broadcaster. I cant really fault his choices

[@TheAutumnWind_RN4L]

Lol. I think I'd make the same choices.

[@brianarbenz1329]

Imagine Howard Cosell playing on the Steelers defensive line. That wouldn’t detract from his greatness in broadcasting, just as Joe Greene’s stumble in the booth doesn’t diminish his spectacular accomplishments.

[@davidcobb2693]

I don't think the Steelers would have given Howard Cosell 6 games before cutting him loose, but Jack Lambert probably killed him at halftime of Cosell's first game.

[@eugenedenbrook322]

I like the analogy

[@MrRyan-wu4jx]

@@eugenedenbrook322 countless former players successfully make the transition into broadcasting though, that’s not unlikely. Joe Buck leading the lions to a super bowl would be. Not a very good comparison

[@DWilliam1]

Who is saying it does?

[@sartainja]

Amen, Brother Brian.

[@Mr_Oggie]

CBS probably hired him because they wanted the name recognition he brought and just assumed (or hoped) he would get better as the season went on: I'm Canadian and grew up in the 70s, and not just me but my whole family *NEVER* watched football and yet I still knew who "Mean Joe Greene" was

[@ronsmac]

That coke commercial guaranteed Greene a spot on tv that he wasn’t qualified for.

[@nasetvideos]

As a kid, I loved Joe Greene as a player-One of my favorites to watch in the 70s...but I remember him as a color commentator in that '82 season and felt awful for him. He just wasn't comfortable and it didn't work...and very quickly. He genuinely seemed to try but he wasn't cut out to be a color commentary guy. Great video. You really did your homework here with outstanding clips and analyses of Joe Greene's very brief color commentary history. As always, best channel on KZbin for football!

[@McConkey_Productions]

Mean Joe

[@BD-1-And-Only]

Fun fact: His college team, North Texas, renamed themselves in his honor. They are now known as the North Texas Mean Green

[@jimmym3352]

He certainly didn't belong in that position. Should have been in the studio first. But even there I'm not sure he would have done well. Now days it's usually former coaches or QB's (as in Bradshaw) in the studio. But the studio guys seem to me at least, to prepare what they are going to say when they come on in halftime. It doesn't require as quick thinking as a color commentator who must be fast, and talk a lot and hopefully be somewhat knowledgeable about the game.

[@felixleiter5092]

Roger Staubach was rubbish as an colour analyst too.

[@hunterwade9030]

@@BD-1-And-Only correct. I live right next to the campus

[@kmjr2400]

Are you saying that Joe wouldn't have done any better if had just spiked the microphone on every play?

[@avrysportsshow]

LOLLLL

[@anonymoususer450]

He did have a successful career in coaching and he did earn 2 additional Super Bowl rings working in the Steelers player personnel department in the 00s, so it all worked out for him

[@johnsmith9403]

The teleprompter clip pretty much says it all. He was too nervous in front of the camera and too scared to make a mistake. I see this kind of thing all the time with public speaking. Some people just never get comfortable with it. But you’re right, he shouldn’t have been put in that position from the execs. They should have seen that he just wasn’t cut out for it.

[@CTubeMan]

Pulled a Frank Zappa.

[@danevertt3210]

@@CTubeMan what was up with Zappa?

[@sovietonion72]

What I don't get is after both his auditions he admitted that he was terrible yet he was given the go ahead? Doesn't make sense 🤔

[@KazeShikamaru]

I never knew he did this. Wow..my grandfather told me Mean Joe Greene was scary.

[@DolFan316]

Your grandfather's right, Greene's broadcasting work WAS scary!

[@schnarfschnarf5886]

On a football field ,he is one of the 3 players you don't wanna see in those days

[@dspsblyuth]

@@schnarfschnarf5886 who are the other 10?

[@KazeShikamaru]

@@DolFan316 I meant on the field but did tell me he couldn't some broadcasters.

[@jimmym3352]

I'm sure you are joking. But yeah, he seems like a really likeable and friendly guy. He was a bit before my time, and I never actually got into football until I was an adult. But as a kid even I heard of him and the Steelers D.

[@russellseilhamer4552]

I feel bad for Mean Joe. It seemed to me he needed speech therapy to correct annunciation of certain words. It’s not a matter of lack of intelligence either. I think it was a huge disservice for any network to put a guy with no experience out there to do a job like that where someone can make a fool out of themselves. I think he was set up to fail, he needed some formal training and to pay his dues before doing any broadcasts. Every man has success and failure in his life. Joe Greene in every measure of life is a winner and he rightfully owns it. He also owns this failure that the whole world has fortunately forgotten

[@DolFan316]

I hate to be "that guy" but it's enunciation. And yes, I took speech as well as voice and diction in college.

[@brianarbenz1329]

No, the “annunciation” would have been by Roman Gabriel.

[@bundesautobahn7]

Not everyone is just made for that job. I mean, we see what happened with Tony Romo when he got paired up with Jim Nantz, he blew up as a colour commentator and recently reupped for a lot of money. Maybe Joe Greene should've started as an analyst on The NFL Today or something before going to the booth, or try himself at preseason games from a local affiliate.

[@pronkb000]

@@user-sw9rj6hj4z There are a *lot* of instances of players absolutely being thrown to the wolves in this era, especially on ABC with its burgeoning MLB coverage, just throwing guys like Bob Gibson, Norm Cash, and even a still-active-but-injured Mark Fidrych into the booth with no safety net (aside from often being teamed with Al Michaels).

[@rontheauraknight9606]

Some people will likely get practice in the USFL that’s returning this spring. Greg Olson before he retired did sportscasting on XFL games (before the league folded) and his last season on his bye week he did some sportscasting for the NFL. Today he’s a color commentator like Joe green was and is doing a good job at it.

[@characterunderconstruction5891]

Joe Greene is the reason I started watching football. I saw him in a United Airlines commercial in 1973 and 1974. No one even remembers this commercial, they only remember the 1979 Coke Cola commercial with the little kid. I was a exclusive baseball fan until I saw that United Airlines commercial with Joe Greene taking about all the leg room United Airlines has at that time. I didn't know a first down from a punt that first season. When the commentators address some players as veterans, I thought they were Vietnam veterans.

[@armorybrunotjr.3204]

Actually, "Mean Joe" Greene isn't the worst former pro star to be a color commentator on network television. During the 1974 preseason, Fred "Hammer" Williamson tried his hand for ABC, doing two preseason broadcasts as analyst for "Monday Night Football", following the departure of Don Meredith. Williamson was a bust; instead of concentrating of what happened during the game, he kept mentioning all the backs and receivers he knocked out during his career as a defensive back (1960-67) in the AFL. Williamson was dropped prior to regular season.

[@justinpettit8099]

People said Jason Witten was pretty bad when he tried it out

[@pcbullets8726]

Jason Whitten was more painful to listen to at times, but you can tell that Joe was a little nervous. Not everyone is cut out for this kind of work. Gotta have the gift of gab to do the job.

[@jackleonardi3577]

Witten was painful; there’s like a 10 minute video showing all of his awkwardness in the booth from just one season of commentating

[@jmad627]

Maybe get Mean Joe and George Seifert together?! Sounds like a winning broadcasting combo….no?!

[@ciesaro]

Frank Glieber was truly an underrated PBP man

[@craigmergenthal9291]

Going solely off this video, Gleiber seems to set up Greene as much as possible with some softball lobs. Other play by play men may not have been so gracious.

[@hrtvfan2870]

From what I've seen of old footage and from research, CBS seemed to use Frank Gleiber to break in new color commentators. Sometimes it worked (such as Dick Vermeil the following year, where CBS would have had a great #2 crew behind Pat and John had Gleiber not died from a heart attack at only 51); other times...well, there's this video. I don't think I can recall another broadcaster being used to break in new guys like that.

[@brettpatterson404]

1:27 you think after 13 years of a hall of fame career they would know how to spell your last name.

[@msarzo]

Loved seeing you reference the Coke commercial as a kid who watched it when I was growing up even before I started following football! Yes, Mean Joe Greene as a color commentator was worse than if you did nothing but spike the ball into the ground on every single play. You'd think he could at least explain defensive strategy better than he did with that Lynn Dickey sack!

[@DolFan316]

Still not as bad as Emmitt Smith's stint as an analyst, though. At least Greene didn't speak like English was his third language.

[@ryanjacobson2508]

I really don't get it when networks put ex-pro athletes in the broadcast booth when said athletes clearly do not know how to articulate themselves clearly.

[@stevenbauer4799]

michael 'mumbles' irvin syndrome.

[@theecharmingbilly]

Irvin was never Emmitt bad.

[@stevenbauer4799]

@@theecharmingbilly he is worse.

[@wilkiedriver]

Emmitt had issues. It didn't help that he didn't get much better as he went along. It also doesn't help that he played for a team that was very well hated outside of Dallas.

[@AdamJ617]

I was watching a video you did from January 2020, before rewatching this one, and Boy have you come such a long way, you’ve made practically everybody else realize They’re better off just doing nothing but spiking the ball into the ground on every single play.

[@big8dog887]

Say what you will about his broadcasting, but if I'm an opposing QB having to face him, I'm spiking the ball on every play.

[@rhardee8]

Wah wah..it isn't about his football playing skills but about his broadcasting skills which he obviously sucked at.

[@joeylawn36111]

Imagine being the person that has to tell "Mean" Joe Green that he's fired.... 😬

[@matthewdaley746]

Better, than, telling Jack Lambert that he, was, fired, he, was, perfect, for, the Raiders, so, odd that he, never, would play, for, them.

[@beamerball666]

I think back then a lot more players took rivalries that they were a part of way more personally than today

[@matthewdaley746]

​​@@beamerball666 Perhaps, but, Curt Gowdy, was, one, of the, best, broadcasters ever, and, he got let go, after, The 1975 World Series, because, he, was, such an insufferable homer, too bad, it is.

[@dspsblyuth]

@@matthewdaley746 what’s the story behind this?

[@matthewdaley746]

​​@@dspsblyuth From what I've read, he did Red Sox Games, before, going national, during, The 1975 World Series, his bias, was, painfully obvious, removing him, mid-stream, would have been appropriate, but, also, A, PR, Disaster, and, thus, he, was, let go, right, after.

[@swells3156]

Ah good old Mean Joe Greene he was a core of the Steel curtain defense of the '70s but cannot do it as a television guy

[@donaldpaluga]

Ironic, Greene was a GREAT defensive player but a lousy commentator, whereas Tony Dungy was a OK safety but a great analyst

[@patrickjspoon]

Joe Greene caused the strike, as no player wanted him ever calling their games

[@DolFan316]

After watching this video, I am completely convinced of it.

[@luisreyes1963]

Hilarious. 😒

[@pbft.j]

That just goes to show how impressive Tony Romo is at this job. Genuinely love hearing that guy's voice to the point that sometimes I forget he's Tony freakin Romo.

[@TheAutumnWind_RN4L]

Mark Sanchez makes my ears bleed. Troy Aikman puts me to sleep. It really is a skill all of its own.

[@antcantcook960]

overtalking tony

[@CTubeMan]

You mentioned that Frank Gleiber worked with Johnny Unitas. In “The Game Behind the Game” Terry O’Neil said that former CBS Sports President Barry Frank told him to take some remedial speaking classes. Unitas asked if Frank meant college-like courses and Frank shot back, “No, high school.” Unitas felt humiliated, yet took the courses. When he was done he said his game load got cut back. This unofficial Official Jaguar Gator 9 historian will remind everyone you made videos about the following: 1. How Fox tried a broadcast booth of Terry Bradshaw and Jimmy Johnson for one game and how disastrous that was. 2. How CBS fired George Seifert from the NFL Today during his first season (though you did touch on it in the Jerry Glanville video to which you linked in this video).

[@davanmani556]

Johnny was rumored of being illiterate.

[@TLT1986b]

Man, he is up there with Magic Johnson as far as being bad for an announcer

[@joeylawn36111]

Kareem was another who didn't do too well in the broadcast booth

[@JAWrightonline]

@@joeylawn36111 Message to you and Marcus Barnes: Leave my Lakers out of this mess...LMFAO 🤣!!!!

[@joeylawn36111]

@@JAWrightonline Kareem did better as a airplane co-pilot.... :wink:

[@orbyfan]

Elgin Baylor was reportedly so bad that CBS replaced him during the 1974 NBA playoffs. Bill Simmons mentioned this in "The Book of Basketball," and wanted someone to post video of his work on KZbin so that we could hear for ourselves.

[@teen_laqueefa]

Bill Walton, worst of all.

[@mcsweatshop]

I don’t think most average people appreciate how incredibly difficult sports broadcasting is. It took joe buck almost two decades to get decent at it.

[@matthewdaley746]

Yeah, no, he, was, handed the spot, due to nepotism, and, only, a dead girl, and/or, a live boy, will take it away from him, blood simple, it's, truly, unsettling.

[@CTubeMan]

Many would dispute your assessment that Buck’s gotten decent at broadcasting.

[@matthewdaley746]

@CTubeMan He's gotten, better, because, he can't get any, worse, and, nobody disputes that he emotes, rarely, if, at all, sorry.

[@jbratt]

I did high school football play by play on the radio. I had an old coach do the color who had experience. The first game was so much harder than I imagined but the coach got me through. Every game got better until the end of the season where I was felt pretty comfortable. I don’t think I was very good but we didn’t lose a single sponsor and gained a few.

[@matthewdaley746]

@@jbratt Glad progress still made.

[@chriswahl4139]

Gleiber helped break in Madden for a few games in 1979 and with the NBA helped break in Hubie Brown and Doug Collins who are two if the best NBA analysts over the last several decades

[@pronkb000]

Glieber is an interesting story in his own right--he was mostly before my time, but he did EVERYTHING, from NFL to the NBA to the Texas Rangers to tennis to NASL soccer to the PBA, while also doing other local sports in the Dallas area. He had just worked his first NFL playoff assignment for CBS after many years in thankless roles like the one in this video in the 1984 postseason, and was in the middle of calling an NBA playoff series when he collapsed and died one morning while jogging. He was only 51.

[@teen_laqueefa]

@@pronkb000 damn, sad

[@fredleeland2464]

The worst commentary I heard was this preseason game in 2014 with Kurt Warner and this other guy Kurt was great, excellent but the other guy, the play by play guy was barely talking leaving Kurt to have to call the game AND do the color It was weird how much dead air there was I turned it off in the 1st quarter

[@theecharmingbilly]

Kurt Warner... The Unicorn's unicorn!

[@rocknroll7316]

@Fred Legoland that is why I prefer to listen to radio announcers while I watch the game on TV or just turn the volume off. I really don't feel the need for announcers to describe what I'm seeing and most color commentators don't say anything compelling

[@Undecided0]

I usually just mute the TV during games & play music or podcasts in the background.

[@05steelersrule08]

Pretty much echoes my sentiments to a "T". I regularly mute the TV whenever I watch football, baseball, hockey, etc. As long as I can see the action, I don't need it described to me by any know-it-all announcers.

[@curtismcneil8695]

I mean He even said himself that his auditions didn't go well, so CBS is at fault for putting him into that spot. I don't blame Joe Greene I blame CBS.

[@DuckOfRubber]

Frank Glieber’s confidence and competence in the role almost magnified Greene’s deficiencies by making a literal side by side comparison.

[@gamerboy6787]

Former players turned color commentators that I like: Greg Olsen (he seems a bit dry at times, and he's still finding his footing as a commentator in his first year, but he does a solid job; I expect he'll be a lot better in the years to come) Cris Collinsworth (yes, I know many people hate him, but I think he's solid) Mark Sanchez (when he gets goofy or silly, or tells funny anecdotes from his playing days, I think he's good) Brady Quinn (he ain't half bad) And of course, Tony Romo (he has a knack for it) Good video! This is a good reminder that there is a deft art to being a good TV personality.

[@rudyeksh8217]

James lofton with cbs is pretty good. And he was great player with Bills and packers

[@mikelavin9704]

I think Andrew Catalon and James Lofton are perhaps the most underrated pairing for CBS.

[@morghenmurdochlundgren8640]

Good lord,the sound guy in all those clips was definitely trying to help him out,and hell,he should've been fired as well. Maybe Joe should've improved his percentage by spiking the headset and mic down on every single play.

[@davanmani556]

Fred Dryer wasn’t good when he became a color commentator after retirement. But Fred improved and got into acting which lead to his role in Hunter.

[@teen_laqueefa]

I had a crush on DIDI

[@stingrey1571]

i was too young for joe greene on commentary. he was just another example of a network falling in love with a name and not worrying about the work. other bad examples were joe montana, jerry rice, emmitt smith, jason witten, hines ward, and ray lewis.

[@Undecided0]

I remember Ryan Clark said that Joe Green advised him to get his degree in broadcasting & communications.

[@pronkb000]

I know he had a legit sports and journalism and teaching background but I was not expecting to hear Bill Mercer's name on a JG9 video. People of a certain time and place will associate him with the voice of World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas calling the matches of the Von Erichs and the Freebirds and others. Those same people would probably question how he was qualified to teach speech therapy or public speaking and broadcasting--this is the guy who once referred to wrestler Nord the Barbarian as "Nord the Norwegian," from "Norwegia," among other gaffes.

[@mgb4692]

Probably all those years of the Von Erichs doing Warrioresque promos (only as straight white meat 80s faces, no rambling) got to him

[@denniscatanese4846]

Bless the "Mean" one, but the contradiction on the pass interference call had me 💀

[@andrewpadaetz5549]

"Mean Joe" was 4th pick of the 1969 draft and the 5th was Greg Cook who went to the Bengals. Imagine those picks being reversed..the Steelers likely never draft Bradshaw in '70 unless Cook got hurt like he did in '69.

[@matthewdaley746]

Imagine if Terry Bradshaw puts the Steelers ahead of himself, after, the 1982 season, and, retires, instead, of stealing money from, The, Rooney Family, and, ruining the Steelers, for, the next, two, decades, they draft Dan Marino, and, don't miss a beat.

[@andrewpadaetz5549]

@@matthewdaley746 Especially since Marino was a local product who went to U of Pittsburgh.

[@matthewdaley746]

​@@andrewpadaetz5549 Yeah, there, were, rumors of a cocaine habit, so, going to Miami in the 1980s should have gotten him arrested, or, worse, that didn't happen, the Steelers, totally, blew it.

[@andrewpadaetz5549]

@@matthewdaley746 As did the Jets picking Ken O'Brien or Chiefs with Todd Blackledge (won't second guess Bills on Jim Kelly).

[@matthewdaley746]

​@@andrewpadaetz5549 Yeah, but, the teams around them, weren't, nearly, as, good, and, neither, of those players, were, a local product, simple as that.

[@tommyparkerparker]

Imagine if Joe Greene had to fill in for Madden at the last minute and worked with Pat Summerall on the big game. OMG!

[@mrmonty86]

I think Joe Greene should've said on that PI call that it was a 50/50.

[@MrGarysugarman]

This guy has the perfect voice and delivery for narrating these videos. Hilariously authentic exasperation.

[@harrymann5523]

A shame, he was paired with Frank Glieber who was a great announcer at CBS.

[@brix1094fuckhandles]

he was as bad a brodcaster as he was great a d lineman.

[@toucansam3]

Almost as bad as when someone thought giving Magic Johnson his own talk show was a good idea.

[@michaelkoszowski3716]

Lol !! ...yes he was brutal .

[@maryannsullivan7724]

Reminds me of when Chevy Chase tried to have a late night talk show. Totally out of his league -- a disaster of an experience that last only 5 weeks.

[@rustyshackleford1114]

He did the 1982 Lions @ Bucs and yes, he was as bad as the video suggest. He was pitiful and not made for TV.

[@BBall0027]

Mean Joe Greene as a commentator actually reminds me of the disfigured ex-boxer who was the color commentator for the final match in that episode of Family Guy where Lois became a boxer. The whole time, I half-expected him to say "margarine hat" at the end of the "analysis" about overtime games.

[@rewing84]

for some weird reason i keep watching this video over and over

[@epaddon]

I now have a new vision of the Coke commercial. Greene, having just been fired as a CBS announcer is seen walking out of the stadium, all surly and dejected, the kid spots him and we reprise the same dialogue, the same offering of the Coke etc. only this time it ends with Greene tossing the kid his CBS blazer with a grin.

[@82dorrin]

I had to skip your footage of Greene's commentary. It was that painful...

[@DolFan316]

Just think, if he'd only gotten to work one or two more games, we could've been subjected to such insightful gems as, "The team who scores the most points will win". 🤣

[@82dorrin]

@@DolFan316 "You cannot lose games in the NFL and still win." -Actual quote from Trent Dilfer

[@82dorrin]

He was one of the greatest defensive players to ever suit up, but he was NOT cut out for being on TV.

[@LateNightTableCo]

6:48 "It was either obvious or nonsensical..." *Laughs in John Madden*

[@mattlport]

Your channel should have many more subscribers, great commentary, good energy

[@eddiedelgado60]

I love your content. You're going to be big like million followers honestly. I love these obscure videos that the big guys don't cover.

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

Thanks so much! Really appreciate it

[@ChrisCastellaniCLC]

"The touchdown makes me feel better." I laughed.

[@barryharris5108]

Man!!! This has got to be the funniest sports announcer video I’ve seen in all my years of watching KZbin 😂😂

[@orionparish9858]

Let's be honest. You could make these videos an hour-long probably. There's no way that everything you got doing research and putting the video together, made the final cut.

[@davidnelson6874]

I can’t even start to listen to Joe fail in the booth. Joe was so incredible as a player. I’ll just remember that and try to forget how his team beat mine in Super Bowl IX. He was a big meanie! I always rooted against them yet had the utmost respect for Joe. Plus, the Coke commercial will stand as one of the greatest commercials in television history. Plus, Greene says he slammed 24 bottles of Coke until the producer was satisfied they got the commercial right. “Just all in a days . . . ‘Burp!’”

[@matthewdaley746]

That's why my favorite defensive player of that era, was, Ted Hendricks, when he eventually got to the Raiders, the Steelers would finally begin to fall.

[@justinpettit8099]

I just followed the twitch page. Can't wait to do NFL trivia

[@brianoneill7186]

Joe Greene's performance as an announcer was worse than if he'd spiked a Coke bottle to the floor of the booth on every play.

[@Rantman9]

As bad as Greene may have been in those SIX games, most announcers/commentators/whatever, are much worse! Attempting to follow most of them is enough to make your ears bleed & smash the tv. He had no type of training prior, and was only hired because he was a name in the booth. Breaking down a live game in front of 100,000+ is more nerve wracking than it appears. I give him alot of credit for making the attempt

[@OhThankKevin]

red flag should have been noticed as soon as “watching game film” was an issue.

[@CTubeMan]

Must’ve made Madden mad.

[@3nineteen319]

Merlin Olsen had the luxury of living in Los Angeles and having trained actors as friends. He definitely used that to his advantage for his work in the booth.

[@TheTicktockman321]

It is amazing the Greene and Rocky Blier were 2 of the most well-spoken leaders of those great teams and were the two guys that the press went to first after games. They both make a good living on the speaking tour to this day. Yet both were horrendous in the booth. Yet Bradshaw had success despite being a horrible interview as a player.

[@donaldpaluga]

If only the Connecticut School of Broadcasting existed in the 80s......

[@videonut1988]

They have. Just only in the home state of Connecticut. (No satellite campuses yet)

[@altfactor]

By pairing "Mean" Joe Greene with Frank Glieber CBS thought Greene would quickly learn the ropes at the hands of an experienced play by play commentator.

[@michaellyons9820]

Now the NFL actually has a broadcast camp just for players who are interested in transitioning to the booth after their playing careers. I understand the attraction to broadcasting for former professional players. They've spent a good number of years totally immersed in football, playing and studying both their own parts and the tendencies of their opponents. You talk football on live TV as a game is unfolding. How hard can that be? Much harder than it seems.

[@taz1417]

at 15:21 minutes, the main announcer has a look on his face of "can we please get this game over with", and a little look like Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean there. LOL.

[@theecharmingbilly]

There's clearly zero chance CBS didn't know and see this disaster coming. It also can't be expected that Frank Glieber is gonna say, "Hey Guys, Joe isn't the guy for this." He has a job to do himself, and most aren't trying to rattle the brass, nor is he gonna dog Joe out. I'm sure even on short notice, even if by committee that Joe could have been swapped with a veteran. Even from another sport. Just tell the fans that Joe was off to "spend more time with his family " That way he gets to bow out like a champ, and the network doesn't embarrass Joe or themselves.

[@OBESPRING1982]

If Mean Joe had just spiked the microphone into the floor of the booth, he would have had a better analyst rating.

[@88cutty]

Damn, I thought you were gonna have a stroke on Joe's PI analysis 😂

[@dominickgaramella6431]

You make great content but I had no idea how funny you are. This one is getting saved

[@toprope_]

All the smoldering stares from Greene on every single shot when he isn’t nervously presenting tells me some 70’s CBS exec said “he looks good on camera see if we can’t whip him into shape”

[@BillMorganChannel]

I hate bringing this up, but in 1980, NBC had the great Carl Eller, and he was not very good. I recall during a Bills game he said Ted Marchibroda was the coach, but Mike McCormick was the coach ... the poor guy made many errors, and was lasted only one year. I researched on Google and there was very, very little on his announcing.

[@orbyfan]

Have you done a video on Fred Williamson? He was hired by ABC to replace Dandy Don on MNF when he jumped to NBC in 1974. Howard Cosell, in his book "Like it Is" (1974), had a whole chapter saying that he thought "The Hammer" was going to make it. Williamson was so bad that he was replaced after three pre-season telecasts, and Alex Karras was brought in for the next three years.

[@JohnTrimmer-fd8sx]

I'm laughing so hard.He was so bad.

[@davee.9906]

Ok this is how gullible I was when I was like four or five. My brother and sister used to tell me that Mean Joe lived in this house on the corner near the highway in my town. And when we would drive by it they would tell my mom I was being bad and that they should leave me at Mean Joe Greene's house. I would get scared as hell and start crying. As I got older I finally believed my mom telling me that they were lying and that she would never leave me anywhere. That and we lived in Florence NJ which is nowhere near Pittsburgh. Lol

[@radioblipmode3143]

“Mean” Joe Greene on the football field, “Cringe” Joe Greene in the booth!

[@darthuncle]

40 years later we now know some of these guys could barely read and write. I wonder if that hampered him?

[@pronkb000]

No discussion of all-time NFL broadcasting disasters would be complete without Fred "The Hammer" Williamson, whose 2-game preseason stint on Monday Night Football made Joe Greene's broadcasting career look like Vin Scully's. Unfortunately I don't know if any video exists, but he's probably worth discussing anyway.

[@mgb4692]

His attempts at "bringing *color* to the the booth" went about as well as his vow to drop some hammers in Super Bowl I

[@schnarfschnarf5886]

The end of the video is impressive to me..He wanted to get better,he knew he wasn't good and he started the work...last time he did that he led the steel curtain to be the best D the best ever.

[@shanetrimble9265]

He does a 1982 Redskins vs Buccaneers game that you can view on YT

[@ConspiracyQueryDotNet]

Man...Joe Greene is worse at reading a teleprompter than Joe Biden...

[@DeathsquadDemongods]

I remember when Oiler running back Allen Pinkett was cut from the team, and i think the next week he was a guest commentator on a wrap up show. It was 10 times more awkward than any of these Joe Greene clips and after that one appearance, im sure that was that.

[@suicidality2744]

And yet somehow Dennis Miller and Lisa Guerrero lasted a full season on MNF.

[@unitedwefalldividedwestand5040]

Is that the Bill Mercer of World Class Championship Wrestling fame?

[@daveorme1683]

They left this out in his Football Life. I thought he went right into coaching. Well, at least he tried.

[@nateeskenazi8280]

1:23 “Joe Green” 💀 lmaooooo

[@schnarfschnarf5886]

At least the jersey was right

[@azahrmalik2259]

Yeah so bad I got to stop at the Gerald Riggs run.

[@tastethejace]

Imagine Mean Joe Greene trying to play in today's NFL with its rules lol

[@staubach1979rt]

Where’s the link to the Steelers’ Super Bowl that was mentioned? There was nothing to click on the screen.

[@luisreyes1963]

What is it with CBS' questionable choices for NFL commentators & analysts? I'm surprised they didn't hire ex-XFL player "HE HATE ME" as their newest commentator. 😩

[@ryanjacobson2508]

I've seen interviews with Rod Smart ("he hate me"). He's not dumb or crazy, and he ended up playing in a Superbowl after the XFL folded.

[@thekcsugethe_kc_suge7930]

Greene was in a classic commercial everyone loved loves. That’s probably why he got the gig. That and being the most popular Steeler.

[@tylercunningham4311]

Being a football color commentator has to be one of the hardest jobs, even harder than the play by play man. You have about 15 seconds to instantly make a thoughtful comment about the play.

[@fataudra7579]

Imagine if Mean Joe Greene and O.J. Simpson were on commentary together. 💩💩

[@sportshistorybuff319]

As I recall, Johnny Unitas's brief 1974 foray into broadcasting was painful to watch, if not at the level of Greene's struggles.

[@epaddon]

Unitas actually lasted several years through the 1977 season. At least one of his games is on YT from that year. He wrote in his book how the CBS execs made him take high school classes in public speaking to try and improve himself, which he wasn't too keen about doing.

[@johnselwitz5362]

@@epaddonDo you have the link? I’d like to hear that

[@Burton72]

Plenty of announcers sound similar to this today, at least on the basement teams coverage

[@willpomeroy7711]

None are this bad at speaking.

[@stevebishop5601]

One point of clarification, and I say this as someone who has worked on in-game productions for college football, and the NFL is no different, the broadcasters during the on-camera opens to NFL broadcasts do not have tele-prompters. The opens are rehearsed, often times twice about a half-hour before the broadcast, a good part of the production meeting the night before is spent talking about 2-3 items you want to talk about at the beginning because it's the one aspect of the game the production crew has total control over, but it's not written out word for word on a teleprompter. What's more likely here is Greene is nervous, he loses track of what was discussed and rehearsed, and that leads to him stumbling over his words while his mouth is moving faster than his thoughts. And yeah, he's definitely terrible. But NBC and CBS should've nipped his on-air aspirations in the bud when he auditioned. And had this been today, the networks would not have taken a chance on him. But it was 1982, there was no internet, no NFL Sunday Ticket. They probably figured they could hide him on some of the smaller games only seen by 10-15% of the country while they worked on improving his on-air skills and maybe he'll improve. Clearly he never did and so CBS parted ways. But again, it should've been evident when he auditioned that he lacked the ability to provide any kind of analysis in a concise way.

[@kevinmiller2676]

Way overdone criticism, most announcers are just describing what everyone see with their own eyes. Tread lightly with Mean Joe , even people who are barely into football respect this man. His legacy is heavily romanticized in Pittsburgh.

[@willpomeroy7711]

No one ever said he wasn’t a legendary football player, lol. He was just horrendous on Live TV, which is nothing to feel sorry about, it’s very difficult to master.

[@marionluigi6517]

In this video he didn't really disrespect Joe at all as a player. As a commentator yes because he was not good at it, and even then it seems like must people understand that he just wasn't built for commentary.