Madden's the man

Forbes came out this week with its list of TV's Most Influential Sportscasters and it's hard to argue with the pick of NBC's John Madden at No. 1.

Madden is still the best analyst in all of sports broadcasting (he's the only NFL commentator to have worked for all of the major networks). He's endorsed a dizzying array of products over the years (Ace Hardware, Outback Steakhouse, Miller Lite and Tinactin, to name a few) and the video game bearing his name is the most widely recognized product of its kind in the sports universe. He's also a sought-after speaker. There is simply no one in the business today who's made more of an impact than Madden.

The rest of the Forbes list is as follows:

Chris Berman, ESPN
Jim Nantz, CBS, Troy Aikman, Fox (tie)
Terry Bradshaw, Fox
Bob Costas, NBC/HBO
Joe Buck, Fox; Peter Gammons, ESPN (tie)
Dick Enberg, CBS/ESPN; Bill Walton ESPN (tie)

Berman at No. 2 is a tribute to the juggernaut ESPN has become since it was taken over first by Capital Cities/ABC and then Disney. As personality-driven as the Worldwide Leader is, Berman — an original member of the ESPN team — remains the anchorman.

For our money, Costas and Buck should have been higher on the list. Costas remains the foremost sports journalist on television and the guy you want front-and-center when the big story breaks. Meanwhile, Buck has emerged from his Hall of Fame father Jack's shadow to become a superior sportscaster in his own right. You've also got to love his Bud Light "Dude!" commercial, one of the more amusing spots running today.

A word about Gammons. While the networks always seem to be tripping over each other in quest of the next "scoop," there is no one on TV more connected within the sport of baseball than Gammons, a longtime Boston Globe columnist prior to making the segue to ESPN. It's good to see Forbes give him his due.

Two glaring omissions from our perspective are NBC's Al Michaels and TNT/YES Network/Westwood One's Marv Albert. Michaels is, and has been for a while, the best play-by-play guy in the business. He is the standard by which everyone else is judged. Now that NBC's NFL slate is done for the year we hope Michaels has a significant role on the network's Summer Olympics coverage later this year in Beijing.

Finally, a nod to Albert for making it all the way back from the highly publicized sexual assault charges he faced 10 years ago. Someone with less talent and likability would have been professional roadkill but Albert remains one of the busiest and most-recognized voices in sports. For that alone he deserves a place on the list.