ANNOUNCING THE TOP CBS ANNOUNCING TEAM

By STEVE KING

There is so much going on with the Browns now, what with them in the midst of two straight joint practices with the Indianapolis Colts in advance of the teams’ preseason game on Saturday afternoon at Lucas Oil Stadium.

As such, then, some big news – important news, telling news and significant news – a few days ago didn’t get nearly the play that it deserved.

It concerns the announcement that CBS will have its No. 1 NFL announcing team of play-by-play man Jim Nantz and color analyst Tony Romo working the regular-season opener between the Browns and Tennessee Titans on Sept. 9 at FirstEnergy Stadium.

CBS programming executives could have sent the team of Nantz-Romo anywhere on that busy Sunday of much-anticipated opening weekend, but they chose to put them in Cleveland.

To see the Browns, who came out of nowhere last year, following up a miserable 0-16 finish in 2017 with a 7-8-1 mark, thus becoming the darlings of the league heading into 2019 in the process.

And Cleveland quarterback Baker Mayfield, coming off the best season ever by a rookie quarterback in the NFL.

And wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and the rest of this talented offensive cast that has been placed around Mayfield.

And this array of stars, such as Olivier Vernon, Sheldon Richardson and Greedy Williams, who join Myles Garrett and Denzel Ward on defense.

And this intriguing, likeable and seemingly capable, though untested, rookie head coach named Freddie Kitchens.

And the once-again raucous Cleveland home crowd, including the Dawg Pound, that is trying to live up to General Manager John Dorsey to “wake up this sleeping giant, the Cleveland Browns.”   

And the Titans, a playoff team last year, of head coach Mike Vrabel, a Walsh Jesuit High School and Ohio State product who served as an assistant with the Buckeyes.

Yes, after considering about all that, then, CBS’s choice makes total sense.