With Detroit Lions preseason games moving from WWJ (CBS Detroit) to WXYZ (ABC Channel 7), I would imagine new announcers will be hired for the broadcasts. Last year Matt Shepard handled the play-by-play duties and Rob Rubick was the color commentator for the Lions during the preseason. Nothing against them personally, but I felt the announcing was on the list of things WWJ could have done a better job of. It wasn't necessarily high on the list (there were much worse things about the broadcast), but I wasn't a big fan of it.
Before Shepard joined the broadcast, Detroit native and all-around awesome announcer Gus Johnson was the Lions' play-by-play voice for preseason games. He only did it one year (2008), but it was a nice get by WWJ. It seems like many NFL teams hire guys that announce games during the regular season to announce their preseason games, and the Lions not only got that kind of experience with Johnson, but he was damn good at doing the job. Never before did preseason games sound so exciting.
Johnson's partner during the 2008 preseason was Desmond Howard. He is on TV quite a bit during college football season, but as an in-studio analyst, not a color commentator. That kind of showed, as Howard sounded like he hadn't done much color commentary before. He did improve quite a bit by the end of the preseason, and he was better than other options out there in my view.
If I had the ability to pick the Lions' new preseason announcers, I would without a doubt go with Gus Johnson for the play-by-play role. He's from Detroit and is highly regarded (he's the voice of Madden, after all), and I think he did a good job back in 2008 when he had this job. For the color commentator, I would go back to a former Lion who once held this job. No, I'm not referring to Desmond Howard, but rather Chris Spielman. He is a color commentator for college football games and once held the job for Lions preseason games, and I'm a big fan of his work. I think a broadcast with him and Johnson would be very nice to listen to, and it would go a long way toward improving the viewing experience for Lions fans.
Who do you want to be in the booth for Lions preseason games next summer?