Preseason broadcast changes

You probably saw this one coming as soon as he retired a couple of months ago (I know I did): Trent Green is joining the local TV broadcast team for Rams preseason games on KTVI. Trent will only be in the booth the first two preseason games, though; Roland Williams gets the third game and the epic Governor's Cup game. Martin Kilcoyne will again be the play-by-play announcer. D'Marco Farr was the preseason color man on TV last year, but he's now in the radio booth.

It'll be interesting to hear these guys perform. I think Williams will be a fun listen; he's been pretty animated and seemed to do a good job on the few past pregame shows I've been able to watch.

And I'm certainly glad we've evolved to the stage in St. Louis where it's local guys announcing the preseason game instead of importing announcers from L.A. Our local guys are all likeable.

But. If anybody gets Kilcoyne to actually focus on the game for long this year, it'll be the first time. And he's just a temp, anyway. Check out a lot of the other local broadcasts (I assume) NFL Network will show throughout August. Off the top of my head, I know Seattle, Kansas City, Green Bay, Houston, Tampa, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore, New England and San Diego all use play-by-play men who call regular-season games for the networks.

And a lot of teams bring the same color commentator back year-to-year for preseason as well - Warren Moon in Seattle, Archie Manning in New Orleans, Rich Gannon in Green Bay (even though he never played there), Bob Griese in Miami, Mike Mayock in Minnesota for some reason, etc.

St. Louis, though, seems content for now to settle on broadcast teams where the play-by-play guy does two games a year and the color commentator seat never stays warm, what with all the ex-players rotating through it from one year to the next.

That works for now, and Rams preseason broadcasts aren't necessarily bad, but I'm still looking forward to the day there's an effort to put more commitment behind the local broadcast.