Sports commentator There are however exceptions to this — most of the United Kingdom's leading cricket and snooker commentators are former professionals in their sports, while the former Formula One racing commentator Murray Walker had no formal journalistic training and only limited racing experience of his own. In the United States, George "Pat" Summerall, a former professional kicker, spent most of his broadcasting career as a play-by-play announcer. Although the combination of a play-by-play announcer and a color commentator is standard , in the past it was much more common for a broadcast to have no analysts and just have a single
Sports analyst Sports analyst In sports broadcasting, a sports analyst provides expert discussion of sports-related topics before, during, or after a sporting event. Sports analysts are frequently former athletes who participated in the sport being analyzed. A sports analyst is different from a sports commentator in that sports commentators provide a running commentary regarding a sporting event while the event is taking place, whereas sports analysts usually provide commentary about sporting events which have yet to take place or which have already concluded. The job of the color commentator is a hybrid of the two styles, providing expert analysis of a sporting