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 commentator play-by-play announcer to work alone. Vin Scully, longtime announcer for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, was one of the few examples of this practice lasting into the 21st century until he retired in 2016. A "sideline reporter" assists a sports broadcasting crew with sideline coverage of the playing field or court. The sideline reporter typically makes live updates on injuries and breaking news or conducts player interviews while players are on the field or court because the play-by-play broadcaster and color commentator must remain in their broadcast booth. Sideline reporters are often granted inside information about an important update,