Everybody loved the radio call of the Washington Commanders’ walk-off win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Well, not everyone.
While calling Zane Gonzalez’s 37-yard field goal undoubtedly made for an electric moment, there’s been mounting criticism that Washington’s radio announcers didn’t paint the full picture—one that didn’t include the doink heard around the world.
The energy from Bram Weinstein and London Fletcher? Palpable.
But when listening to them call one of the bigger moments in recent franchise history, they left out an important piece — one that you can audibly make out in the background. Weinstein and Fletcher, for that matter, forgot to mention that not only did Gonzalez nearly miss the kick, but he doinked it off the upright.
Instead, they made it seem like the kick was true the entire way.
They captured the energy of the moment but perhaps not the essence, which is why both Boomer Esiason and Dave Portnoy took them to task in the aftermath of Awful Announcing’s clip going viral.
“Oh man, I’ll tell you what,” Esiason said, as covered by Barrett Media. “Those guys are out of their minds. But why didn’t they describe the kick as it hitting the right upright?”
Out of their minds? Certainly.
Describing the kick hitting the right upright? They did not.
And that led the Barstool Sports president and founder to pile on as well.
“Is this the worst big game call ever?” Portnoy asked his 3.3 million followers on X (formerly Twitter). “They made it sound like Zane smashed it dead center. Didn’t even mention the doink. F minus call.”
Didn’t even mention the doink.
But NBC and Mike Tirico did.
“They doinked their way to the divisional round.”
The TV broadcast somehow captured the chaos and drama of the moment in a way Washington’s radio team seemingly missed.
Tirico’s call perfectly encapsulated the tension, the doink and the triumph in one line.
As for Weinstein and Fletcher? Their enthusiasm was there, but their description of the kick’s trajectory felt almost sanitized in a way that Esiason and Portnoy weren’t about to let slide.
Still, for all the criticism, it’s hard to deny they had fun with it — and maybe that’s what resonated most.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.