Turn Down TV, Take in the Emotions of the NFL

Television coverage usually conveys everything about NFL games almost perfectly, but a good radio broadcast can often relate that same action even better in some ways.

One of pro football's best radio broadcast teams -- the Pittsburgh Steelers' trio of Bill Hillgrove, Tunch Ilkin and Craig Wolfley -- makes things better with regularity. Sure, they provide a pro-Pittsburgh, primarily parochial perspective, but that's the job and they're not so much homers as heavily invested informants who connect fans to the action and entertain at the same time.

Hillgrove, the team's play-by-play voice and a Pittsburgh sports fixture for years, provides consistent (if sometimes not-all-that-accurate) descriptions of action on the field. Fans generally know what's happened when they're listening to him, but it might look a little bit different when they go back and actually watch the highlights.

Last weekend's game against the Baltimore Ravens provided several examples, including the game's last meaningful play, when the Ravens passed on a fourth-and-18 situation and T.J. Houshmandzadeh dropped a potential first-down reception. Listeners on radio were told the pass was broken up, only to find it was an obvious drop when they watched the highlights.

Still, that's nit-picking. Hillgrove's strength comes in his ability and willingness to give Ilkin and Wolfley room to shine, and his own obvious concern about what's happening on the field.

For fans with a black-and-gold passion, imagination can help fill in the play-by-play blanks.

The expertise and interactions the former offensive linemen (Ilkin and Wolfley) really make the broadcasts shine, though. With Ilkin next to Hillgrove in the broadcast booth and Wolfley working the sideline, they provide complementary perspectives. And the regularly two play off each other by asking each other what they saw from their respective spots on meaningful plays.

They also have their own language, nicknames for each other and offhand shorthand such as "habius grabus" for holding penalties and the like. As a result, they produce and entertaining and informative broadcast -- and they've been especially strong during the latter part of the season and playoffs.

The know all the team's personalities, but it never seems as if they're holding back information from fans. They offer opinions that prompt a better appreciation of what's happening on the field and why it happened without going about it in a mean-spirited manner.

It's simply good radio. It's the kind of broadcast (available this Sunday during the AFC Championship Game on the team's network of affiliates or on Sirius 123 or XM 103) that makes listening to the game truly fun.