Nantz and Simms are calling the Pats game for just the third time this year, and that would have been the final time for the rest of the regular season had the game at Baltimore not been flexed out. That's the fewest times that CBS has sent their number one crew to do Patriot games since 2008, which was understandable since Matt Cassel drew a lot fewer fans around the country to television sets than Tom Brady did; that year they called a Pats game only once.
Of course once the playoffs begin that doesn't mean Nantz and Simms will necessarily be announcing Pats games. All year long Denver has received the star treatment from CBS, and that will continue until they are eliminated. End result is that there has been more of CBS #2 team (Gumbel and Dierdorf) than usual this season.
One other TV announcer trivia: this year may be the first ever that Joe Buck didn't handle a Patriots game. In inter-conference game the network that has the contract of the visiting team does the game, i.e, FOX for the NFC and CBS for the AFC. One home game versus the NFC was against Tampa Bay. so that didn't get the top crew from FOX. The other was against the Saints, but Buck was doing baseball playoffs so he was replaced.
Another anomaly this week is that FOX has so many games Sunday (8) that they had to call in the reserves to help out. Justin Kutcher announces an NFL game for the first time ever.
One last factoid that may be interesting to only me: the CBS station in Denver has gone with the Pats-Dolphins game rather than the KC-Oakland game. Normally you would go with a division game, but apparently they are far more interested in what happens with the #1 seed than wrapping up the division, and more interested in the Pats than their division rivals.
