Courtesy New York Newsday

(July 21, 2008) The NFL Network created a media stir when it named Bryant Gumbel as its first play-by-play man two years ago. And it dabbled with another when it briefly explored hiring Al Michaels this year.

But when a successor to Gumbel finally was named, it generated barely a ripple among fans and media nationally.

The network conducted a conference call Wednesday upon hiring Bob Papa, and only three journalists asked questions. (Another 10 listened in but did not participate.)

Not that there's anything wrong with that. In fact, everything was right with it.

After taking a risk with Gumbel that flopped, the NFL went conservative -- hiring a veteran voice of a flagship franchise who is a football geek and can juggle both nuts and bolts and X's and O's.

It was a no-brainer, particularly given that the distribution-challenged network skews toward a more hard-core football audience than do more widely available outlets.

Analyst Cris Collinsworth, who has the same agent as Papa, said Gumbel had a broad perspective on "where the NFL fits in the world, obviously with all his news background and such."

Um, that's nice, but not especially relevant to calling a football game.

And Papa?

"He lives the minutiae the way that I do, if that makes sense," Collinsworth said. "He lives the day-to-day grinding of the Brett Favre issue from the first day it was a rumor all the way through, all the nuances of that."

In addition to calling Giants games and hosting two Giants TV shows, Papa hosts a daily football talk show on Sirius Satellite Radio. He also calls boxing matches for HBO, a sport he will cover for NBC in Beijing next month.

Papa said the NFL Network job would not interfere with his Giants schedule, although he will have to scramble back from Texas the night of Dec. 20 for a 1 o'clock game at Giants Stadium Dec. 21.

Getting the NFL gig was another milestone in an eventful year that began with the Giants' Super Bowl run, the highlight of his 13 years as the team's lead voice and a chance for many casual fans outside New York to hear his voice over endlessly repeated highlights.

Papa has been on the periphery of the national scene for nearly two decades. Now he is in the middle of it -- or will be once the network finds its way onto more big cable services, including Cablevision.

"When you start out in this business, you always wonder if you're going to get to that next level, that next step on the totem poll," he said. "The timing of this is perfect."

Tom Hammond was considered an early favorite for the job, but Spero Dedes, the Lakers' radio voice, was a contender.

Like Dedes, Papa, 43, attended Fordham, whose WFUV during the early to mid-1980s also produced Mike Breen, Michael Kay and a number of other prominent sports media figures.

Is there a friendly competition among alums to outdo one another?

"I wouldn't say it's competition; it's more of a support, rooting, want to see other guys do well," Papa said.

Disclosure: Papa is an old friend from the Giants beat. But I can report objectively that I have yet to hear or read a negative word about him getting the job from those who know him best -- avid Giants fans.

"All you have to do is spend five minutes with the guy to understand he's all in for the game of football and the National Football League," Collinsworth said. "He studies it. He lives it. He breathes it."