Courtesy Baltimore Sun

(January 4, 2010) What a pleasure to listen to Jim Nantz (left) and Phil Simms telecasting a Baltimore Ravens game after the last two weeks of Dick Enberg and Dan Fouts, and Brian Billick and Thom Brennaman. As Frank Sinatra once put it in a 1960 LP, "Nice 'n' easy does it every time."

Of course, Nantz and Simms only make it sound easy. After listening to all the misinformation and flatout confusion at times from Enberg last week, you realize how much preparation goes into supplying the kind of smooth and steady stream of background information and context that Simms and Nantz offered throughout Sunday's victory over the Oakland Raiders.

How anyone who heard Simms could think Billick is in the same league is beyond me. Simms is not only fabulously prepared, he deftly makes his points when they matter without the slightest bit of the boy-am-I-smart, hotdog about it.

Immediately after Oakland's first half touchdown, Simms explained over a replay how Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis was essentially playing safety on the pass play and got taken in by a head fake from the receiver.

"They've been playing that defense a lot," Simms said with the authority one only gets from doing his homework with game tapes.

The only fact Simms didn't have at his fingertips was the name of the Ravens center who made a key block, according to the analyst, on Baltimore's first touchdown. But he didn't try to fake it either. He made it clear that he couldn't remember Matt Birk's name and asked Nantz to help him out. There did not seem to be a phony, act-like-you-know moment from either of these guys.

And while some play by play announcers seem to always be scrambling to keep up with the action on the field, Nantz was not only on top of it, he was often ahead of everyone else. Case in point: near the end of the first half, Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco crossed the line of scrimmage and then threw a pass downfield. Nantz called the penalty before anyone of the field seemed to notice -- including the referees or Ravens players and coaches. Nantz is incredibly quick and nimble mentally and verbally. And he always seems to have something worthwhile to say. There is not an ounce of gasbag in him.

One of the nicest aspects of this broadcast team is that they don't try to force humor the way some of the less successful, showboat Monday Night Football crews have on ABC and ESPN. And yet, they can be amusing in a low key, self-deprecating way.

As viewers were shown videotape of a catch and long run by former Ravens tight end Shannon Sharpe, Simms joked about how much Sharpe, who is now a CBS Sports broadcaster working out of the network's New York studio, was probably enjoying the blast from the past as he sat in his "personal dressing room...with the star on the door."

Nantz responded by suggesting that Simms had a "personal dressing room with a star on the door" too, didn't he?

"I keep demanding one, but nobody listens. That's my problem," Simms said laughing.

Just a little easygoing banter about contracts, egos and star billing -- or lack of it -- to bring a little bit of background fun with a video clip.

Nice 'n' easy did almost every time Sunday on CBS.

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