Poll most hardcore sports fans today, and the list of TV sports analysts they actually love would include — well, virtually no names. Yet ask them for a list of analysts they hate, and watch the floodgates open.

Make all the jokes you like about lawyers, politicians, the media in general — but when it comes to sports fans, no class of people deserves greater disdain than the talking heads who ramble throughout every broadcast. Some people mute the TV audio and watch in silence; some mute the TV and play the audio from their home team’s radio crew. But most people just accept that occasional annoyances from the broadcast crew are part of the game.

This fall, a new voice will join the ranks of National Football League broadcast analysts. It belongs to none other than Tony Romo, the longtime Dallas Cowboys quarterback. Romo, who turns 37 later this month, recently found himself out of a job thanks to a combination of accumulating injuries and the rapid ascension of Dak Prescott.

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In one sense, it’s the perfect gig for Romo, a smart, knowledgeable, charismatic guy who most (non-Cowboys) fans nevertheless really love to hate. Much of that comes from just being part of the Cowboys, whose self-branding is that of “America’s Team” and whose owner, Jerry Jones, has always considered himself the actual star of the team.

Which is why the rest of the NFL reveled in the fact that the Cowboys have failed to reach the Super Bowl for the past two decades. They heaped additional scorn on Romo for his inability to get them over the hump during a full decade as the starter.

The Romo hate was unfair, at least as it related to his ability on the field. He played hard and regularly fought through excruciating injuries, never giving up. But the raised eyebrows over his new position are valid.

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CBS has tapped Romo to become its new lead football analyst — the main “color commentator,” as the gig is known, who pairs up with the “play-by-play announcer,” who does — well, what it sounds like. He’s replacing another former quarterback, Phil Simms, in the role for the CBS coverage of Sunday-afternoon and Thursday-night games. Jim Nantz will continue as the play-by-play announcer.

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It’s a big gig for someone with no previous announcing experience. Retired NFL players make up the vast majority of color commentators, but most of them work their way up the totem pole, getting their feet wet on lower-profile contests before getting a crack at bigger matchups and prime-time games. CBS is letting Romo vault to the top.

Romo has big shoes to fill. Simms wasn’t exactly beloved by fans, yet no announcer ever is. Romo could be an improvement when it comes to analysis; that might be especially true in terms of having on-field experience with the modern game. (Simms’ last season was 1993.) But Romo has zero actual booth experience.

So what does it take to be a great NFL broadcaster? Again, some NFL fans don’t believe one exists or ever has. There’s a very popular website, Awful Announcing, that’s dedicated specifically to pointing out the flubs and follies of sports commentators.

Still, many broadcasters are as synonymous with the games they analyze as the players on the field. Some fans may not want to admit it, but some broadcasters reach a level of greatness by bringing their unique spins to the game.

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Here’s a short list of NFL broadcasters who most people would consider among the best in their profession. Maybe one day Romo can join them.

1.) John Madden. Madden, who turns 81 next Monday, remains the gold standard for NFL announcing. His style wasn’t for everyone, but that comment could fit every broadcaster on this list. The former Oakland Raiders coach introduced a much more analytical approach to the booth, educating fans on the particulars of the game. And even well after his retirement in 2009, his “Madden NFL” video games remain among the most popular sports games in America. Madden was responsible for creating some incredibly viral moments in his career as a commentator; in one audio clip, he broke down exactly why there were three, and not two, buckets of water on a the sidelines of a game.

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2.) Al Michaels. Along with his partner, Cris Collinsworth, Michaels has made Sunday Night Football the best NFL broadcast week in and week out. Michaels, 72, belongs on the Mount Rushmore of play-by-play announcers for all sports, and he and Collinsworth deliver smart, witty commentary that never talks down to the viewer. It also rarely gets too “inside.”

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3.) Pat Summerall. The baritone voice of Summerall, who passed away in 2013 at age 82, is familiar to everyone who regularly watched professional football from the mid-1960s to the turn of the millennium (not to mention professional golf and tennis — Summerall did announcing for major events in those sports, too). While he’s remembered by many for playing the consummate “straight man” to Madden, Summerall provided spot-on analysis while covering 16 Super Bowls, more than any other announcer.

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4.) Cris Collinsworth. This entry will annoy the many fans who find Collinsworth, 58, a snarky know-it-all — but frankly, he’s here because he does know it all. Even Awful Announcing has listed Michaels and Collinsworth at the top of the current-day announcing teams. They take a far more thoughtful, less bombastic approach to the game and manage to be quite funny while never being silly.

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5.) Dick Enberg. Enberg might be remembered more as a jack-of-all-trades type in sports broadcasting (which could also be said of Michaels) — but that doesn’t fairly take into consideration his impact on football commentary. He called eight Super Bowls and only retired for good last year at age 81. His style was sober, smart, and straightforward, with a little bit of storytelling flair just when it was needed. He was known for catchphrases like “Oh my!” and “Touch ’em all!” — the latter was reserved for home runs when he was broadcasting baseball games.

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6.) and 7.) Jon Gruden and Howard Cosell. Gruden has a whole lot of haters; they have their points. And let’s not even get started on the late Cosell. We’re pairing the 53-year-old Gruden and the late Cosell here not because of a similarity in commentary — and there’s no comparison at all in football knowledge. They’re paired because they’re both huge personalities, often bordering on caricature, who each attracted broader audiences to Monday Night Football.

Gruden can be abrasive, but he unquestionably knows football backward and forward, and he’s ESPN’s highest paid on-air personality. Cosell, on the other hand, actually wrote a book entitled, “I Never Played the Game.” But his tenure with Monday Night Football throughout the 1970s and early ‘80s played a big role in making it the brand it is today — with a special honorable mention to his booth partner Frank Gifford, always the consummate professional.