Ross Tucker, CBS game analyst (first called NFL games in 2009; seven seasons as NFL seasons): I tell people when they get started, you really have time to say one thing after the play. You’re so excited. I was seeing all these things. It’s not about telling the audience all the things you saw. What you have to tell them is one big reason why the play was or was not successful. It really does take experience telling the truck what you want. When you first start, you’re just watching the game and saying what happened. Now I see a play happen, and while the play-by-play guy is still talking, I’m pushing the button and telling them which camera I want, and I want to use the telestrator. Part of the art is knowing when there shouldn’t be a replay.

Whitworth: Me and [Richard Sherman and Ryan Fitzpatrick], when we came out of a break, our producer said, you guys just banter, we have time to fill. We all looked at each other like, what the crap does that mean? Oh, you mean, talk and be silly? We had no idea.

Davis: How about when the producer talks in your ear — imagine the first time you’re doing a game, you literally stop in the middle of your sentence. And then you answer them back on the air.

Burleson: It’s the dance between the set-up and color commentator. Being the color, I didn’t know how to jump in and out and pick up after first-and-10, Matthew Stafford with the ball and first down. I didn’t know what to say after that. That’s what scared me the most. Then another time, my first ever four-box (on-air panel appearance). I was like a meerkat. I didn’t know where to look. They were like, alright, Nate, you’re up. I forgot my question. It was a mess. That 15 seconds lasted a lifetime for me.

Davis: I was wondering how to translate from calling a college game to calling an NFL game. I had worked with Kevin Harlan at the NCAA basketball tourney. He said, the college audience is into anything about players, coaches, you can take a meat cleaver and put it to a story and it won’t matter. The kid walked eight miles to school, uphill both ways. The backstory is great. With the NFL, use a dagger. Tell the story, hit it and get out. NFL fans what to know what the score is, how am I doing in fantasy, am I up or down in my bet? What always surprised me at the end of the first quarter of an NFL game — it was like, What? It’s done? How much quicker the game moves, the clock moves, because more balls are thrown and caught, you’re not stopping the clock.

Barber: The most frustrating thing for me is the telestrator. I love it and I want to use it — just like being at a game, it’s going so fast. Reality is, I don’t use it enough. You have 8 seconds. You probably have 4 seconds to conceptualize what you want to write and communicate it while you’re writing before the next thing happens.

Buck: It’s very repetitious and rigid. I say who made the catch, who made the tackle, and I lay out, and [Troy Aikman] jumps in. You’ve got to hit it and he’s got to finish before the next snap, and I need to be able to hit up the down and distance, or we both lay out and there’s some natural sound. That stuff is gold. You have to say what you need to say but do it in the shortest amount of time possible. Troy has said it many times, and it applies to anybody — knowing football is about fourth or fifth on the list. It’s being quick, having a point. Ronnie Lott was at FOX and famously said after a game — this is Ronnie Lott! — I am more tired walking out of this booth than I ever was walking off the field. I walk out of the booth nine times out of 10 with a headache. There’s a lot of places you’re looking, the concentration, three hours of grinding. If you let off the gas, it can get away from you a little bit. You’ve got to go at least 55 miles per hour, or you’re going to get run over.