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October 27, 2007
How should sports announcers cover games?
Mike Tirico, left, Ron Jaworski and Tony Kornheiser of Monday Night Football.
A cranky afterthought I tucked onto the end of yesterday's post, mentioned that we watched much of Monday Night Football with the sound off to shut off Tony Kornheiser's ongoing Brady-v.-Manning drivel, and called out Fox announcers for conversing through a Curt Schilling strikeout series. Liz Donovan, formerly of the Miami Herald, commented,
My Joe (from MA and NH so longtime Sox fan) has been shouting at the Fox guys during the MLB games: says they don't even understand the rules of baseball or the strategies involved. And don't get us started on some of the NBA commentators.......
Liz. we agree they're not thinking about what viewers want. How about we tell them?
Here's mine:
-- Informed play by play with relevant and interesting background on players and stats by people who love the game. Don't break out of that job description for anything less than breaking major news that people will care about. (cf. Howard Cosell when John Lennon died.
-- Video rather than chatter during breaks in the action: Replays, illustrations, well explained. Don't use canned videos. Keep us there, almost live or very recent.
-- Treat it like reality, where I often wish I could rewind and see the details one more time from different points of view.
-- Bonus points: A lot of people who aren't sports nuts tune in for the World Series and the amazing 2007 Patriots. Tell them what a knuckleball and a slider are, what a screen pass is, slip it in gracefully.*
Dr. Z -- Paul Zimmerman -- at Sports Illustrated is with us: What about the game? Major networks guilty of neglecting on-field action, on Oct. 19 -- before the games that drew my complaints:
So which network do I go after first, Fox or ESPN? Getting many letters urging me to go forward in my crusade against network idiocy, equally divided between antagonists of both super-powers. Think I'll do the ESPN thing first because the e-mailers in that camp are more passionate; the Foxies seem to be merely annoyed.
..."Shortest attention span by an announcing crew. In other words, quickest to lose interest in the game and go on to other topics,"
Exactly... they often seem bored by the game, treating it as a backdrop for their talk show. That last is from an email from Steve W. of Brisbane, Australia.
How would you change sports announcing? Click the Comments link to answer.
*Glossary
Screen pass: During a screen pass, many things are going on at the same time in order to fool the defense into thinking a long pass is being thrown, when in fact the pass is merely a short one, just beyond the defensive linemen. Screens are usually deployed against aggressive defenses that rush the passer. Because screens invite the defense to rush the quarterback, it leaves fewer defenders behind the rushers to stop the play.
Knuckleball: Unlike most pitches, the knuckleball is a pitch thrown to minimize the spin of the ball in flight. This lack of spin produces an erratic and unpredictable trajectory as the pitch travels from the pitcher’s hand to the plate. If it is thrown with great skill, the ball actually dips and dives, and sometimes “vibrates” from side-to-side. Tim Wakefield of the Sox, at right, is a knuckleballer -- check his fingers -- but he's out of the series with a bad shoulder.
Slider: The slider is a cross between the fastball and the curve and involves the best features of both. It is thrown with the speed and the pitching motion of the fastball, but, instead of the wide sweep of the conventional curve, it has a short and mostly lateral break; in effect, it slides away from the hitter.
Football positions, by describing what each player's role is when playing this position, may make clearer what players are trying to do when the ball is snapped, although this is pedantic enough to mention some obscure ones you may not see.
Posted by Sheila Lennon 
at 4:02 AM | Permalink
I'm in agreement but I'm surprised you didn't mention my most unfavorite - Phil Simms. He just never shuts up his ego-ridden commentary, constantly talking over the play-by-play announcer, always knowing more than everyone - players, coaches, the weatherman, the owners, and the commissioner, in a voice that grates on my ears like audio feedback! I have been forced to mute games when he is the talking head.
JEG
Posted by: John Gall on October 27, 2007 2:25 PM
Makes you wonder what focus group preferred him, doesn't it?
Posted by: Sheila on October 28, 2007 3:15 AM
I posted these on my blog:
1. Rooting for one team. It's obvious when you do. Or even more obvious when you don't like a team. Remember their fans are listening too.
2. Sideline interviews. They're great during the breaks or halftime. I love occasionally getting to hear a player's parents, wife or other relatives, or seeing a celebrity in the seats. But not every game, and not during plays!
3. Same with celebrity interviews in the press box. Yes, some of these guys have something to say: Vince Vaughn gave a good one last night at the Packers/Broncos game. But again, not during plays.
4. Sideline commentary. Good to get injury updates, but really, who cares if you just spoke to the coach and he said we'll have to be more aggressive in the second half. And, along with that:
5. Stop telling me you had dinner with, or spoke to, some player or coach yesterday. It seems it's more important to you to let us know you have contacts who tell you things than to actually tell us something about the team or game.
6. Constantly repeating a team or player's story. Any fan has heard it over and over, and new fans will find out. I don't mind hearing once or twice a year that a guy overcame poverty or crime, but don't need to hear it every game.
7. This may be worse in the NBA, I think, but why don't the officials get called out on bad calls more? Seems many broadcasters won't ever question a call, and always back up the officials. In football the opposite seems to be true more often. This goes along with Sheila's complaint that the commentators don't explain the rules well.
8. And of course, as Sheila pointed out, the babbling on a totally different topic during plays. Some of you have some good tales to tell, but wait for a break. Keep the mind on the game.
Posted by: Liz Donovan on October 31, 2007 11:09 AM
