Archive for September 17th, 2008
Complaining About Announcing Is Over
I was watching the Monday Night game yesterday when Kornheiser issued his “100% apology” for…. something. I had no idea at the time what it was for. Most places are reporting it was because he goofed on himself for not understanding Spanish to the point where he said “He either said [something related to football] or ‘I forgot to pick up my dry cleaning’”. He promptly apologized for making fun of… himself… or the overly obvious stereotype of…….. Spanish-speaking dry cleaners?
Most commenters on sports blogs (specifically Deadspin and Awful Announcing) have made the horrifically obvious “OMG, THEY SHOULD FIRE HIM FOR THIS BECAUSE HE IS TEH SUXXORZ NOT BECAUSE OF THIS!!!!!” comment. We get it, guys. Everyone who’s ever announced any sporting event in the history of the universe is a terrible commentator. In fact, there has never been a good commentator. Everyone is terrible. Only you and your boys in the living room watching the game with you are funny — everyone else is lame. In fact, you break up an entire room of 8 guys with your biting wit. You are totally qualified and will do a much better job then everyone else.
The every-announcer-is-awful trend falls under my “Fix It” category of complaining. Who is a good announcer? Has there ever been one? Does anyone currently on television fit your high broadcast standard of excellence? Michaels and Madden have been doing commentary for a combined 200,000 years — they’re obviously terrible. Joe Buck has never had a good moment in his career. Ron Jaworski, though he’s one of the only guys on television who studies the 22-shot for every team he announces and breaks down beyond the degree that you can even conceive it is terrible. Troy Aikman is a filthy Cowboy and is worthless but… err… oh, that’s true.
I’m so over the “X announcer sucks” type of articles and accompanying comments that I can barely begin. Do me a favor — if you’re going to complain about announcers, at least tell me who qualifies as “servicable” in your grading scheme.