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Unprofessional sports announcers

Last night I was listening to Westwood One's Coverage of the Bengals-Dolphins football game and when describing one of the team's orange uniforms one of the announcers said they looked like Creamsicles.

The old Tampa Bay Buccaneers uniforms were called "Creamsickles." Nothing new here.
 
Good thing these guys were not announcing the University of Oregon Ducks. They would have had a field day with uniform colors.
 
I don't know about that. Kevin Harlan is a second generation broadcaster. In the words of Cosell, he never played the game.

They typically hire jocks as the color commentators.

Those weren't Howard's words. It was said by Dandy Don about Howard. Dandy Don was one of two jocks in the booth with Howard and the other one of those jocks, Mr. Kathie Lee, was doing play by play after a real broadcaster, Keith Jackson, was pushed out.
 
Those weren't Howard's words. It was said by Dandy Don about Howard.

Regardless it became the title of his autobiography.

My view is that Frank's skills as a broadcaster weren't affected by his time on the field. The same could be said of Pat Summerall. Neither relied on their playing experience when calling games. Plus AFAIC, Monday Night Football was cast more as an entertainment show than a sports broadcast.
 
If we want bad announcing how about the color guy talking over the announcer during a big play. That drives me nuts. Give your opinions after the play is finished, don't walk all over the play by play.
 
If we want bad announcing how about the color guy talking over the announcer during a big play. That drives me nuts. Give your opinions after the play is finished, don't walk all over the play by play.

Scott Zolak of the Patriots radio team is the worst offender. He does it all the time: The play-by-play guy can be describing the action and "Zo" breaks in with "That's holding!" or "What's he doing? Get him off the field!!" (which he said today when as a rookie was screwing up his second straight kickoff return) or a simple "Wow!"
 
Scott Zolak of the Patriots radio team is the worst offender. He does it all the time: The play-by-play guy can be describing the action and "Zo" breaks in with "That's holding!" or "What's he doing? Get him off the field!!" (which he said today when as a rookie was screwing up his second straight kickoff return) or a simple "Wow!"

Ron Wolfley, game analyst for the Arizona Cardinals is just as bad, if not worse. He knows what he's talking about, but his borderline-insane delivery (I hope it's only an act, but he also does this during his AM drive show on KMVP-FM) makes him unlistenable. Fortunately, we have Dave Pasch calling the plays as the adult in the booth.
 
First get rid of the jocks. Then fire all the homers.

Homers are fine for home team broadcasts, so long as they keep it entertaining and not obnoxious. After all, the audience for any team's broadcasts is made up predominantly of fans of that team. Why shouldn't the announcers share the fans' enthusiasm for the team? Just don't diminish the opponent's achievements or whine that your team is getting the worst of it from the officials.

I know he's not the most popular play-by-play man, and it's unusual for a Red Sox fan to give him any credit, but I really like listening to John Sterling call Yankees games. Yes, his home run and victory calls are over the top, but he consistently praises the other team's good players and good plays. The obnoxious homers (like the Pats' Zolak and Celtics' Johnny Most from years back) paint the other teams as villains who are being aided by crooked officials.

National broadcasts should be called right down the middle. Frequently, though, the national announcers get caught up in an appealing storyline and shade their commentary toward the team with the most appealing/inspiring/heartstring-tugging "story." And then there's the big market bias. Some speculate that there's pressure from the top -- at ESPN and Fox -- to make sure the Yankees and Cubs fans are entertained, since they consistently drive the ratings numbers and, thus, ad rates. I hope that's not true, and that any perceived bias is a result of overfamiliarity with those teams with a national fan base, since the networks show more of their games.
 
You end up with NPR Sports.

No, you end up with Vin Scully. Or Red Barber. Or Jim McKay. Or Brent Musburger.

And you avoid obnoxious no-talent hacks like Harry Caray.

If fans have enthusiasm, they don't need anybody in a booth to hype it for them.

There is a reason CBS stopped using team-associated announcers on regional NFL broadcasts. Originally, CBS stations only carried games in which their own team played (subject to black-outs in the home team's area). Both teams territory got the same video but each team had it's own dedicated announcing team. If the Eagle and Giants played, Giants territory heard Chris Schenkel and Eagles territory heard Jack Whittaker. If the Lions and Cardinals played, Lions territory heard Van Patrick (who owned part of the team) and Cardinals territory heard Jack Buck. Even before "national" games, CBS went with network announcers, not regularly assigned to any team.
 
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