OT: Worst national sports commentator?
I usually think it's Skip Bayliss, but I heard Jason Whitlock on the radio today--claiming that Art Briles shouldn't be fired because "it's his job to stand up for the players--and now I think it might be Whitlock.
Stephen A. Smith is another "top-quality" candidate.
Who do you think is the absolute worst?
Berman is just plain annoying and I cringe when I see him trying to play golf at Pebble Beach. With him, it's more of a dislike than his competence. He is calling it quits, thankfully. Ward, on the other hand . . .
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Bill needs to have more knowledgeable NBA guests on his podcasts. I miss him talking with Zach Lowe and JVG. Lately he just talks hoops with House which is fine but it used to be better IMO.
is one of the greatest interviewers I've ever listened to. I'd prefer if he spent less time incorporating his friends so much, but whatever, not like I wouldn't be doing the same thing.
In game commentator or talking head? Worst in game is still Joe Buck to me, I just cannot stand him. Worst talking head is a close race between Whitlock, Steven A, Skip, and maybe what'sherename, the MSU wonk pictured above, and Galloway (although their issue is aggressive homerism more than overall incompetence).
He's a classy guy, that Joe. And you're calling a great game!
Honestly, I don't think so. For years he rode his dad's coattails, and now he's entrenched enough that even if Fox tired of him, his name recognition would keep him employed elsewhere.
He's really at the peak of unlistenability when he's calling a Packers game. It's quite clear that he enjoys uttering "Aaron Rodgers." There's no other explanation for why he does it so often. If you played a drinking game using Aaron Rodgers as your drink word, you would die from alcohol poisoning.
Canadas Captain Hot Take: Don Cherry
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I haven't watched an nhl game in over a decade, not really a fan
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Because I live in Canada and his myopic, near sighted, xenophobic jack assery permeates the culture here. He is largely responsible for the moronic conventional wisdom surrounding hockey and the tough guy bullshit mentality that has the game and discourse about it slightly above spore mold in this country.
By the way, is hockey fans call that "hockey."
Also, your premise is incorrect as I t was like that in the US (see Broad Street Bullies circa 1972-1979) well before he ever got into broadcasting (1980).
He perhaps vocally supported the violence of the game but that's what many of us ex-players liked about it. I enjoyed the fisticuffs, both watching and engaging.
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And it’s that sort of complete ignorance to where sport and sport culture has gone that has relegated the nhl and hockey in general to an also ran sport outside of Canada and the north east. It has become nascar for Canadians.
Cherry has used a well paid position on the national bankroll to spout idiotic and at times racist commentary. The man is a fucking disgrace.
But terrible as an in game commentator.
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that is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. There is no angle you could be watching that from where it looked like an interception.
Is Mike Patrick color blind? If he is color blind, he might have gotten mixed up for a moment on who the home (dark) jersey team was and was thinking that Indiana was dark and MSU was white. Therefore when the green (dark) uniform catches the ball, he's thinking it's Indiana and it's an interception.
For a normal sighted person, you would see green and it would be obvious that it is MSU. But if you were color blind, you could easily have a momentary brain fart and forget who was wearing dark jerseys. Without color, MSU's dark jersey and Indiana's dark jersey would look reasonably the same from a distance. And red-green color-blindness is the most common form of color-blindness.
Since almost all games require teams to wear contrasting jerseys for the old days of black & white TV, an announcer could probably be color blind without anyone knowing it.
It's possible. It's also possible that it's a combination of distance and age--Patrick is not a spring chicken anymore, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that he follows the trend of using binoculars to pick out numbers on the field (a lot of good guys have done this, especially late in careers, but surely it is more disorienting than watching with the naked eye). In his prime he was quite good, but this appears to just be a mental blip where he briefly mixed up who was home and who was away.
It was beyond wierd. It was like he wasn't even watchig the game so his spotter decided to fuck with him.
Mike Patrick's call of the "interception" in the Michigan State-Indiana game.
Dakich. He tries so hard to be cool, but he ain't cool.
Your screen name and avatar are outstanding. That is all.
Miller. The guy just won't shut up.
Jesse Palmer, Brock Huard, Matt Millen, Kirk Herbstreit - I feel like i am being lectured like a two year old everytime I was an ABC game, Pam Ward, (you can see a bias towards CFB since that is about all I watch on TV). Harold Reynolds and Joe Buck also butchered post season baseball last season. I used to really dislike Brent Musberger for CFB (always thought he was good at basketball however) but he has toned the over-hype down a lot as he has gotten older. I think Chris Berman is the currently the absolute worst however. He is okay in the studio but absolutley pitiful in any type of PBP role. He makes the HR derby unwatchable.
Serious question, aside from the fact that he went to OSU, what is wrong with Herbstreit?
I just find him condescending and preachy. It feels like he overexplains everything. I don't have a problem w/ him bc he is OSU. I think he is really good in the studio but his talents don't IMO translate well to the broadcast booth. I think that is the case w/ alot of broadcasters like Musburger, Berman and even Chris Fowler who is a great studio guy but only a so-so PBP guy.
I definitely agree on Fowler. I really liked him on college gameday, but I feel he just yells when calling games, and it's not a good yell, like Sean Mcdonough.
I don't think Fowler is a bad PbP guy, but he's not great, which is a contrast from the peerless work he did behind the Gameday desk.
The thing is, play-by-play is both difficult work AND work which requires a certain level of born-and-nurtured gifts that just aren't universally available. You need both the right kind of voice and the right use of it. Some people just don't have it. There's no shame in not being gifted with that talent any more than there's any shame for a guy who can't be a center in the NBA because he's not 6'11.
when he started toeing the company line Tressel was selling. His Les Miles to Michigan stuff was indefensible as an impartial journalist. Bigger and better men would have removed themselves from that conversation, Herbstreet stoked the fire. Just haven't really respected him since then as a commentator.
Then there is the whole conspiracy theory that someone from the Carr camp - a "legit source' to Herbie - leaked the info to back Miles into a corner so he'd have to decline the job and stay at LSU.
If that is true ...hard to blame Herbie.
I like him ..feel like he uses certain terms too mucyh like "swag" and other buzzwords he gets on, but I like him.
Sort of like how now everybody at ESPN is using the stupid term ..."throwing shade"
annoying
There is simply no way that all of the things that conspired to keep Les Miles from Michigan happened "by accident." There were people who didn't want him to come (perhaps there were some bad reasons, but given what I suspect goes on at LSU I remain grateful that he did not come here even knowing what happened instead) and they made sure that he did not. The process was a disaster from beginning to end, so the chaotic way Les didn't come wound up fitting right in.
Bill Martin is a smart guy. He has money. There is no way his sailing trip was not intentional. No way at all. And, believe it or not, I respect him for that.
I can't speak to his color commentary, but I think that he is really good on MLB's Baseball Tonight show.