Family –
After a bit of a
hiatus and some personal encouragement from a few close friends I’ve returned
to submit a pre-holiday offering. With all the excitement about Notre Dame’s long-awaited
return to glory and Manti’s historical run at sweeping every possible award in the
nation, it’s been great to sit back and take it all in… finally.
Nevertheless,
controversy is what drives media so here goes…
Why do sports commentators,
especially NFL commentators, take such an edgy stance? What the hell is that
all about? Lemme ‘splain…here are a
couple of examples.
Example One: Has anyone ever paid attention to Cris
Collinsworth's verbal assault on the wallets of the defensive players
during the NFL Sunday Night Game of the Week? Seems that if there’s a questionable
play or even a play that might draw attention from league administrators Collinsworth
spews out, “that’ll draw some attention
from the league office,” or better yet, one of my favorites; “his
check is definitely gonna be a little light come Monday morning.” Why would
he DO that? Maybe I’m just being sensitive, but even as a former offensive
player I realize that game is about putting points on the board (unless you’re
the Jets) and putting the defense at a disadvantage. I understand player safety
is a concern…but really are we just realizing the barbaric nature of football?
I think we’re a few thousand collective head trauma, dementia and suicide cases
in arrears (RIP #55).
Example Two: What the hell was Rob Parker read
more thinking about? He
has the balls to question Robert Griffin III’s blackness? This young man has
been in my humble opinion phenomenal this season both on
and off the field. When anyone speaks of RGIII they speak not only of his athletic
superiority, but also his character & integrity. Sooo let me get this
straight-- since his fiancée happens to be white and he distances himself from drawing
ethnic comparisons because he wants to be known as a "great quarterback" not just
a "great black quarterback" he’s not “down with the cause?” Ok – I know this
might come as a shock to some of you, but I’m black… I didn’t get the memo
about “the cause.” Why in the world would someone want to create a problem for
RGIII? Hmmm… he’s articulate, athletic, successful and educated; sounds like he’s
holding “the cause” down just fine. Now if you wanna go rob a liquor store, although he's really fast and might get away, I
doubt he’ll be signing up for that. I guess we all know who the “cornball
brotha” is now. Sit down!
Example Three: There’s no doubt that last night’s NFL
game had to be the biggest waste of television airtime since the launch of Jersey Shore… that aside I noticed a bit
of a tickle in the voice of the commentators after the game…literally laughing
at the performance by the Jets. Mike Tirico whom I think is a consummate
professional was almost uncontrollably laughing when he opened the post-game segment
with Gruden. The biggest surprise to me was how aggressively Steve Young and
Trent Dilfer great quarterback that he was (NOT)… hehehe launched a verbal attack on the entire
Jets organization. Not just opinionated statements but an adamant ranting that almost
cost Young to lose his voice. They were literally calling out the owners to
make “wholesale changes” in the organization. Why would you challenge a
professional sports team’s owner? Wow! My thought was that if anyone could
relate to the Jets’ philosophy of playing great defense and winning with a
marginal quarterback it would be Dilfer… anyone remember the 2000 Ravens? I
played under Buddy Ryan – Rex and Rob Ryan were assistant coaches on that team…
no one works harder to prepare than they do – at some point it has to be about
the guys getting paid millions of dollars to do a job that they don’t execute.
Now don’t get me wrong coaching has its fair share of responsibility, but at
last I checked Rex didn’t throw four picks and drop a snap late in the game when
the Jets had an opportunity to win.
At the end of
the day whether you like them or not sports commentators have a job to do… and
given the complexion of this blog post I guess they do a pretty damn good job.
Oh… and P.S. Manti Te’o IS the rightful 2012 Heisman
Trophy winner!
Jus’ sayin…
I think I actually differ with you on this post in general, and maybe it's because I actually haven't been a bigtime enough athlete (although my high school flag football championships felt great) to have to deal with a lot of flak...but I really like a lot of commentators and announcers calling out players, coaches and organizations. I feel like a lot of time these guys aren't held accountable, or sometimes it really doesn't matter if they are -- whether mark sanchez throws 6 picks or 0, he gets paid. Whether Rex Ryan wins or loses, he gets paid. So if the only way we, as fans, bloggers, observers, are able to hold guys accountable is to call them out publicly, I think that's fair game.
ReplyDeleteBut you're dead on -- Manti should have won the Heisman!
ReplyDelete