Football is a typical guy subject, but I felt like ranting about it today.
I guess my beef is not so much with football as it is with sports in general. And what might that be? The commentating that you hear when you watch a game televised. I really don’t watch other sports much so that’s why I say “football” rant.
First, maybe they’re catering to the morons of the world but commentators so often say the dumbest and most obvious things about the gameplay. They might say something as dumb as “if they don’t get a first down then the other team will get the ball.” Honestly, I wouldn’t be suprised if I heard a commentator say that.
Second, I hate it when they are apologists for a certain team or player when they don’t live up to expecations or hype (or in general when they are biased towards one team). For example, today the 49ers, a team that has been somewhat hot/cold and doesn’t have the greatest record in the NFL this season, really handed it to the St. Louis Rams. At one point, when it looked like St. Louis was getting close to scoring another touchdown, the Niner’s Mike Rumph played some good defense and intercepted the ball. What proceeded was what seemed like an eternity of the commentators trying to justify / apologize / explain why the Rams, who had a much better record and were favored to not only beat the Niners but bury them, were losing to the Niners by 20 points half way through the 4th quarter. Not a mention of how good the Niner’s defense was doing. No mention of how great the Niners were doing by putting up so many points against such a good team. It was all “this is why the Rams are losing, they didn’t do this, blah blah blah”. It was ridiculous– shouldn’t a professional commentator be unbiased? How about a little praise for the Niners? Oh well. They are seriously annoying– there should be a way to turn off the commentary on the game without removing the rest of the sound. As it is we usually end up turning the sound down (muting only brings up closed-captions of the commentary).
Oh well. Every now and then a commentator is good for something. Like one game I saw part of today, the Raiders / Lions game I think it was, a commentator was totally making fun of the kicker for high fiving his team after a punt– he acted like he had just scored a field goal. Ah, that was entertaining. The other thing I enjoy goes back to commentators being retarded and that is when they make up words. The first the comes to mind is “Trickeration” (heard that on a BYU game once I think), and more recently I heard the world “self-tackle-ization”— oh man that’s a good one. I self tackle-ize myself all the time.
Anyways… I’m sure the future will hold new technology to allow the exclusion of sports commentary without muting the rest of the game. Anyone else learn any cool words from sports commentators?
P.S. It was good to see the Niners and Bears win this week.
Comments
11 responses to “Football Rant”
“Football is a typical guy subject, but I felt like ranting about it today.”???? It almost makes it sound like you’re not a guy.
I think one of my favorite things uttered by a commentator (John Madden) came during the Raider’s humiliation last year in the super bowl. The Raider’s had wasted too much time trying to call a play and were forced to call a time out because they couldn’t decide. John’s like that’s what I call a “paralysis by analysis.” I couldn’t stop laughing… how long ago had he thought that up and how long had he been waiting so he could use it on a big game just like this? As if the day couldn’t have been more embarrassing for the Raiders, John did it because he used to coach them you know… guilt by association.
Well it’s more like, who wants to read about football on Sloanie’s blog when they hear it talked about everywhere else 😉 I had to distinguish between regular football talk and the rant 😉
paralysis by analysis– that’s priceless. Did Madden not get made fun of by the other commentators for that? Maybe not. But yes, I think everyone was thinking the same thing– “I wonder how long he has been waiting to use that”, hehe. Awesome.
did my post not show up?
ok, so I will write it again,
I love hearing about football, even if my team is not playing up to par. And I totally agree, sometimes the cammentary is hilarious, while other times it is like shut up already.
Anyone else stoked for Matrix this wednesday?
I totally agree with all of you. But, my football frustration lie more with Carolina’s loss to Houston yesterday. What was that?! Carolin ran the game in the first half, then get inside the ten and can’t get the TD?! c’mon! But these are the breaks with Carolina. Open up 3-0 last year only to lose the rest of the season. So they had improved to 6-1 this year, so what, they’ll begin their long slide to the bottom now, I’m sure.
we won’t even get started about my boys…
But let’s be realistic about last year Josh… the panths beat three nobody’s (Baltimore, Detroit, and Minnesota) in the beginning. Announcers even acknowledged they were the worst undefeated team in football at the time. At least this year they have defeated some major teams. Don’t look for them to falter yet I don’t think… they’ve made a lot of improvements.
Thanks for the reassurance, Joel. You have a good point. But, not unlike Koreans, Carolina fans tend not to have much hope for the future because of past attrocities.
Just ditch the lame sport and become a baseball fan.
We’re cuter.
“Baseball fans are cuter.” Hmmm…
hmm, so what does that make football/baseball fans? the cutest?