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The other day my brother and I were laughing at one another's impressions of certain football analysts (Salisbury, Irvin, Bradshaw, Wingo, etc.), and it got me thinking about all the things that drive me nuts about these guys. I do think sometimes we tend to be overly critical of football analysts (ex. see all of the hundreds of anti-Theismann threads), and there are some great analysts out there (Jaworski, Simms, Madden), but there are so many things that analysts do and networks allow that drive people like me crazy. Here's my list (feel free to add to it):
1) Inside Jokes.
The Fox crew (Bradshaw, Long, Johnson, the new guy) do this a lot. The show starts and they're already laughing hysterically at something right as they go on the air. And then Bradshaw says something like "They need to take it to a higher level" and all of a sudden the other guys start busting out laughing, evidently because that was a reference to someone else's punchline to a joke they told during a commercial or something. Kinda isolates the audience.
2) Attempts to sound "Hip-Hop."
The only thing worse than Stuart Scott's attempts to sound "cool" with all of his catchphrases are Van Pelt's (a.k.a. "Van Peezy's") attempts to emulate Stuart Scott.
3) Contradictions.
Obviously, contradictions occur pretty frequently, but here's the most common example: Watch a guy like Salisbury for an entire show...When they do a segment on Vick he calls him "the most exciting player in the game." When they do a segment on Tomlinson, he calls him "the most exciting player in the game." When they do a segment on Bush, he calls him "the most exciting player in the game." Dude, it gets old.
4) Fraternizing.
On TV, the biggest culprits are Michael Irvin, Tom Jackson, and Steve Young. On radio, it's definitely the Dan Patrick show. Patrick is always bragging about who he plays bastketball with, then he gets on the phone with Reggie Miller or "The Playmaker" and they argue over who's wife makes the better fondue.
5) Overused phrases/repetition.
How many times have we heard the phrase "Let Michael Vick be Michael Vick" in the last 3 years? Or how about when Trey Wingo says something like, "The Colts have scored X amount of points on the road this year....Last time I checked (taps desk and leans forward)...THAT'S PRETTY GOOD!"
1) Inside Jokes.
The Fox crew (Bradshaw, Long, Johnson, the new guy) do this a lot. The show starts and they're already laughing hysterically at something right as they go on the air. And then Bradshaw says something like "They need to take it to a higher level" and all of a sudden the other guys start busting out laughing, evidently because that was a reference to someone else's punchline to a joke they told during a commercial or something. Kinda isolates the audience.
2) Attempts to sound "Hip-Hop."
The only thing worse than Stuart Scott's attempts to sound "cool" with all of his catchphrases are Van Pelt's (a.k.a. "Van Peezy's") attempts to emulate Stuart Scott.
3) Contradictions.
Obviously, contradictions occur pretty frequently, but here's the most common example: Watch a guy like Salisbury for an entire show...When they do a segment on Vick he calls him "the most exciting player in the game." When they do a segment on Tomlinson, he calls him "the most exciting player in the game." When they do a segment on Bush, he calls him "the most exciting player in the game." Dude, it gets old.
4) Fraternizing.
On TV, the biggest culprits are Michael Irvin, Tom Jackson, and Steve Young. On radio, it's definitely the Dan Patrick show. Patrick is always bragging about who he plays bastketball with, then he gets on the phone with Reggie Miller or "The Playmaker" and they argue over who's wife makes the better fondue.
5) Overused phrases/repetition.
How many times have we heard the phrase "Let Michael Vick be Michael Vick" in the last 3 years? Or how about when Trey Wingo says something like, "The Colts have scored X amount of points on the road this year....Last time I checked (taps desk and leans forward)...THAT'S PRETTY GOOD!"
