Football season has begun again, and it’s reminded of how much I loathe (most) announcers. The best moments in TV sports are those of high drama, when the crowd is rocking, and the play-by-play guy has the common sense to just sit back and let the viewers take it in.
I would kill to be able to watch broadcasts of football games without the inane chatter. They can leave the graphics up (scoreboard, yellow first down line, etc.), just drop the sideline reporters and play-by-play analysis. I just wanna hear the crowd and, in the case of college football, the marching band. The canned music in NFL games isn’t exactly appealing, but I would much prefer it to any announcer.
Some of you may be thinking I should just mute the TV, but what I’m really going for is recreating that live game experience. I want to hear the quarterback’s cadence, players’ pads crunching against each other, and feel the crowd booming on third down during a crucial drive. So is there any way for me to even remotely realize these wishes?
The only idea I can come up with is hoping that the commentators’ audio is pumped through particular channels in surround sound. If I just hooked up some surround and disabled the offending speakers, I’d be set. I’m not very hopeful that this is possible. Any other ideas?
This doesn’t help you whatsoever but when the BBC showed the last world cup you could pick your audio channel.
Usual one with commentary
BBC Radio 5 Live commentary (watching a game while listening to that always made the game sound way more exciting than it was)
Match Sounds (no commentary)
I never did watch with audio channel 3 as it just seemed weird watching sport on TV without hearing commentary. Even though I hate some of the commentators watching it without their inane wittering somehow detracted from the experience. Odd.
Some network did this many years ago. I thought it was great but I doubt we’ll ever see it again. How else would we know that the pass that went for 20 yards on third and six is “close to a first down”?
I don’t hate commentary, because even when I hate it, I like it.
But. . .I’d pay money to have a commentary where after each play, they switched to game tape, and some coach sat there with a telestrator and said “The offense lined up in a power I formation. The defense countered by bringing the strong safety up near the line. The right side of the line down-blocked, and the left guard pulled. He missed his block, and the safety tackled the back after a one yard gain.”
Some days it seems like we’re lucky if we get good commentary on 3 plays for a whole game of football.
When Dick Vermeil is in the booths, it’s the closest that the networks come to my ideal.
It’s good to have this choice.
I also like the rugby referee being ‘miked-up’, so you can hear what the players are being penalised for.
N.B. I realise that American Football referees broadcast their decisions , but that game is designed to be ‘stop-start’, with time to discuss plays. Rugby is intended to be as continuous as possible.
Back around 1986 or so, the White Sox had a turn back the clock day. No electronic scoreboard, no blaring music, old time uniforms and the TV broadcast was just what you’re describing here. I was at the game, so I missed the broadcast, but I heard it was pretty good.
I also remember the football game, I think it was NBC. If I remember, they introduced the game, then basically said they’d be quiet now…
This is precisely why I feel so blessed to be a fan of LA sports. Dodgers announcer Vin Scully understands this, and part of what makes him so great is that he knows when to shut up.
Back in the 80s and 90s, whenever the Lakers were on a national broadcast, I would mute the TV and turn on the local radio broadcast with Chick Hearn, who also had the same sensibilities. Great commentary when he was talking, and an understanding that sometimes talking would only detract from the audience’s experience.
I don’t watch a ton of football, but I, too, would be willing to pay a reasonable price to have the option of separate audio tracks.
It was the Jets vs. Miami in 1979 or 1980. It was a meaningless game, so NBC decided to broadcast it without announcers. It actually worked pretty well, though they didn’t do it again (it would work even better now that they have the electronic first down line).
They did say they learned to keep quiet a bit more, though.
That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. I knew it’d be good when the first things I saw were the words “annoying announcers” and a picture of Joe Theismann.
Are non-HD games broadcast in 5.1? Because I don’t have HD…yet.
Agreed. The announcers usually flip between Football 101 and Super Advanced Football. Nothing in between.
For example, they say something obvious and dumb, like “this guy blocked that guy.” Then they jump into a quick analysis of what an offense might do if it sees a “cover 2” versus a “zone blitz” or a “3-4” or a “nickel” without explaining what any of that stuff means. They also tend to make note of half time adjustments by simply saying, “They made some halftime adjustments” without really explaining what those adjustments were. So they either announce the obvious, go over people’s heads, or omit information necessary to make sense of it.
I know what some of this stuff means, but even with all the football I watch and have watched over the years, I still don’t know what a “cover 2” is or a “zone blitz” or why a defense would go “3-4” as a base instead of “4-3” and what that entails in terms of personnel and strategy.
Actually, I remember Madden saying the other day that this defense was a “1 Gap” defense without explaining what the hell that meant.
I’ve done that from time to time, most recently a few weeks ago for the season-opening University of Memphis Tigers football game. I was at a friend’s place and for some reason there was no audio on the HD channel, so we fired up the radio instead.
The problem: The TV feed was about five seconds behind the radio feed. They’d be lining up for a play just as the announcer was shouting, “TOUCHDOWN!” We turned it back off and switched to the non-HD channel.
I had this problem a couple of years ago when the Dodgers clinched the division. The game against the Giants was being broadcast nationally, so I muted it and turned on the radio to listen to Vin.
I was torn between ecstasy and annoyance when Vin called the grand slam as Steve Finley was still waiting at the plate for a pitch on my TV. I think there was a seven-second delay between the two.
I was having the same problem. If you have a DVR, this is pretty easy to solve. It takes some fiddling, but once you’re set, it works beautifully.
Keep the radio on, rewind the DVR by however long the TV signal is delayed. This is the part that needs to be fiddled with, it takes some trial and error, and a fast finger on the remote.
Once the TV and radio are synched, they’ll stay that way.
, but that game is designed to be ‘stop-start’, with time to discuss plays. Rugby is intended to be as continuous as possible.