Is there a football commentator with worse diction, wardrobe, and undeniable bias than this tool?
You have to give him his due as a player, but beyond his work on the field, what is there to credit him with a career after football? Shady dealings with strippers and prostitutes. Drug use. Embarrassing court cases. And he somehow emerges with a viable career as an ESPN analyst?
If I hear this jackass mention that he knows things because he “heard from Player X, who’s from the ‘U,’” I will kick my TV screen in. I’d rather see Joe Namath or Eric Dickerson do commentary than this fool.
I’m still trying to figure out what the hell “from the U” means. Well, not trying all that hard, really.
As much as I hate all things Cowboys, especially relating to Aikman, Smith, and Irvin… I gotta say that Irvin has actually surprised me by not showing bias. Granted, he does enjoy talking about Dallas, and he does seem to always work in a “when I played…”, but when it comes to his picks and gameballs and the like, he’s actually pretty fair.
I do think he talks like a mushmouth though. Like he’s always chewing on some stale bread, or something.
The worst, IMO, is Sharpe (who reached the #1 spot when Deion went back to playing). I won’t even watch the station he’s on because I can’t stand listening to that guy. He goes above and beyond “mushmouth”. I think the guy has a speech impediment.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, or working to overcome it. But seriously, to be an analyst/sportscaster in front of millions of people and to not be able to even enunciate or speak clearly?
I think my least favorite thing in the history of sports coverage, other than Tim “Quick Draw” McGraw’s weekly song commemorating the previous week’s games, is ESPN’s MNF preview show segment, “Jacked Up!”
The segment itself isn’t even that bad, I mean, who doesn’t enjoy seeing the five best hits of the week? But must four grown men shout, in quasi-unison, “JACKED UP!” after each hit?
Bunch of asshats.
While I’m railing on sports reporters, how hard is it for them to just stick to the facts? It’s gotten to where I won’t even watch pre- or post-game shows, and barely read their columns each week because they gossip like bratty little girls on the playground. “Oh, did you hear what TO said about McNabb?” “I hear that loudmouth X talked some trash yesterday about struggling player Y”.
The XFL is dead guys, no need to continue competing with it in such a manner. Just stick to the facts.
The only person who loathes Michael Irvin more is Steve Young.
Steve Young demonstrates weekly how to be poignant, how to confuse the ignorant folks with facts and reason, and how none of this professionalism make any difference, because in the end the dopes that compose the bilk of the audience would line up to suck the ass juice from Irvin’s underwear.
Steve Young **jacks up ** Irvin every week.
(Can I vent about Aikman? Thanks. He was a nice QB. Nice. Decent. Quaint even…on an enormously talented team. I like him in the booth - really, and I loathe Cowboys. But how can “Mr 18 TD passes per year” possibly act mightier than some QBs who are carrying teams on their back? Okay, Aikman, criticize them, but be more humble about it. You were good, on a team oh phenoms. Be humble for crissakes.)
Would that be Shannon Sharpe or Sterling Sharpe? I’m assuming Shannon (because of your comment on Denver.) His brother, Sterling, was not only a better player, but IS a much better sportscaster.
Shannon, yes. I’d totally forgotten Sterling was a sportscaster. I’d have to agree with you completely.
With Irvin as an analyst and Aikman as a game caller, all we need now is Smith as a field reporter and the unholy trinity will be complete. Hell’s doors will open wide, and we will all know true suffering.
Reminds me: Why is it that no matter which game I get on Sunday (I live in an odd market), I always get the game “Moose” Johnston is calling?
Time to clarify: as a Texas grad, I am all too familiar with the meaning of the “U.” It was during the 42-3 clubbing of the Longhorns to the 'Canes in the 1991 Cotton Bowl that I first heard the term. The bias I accuse Irvin of showing is his championing of former players from the University of Miami. (Speaking of which, shouldn’t it be the “M?” Kind of like the University of Oklahoma refers to itself as “OU.”) He prefaces any connection to any player at Miami by saying this. Granted, there are a shitload of Miami players in the NFL, but I never hear other schools harping on this (Florida State? Michigan?).
He also made a stupid-assed comment last week when commenting on endzone celebrations. Some player did a lame dance and Irvin says, “Well, that was an interesting dance - BROTHA. And I know you know what I mean BROTHA.” Essentially, your endzone dance sucked doubly because you are a Black man, and all Negroes can dance of course!
I also thought his off-the-field issues with skirt-chasing and coke-sniffing would knock him out of contention for a broadcasting gig with the network owned by Disney. As hatred for Cowboys players goes, Aikman, Johnston, and Smith are up there for me, but they are also character guys and I can give them props for playing the game well and being decent commentators. Irvin, with Eric Williams, Leon Lett, and that other jackass whose name escapes me, always had some involvement with suspicious activity. I don’t buy that born-again stuff from him either.
This is as good a place to rant about this as any. At the gym last night I happened to catch a bit of ESPN’s pre-MNF show where one of the analysts was Michael Irvin. One of the questions they were contemplating was, get this:
If Brett Favre played for the Eagles, would they be undefeated?
Is it me or is that just a boneheaded, stupid question?
My mind is boggled. That’s kind of like asking “If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it…” isn’t it?
As for Irvin, I cannot STAND him sitting at the desk with Berman and Tom Jackson (I always mute the sound when Steve Young is pontificating) but he does provide some comic relief. Mike Ditka is always giving Irvin crap and makes fun of his goofy suits every week.
Last week Irvin said something like “Coach, how come you don’t ever agree with me on anything?” Ditka deadpanned: “You’re always wrong. Period.”
It’s not a Dallas thing; it’s a “I’m buddies with this player” thing. He’s TO’s pimp, for one.
ESPN seems to be under the impression that we want a cross between Jim Rome and hip-hop, and they train their people accordingly. Ron Jaworski does a really good, restrained job on preseason games down here in Florida, but on ESPN I can almost hear the producer in his ear telling him to be more emphatic.
Young has the personality of a waffle iron but does say intelligent things occasionally. Irvin is just a clown.