I don’t remember Al’s explanation exactly, but I’d imagine it was some long, pained attempt to explain how some players don’t always feel like they have a real connection with a university, their friends and family are all connected back to the neighborhood high school where they grew up and John, put the turkey leg down, we’re on the air.
I am a long-time Northwestern season ticket holder. NU doesn’t put a ton of players in the NFL (although more in the last 10-ish years than ever) and the first time I noticed the High School thing was when former NU linebacker Napoleon Harris did it during the Raiders Superbowl a number of years back.
It was mildly disappointing - if only because NU doesn’t get a ton of national exposure for football related things and occasionally is regarded as not belonging in the Big 10 (9-3!).
To be fair, he did mention NU during last Sunday’s Bears-Vikings clusterfu…game.
My biggest beef is with the way scores are showed for other games. Fox and CBS each handle this differently, and both fuck it up differently.
FOX:
DAL 17 PHI 14 1:04 4th
That’s it – score and time remaining. Who has the ball? Is Dallas going just taking a knee, or is Philly trying to win it? If Philly has it, where are they? Their own 20? Are they already in field goal territory? No fricking clue about any of it.
CBS:
**DAL 17 PHI 14 1:04 4th
3rd and 2 (with small graphic showing Philly with the ball at the Eagles 44)
Stats on Dallas’ leading rusher
Stats on Philly’s leading rusher
Breakdown of McNabb’s passing stats
Breakdown of Romo’s passing stats
Leading reciever numbers
Full breakdown of all fucking fantasy stats
**
Get the fuck on with it already! Score, possession, down and distance, then move on to the info for the next game. You tell me exactly what I need to know, but then you spend another five minutes spooging your extra stats all over the place. There’s another seven games worth of info I’d like to see, thanks.
Can’t they just combine the two stations’ wrongs to make a right?
Amen to that. I want to see the secondary interacting with the receivers during a pass play. Until the QB throws the ball and the camera pans over to the point of reception (interception), it’s a complete and total mystery what everybody is doing downfield.
Almost posted this in the play-by-play thread, but the color guy certainly could do more homework. There’s a TON of subtle stuff which happens during every play, such a what the safeties’ coverage is, where the linebackers line up, whether they are double-teaming the big defensive tackle, and so on. But even the color guys focus on the blatantly obvious and rarely get very deep in their analysis.
Don’t blame the commentators; blame the fans. Most have their hands full identifying the most basic coverages or personnel packages.
Is that a 4-3? A 3-4? Does it make a difference if the rush linebacker has his hand on the ground? Who the hell knows?
In addition, it’s pretty difficult for anyone to focus on more than one matchup at once, simply because they’re in completely different areas on the screen. If the corner on the near side is giving his receiver a huge cushion, the average fan probably assumes that everyone else is too.
For the most part I don’t like the flyover camera because it can cause you to lose track of field position during the play. But it’s not the biggest crime out there.
The biggest irritation for me is what Hal Briston mentioned - the inclusion of boatloads of unnecessary stats, which I guess is done to cater to the fantasy sports crowd. Doesn’t only happen in football, though - when there’s a baseball game on and the crawl runs by in the first inning, you get to see lots of fascinating items, like “NY 0 TB 0 - NY: Rodriguez 0-1 TB: Crawford 0-1.” Really makes you feel like you’re part of the action. :rolleyes:
Lou Holtz is annoying as [del]Hitler[/del] hell. Unlike ESPN I do think it’s worthwhile to occasionally have someone impartial on the air, and if you can’t manage that, at least keep them out of discussions where their biases leave them with nothing to say. A few days ago I saw Holtz debate Mark May (I think) about whether or not Notre Dame should fire Charlie Weis. May contended that he should be fired because his record is mediocre and the team stinks. Holtz argued that Notre Dame always does what’s right and always makes the right decision. Whether firing Weis or not was the right decision, he didn’t say, but whatever Notre Dame does will have been right because Notre Dame doing it makes it right, and also, they’re a religious school with good academics.
If Holtz is going to be part of ESPN’s college football coverage a long time, the mute button on my remote is going to get worn down to a nub.
Yeah. And “Rocket” Ishmael was an Irish Catholic! 
If ESPN wants to keep Holtz on the air, they should invest in one of those “spit-sucker” machines like you find in the dentist office.
I would be happy if Troy Ache-man and Moose Johnson never called another Redskins game EVER. I hated them while they were Cowgirls and damnit I hate them now.
Ironically, Keyshawn Johnson on the ESPN pregame show I kind of like. Let him take Moose Dick’s spot and stick Joe Buck with Tony “Goose” Siragusa.
I gotta say I quite like Moose. He never says anything really stupid and he occasionally says something really insightful, which is about all you can hope for from a commentator.
I’d be thrilled if they had Chris Myers (Meiers?) doing every game. That guy knows his shit.
Welcome to the “Post Fantasy Football” NFL.
As a big fantasy guy I love it when they show key stats for the big name guys, or at least a guy having a big game, and I have no problem with them putting lots of info up there. I’m watching a 3 hour Bears game, I know that every game’s scores are going to come up plenty of times with the stats and they usually duplicate just the score and time in the corner.
What would really improve things is if they started leaving the crawl up during the commercials. Dedicate it to situational stuff and make it stats heavy and by leaving it up through the commercials they get the double benefit of keeping viewers watching the ads and they don’t have to constantly start and stop it. It’s the constant stopping and starting that makes it seem endless.
They do need to work on determining who’s stats that they are going to show though. Its pretty safe to say that it’s not important to show that Ryan Fitzpatrick is 5-18 and 65 yards, lets focus on TJ and Ocho Cinco and whoever else is actually owned in fantasy leagues.