Broadcasters Are Stupid

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At it’s inception, sports broadcasting was a profession. It was an art. A broadcaster needed skill to broadcast, literally casting to a broad audience.

Broadcasting has moved from the years of radio, black and white television, nationally-televised games in color, to season ticket packages in HD. And the skills have gone from HD to HOrrible.

Below I note on a few of the worst broadcasting fouls in the business. Feel free to add more.

“when you look at/when you talk about…”

Have you heard this one? It’s easily the most-overused sentence fragment in the business. When broadcasters begin with “when you talk about…”, they are committing a crime of redundant redundancy.Obviously the broadcaster is talking about whatever they are talking about. No one needs to declare that any time someone talks about something, this is how they’d talk about it, AS THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT IT!

“He’s the type of guy who/they’re the type of team that…”

Again, with the redundancies! Again, with the redundancies! He’s not the “type of guy/type of team”, HE IS THAT GUY/THEY ARE THAT TEAM! Neither is like anyone or anything else, they are exactly how you choose define them.

“there’s lots of players…”

Admittedly so, this is a grammatical nit-pick, but it’s too frequently fumbled that I have to bring it up. Any time you use the construction there is or there are, whatever the object that follows that verb, must agree in number with the verb.

Correct: there’s a tough challenge today / there are many players whoIncorrect: there’s many challenges today / there’s many players who

This one takes place in all varieties. I’ve heard everyone from Dan Patrick to Joe Buck mess this up.

“you know…”

This is nothing new, everyone knows how annoying this phrase can be.

“they’ve got to do what they’ve got to do / he’s gotta take care of what he’s gotta take care of…”

Are you serious? This phrase just drives me crazies.

“he’s just gotta let the game come to him and play ball…”

In all my years of playing sports, I heard this many times. And I still have NO idea what it means. And maybe that’s because I am convinced it actually means something.

“Wes Welker is cut from the same cloth as Wayne Chrebet and Ed McCaffery…Derek Raivio is like a Gerry McNamara or a Mark Price”

Comparing a white athlete to another white athlete just because he is white, is NOT ok.

Imagine Tiger Woods being compared to Jim Dent every time we compared him to another golfer. Racism is racism, no matter the race discussed or the race speaking. White on white racism is stupid and embarrassing, just like any other form.

Sidenote: Today on ESPN, I heard Stan Verrett and Michelle Bonner botch two names on SportsCenter.

Stan: Steve Stricker as STEVE STRIKER

Michell: John Elway as John WELLWAY

Am I really asking too much? You’re getting PAID to speak. Please speak properly.