Things you hate in a football broadcast.

[plenzmd1]

Let's just get down to brass tacks, shall we? The Monday Night Football opener is going to be "Announcer Hell" for Bills fans. I have a mental picture of a national sports media on their collective knees beating their collective "beagle puppies" like said "beagle puppies" owe them money over the return of Tom Brady*. (By the way, I apologize to TBD for not having assigned the appropriate asterisk suffix to the name of the antichrist in my prior post.)

 

Get used to it, okay? It doesn't matter whether Brady* goes 11-31 with 0 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. The booth announcers, the sideline announcers and the major/mediocre/minor sports media is going to be heaving a collective "O-face" simply because Tommy-Boy* is back out there in tights. Any success by the Bills D-line or Secondary will be glad-handed and glossed over in favor of an excuse as to why The Prince* is "a little rusty, but still showing signs of 'The Old Brady*'".

 

These are going to be 3 of the longest hours you as a Bills fan will have ever experienced:

 

Your wildest dream will be a good-ol'-woofie-style-rogering by your beloved Bills of the Cheatriots, with His Excellency* being carted out for a career-ending injury.

 

Your hoped-for-outcome will be a solid victory in which you don't have to sweat off 4 beers in the fourth quarter.

 

Your hope-against-hope is that the Bills squeak it out in an honorable fashion.

 

Your expectation is that the Bills get B word-slapped like a bunch of teenage crack whores in front of a national audience.

 

Your worst fear is that His Most Godliness* - Not Bruschi of walk-on-water-fame, but the true Lord-of-End-Of-Days - has a career evening, and is met on the sideline by his wife, tube in hand.

 

And the announcing crews around the country will have a cigarette and head home.

 

Get ready for it. I'm going to watch the fuggin' game on "Mute" with some good tunes on the stereo.

 

"The Water Song" - Hot Tuna

 

This is the funniest post I have read in a while. Sending it to all the Pats* fans I know, they will love it as well.

[DwightSchrute]

The Fox transformers jumping around the screen are BRUTAL.

[Whites Bay]

This is the funniest post I have read in a while. Sending it to all the Pats* fans I know, they will love it as well.

 

Thank you. I am rather surprised I wasn't banned. You should have seen what ALMOST made it. Replace "tube in hand" with a new sentence "Lubed". I thought it read better, but I had to tone it down for the youngsters.

 

And, do, please, send it to any Pats* fans you know. Remind them of the "woofie-style", and ask them who, truly, is their daddy?

[San Jose Bills Fan]

The only thing that really, really, really annoys me, is all the friggin' commercials they have added over the last 10 years. I like the shots of the coaches, the shots of the crowd, the cheerleaders, etc etc..it is giving you the flavor of what is going on at the stadium. Now, there are so many commercials, there is not as much time for that stuff, and there are far fewer replays than there used to be.

 

I have taken to transferring my old Bills VHS game tapes on to disc, over the last 2 years or so. In order to get the best quality picuture, on some, I would edit out the commercials. I can tell you, if you compare a game from just 1990, to a game now, the amount of time spent on actually broadcasting from the stadium, for a typical NFL game, has dropped by about 20 minutes. In other words, without commercials, a Bills/Raiders game from 1990 was about 2:58 minutes...that same game today, would be about 2:38...meaning that there are about 18-20 minutes more in commercials. The time that analysts used to spend analyzing games, is now filled with beer and car commercials....

They also shortened halftime from 15 to 12 minutes. In spite of this, the games have gotten longer.

[Rimjack]

A couple of things I dislike:

 

1) Repeated shots of family members of the players/coaches. Why? I don't care about them, and showing them doesn't add a single thing to the experience. The worst would be Pittsburgh games where they'd show Bill Cowher's wife 300 times a quarter...

 

2) Noting that a play in the last 2-3 minutes of a tight game is "a big play." Man, you really gotta know your stuff to recognize a 3rd and 8 on the oppenent's 32, with 58 seconds left and no time outs might be a big play - talk about earning your salary.

 

3) Keith Olberman (and Rush Limbaugh, etc.). They are polarizing personalities, and not for anything related to sports. If I want to listen to them, I'll tune in to their shows...

 

4) The unwillingness to criticize the officiating. Not as bad in the NFL broadcasts as in other leagues (*cough* NBA *cough*), but still, don't shill. I get particularly irritated when a replay documents the poor call, and the announcers back-pedal in the opposite direction.

 

5) Non-football guests, especially on MNF. Again, who cares? I understand they are trying to appeal to non-ffotball fanatics, but why irritate your core constituency?

 

Other than that...let's get on with preseason!!!

[Reed83HOF]

The Fox transformers jumping around the screen are BRUTAL.

 

Good call I hate those things

[/dev/null]

Welcome to the <insert_network> pregame show, I'm <network talking head>, along side me as always is <former player1>, <former player 2>, <former coach 1>, <former player 3>, <former player 4>, and <former player 5>

 

Later in the show we'll get to <former coach 2>'s breakdown of the games followed by <former player 5>'s human interest story.

 

But first <female reporter>'s interview with <overhyped player>

 

Don't miss our picks later in the show, followed by our super duper fast 2 minute drill lighting round

 

And that's just what I hate so far. I have a feeling the next season or two, their blogs and tweets are going to get quite annoying too

[DonInBuffalo]

The game that was broadcast with no announcers was in 1980. I have a specific recollection of where I watched that game, and I only lived in that apartment for less than a year, so it had to be in 1980.

 

If they wanted to do something like that with today's technology, it might work. The multiple feeds idea is good in theory, but pragmatically wouldn't fly. Too much bandwidth. What they really need to do is get to the point where they can use tomorrow's technology to do it right. They need to get to the point where the feed consists of various "layers", some of which are optional and the person watching can change using their remote. Possible examples of layers:

- Out of town scores and fantasy stats. If I don't want those, I should be able to remove that layer, so I can see more of the field. All the network is doing is throwing that on top of the image anyway.

- Play by play. I'm watching the !@#$ing game. I know which team has the ball, what the down and distance are, and I can see the numbers on players so I know who just caught/threw/whatever. I don't need some idiot chatterbox telling me crap I already know. Let me filter that out if I want to, and/or give me an option for a text version, either on the screen, on my PC, or both.

 

Common sense tells me this is do-able, but we're probably at least a few years away. People would have to agree on a protocol for a layered format, and the TVs would have to be programmed to recognize that format.

 

Things that I find really annoying about today's broadcasts:

- Constant repetition of the same commercials during games. This has gotten really bad in the last few years. You watch any game on any network, and easily 75% of the commercials are about a handful that get shown over and over.

- On-screen ads for upcoming programming, usually non-sports, during the live telecast. I was watching a Bills game on FOX last year, and missed part of a play because the promo was still running after the ball was snapped, and it covered the part of the screen where the ball was thrown.

- Commercials that are noticeably louder than the rest of the telecast. I think ESPN is the worst offender in this category, but I might be mistaken.

- Not showing replays of the TD until after the extra point, often not until after the commercial break. Watching a PAT attempt doesn't exactly have me riveted to my chair with anticipation. Why not show replays of the TD, with the PAT attempt in a small box in one of the corners?

- Commercials after kickoffs when no plays have been run. I hated this when they started doing it a number of years ago, and still do.

[/dev/null]

Saaaaaave byyyyy zeeeeeerooooo

[Buftex]

They also shortened halftime from 15 to 12 minutes. In spite of this, the games have gotten longer.

 

 

Exactly, the games, even in the early 1990's only took roughly 3 hours, now they are closer to 3:15. But, if you edit out the commercials of games from both era, they actually showed you more of the game/stadium back then, in less time, than they do now, with about 15 minutes more of broadcast time. They are just taking more commercial breaks, and showing more commercials during them.

 

I hate it when they come back from a 4 minute commercial break, show a kick-off, go back to another 3 minute commercial break, and then, back to the game. If you watch in a bar (like me) it is getting harder and harder to keep track of the game situations...of course, I may just be getting dumber with age...

[Reed83HOF]

Exactly, the games, even in the early 1990's only took roughly 3 hours, now they are closer to 3:15. But, if you edit out the commercials of games from both era, they actually showed you more of the game/stadium back then, in less time, than they do now, with about 15 minutes more of broadcast time. They are just taking more commercial breaks, and showing more commercials during them.

 

I hate it when they come back from a 4 minute commercial break, show a kick-off, go back to another 3 minute commercial break, and then, back to the game. If you watch in a bar (like me) it is getting harder and harder to keep track of the game situations...of course, I may just be getting dumber with age...

 

I seem to recall when going to games in the early 90s how there was a flow to the game...

 

 

the recent games it is like 3 plays and then its a tv timeout...it sucks

[billsfan89]

Exactly, the games, even in the early 1990's only took roughly 3 hours, now they are closer to 3:15. But, if you edit out the commercials of games from both era, they actually showed you more of the game/stadium back then, in less time, than they do now, with about 15 minutes more of broadcast time. They are just taking more commercial breaks, and showing more commercials during them.

 

I hate it when they come back from a 4 minute commercial break, show a kick-off, go back to another 3 minute commercial break, and then, back to the game. If you watch in a bar (like me) it is getting harder and harder to keep track of the game situations...of course, I may just be getting dumber with age...

 

Yeah thats another thing I hate when they show a kickoff than go to commercial right after 4 minutes of commercials. Whats worse is it wouldn't be so bad if the commercial they showed after the kick off was only like one commercial than back to the game but like you said its like three minutes worth of commercials and it takes you out of the game sometimes.

[evilbuffalobob]

pHIL sIMMS- PERIOD/TOTAL PGK- (Looks, stupid ties and outdated suits, bad haircut, dwrall, pronunciaciations, pointlessness of self-being).

[Bufcomments]

I like Phil Simms. I like the fact that Simms isn't a TFAG (Typical Football Analyst Guy) he talks in specifics and doesn't just spit out a bunch of cliches that can be almost said about every game. Simms breaks things down into the way a coach approaches a QB or the weapons around them. He talks about what a team is going to do better form a pocket or spread out a defense.

 

I think Simms is one of the better commentators out there. He isn't the best but he is better than most of the former player commentators out there. I agree that the other guys you mentioned do suck although Madden use to be good like 10 years ago before he lost his mind.

I agree

 

Simms I think is the best play by play guy right now.

Aikman is semi ok but he is good with Buck Jr

 

Im going to miss Madden paired with Al Michaels

I like listening to Steve Tasker with Johnson

 

but back to the post, I think Announcers are for people who dont really know the game. Sometimes I turn the sound down and just watch the game. If you are watching the game in a bar are you really listening to the broadcast anyway??

[San Jose Bills Fan]

A couple of things I dislike:

 

1) Repeated shots of family members of the players/coaches. Why? I don't care about them, and showing them doesn't add a single thing to the experience. The worst would be Pittsburgh games where they'd show Bill Cowher's wife 300 times a quarter...

3) Keith Olberman (and Rush Limbaugh, etc.). They are polarizing personalities, and not for anything related to sports. If I want to listen to them, I'll tune in to their shows...

5) Non-football guests, especially on MNF. Again, who cares? I understand they are trying to appeal to non-football fanatics, but why irritate your core constituency?

Great post. The Cowher wife (and daughter) shots were among the most annoying in sports history. I guess I can be a petty person because I remember being glad to hear that they were divorced. Cowher's ex-wife was on television almost as much as Beth Havlicek. I was like, "Good. f-em. Where are the TV camera when you need 'em?"

 

The game that was broadcast with no announcers was in 1980. I have a specific recollection of where I watched that game, and I only lived in that apartment for less than a year, so it had to be in 1980.

I was not yet twenty at the time and gave myself a lot of credit for the idea of an announcer-less game long before it actually happened. What a visionary. Unfortunately for me, I ended up actually falling asleep during that game. It might have been extenuating circumstances though. I used to party a lot back then. Still like the idea, at least as an option.

 

FWIW, NASCAR does a lot of optional camera stuff but it's all pay per view. I believe that DirecTV/NFL Sunday Ticket will be offering things like that this year. But it'll be a bit more money.

[Steely Dan]

Chris Collinsworth(less), Solomon Wilcotts, Randy Cross, Phil Simms, John Madden to name a few

 

Collinsworth doesn't bother me that much.

 

 

The only thing that really, really, really annoys me, is all the friggin' commercials they have added over the last 10 years. I like the shots of the coaches, the shots of the crowd, the cheerleaders, etc etc..it is giving you the flavor of what is going on at the stadium. Now, there are so many commercials, there is not as much time for that stuff, and there are far fewer replays than there used to be.

 

The only other thing that really annoys me, on primtime games, when they have a guest in the booth, and completely ignore the action on the field, as someone is promoting their newest, lame, network sitcom...

 

I have taken to transferring my old Bills VHS game tapes on to disc, over the last 2 years or so. In order to get the best quality picuture, on some, I would edit out the commercials. I can tell you, if you compare a game from just 1990, to a game now, the amount of time spent on actually broadcasting from the stadium, for a typical NFL game, has dropped by about 20 minutes. In other words, without commercials, a Bills/Raiders game from 1990 was about 2:58 minutes...that same game today, would be about 2:38...meaning that there are about 18-20 minutes more in commercials. The time that analysts used to spend analyzing games, is now filled with beer and car commercials....

 

Announcers can be annoying, but they aired a game in the late 1980's, IIRC, without announcers, and only graphics, and, it was pretty fuggin dull...

 

Unfortunately those damn commercials are what keep the games free.

 

 

I used to HATE when Paul McGuire used to do Bills games.

 

It seemed like he was ALWAYS doing them.

 

He was just full of mindless dribble, would talk over plays, and constantly missed calls.

 

I liked McGuire.

 

 

The game that was broadcast with no announcers was in 1980. I have a specific recollection of where I watched that game, and I only lived in that apartment for less than a year, so it had to be in 1980.

 

If they wanted to do something like that with today's technology, it might work. The multiple feeds idea is good in theory, but pragmatically wouldn't fly. Too much bandwidth. What they really need to do is get to the point where they can use tomorrow's technology to do it right. They need to get to the point where the feed consists of various "layers", some of which are optional and the person watching can change using their remote. Possible examples of layers:

- Out of town scores and fantasy stats. If I don't want those, I should be able to remove that layer, so I can see more of the field. All the network is doing is throwing that on top of the image anyway.

- Play by play. I'm watching the !@#$ing game. I know which team has the ball, what the down and distance are, and I can see the numbers on players so I know who just caught/threw/whatever. I don't need some idiot chatterbox telling me crap I already know. Let me filter that out if I want to, and/or give me an option for a text version, either on the screen, on my PC, or both.

 

Common sense tells me this is do-able, but we're probably at least a few years away. People would have to agree on a protocol for a layered format, and the TVs would have to be programmed to recognize that format.

 

Things that I find really annoying about today's broadcasts:

- Constant repetition of the same commercials during games. This has gotten really bad in the last few years. You watch any game on any network, and easily 75% of the commercials are about a handful that get shown over and over.

- On-screen ads for upcoming programming, usually non-sports, during the live telecast. I was watching a Bills game on FOX last year, and missed part of a play because the promo was still running after the ball was snapped, and it covered the part of the screen where the ball was thrown.

- Commercials that are noticeably louder than the rest of the telecast. I think ESPN is the worst offender in this category, but I might be mistaken.

- Not showing replays of the TD until after the extra point, often not until after the commercial break. Watching a PAT attempt doesn't exactly have me riveted to my chair with anticipation. Why not show replays of the TD, with the PAT attempt in a small box in one of the corners?

- Commercials after kickoffs when no plays have been run. I hated this when they started doing it a number of years ago, and still do.

 

I have a Magnavox that's supposed to even things out more and it doesn't work on super loud commercials. I hate them. I like to listen to TV as I fall asleep at night night and those friggin commercials can wake me up.

[Captain Quint]

The Dennis Miller Experiment.

[BuffaloBud]

The banner on the top or bottom of the screen that shows the score. Can that be reduced in size somehow? I don't need to see it 90ft away.

[San Jose Bills Fan]

The Fox transformers jumping around the screen are BRUTAL.

I took my nephew down to Chautauqua Lake last summer to go fishing. Who do you think was at the boat livery renting a fishing boat at exactly the same time we were pulling up to the dock for bait? Yep it was the FOXSports Robot. I recognized him immediately but didn't want to approach him as I'm usually respectful of other people's privacy. But as we were walking by he asked if we'd had any luck fishing and we ended up talking for awhile. I found out that his family is from northwestern Pennsylvania and have had a place at Chautauqua for many years.

 

He was actually pretty cool talking about football with me and my nephew who is also a huge NFL fan. He also autographed my nephew's tackle box. It's easy to see someone on television and decide you don't like the guy for whatever reason (personally I'm not a big fan of robots) but it really puts things in a new perspective when you meet that person and they turn out to be really cool.

[ans4e64]

I took my nephew down to Chautauqua Lake last summer to go fishing. Who do you think was at the boat livery renting a fishing boat at exactly the same time we were pulling up to the dock for bait? Yep it was the FOXSports Robot. I recognized him immediately but didn't want to approach him as I'm usually respectful of other people's privacy. But as we were walking by he asked if we'd had any luck fishing and we ended up talking for awhile. I found out that his family is from northwestern Pennsylvania and have had a place at Chautauqua for many years.

 

He was actually pretty cool talking about football with me and my nephew who is also a huge NFL fan. He also autographed my nephew's tackle box. It's easy to see someone on television and decide you don't like the guy for whatever reason (personally I'm not a big fan of robots) but it really puts things in a new perspective when you meet that person and they turn out to be really cool.