Sports Announcing

When it comes to watching sports on television, I am a very picky viewer.

I watch a lot of sports on tv. It is one of my favorite past times. I can usually find some sort of relaxation when watching sports. But lately, I find myself being ultra critical of the announcing for these games. I feel like I could go on and on about mistakes that they make or things they fail to realize. Most of my criticisms occur when I am watching a personal favorite team, so maybe I tend to be over critical, but I just cant ignore the poor work that these guys do. I am going to go through some examples here and then give you my three least favorite color announcers.

• Lets start with yesterday's Kansas State vs. Oklahoma State basketball game. The play by play guy was Dave Armstrong while the color guy was Stephen Howard. Now, I didnt really know much about Howard, but I knew a bit about Dave Armstrong and am not a fan of his. The only real criticism about this duo was the fact that Stephen Howard used the phrase "sliver of light" about Oklahoma State's Keiton Page, due to his knack for hitting three point baskets. My only thinking was that he should be able to come up with another phrase that could work in the situation. Good announcers can find other ways to say the same things. Overusing a certain phrase can greatly diminish the quality of announcing.
• Lets get back to Dave Armstrong. When K-State and ku played against each other at Allen Field House in early January, he was teamed up with color guy Reid Gettys. Before I get started, it should be known that I watched this game with purple shaded glasses on and my ears may have been tuned to focus on the lack of balance from the announcing team. We will hear about Reid later in this post, but during that night's game, he was clearly on the side of the jayhawks. He always gave credit to the jayhawks whether positive or negative. Dave Armstrong was right along with him, supporting everything he saw. It was clearly a pro-ku announcing team that night. I will talk more about Gettys a little bit later.
• Now let's talk about tonight's Ravens-Patriots game. I did not watch very much of this game, but I watched it enough to pick out two situations where the announcing was less than admirable. The team was CBS's number one duo, Jim Nantz and Phil Simms. I don't have much to say about these two, they made it to the number one spot for a reason, but tonight's game showed that they still have work to do. The first instance was a Simms-only miscue. During an offensive possession for the ravens, quarterback Joe Flacco was forced to take a sack. Mr. Simms pointed out that he should have thrown it out of bounds despite mentioning that Flacco was still in the pocket. As a former NFL quarterback, Simms would know that that is illegal due to the fact that Flacco was still in the pocket. He would have been flagged for intentional grounding for being in the pocket. Now, if the situation was different and he had a receiver in the area, it would be a different call. But I feel like Simms could have made a 10x better statement about the situation. At the end of the game, Nantz and Simms teamed up to leave out a very important observation that needed to be made. Poor Billy Cundiff shanked a game-tying field goal wide left. After some replays, Nantz and Simms concluded that he just missed the kick, the hold and snap were fine, but he missed the kick. I was a little bit stunned that they didnt see the obvious. Cundiff came sprinting in from the opposite end of the field to line up the kick. He got to his place with ten seconds left and was rushed into his positioning and was forced to make the kick prematurely. This is why he missed the kick. He was rushed. I was disappointed that two veteran announcers in Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, failed to make this very obvious observation.

These are just three instances that have been pretty recent, although there are many many more times that I have been a victim of terrible sports announcing.

Now, to move on to my list of the three worst color announcers, in my opinion.

• Reid Gettys: We have already discussed him in this post. But lets dive deeper into why he is terrible. He is someone who feels like he needs to talk every time there is a break in the action. And when he does talk, a bunch of jibberish comes out of his mouth. In our previous look at the K-State vs. ku game, he took the jayhawk side more often than not. Whenever K-State made an obvious mistake, it was the jayhawks making a huge play, instead of placing the blame where it should be. When K-State made a great play, whether defensive or offensive, it was always the jayhawks making a mistake. He failed to give appropriate credit when it was due. That is why he makes this list.
• Fran Frischilla: I can't stand this man. The number one spot for worst announcer is held in part by this man. He is unbearable to listen to. His strategy is to take his one page stat sheet and read off each stat multiple times, no matter the circumstance. He will repeat himself throughout the broadcast. Once he feels like he has beaten every stat into the viewers' heads, he chooses a side that he "likes"* and makes his observations in favor of that team. There are many other instances where whatever comes out of his mouth is just stupid. His observations are pointless and lack substance. I will not watch a game where he is announcing.
• Gary Danielson: The man that shares the top spot with Frischilla, is the color guy for Saturday SEC football. He is the worldwide leader in talking about the most pointless crap on the air. During instant replays, he will advise the viewer to keep an eye on a specific player, and then it turns out, the player had nothing to do with the play. It happens every game. For example, he will tell you "watch the left tackle and the block he makes on this play....oh wait... no it was the right guard who made the nice block for the running back." It never fails. He will do this multiple times throughout the year. Can't stand it.

That is my list of terrible color guys. There are many more out there, but those three stand out. There are plenty of other situations where announcers are terrible. Some examples:

• Multiple times, while watching football games, there were plays where a receiver bobbles and drops the ball. These bright announcers looked at the feet to make sure they were in bounds and if the receiver "completed the process." What they failed to mention, was the fact that the receiver never actually caught the ball. Its absurd that these men would miss something so blatantly obvious.
• In basketball, there are many delays from the broadcasting crew. Earlier this year, there was a situation where a player was called for a foul. It was clear on the screen that the official called a technical foul. I clearly saw the referee make the technical foul signal. But it took the announcers about a minute or so to finally realize what call had been made. If they were actually watching the game, they would know what call was made.
• Numerous mistakes with names and numbers, their sometimes blatantly obvious bias towards a certain team, and their sometimes concrete opinions that they "know" are right. 

This was a very lengthy post about the flaws in announcing these days. For every great announcer, Vin Scully and Bob Costas, there are ten Fran Frischillas. It makes watching what I love hard to deal with. One last thought. I do not necessarily know exactly what goes into the entire process of broadcasting a game. I am basing my opinions on what I see as a viewer, not as someone who knows what they go through. I am also basing these opinions, of them being terrible, due to the fact that there are good announcers out there, and that these guys aren't them.