Zingers

I am more often than one would expect astounded by the stupid things I hear on television. No arena of television provides more fodder for this than sports coverage, the result of the ubiquitous practice of employing former athletes as commentators, "analysts" or reporters. Some are serviceable, few are good and maybe Howie Long is the only exceptional example. Otherwise the morass is filled terrible anecdotes from the personal glory bygone days, cliche filled commentary straight from the "Bring your A game" handbook, culturally outdated or insensitive remarks and some flat out stupid shit. I just finished watching the British Open and Paul Azinger actually said "that bunker is full of sand" upon assessing the greenside hazards of the 15th hole. I'm not even going to comment on the rota of Sunday morning football shows. Even normally respectable ESPN keeps adding talking heads to that desk which is actually going to now cross over into a neighboring county. I can't imagine there's much of a future in professional sports broadcasting. If you want to cover the sports world apparently you had to have played in it beforehand regardless of your education, knowledge or familiarity with the English language. "Thunk" is for example, not a word. I can't only isolate the ex-athletes with this criticism, some of the "pros" out there are no better. You're too dependent on your little catch phrases (I'm talking to you Dick "oh my" Endberg). You gloss up the screen with so much over wrought fabricated sports drama Bob Costas, I have tried to make the connection but I'm sorry a baseball game is not a metaphor for life. I like my sports coverage accurate and concise. Tell me what I need to know and get out of the way.