Just watched the WVU versus Baylor football game, and I actually watched one game and heard another. There were two men in the broadcast booth and one man on the field. I heard what the next play should be and then what the last play should have been. I saw the referee’s call and then heard what the call should have been. When there was a second look at a play, I heard what the outcome should be before the referee made the call. I watched two plays while I heard about the postponement of an NFL game and then a discussion of NFL football. I had to turn down the volume to pay attention to the game. The announcers became more important than the game itself. It does not make sense to televise an athletic event and then distort the game with announcers’ discussions and opinions. I played football in high school and junior college and know a little about the game, as do most of the people watching. We do not need a tutorial about the game every time we watch one. I have watched NFL games with the same treatment as if I knew nothing about the game and had to be spoon-fed the happenings during the game. Many times the announcers who were former players are spending more time telling about their exploits than explaining the events we are watching.
Many years ago, I was a medical technician and was on call every weekend. Being stuck at home on Sundays, I started watching the NFL. With only three channels, it was limited. But, living in central New York, I usually saw the Buffalo Bills or the New York Giants. Now and then, I saw the Green Bay Packers and soon fell in love with their team. The team was owned by the residents of Green Bay, and Lombardi was their coach. It was a thrill to watch them and watch them is what you did. Their announcer was Ray Scott and he was alone in the broadcast booth with only a spotter who did not talk. He told you who carried the ball or who caught the pass or who made the tackle. There was no speculation about what the next play should be or what the last play should have been. He was wise to not try to outguess Vince Lombardi and didn’t. If there was a critical down and upcoming play his response would be simply “third and eight.” There would be silence until the next play was run. He never tried to outguess the referees but reported the happenings on the field. He made the game a real game with no side conversations or distractions. If only he were available now. We could start enjoying the game of football again.
Last year a friend took me to one of our WVU games. I had gone to them for over thirty years but after retirement the price of seat taxes and tickets rose to an amount that was more than a game was worth. I went to the game with him and will not ever go to another game after the experience. We went to our seats early to see and hear the marching band, which is one of the best in the country. The loudspeakers started blaring rap music that was so loud that you could not talk to the person next to you. I can’t stand rap anyway and do not think of it as music but just noise. When the game started, the loudspeakers still spouted continuous noise, and it was deafening. Then, when every play started, the people in front of us stood up and waved their hands above their heads making it impossible to see the action on the field. We left at halftime. I was glad to get out of the stadium and felt bad for many of the fans who had spent thousands of dollars to attend. Apparently many of them enjoy the noise and just looking at the scoreboard because many of them never saw much of the game. It is a shame that a college game with athletes between eighteen and twenty-two years old has become such a money grabbing enterprise. The game, which used to be for the students, is now just a method for the university to rake in as much cash as possible. Their justification is to pay for the athletic department and the other sports that make very little money, but I thought that the university existed to educate young men and women rather than make enough money to pay coaches ten times the amount they pay professors. I must be missing something. College sports are great to watch and speculate about, but trying to watch them has become difficult in person and on television. The TV networks could reduce their sports announcing by two thirds and the university could silence their loudspeakers a little and make watching these very expensive games a little more enjoyable.
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