Three Way News
Your Source. For everything. Really.
Contributors
- Hammer
- Jambo
- Libby Mae
Current Poll
Recurring features
Hammer's Favorites
- Dobson v. Sponge-Bob
- Calvin, the nest egg
- Pat's predictions
- Bachmann spins Cupertino
- 205 atheists assume the bench
- Fox spins Oil for Food
- Fact check: highest taxed state
- Gen. Myers v. Reality
- Janice Rogers Brown
- Killing Field
- Kline hates Big Bird
- Vote Luca Brasi!
- Cornyn's Stalinist Supreme Court
- Rumsfeld's hidden metrics
Jambo's Favories
- Dolphin research updates
- We all shine on
- If you have to write...
- Columnist NY Times should have
- Truth about taxes
- Fourth of July
- Movie objects
- Lost in supermarket
- Dysfunctional Farmer Labor party
- Punks you hated
- Some preacher from east
- Winning issues
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Extending my dislike for Monday Night Football
I don't like Monday Night Football. I can't dislike Monday Night Football more, but I can dislike it longer.
ESPN has about a 6 hour lead in to the snore fest which might be even worse than the actual game. I watched all of five minutes of ESPN's Monday Night Countdown last night. Michael Irvin, the king of offensive pass interference, was demonstrating how Torry Holt runs a "deep in" route. Irvin explained how Holt runs the deep in the right way. He plants his outside foot, showing the quarterback he's about to make his cut, then he turns to the middle of the field and works slightly back to the quarterback. By working back to the quarterback, Irvin explained, Holt shielded the defender from the play.
Fine. Great. Good information, though the demonstration on the tiny little football field would have been more effective had they used this:
CUT TO: the first quarter of the Rams-Colts game. It's third and twelve for the Rams. Torry Holt runs a deep in for the first down. And guess what? He runs it exactly wrong. Holt didn't plant his outside leg. He didn't make a sharp cut. He didn't work back to the quarterback. Instead, he made a round cut and continued slightly deeper.
According to Irvin's standard, then, Holt ran a shitty route. According to John Madden, Holt ran a perfect route with perfect timing.
That's when I remembered some Mike Martz magic back when the Rams were in the Super Bowl. Back then, the TV foofs told me that Martz wanted his receivers to run rounded routes so they didn't have to slow down.
My point is this: to be on TV these days you don't have to know anything. You just have to sound good on TV. You don't have to work hard and prepare. It's the easiest job in the world. There's a ton of money and no accountability. You have credibility because you played the game, not because you know what you're talking about.
2 Comments:
sounds like one of john's routes.
oh ya, I think the weatherman is an easier job.
By 
, at
10:08 AM
You would think ESPN could find somebody better than Michael Irvin--he is a terrible announcer and I disagree with everything he says. Sterling Sharpe is Bob Costas compared to him.
By , at
10:51 AM
