Slapshot Monday
Do you know what I truly love about sports? It’s not the athleticism or the competition. It’s the spin that the announcers can put on a game. Have you ever seen the videos produced at the end of each Football season? Every team gets a video made that shows the highlights of the season. They get the deep toned voice over guy that makes every movie trailer seem amazing and have him talk about the determination and grit that the team showed. Then the play a music track with a thumping beat and a brass section… a march if you will… and you sit there watching your team and swell with pride as you see how these amazing talented individuals, coached by the wisdom of Solomon itself, battled and fought for their 1-15 record. You turn the tape/DVD off thinking “How the hell did we lose a game?”
The best example of announcer/media spin has to come from the movie Major League. When ‘Wild Thing’ is on the mound early in the movie and throws the ball behind the batter… we hear the announcer, skillfully played by Bob Uker, announce ‘Just a bit outside’. That’s a man working it for his team.
The most fun you can have is talking to a Raiders fan. The Raider Nation is amazingly faithful to the point of delusion. This season the let go a Quarterback with Superbowl experience and replaced him with a guy who was benched last year for giving up. Find yourself a Raiders fan and ask them what they think of the move… you’ll get. “Collins was a the cause of all the problems. Brooks is going to throw the ball deep to Moss. It will be Raider Football again.” The Raiders have a slogan ‘Commitment to Excellence’, but over the last few years it’s been ‘Commitment to Excuses’ and this year is going to be no different. But don’t say that to the Raider Nation.
The funny thing is, sometimes the fan of a specific team knows more than you think and their delusions-of-grandeur is really just knowledge. I remember two years ago, after the Panthers started 1-7, I looked at the next 8 games and calculated out how the Panthers could not only turn their season around but make the playoffs. I knew which games they would lose and which they would win and I wrote it all out. I showed a couple of friends and all of them called me a ‘homer’. Going into the final game of the season, all seven of the games after I made my predictions went exactly how I had said. The only part that failed was the Panthers couldn’t beat the Saints on the very last game of the season and that kept them out of the playoffs. Had they won, my prediction would have come true… but my friends would still call me a ‘homer’.
When the new football season rolls around, take a moment to watch the NFL network… one of the things they do is play the radio calls for the teams local stations. There is nothing like hearing a hometown broadcaster calls the hometown teams touchdown. You’d be amazed at how many syllables are in a cities name. Just once you should hear: ‘Touch-down Kan-sas-cit-y’ done with excitement of someone who actually cares.
Do you know what I truly love about sports? It’s not the athleticism or the competition. It’s the spin that the announcers can put on a game. Have you ever seen the videos produced at the end of each Football season? Every team gets a video made that shows the highlights of the season. They get the deep toned voice over guy that makes every movie trailer seem amazing and have him talk about the determination and grit that the team showed. Then the play a music track with a thumping beat and a brass section… a march if you will… and you sit there watching your team and swell with pride as you see how these amazing talented individuals, coached by the wisdom of Solomon itself, battled and fought for their 1-15 record. You turn the tape/DVD off thinking “How the hell did we lose a game?”
The best example of announcer/media spin has to come from the movie Major League. When ‘Wild Thing’ is on the mound early in the movie and throws the ball behind the batter… we hear the announcer, skillfully played by Bob Uker, announce ‘Just a bit outside’. That’s a man working it for his team.
The most fun you can have is talking to a Raiders fan. The Raider Nation is amazingly faithful to the point of delusion. This season the let go a Quarterback with Superbowl experience and replaced him with a guy who was benched last year for giving up. Find yourself a Raiders fan and ask them what they think of the move… you’ll get. “Collins was a the cause of all the problems. Brooks is going to throw the ball deep to Moss. It will be Raider Football again.” The Raiders have a slogan ‘Commitment to Excellence’, but over the last few years it’s been ‘Commitment to Excuses’ and this year is going to be no different. But don’t say that to the Raider Nation.
The funny thing is, sometimes the fan of a specific team knows more than you think and their delusions-of-grandeur is really just knowledge. I remember two years ago, after the Panthers started 1-7, I looked at the next 8 games and calculated out how the Panthers could not only turn their season around but make the playoffs. I knew which games they would lose and which they would win and I wrote it all out. I showed a couple of friends and all of them called me a ‘homer’. Going into the final game of the season, all seven of the games after I made my predictions went exactly how I had said. The only part that failed was the Panthers couldn’t beat the Saints on the very last game of the season and that kept them out of the playoffs. Had they won, my prediction would have come true… but my friends would still call me a ‘homer’.
When the new football season rolls around, take a moment to watch the NFL network… one of the things they do is play the radio calls for the teams local stations. There is nothing like hearing a hometown broadcaster calls the hometown teams touchdown. You’d be amazed at how many syllables are in a cities name. Just once you should hear: ‘Touch-down Kan-sas-cit-y’ done with excitement of someone who actually cares.
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