Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) is helped up by a teammate after he was sacked during the second half of an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011, in Kansas City, Mo. The Chiefs won the game 19-14. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)Hello from the modest 5-at-10 compound. We're spending time with the 5-at-10 clan and trying to recover from Christmas.
For those new to the show, here's how we roll when the sports editor takes a hiatus. It's a mini-5-at-10, more of a single topic with 5 items, per se. So it goes.
Couple of announcements before we start: We will have the entries and the leader board for the Winners/Losers bowl-apalooza later today (maybe Tuesday); We have underestimated how much we enjoyed watching the NBA, and that was surprising; We'll have our Great 8 college hoops poll next Monday (although we're full expected Chas9's Top Tenn college hoops teams in Tennessee); We'll shakedown the NFL on Tuesday; We had a blessed and merry Christmas, and hope you enjoyed the same.
From the Mama McNabb Stage at the Al Davis Studio, here we go:
Among our many resolutions in the New Year is for the 5-at-10 to take an active role in heckling, praising and hopefully improving sports broadcasting across this great land. Face gang, TV's coverage of live events dictates a great deal about today's sports world. From the start times to the duration to even some of the match-ups, the TV broadcast is the primary thought (that's what happens when TV is paying that kind of dollars).
Today we'll trot out our five biggest pet peeves we heard this weekend. Feel free to add your own, and here's saying if this can create waves, well, like Fred Sanford, let's enjoy the ripple.
1) "The quarterback position." As in "Aaron Rodgers is really excelling at the quarterback position." Uh, fellows, do you think the audience may get confused and think Rodgers is excelling at left tackle position or worse yet excelling at the quarterback supposition or the quarterback corollary? Nothing is worse than being a sports fan and being patronized, and yes we realize that the announcer (or writer) can't assume that everyone in the audience knows Rodgers is a quarterback. But everyone with an IQ over 60 and a vocabulary with more than 50 words knows that quarterback is a position. Lose the extra words, it just waters down the point. And yes, we realize the iron of someone who like to write as much as the 5-at-10 does calling for fewer words, but still. And that brings us to...
2) If we're watching a football game with football players on the football field at the football stadium, we don't need every third sentence to include the phrase "National Football League." We'll call this the Ron Jaworski Rule.
3) Yes, he was serious and no he was not kidding you.
4) If you have pre-prepared similies or your routine or your reactions, then you have failed. This is not stand-up, this is live sports. Now preparation is hugely important - there's no substitute for being prepared and those that are like Jay Bilas and Chris Collinsworth are much better off for it - but pre-packaged schtick is inuslting. For all of us.
5) We admitted from the start that we know TV pays the bills, but no matter how big those checks are, the halftime interview is awful. Period. Well, unless you get Joe Kines talking about the stopping the inside trap. Seriously, when have we ever heard anything worth our time, the reporters' time or the coaches' time during a trot to the locker room that goes something like this:
Reporter: "Coach, you gave up 435 yards and five touchdowns in the first half. What are you going to talk about in the locker room."
Coach: "Well, in truth I'm really curious what our guys think is Sandra Bullock's best movie. I'm old-school and lean toward "Speed," but there are a lot "Blind Side" fans in there. Thanks."
Reporter: "There you have it guys, down 42-0, coach has some big issues to deal with."
What are your thoughts?