TMC
2012-01-10 08:00:21 UTC
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/more_sports/speech_less_ShUwaF0Tv254FxMJBXxiuK
Last Updated: 5:06 PM, January 9, 2012
Posted: 12:48 AM, January 9, 2012
Phil Mushnick
If we were to conclude the greatest commercial invention is the snow
globe, how well would they sell if their exclusive manufacturers
decided to paint their outsides, so, no matter how hard you shook
them, you couldn’t see in?
I apologize, but it’s tough to come up with an analogy that captures
the ridiculous dirt that TV has done to football. Networks now spend
billions for rights, then do everything they can, including copying
other networks’ worst ideas, to wreck the telecasts.
Sports TV people simply won’t allow TV to be TV. They commit lunacide,
trying to make TV everything else — everything less.
Starting with FOX’s Friday Cotton Bowl, through Saturday’s Bengals-
Texans playoff game on NBC, one could have watched — tried to watch —
nearly eight consecutive hours of football and been left with the
inescapable sense that not even one play — an incomplete pass, a 2-
yard run — spoke for itself. FOX’s Charles Davis made a speech after
every play, then NBC’s Mike Mayock did the same.
And beyond the endless, often contradictory filibusters, both
telecasts applied artificial visual distractions to shed more darkness
on the subject.
Mayock was particularly aggravating, making a long story out of every
short and self-evident one. He would over-analyze a corn muffin. He so
carefully avoids the short, simple and sensible it’s as if he’s paid
by the syllable. Defenders don’t jump to knock down passes, they
“elevate.”
Rather than say nothing, he would throw in that someone has “to try to
make a play, here.” Is there a time when someone doesn’t?
A significant late hit call on Texans DE Antonio Smith went ignored so
Mayock could swoon over two replays of Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton
stepping away from pressure to complete a short pass — a standard act
(after all, I played intramural football) that nonetheless inspired
more awe in Mayock than in Dorothy when she first saw the Emerald
City.
Did Mayock expect Dalton, a righty, to take the sack when there was
space to his right?
In a close game, Cincinnati had third-and-half-a-yard from its own 17
when Mayock said: “If you want to take a shot, here, Andy Dalton, you
can.” Of course he could, but why in the name of Joe Pisarcik would
he?
The telecast became so smothered in gaseous wind that play-by-player
Tom Hammond, generally a reliable nuts-and-bolts guy, got lost. As NBC
showed a Texans player preparing to field a punt and the Bengals in
punt formation, Hammond declared: “And on fourth-and-3, Cincinnati
will go for it.”
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/more_sports/speech_less_ShUwaF0Tv254FxMJBXxiuK/1
For all the word pollution, things worth discussing went unspoken. For
example, how was Pacman Jones, now a Cincinnati DB, still eligible to
play in the NFL? With all those graphics, why not list highlights from
his rap sheet? And why would the Bengals, the team most regretfully
undone by criminality over the last decade, sign Jones?
Instead, Mayock went on and on (and on, and on, and on), about “dime
packages,” “backside defenses” and the uncanny ability of Dalton to
know that he should throw the ball toward players on his team.
But this is the new norm on every network’s telecasts. That we know
that it makes no sense and bad TV doesn’t matter. TV’s shot-callers,
who don’t know good from bad, don’t care what we think. Otherwise, it
wouldn’t be the new norm, would it?
http://blog.timesunion.com/sportsmedia/oh-no-mayock-has-turned-into-another-theismann/8562/
January 7, 2012 at 6:14 pm by Pete Dougherty, Staff writer
Those who haven’t been able to watch NFL analyst Mike Mayock on the
NFL Network are now discovering what he’s all about: The second coming
of Joe Theismann.
Mayock, for all his football knowledge and preparation, simply doesn’t
know when to shut up. In Theismann-like fashion, he keeps talking and
talking in hopes that he’ll eventually say something relevant.
What’s worse is his penchant for overstating things. In the first half
of today’s NFL wild-card playoff game between the Cincinnati Bengals
and Houston Texans, Mayock, calling the game for NBC, has:
called the Bengals’ Jermaine Gresham, in his second season, an all-pro-
type tight end.
determined that the Texans’ Andre Johnson, injured most of this
season, is “one of the best receivers in the history of football.”
said that “Chris Myers (Texans center) is one of the most underrated
players in the league.”
decided that “(Texans linebacker) Brian Cushing could have been named
an all-pro this year.”
said of the Texans’ J.J. Watts, after turning an interception for a
touchdown, “I’m not sure there’s a defensive tackle in the league that
would catch that football.”
All of the aforementioned are good players, and in time they may live
up to the hype Mayock projects, but for now they haven’t. To listen to
Mayock, you’re amazed that all of these great players are all in the
same game.
Meanwhile, in the second quarter, Mayock insisted that the Bengals
challenge a catch by the Texans’ Owen Daniel, which they did, then
said, “I don’t think Cincinnati can win it.”
Give our ears a rest. There’s nothing wrong with a little silence.
(Oh, and a side note to Tom Hammond, who is making this telecast
bearable: There is no “s” in J.J. Watt.)
Last Updated: 5:06 PM, January 9, 2012
Posted: 12:48 AM, January 9, 2012
Phil Mushnick
If we were to conclude the greatest commercial invention is the snow
globe, how well would they sell if their exclusive manufacturers
decided to paint their outsides, so, no matter how hard you shook
them, you couldn’t see in?
I apologize, but it’s tough to come up with an analogy that captures
the ridiculous dirt that TV has done to football. Networks now spend
billions for rights, then do everything they can, including copying
other networks’ worst ideas, to wreck the telecasts.
Sports TV people simply won’t allow TV to be TV. They commit lunacide,
trying to make TV everything else — everything less.
Starting with FOX’s Friday Cotton Bowl, through Saturday’s Bengals-
Texans playoff game on NBC, one could have watched — tried to watch —
nearly eight consecutive hours of football and been left with the
inescapable sense that not even one play — an incomplete pass, a 2-
yard run — spoke for itself. FOX’s Charles Davis made a speech after
every play, then NBC’s Mike Mayock did the same.
And beyond the endless, often contradictory filibusters, both
telecasts applied artificial visual distractions to shed more darkness
on the subject.
Mayock was particularly aggravating, making a long story out of every
short and self-evident one. He would over-analyze a corn muffin. He so
carefully avoids the short, simple and sensible it’s as if he’s paid
by the syllable. Defenders don’t jump to knock down passes, they
“elevate.”
Rather than say nothing, he would throw in that someone has “to try to
make a play, here.” Is there a time when someone doesn’t?
A significant late hit call on Texans DE Antonio Smith went ignored so
Mayock could swoon over two replays of Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton
stepping away from pressure to complete a short pass — a standard act
(after all, I played intramural football) that nonetheless inspired
more awe in Mayock than in Dorothy when she first saw the Emerald
City.
Did Mayock expect Dalton, a righty, to take the sack when there was
space to his right?
In a close game, Cincinnati had third-and-half-a-yard from its own 17
when Mayock said: “If you want to take a shot, here, Andy Dalton, you
can.” Of course he could, but why in the name of Joe Pisarcik would
he?
The telecast became so smothered in gaseous wind that play-by-player
Tom Hammond, generally a reliable nuts-and-bolts guy, got lost. As NBC
showed a Texans player preparing to field a punt and the Bengals in
punt formation, Hammond declared: “And on fourth-and-3, Cincinnati
will go for it.”
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/more_sports/speech_less_ShUwaF0Tv254FxMJBXxiuK/1
For all the word pollution, things worth discussing went unspoken. For
example, how was Pacman Jones, now a Cincinnati DB, still eligible to
play in the NFL? With all those graphics, why not list highlights from
his rap sheet? And why would the Bengals, the team most regretfully
undone by criminality over the last decade, sign Jones?
Instead, Mayock went on and on (and on, and on, and on), about “dime
packages,” “backside defenses” and the uncanny ability of Dalton to
know that he should throw the ball toward players on his team.
But this is the new norm on every network’s telecasts. That we know
that it makes no sense and bad TV doesn’t matter. TV’s shot-callers,
who don’t know good from bad, don’t care what we think. Otherwise, it
wouldn’t be the new norm, would it?
http://blog.timesunion.com/sportsmedia/oh-no-mayock-has-turned-into-another-theismann/8562/
January 7, 2012 at 6:14 pm by Pete Dougherty, Staff writer
Those who haven’t been able to watch NFL analyst Mike Mayock on the
NFL Network are now discovering what he’s all about: The second coming
of Joe Theismann.
Mayock, for all his football knowledge and preparation, simply doesn’t
know when to shut up. In Theismann-like fashion, he keeps talking and
talking in hopes that he’ll eventually say something relevant.
What’s worse is his penchant for overstating things. In the first half
of today’s NFL wild-card playoff game between the Cincinnati Bengals
and Houston Texans, Mayock, calling the game for NBC, has:
called the Bengals’ Jermaine Gresham, in his second season, an all-pro-
type tight end.
determined that the Texans’ Andre Johnson, injured most of this
season, is “one of the best receivers in the history of football.”
said that “Chris Myers (Texans center) is one of the most underrated
players in the league.”
decided that “(Texans linebacker) Brian Cushing could have been named
an all-pro this year.”
said of the Texans’ J.J. Watts, after turning an interception for a
touchdown, “I’m not sure there’s a defensive tackle in the league that
would catch that football.”
All of the aforementioned are good players, and in time they may live
up to the hype Mayock projects, but for now they haven’t. To listen to
Mayock, you’re amazed that all of these great players are all in the
same game.
Meanwhile, in the second quarter, Mayock insisted that the Bengals
challenge a catch by the Texans’ Owen Daniel, which they did, then
said, “I don’t think Cincinnati can win it.”
Give our ears a rest. There’s nothing wrong with a little silence.
(Oh, and a side note to Tom Hammond, who is making this telecast
bearable: There is no “s” in J.J. Watt.)