I think it’s fair to say this is a trend throughout sports but this year’s Olympics has brought it into the light for millions who might not follow sports.
Commenters come in a variety of unhelpful flavors, painfully obvious man, needs a voice coach & a brain coach, on the scene through nepotism and going to make this commentary about me even though it’s not, and last but not least painfully clueless & possibly an artificial belligerence.
I came up as a child listening to baseball and hockey on the radio with my grandfather in the 1970’s. I miss those commentators, emotionally invested in the athletes, steeped in the respective traditions of their sport, committed to authentically sharing the suspense of the games, and most importantly academically critical rather than just mean. I remember when commentators had empathy for athletes.
When commentators can’t model empathy and decency it harms the athletes. It harms all of us by making the world a bit smaller, meaner, and less gracious.
As always Sam love the post. I prefer watching the world’s dumpster fires and laughing along with you to crying alone and trying to put the fires out with my tears.
Totally agree. Sports media hot takes and manufactroversy was the precursor to political media being an ouroboros of fake outrage. Freddie deBoer did a great piece on Nick Wright as a case study for this.
Full disclosure: I have watched no Olympics commentary, but I feel like I have a good handle on how to do this right. Someone should just like deadpan and try to give advice to all the high level gymnasts, like, "oh hey, he should try to land on that beam if at all possible" or "if she hadn't fallen down at the end, she would have scored higher."
This is true. I hear that actually sticking your landing is better for your physical health and performance than eating shit. Not enough people are saying this!
You think NBC is bad at covering the Olympics? The Canada-centric coverage of the CBC can be just as tone deaf- and they have less medal-winners to take advantage of.
But, definitely, nobody likes someone commenting on their job while they do it, even if they did the job well many years ago...
Haven’t seen the CBC but I remember watching a TSN segment about the men’s Olympic hockey roster before the 2014 games and the panelists were freaking out because the third string goalie was only a borderline hall of famer instead of a first ballot hall of famer.
I think it’s fair to say this is a trend throughout sports but this year’s Olympics has brought it into the light for millions who might not follow sports.
Commenters come in a variety of unhelpful flavors, painfully obvious man, needs a voice coach & a brain coach, on the scene through nepotism and going to make this commentary about me even though it’s not, and last but not least painfully clueless & possibly an artificial belligerence.
I came up as a child listening to baseball and hockey on the radio with my grandfather in the 1970’s. I miss those commentators, emotionally invested in the athletes, steeped in the respective traditions of their sport, committed to authentically sharing the suspense of the games, and most importantly academically critical rather than just mean. I remember when commentators had empathy for athletes.
When commentators can’t model empathy and decency it harms the athletes. It harms all of us by making the world a bit smaller, meaner, and less gracious.
As always Sam love the post. I prefer watching the world’s dumpster fires and laughing along with you to crying alone and trying to put the fires out with my tears.
Totally agree. Sports media hot takes and manufactroversy was the precursor to political media being an ouroboros of fake outrage. Freddie deBoer did a great piece on Nick Wright as a case study for this.
https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/nick-wright-and-the-shameless-clown
Full disclosure: I have watched no Olympics commentary, but I feel like I have a good handle on how to do this right. Someone should just like deadpan and try to give advice to all the high level gymnasts, like, "oh hey, he should try to land on that beam if at all possible" or "if she hadn't fallen down at the end, she would have scored higher."
This is true. I hear that actually sticking your landing is better for your physical health and performance than eating shit. Not enough people are saying this!
Yeah, definitely no medals for them.
You think NBC is bad at covering the Olympics? The Canada-centric coverage of the CBC can be just as tone deaf- and they have less medal-winners to take advantage of.
But, definitely, nobody likes someone commenting on their job while they do it, even if they did the job well many years ago...
Haven’t seen the CBC but I remember watching a TSN segment about the men’s Olympic hockey roster before the 2014 games and the panelists were freaking out because the third string goalie was only a borderline hall of famer instead of a first ballot hall of famer.
There was the discussion here recently of the possibility that if any one of us set foot on the Olympic gymnastic floor, we’d be killed instantly.
That the one Gymnastic feat we’d be able to do is rub chalk on our hands and hit them together a couple of times.
Some perspective is needed from the announcers lol