Sharpe, Not Exactly Sharp In His First Attempt At Play-By-Play
Monday, August 25, 2008
(See what I did there?) I mentioned last week that I was planning on making the time to check out Sterling Sharpe's first play-by-play gig on the NFL Network and that I was actually looking forward to it. I also added that I thought it might actually work and after checking out a good portion of the game, I want to take this time to say that I was wrong....so very wrong.
The broadcast wasn't entirely bad, and the trio eventually settled in a bit, but the first half was beyond horrendous. It seemed as if Sharpe didn't know he was supposed to be doing play-by-play and at times he would go five to seven minutes without even describing the action on the field. During just about every series, and on punts and kickoffs, there were gigantic pauses and dead air while the play was going on, and occassionally players would be running back to the huddle before he would convey the results. At one point, Marshawn Lynch pulled off a 16-yard run and the RB was back in the huddle before anyone in the booth said a word. It was easily a good 40 seconds or so of nothing. As a PbPer, you don't have to describe every single moment of each play but it would be nice to hear a little description every once and awhile. Here's a brief Youtube clip where you can get a sense of what I'm talking about....
And that was just part of the first quarter! Sharpe also struggled with player's names and yardage throughout and seemed to use the phrase "To a Man" in regards to every single conversation with a coach or player. Both Faulk and Deion tried to help him out when they could but it was almost like the were waiting for a cue from Sharpe. They all sounded and looked to be having fun, but it really came across like Sterling got zero coaching and was just thrown to the wolves. Having three analysts in a booth and no play-by-play guy is close to the most distracting thing I've ever watched.
Again, I think he's a great analyst but this experiment was not a success by any stretch of the imagination. If he sticks to the analyst role, and to honest commentary on Matt Cassel and other players, I think we can just pretend this never happened.
The NFL Network Gives Sterling Sharpe A Shot At Play-By-Play (Awful Announcing)
Tom Brady And The Pats vs The NFL Network (Awful Announcing)
16 Comments:
This is a very odd photo.. Almost disturbing... To a White Man.
>>>there were gigantic pauses and dead air while the play was going on<<<
Proof that the "Jim Rome School of Broadcast Arts" is already a colossal failure.
That was like watching sportscenter, or even worse, a local news sports segment, where they have no shot sheet and have no idea whats going on in what is being shown...
Just awful.
I guess this was one of those rare times where it wasn't a big deal that I don't get NFL Network (SCREW YOU TIME-WARNER CABLE!).
I hope that Shannon Sharpe is an option as far as comedy goes.
there were gigantic pauses and dead air while the play was going on
So wait, what's the problem again?
this is what happens when everyone in the world is china....an analyst should stay in an analyst place, not try play by play but it is what it is
Just one thing missing:
"and boom goes the dynamite."
Watched the game....Sterling would be good as an analyst if paired with a good play-by-play guy.
Sterling described the action as "Beautiful" on at least 3,359,343 occasions last night
Sterling Sharpe Sounds good.
Signed,
B.Gumbel
Dead air....um....dead air.
Well,there were at least 35 "beautifuls" from Sharpe. I counted 2 "acks" and 3 "hisselfs" from Deion. Faulk was the ONLY one who had a set of brains.
And that self-congratulations bit coming out of halftime? Yeeeeesh!!
What the hell was that?
That game set back TV play-by-play 35 years.
If I was a broadcasting instructor, I would have a DVD of that game to show my students that anything resembling that car crash of a broadcast is a ticket out of the business!!
Sharpe is a dumb ass. He sucks at announcing, and he's wrong about everything else.
They had the video down within 8 minutes.
That's pretty damn fast.
Deion was equally as bad as sharpe.