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09/22 2010

Why Are You Yelling At Me, Mr. Football Analyst?

Posted by Ken Fang.

We’re two weeks into the NFL season and I’m already worn out from the Sunday pregame shows. Granted, pregame shows are not as important to the fan as they used to be, but they can still break news, and there’s the entertainment value as well.

The problem with the NFL pregame show, NFL Gameday Morning and Sunday NFL Countdown in particular, is the unnecessary yelling. Notice the two culprits. NFL Gameday Morning on NFL Network and Sunday NFL Countdown on ESPN are on for a long time. In ESPN’s case, its duration is two hours. For NFL Gameday Morning, it’s four hours. There are only so many features that can be produced, so to ensure that every segment does not have dead air, both shows allow for debate among the analysts. This is where they wade into dangerous territory.

If you don’t have NFL Network (I’m talking to you, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision among others), the cast of NFL Gameday Morning includes host Rich Eisen and analysts Marshall Faulk, Steve Mariucci, Warren Sapp and Michael Irvin. For Gameday Morning, the problem lies with Michael Irvin. Michael feels the need to yell. Why is this? I notice that he does this quite often, for example, during a discussion on the Cowboys, Irvin dominated the segment by raising his voice and pounding the table.

Then there was a segment co-hosted by Faulk and Irvin. The former Cowboys wide receiver took the opportunity again to raise his voice level by 10 octaves causing Marshall to look at the Playmaker as if to say, “This man is totally nuts. Why is he yelling at me?” It’s not necessary.

I switched over to Sunday NFL Countdown and a segment involving Keyshawn Johnson, Cris Carter, Tom Jackson and Mike Ditka fared no better. They yelled throughout with Carter tapping the desk. Where does this come from? Do show producers think this is good television? Do the analysts know that they’re wearing microphones and they don’t need to scream at the audience?

Now, debate on television has been around for a long time. There’s good debate and there’s bad debate. The cable news channels have depended on debate shows and they can be done quite well (ED NOTE: that’s debatable). ESPN has its share including Pardon The Interruption (good show) and Around The Horn (bad show). But the debate on the pregame shows has swelled to unbearable proportions.

And don’t think CBS’ NFL Today and Fox NFL Sunday get off easy either. While both are locked at an hour’s length, there are times when pregame blather results into yelling. They don’t do as much as NFL Network and ESPN, but there are times when the debate becomes overbearing.

Can there be anything done about the yellfests? There should be, but I don’t believe the networks are stop them any time soon. Am I being anal about this? Yes, but as a viewer, I feel I should not be subjected to yelling when I turn on my TV on Sunday mornings.

When I gave myself a break from the pregame shows last Sunday, I actually appreciated the silence. If only the NFL pregame shows could break from the commotion. And there’s Stuart Scott’s yelling, but that’s a story for another day.

I won’t make this post a total beatdown on the pregame shows. There is one segment I do like and that’s on ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown. I’ll actually switch from “How I Met Your Mother” on CBS at 8:20 p.m. to see “C’mon, Man.” You’re asking, “You actually like, ‘C’mon, Man?’” Yes, I do. If you haven’t seen it, this is where Chris Berman and the four analysts find the most headscratching plays from Sunday and end it by saying, “C’mon, Man!” Does it break ground? Does it move mountains? No, but I find it funny and I do look forward to seeing some of five craziest plays each week. You can see a sample from last season right here.

Finally, an excellent pregame segment aired last Saturday on ESPN’s College Gameday. Tom Rinaldi did a powerful 6 minute feature on the impact of the death of University of Pennsylvania defensive end Owen Thomas. He committed suicide last April. Rinaldi explored how Thomas’ death affected his teammates and how Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy may have played a role. It led into a report on CTE the following day on Outside the Lines. Both reports show that ESPN can major in journalism when it wants to.

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Posted on September 22, 2010 at 1:22PM
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  1. ThunderingBlurb
    09/22 2010

    Great piece Ken. Whenever somebody resorts to yelling and screaming over other people, I always think ‘here’s a guy who isn’t very confident about what he’s saying and needs to yell to make it seem important’ or ‘here’s a guy who HAS to be the center of attention regardless of anyone else’.

    Neither is palatable to me and honestly, I tune them out. I get enough yelling in other segments of life, I don’t need it on my football analysis.