Sports: January 2008 Archives

After the New England Patriots swept into the Super Bowl, going 18-0, breaking all sorts of records and such, the sports commentariat dubbed Pats coach Bill Belichick a genius.

Genius?

It has to be the worst case of wasted genius in the history of genius.

I mean, if the guy's a genius, what's he doing coaching football. Shouldn't be curing cancer or finding a way out of Iraq or solving the subprime mortgage crisis or...well, you get the idea.

It reminds me of something former ESPN commentator and retired NFL quarterback Joe Theismann said about a certain football coach. He said referring to the guy as a genius was erroneous. "A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein," he said.

You know, Norman Einstein. Came up with that theory of relevancity or something.

Is it me or has Fox's coverage of the college bowl games this January been more terrible than ever?

Fox has no history with college football, no tradition, no nothing. And college football is steeped in history and tradition. Their analysts have no idea what they're talking about. For instance, before the Fiesta Bowl, none of them gave West Virginia a chance of beating Oklahoma, forgetting to point out that the Mountaineers had the fourth-ranked defense in the land. During the game, West Virginia's defense put a beatdown on the Sooners.

Not only that, Fox's incessant pimping of its own shows and its sponsors detracts from the game. Do we really need to be reminded every 30 seconds who provides that camera that's suspended over the field? And do we really need those sideline shots of the buckets of a particular sports drink?

And speaking of the production, do we really need all of the reaction shots from the crowd? I think the Oklahoma band got more airtime than its offense.

And not only that, their announcers were awful. During the Fiesta Bowl, on several occasions, there was a penalty on the field and they ignored it, talking right over the ref's announcement of the penalty. Viewers never did find out what several of the penalties were.

Simply horrible.

None of this would be happening is Keith Jackson were still alive.

Oh, he is? Never mind.