I was pretty psyched to watch the 1958 NFL Championship on ESPN last night, but I wound up fast forwarding through most of it because of all the commentary.
Maybe it’s not ESPN’s fault. Maybe they showed every stitch of game footage they had. Maybe they used every ounce of radio they had (and man were the radio calls better than anything you hear today. The quality of baseball announcing is way down, and NFL can be awful – although there’s the occasional Bob Papa or Chris Carrino on the NBA that plays it straight, and how much better is Papa now that he isn’t saddled with Dick Lynch – sorry but you all know Lynch was awful.).
I couldn’t get into the game. After every single play they stopped and talked about it. It was agonizing. If they didn’t have the video, maybe they have the box score and could have had a CGI version or something.
Sorry ESPN. I loved the idea but the greatest TV show ever shown it wasn’t.
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