ESPN and the start of the Bowl season!

[Matt Fly]

Last nights game between TCU and NIU was lack luster to begin with.  

Desmond Howard was commentarying last night before the game and at half time.      ESPN analysts were commenting on upcoming games that are must see.

Desmond highlighted the CAL vs UT game in the Holiday Bowl before the game and at half time, he even took the time to point out key match ups and such.  Aarron Ross and Cal QB Nate Lonshore ........

The funny thing about this is:    UT isn't playing CAL, Texas a&m is!!!!!!

Not one ESPN announcer or any one else said anything to Desmond about who was playing before the game or at halftime.       You would think you would do your homework before you open mouth and insert your foot.    Not one technical advisor caught the blunder.

Apparently ESPN is loosing focus on their bread and butter, college football.

Just thought it was funny for a total sports network to not get the facts right.

Matt.

[BassChaser57]

I agree Matt, the executives at ESPN need to get out in the real world to see what programming is watched. Bass Saturday was great when it first came out, now I am tired of watching those two dudes hog catfish every Saturday morning. Show me someone else catching fish or teach me how to be a better angler. I think I will send this email to ESPN.

Oh yeah--it would be a bad day if I was as unprepared for my job as that dude on the bowl game.

[Matt Fly]

Got me to thinking about watching the Cowboys game on Nfl ticket thursday night.    Mr Gumble refered to the play clock as to the shot clock expired and the end of the period instead of quarter.

With all the games on TV and all the networks who have a piece of the pie, we get some pretty sad commentary from time to time.

Still a fan of Al and John on NBC now.

matt.

[Marty]

Desmond was on SportsCenter today at 6:00 talking about that error.

[Sam]

What I love most about the announcers is when they play up a player and he then goes down the tubes.

One of the funniest ones was when LSU was playing Stanford in the College World Series and all the announcers could do was pan about the Stanford pitcher.

The cameras showed the pitcher's parents and his little brother in the stands smiling and jumping all around as Stanford built a 5 run lead.

Then, LSU can storming back and started cutting the lead in the 6th inning and we never saw the parents or that little brat again.

LSU wond the game 6-5,knocking out the best college pitcher in the history of the game in the 7th inning, which I found to be poetic justice.

So now I watch and listen to which players the announcers pick to single out until he fails at his assigned duties and the announcers will then forget him in a flash.

[Panamoka_Bassin]

Not that this is truly an ESPN issue, but I am a little cheesed at the fact of the Texas Bowl being shown only on the NFL network.  Up here on Long Island, Cablevision has yet to sign a deal to get NFL network.  I can't even subscribe to it unless I get a dish, and that's not gonna happen.  All season long I rooted for Rutgers (the closest this area has to a Div 1-A team), and now that they're in a bowl game, I can't even watch it?  Bah.  What a joke.

[bassmasta7]

Apparently, the NFL Network is doing it and the Thursday night games, so the cable customers will complain to their cable company and will eventually put it on basic cable. I have satellite so I have it. Bryant Gumble may be the worst sports announcer that I have ever heard. He was mispronouncing everyones names constantly and didnt appear to have a great knowledge of football.

Michael Jenkins- Jennings

Justin Griffith- Griffin

And he did this with a lot of players without even recognizing his mistake.

[KU_Bassmaster.]

Did you happen to watch the first game he did ... KC/Denver.  OMG was it horrible.  He had no idea of down and distance and on more than one occasion he said something along the lines of "Their going for it on 4th down" yet the picked up the 1st down the play before.  And overall he just seemed to have no knowledge of football like others have said before.

I don't think this NFL network thing is going to fly.  My cable provider has NFL network and I have the "sports package" yet you still have to subscribe to subscribe to a separate "package" via NFL Network to get the games.  I have only seen one game with Gumble and from what others are saying he has not improved.  That alone almost makes the games unbearable to watch/listen.

[bassmasta7]

Haha yeah I was watching when he said  "Their going for it on 4th down." That I think was the start of my dislike. Dick Vermeil was very knowledgeable but obviously he was sick on Saturday and had completely lost his voice by the end of the first half. Gumbel often disagreed with some of Jim Mora's calls when Vermeil was agreeing with them. Those times you need to led the former great head coach do that commentary since he has the experience. They have a lot of stuff left to work out at the NFL Network. They need to make some changes otherwise it wont last. But they do have a monopoly on Thursday and Saturday night football so I will have to keep watching.

[Crabcakes]

Not trying to hijack the thread but the quality of anouncers is terrible. So many are just plain bad.

Vermeil and Ron Jaworski were great. Chris Collinsworth Chris Mortensen and Ron Jaworski have actually improved my knowledge of the game but sadly you don't see them much calling games. Jaws and Collinsworth especially really know their stuff.

ESPN usually brings pretty good quality but they have alot of room to improve. Lately they've been bringing on a new crop of anouncers and analysts and some of them have yet to hit their stride (or they're just plain bad but i'll give them the benefit of the doubt).

[bassmasta7]

I definitely agree. I wish Chris Berman would do football games instead of just NFL Countdown. I also like Joe Buck, I think he has gotten better over the years or it might just be because of his Holiday Inn comercials. ;D