Partisan announcing has been around forever. Every hometown sports team has guys and women on TV and radio who love to put on the blinders and pretend their players can do no wrong. There’s certainly an element of human nature in wanting to root for your tribe to win.
For some reason, partisan announcing often also includes demonizing the enemy or sports officials. This also seems to be part of our DNA: Put others down. Rather than building others up, and “may the best team win,” we want to badmouth the opponent in some way.
This happens in athletic contests all around the globe, whether you’re talking about soccer, football, basketball, baseball or almost any other team sport you can name. Our family lived outside Philadelphia for several years, and I both saw and heard of some of the most egregious stories involving fans of the Eagles verbally abusing people who cheered for the opponent on any given Sunday. And god forbid if you wore the jersey of an opponent. You just might get it ripped off your back and burned in a 55-gallon drum. Seriously. It’s happened.
So I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I turned on the television to watch the NCAA men’s DI college basketball championship game to find two partisan Michigan announcers in the game against Villanova. I turned on the TV and wondered what the heck was going on, not knowing that today there is a standard crew to announce the game on the tube and if you want, you can turn to another channel and watch it with hometown announcers. Silly me. Good ‘ol home cooking to manipulate you into thinking your team can do no wrong.
It took me several minutes to even understand what was going on because I did not know you could choose who you wanted to listen to. Who knows when this opportunity started? It certainly seems to be a much larger part of the U.S. these days as we decide to only pay attention to viewpoints that support our own.
I settled into the couch and thought, “Hmm, these guys like Michigan.” Another minute or two, and I went to myself, “I think these guys must have gone to school at Michigan.” Indeed, it turned out to be the case and they were unapologetic about it, or about their bias. They said they were going to root for Michigan and that was that. Find another channel if you don’t like it. That’s when I understood you could choose your perspective to follow the game.
For kicks, I stayed with them. Sadly, they announced more about the three officials who were making the rulings on the court than they did about the plays. I started to track their chatter. It turned out 68 percent of the time they were judging the officials and their whistle choices, 18 percent of the time they were putting down Villanova and 14 percent of the time they were cheering on Michigan.
What is the definition of a fan? Isn’t it that you support your team? I don’t want to hear how the announcers judge the referee from a seat on the sideline. Let the officials referee the game, let the coaches coach, the players play and the fans cheer. It would be so much more fun that way.
For some reason, partisan announcing often also includes demonizing the enemy or sports officials. This also seems to be part of our DNA: Put others down. Rather than building others up, and “may the best team win,” we want to badmouth the opponent in some way.
This happens in athletic contests all around the globe, whether you’re talking about soccer, football, basketball, baseball or almost any other team sport you can name. Our family lived outside Philadelphia for several years, and I both saw and heard of some of the most egregious stories involving fans of the Eagles verbally abusing people who cheered for the opponent on any given Sunday. And god forbid if you wore the jersey of an opponent. You just might get it ripped off your back and burned in a 55-gallon drum. Seriously. It’s happened.
So I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I turned on the television to watch the NCAA men’s DI college basketball championship game to find two partisan Michigan announcers in the game against Villanova. I turned on the TV and wondered what the heck was going on, not knowing that today there is a standard crew to announce the game on the tube and if you want, you can turn to another channel and watch it with hometown announcers. Silly me. Good ‘ol home cooking to manipulate you into thinking your team can do no wrong.
It took me several minutes to even understand what was going on because I did not know you could choose who you wanted to listen to. Who knows when this opportunity started? It certainly seems to be a much larger part of the U.S. these days as we decide to only pay attention to viewpoints that support our own.
I settled into the couch and thought, “Hmm, these guys like Michigan.” Another minute or two, and I went to myself, “I think these guys must have gone to school at Michigan.” Indeed, it turned out to be the case and they were unapologetic about it, or about their bias. They said they were going to root for Michigan and that was that. Find another channel if you don’t like it. That’s when I understood you could choose your perspective to follow the game.
For kicks, I stayed with them. Sadly, they announced more about the three officials who were making the rulings on the court than they did about the plays. I started to track their chatter. It turned out 68 percent of the time they were judging the officials and their whistle choices, 18 percent of the time they were putting down Villanova and 14 percent of the time they were cheering on Michigan.
What is the definition of a fan? Isn’t it that you support your team? I don’t want to hear how the announcers judge the referee from a seat on the sideline. Let the officials referee the game, let the coaches coach, the players play and the fans cheer. It would be so much more fun that way.
