So if you watched tonights MLS playoff game you surely heard Eric Wynalda's "Looks like California" comment while the camera showed a flare going off in Section 8. This comment immediately reminded me of Rob Stone's unforgettable "He went down like he got shot by a sniper" comment in the midst of the DC sniper shootings a few years back. The game, IIRC, was at RFK, too. What is it with these guys and making insensitive current events references? Am I the only one that doesn't find these funny? Surely they have producers that advise them that this is not what they should be mentioning during a sporting event. These guys need to wake up.
Im not saying it was ok, but look who said it. Eric Wynalda doesnt always think before he speaks. Glenn Davis didnt know what to say when he said that
It was a cheap attempt by EW to add humour to the telecast. He failed miserably. IMO, he should come out and apologize for his remark, if he hasn't done so already...
Eric lives in California. It was a flip comment, but I don't think he was being insensitive (at least, I don't think he meant to be insensitive). Plus, what's strange is it wouldn't even be the worst thing Eric has said that he's had to apologize for this year.
Well, at least Whinealda didn't spend ten straight minutes bashing the referees. Oh yeah, he spent that talking about contact lenses. Let's face it, he is just a very bad announcer. I'd be happy if the start of his sentence and the end of his sentence dealt with the same topic.
Newsflash: Wynalda is not as funny, as smart, as eloquent or as handsome as he thinks he is. Nothing new here.
Did you hear that EPL broadcast this morning? Martin Tyler made reference to a battering ram. Surely he recognizes how insensitive this comment surely is, given the trauma the Cupperdish household of West Bromswidge suffered at the hands of Viking marauders in 967 AD! Announcers clearly can't be trusted! I say fire the lot of them and go with the "Fanzone" all the time.
ya. i live in california and could see the fires from my house, i dont care. but the thursday night games have horrible commentary/camerawork.
I agree.I find myself enjoying these thursday night games less and less each week,even though i'm watching them in hi-def on a 50 inch screen.I enjoy the games on FSC and even the regional telecasts much more even though sometimes the video is horrible.At least i don't feel like i'm watching the XFL or the WWE.
Eric doesn't have that little off switch that most humans have that filters and edits his internal dialogue before it reaches the rest of the world. That's partly why he's one of my favorite announcers. Every now and then you'll hear something like this. But I'd much rather listen to him than most of the bland, I'm-not-going-to-be-politically-incorrect analysts in almost any sport you can name.
That's true, and I'd go further and say that he's NOT someone who dabbles in calculated outrage. He's not yelling at people. He's not baiting people. He's being honest. Occasionally tactless.
If Whynealda's general commentary was inspired I'd agree with you. The problem is that it seems to come out sounding like my seven year old son after I tell him to clean his room. He often quotes his "players win games, coaches lose games, and refs ruin games" line, then he will say something to the tune of "There is a reason why I say this". I think the reason is to bring attention to himself, to try to seperate himself from the pack of announcers. Sorry, this is not why I tune in to a match.
He's not a polished broadcaster (hell, he's only been at this a few years and he's had, basically no training). Right now, about the only thing he has in his arsenal is his brutal honesty. That's a start. They can work with that. But no one seems to want to. I think he wants to be good at this, but it would be a major personality shift for someone to whom the game has always come easily to all of a sudden work like a demon and become a great broadcaster virtually overnight. I can't think of a lot of people I'd rather have in that spot than Wynalda. He needs some coaching, though. But I'm afraid that someone might try to bleed the honesty and frankness out of him, and that wouldn't be a good thing. Hey, you can always have Ty Keough back, if you want him.
I thought this exact same thing after the game Thursday. Then I thought... he should still know how to act professionally and shut the ******** up.
ESPN ruins everything they cover, NASCAR fans are even having a "The moment ESPN/ABC made me glad I had NASCAR Hotpass was..." contest going on now. While I personally hate NASCAR, I am not surprised to hear they are ruining it along with everything else they cover. I find MLS games completely unwatchable on ESPN with the constant graphic clutter, needless closeups, shrinkage of the game to 1/4 of the screen for stupid game recaps, showing people on the sidelines while the game is going on (especially Beckham of course) and the list goes on and on. It is obvious it absolutely kills ESPN to go 45 minutes without promoting themselves in some way, so they basically don't. Unfortunately I have worked in television and can guess what goes on behind the scenes - people work on the event who don't care about or like the event in question but find "cool" ways of using their graphics computer or a new place to put a camera to do things they think will look cool and will impress their coworkers/bosses instead of thinking of how the viewer will watch their event. They will go home thinking they did a good job if they got a camera to work in a location that hasn't been done before without thinking twice about whether the new angle was better or worse for the viewer watching at home. End of diatribe.
He should. But, like I said, he doesn't have the same regulator most of the rest of us do. Remember, they basically took the guy off the field and put him on the sideline and then right up to the booth. He hasn't put it all together yet. Maybe he never will. But the California comment was more just Eric being Eric than Eric being malicious.