Adrian Healey OUT as Revos broadcaster

did not really care for adrian,,,while he did seem know a thing or two about the game I found him to be kinda boring...to each his own

 

I would say this is an overreaction until we find out more details.

I also don't think it's fair to argue that Brad Feldman can't put forth a fair and unbiased broadcast because he works for the team. And besides, in this day and age, how many local broadcasters are unbiased? Ever watch a Celtics game? Try telling me with a straight face that Tommy Heinsohn doesn't bleed Celtic green.

 

If this is true, it is sad news indeed. I thought Adrian was the best Revs PbP guy since Derek Rae (pre-Scottish accent). I think Brad Feldman is competent as a color guy, but his PbP is just not very enjoyable. Adrian always tried to stay unbiased, but had just enough emotional attachment to make it interesting. I will definitely miss him saying what I think was his signature line: "Disaster for to the Revolution!"

Also this probably means a new color analyst. Greg Lalas and Garth Lagerway, while being knowledgable about the game, were not great on air when filling in last year. If they can pry him away from his Champions League work, bring back Seamus Malin!

Edit: I see in another thread that Greg Lalas will do the color... Hopefully with some work he can improve on his few performances from last year. At least he is an interesting character.

 

What I posted in the other news thread since there is now a thread specifically for this:

"Brad Feldman, the team’s director of communications and play-by-play announcer...He will be joined in the booth by former Revs player Greg Lalas, younger brother of soccer superstar and ex-Rev Alexi Lalas"

This is not good news - who can let us know what happened with Adrian. Adrian was by far the best pbp guy, and actually could have done the brodcast job all by himself.

I remember posting way back when Greg Lalas hinted at something like this in one of his MLS columns, and most people thought he was just being funny. I knew I sensed some dread then, and now I am really bumming.

I also remember posting why Brad was doing some of the play-by-play late in the season, and if that meant that Adrian was not going to be back. I had that same sense of dread then too.

If Adrian left of his own will to move onto bigger and better things, I guess there is nothing that can be done about that. But if that is not the case, then it was a mistake to not retain him.

Don't get me wrong, Brad is okay - but having Adrian really balanced Brad's color stuff. I can remember numerous times where Adrian correctly sees what happened off the ball before the replay, corrects some of Brad's mistakes about rules or clarified what Brad just said, and basically just kept Brad in check. I think Brad is great at Rev Radio as an interviewer.

While I will be happy to see games on TV, I am bummed that Adrian will not be in the booth.

 

Bring back Adrian!

I was/am also a huge fan of Adrian Healey. I preferred him to Rae, actually, because I always felt Rae's heart was elsewhere. Feldman is not as good, not because he is a homer - I actually prefer the Heinsohn (Johnny Most!) point of view. Obviously Feldman knows the team. He's so sincere, it's almost painful. I guess AH had a wit and humor that are hard to replicate. Garth Lagerwey would be my choice of color man, because of his bluntness, though GL is also OK.

 

Adrian's actually working full-time for ESPN now (he's under contract to call close to 150 games I believe), and has been doing work for them in some capacity for some time now. He does La Liga, Champions League, and I believe he's doing the FA Cup Final for ESPN international...

... bit removed from when he was callign Swindon Town games on radio when he was all of twelve or something.

Adrian's also got some darling kids and a great family, so when considering that, in addition to his work/commute, I'm not surprised that he's left the Revs after so many years of calling Revolution games, some with Derek Rae, who recently called the Champions league match between Chelsea and Barcelona with Tommy Smyth.

He's a great guy, and I'm happy to know he's doing well.

Seamus Malin, is busy working for Harvard in addition to his TV work, so I'd offer that his schedule, is likely pretty full as well.

As for the debate about Feldman and Lalas: Alexi's brother isn't a bad fit for color duty, and Brad has experience doing PBP for Serie A matches on the troops down in Storrs, so the Revs aren't in bad shape, and especially considering the demands that come with every Revs match being on TV.

The Magpie

 

This was my sense of dread....he was so good, that he would get scooped up by someone else.

Brad will have his hands full. I have always liked him on Rev Radio, and I did think he improved as a color guy last year by toning it down and actually making true soccer observations.

But as a play-by-play guy, he will have some awfully big shoes to fill. It is actually the harder of the 2 jobs - and hopefully he has learned a lot from sitting next to Adrian what to do/and what not to do. At least he is a known quantity of what we can expect this season.

I can honestly say I missed the game Lalas did as color guy, so I will reserve judgement on how he might be.

I do wish Adrian well, but he will surely be missed.

 

Cool, so we finally developed some real talent and sent them to the big leagues.

Adrian will be missed, by me at least. I enjoyed him, but I'm looking forward to Greg Lalas (I love his articles on MLSnet). I only listen to half the broadcasts anyway.

 

I'd rather get rid of Feldman than Adrian. Well, I hope that he got a better gig, he seems like a nice guy.

I like Greg Lalas too, so while I'm sorry to see Adrian go, I'm not unhappy to have Greg coming on full time. I generally prefer to hear Americans on US Soccer broadcasts, but Adrian was an exception along with Rae (again when he faked the Baseball accent).

 

I think your analyst should have 30+ years experience in the game (I'm available!), not a guy who had a cup of coffee in MLS and has a *famous* big brother. As far as I'm concerned, about the most impressive part of his resume is that he's written for Boston Magazine - at least he has a background as a journalist.

I've always thought that this is one area where British IS better; that MLS teams should import a veteran football radio or tv guy who's called thousands of games. Somebody who can provide some critical insight and expose the trends occuring in the game, not just talking about what they see in front of them (or worse, the mindless off-field trivia).

In that vein, the best American I've heard, despite a monotone delivery and lack of energy, is Chris Sullivan of FSC.

 

I think an ex-player can offer a lot of insight as to the subtle things going on in a game. Things like shifts in momentum and a team making tactical adjustments during the course of a game. I think Lalas does a pretty decent job of this, despite him not having a stellar career as a player. And I would agree that Sullivan is very good as well--I can only vaguely recall him as a player in the early 90s, although I think he did play a bit in Latin America.

Being an exeptional player doesn't mean you are good at articulating the things you would know instinctively as a player in the game. Ty Keough was a national teamer, and in the context of his time, a pretty good player, but as an announcer, he creates too much HAV-oc if Edwards is climbing the ladder... Waldo does a pretty good job and unlike lots of ex-player broadcasters, he isn't afraid to be blunt and criticize people if he feels it's warranted.

Tom

 

I'll repeat what I said the previous thread about this...

Good to hear that Adrian has moved onto bigger and better things. The guy certainly had the chops to do well wat what he did. My only complaint would sometimes be his Britishisms that he through out every now and then. I forget what his nationality is but the times he'd throw out a phrase and Brad would crack up because of the obscure refference were great but didn't really add much to the game. I thought it was kind of gimicy.

For people still complaining about Feldman's relationship to the club... That continues to be ludacris and shows an utter lack of apprecation or knowledge on how most people in his position operate, most especially at the smaller levels of sports broadcasting. However, I think he's better suited for the play by play role because that's more about calling the action than giving insight. I think sometimes with his analysis while although fair was a little too 'rah rah this guy's a great story.' The time's he's manned the booth as a pbp guy I think he's done a commendable job.

As I've said before, did a great job with that last year the times he had and I'm sure he'll continue to do so. His personality, presence and involvement with the game really bring a lot to the table. Especially the fact that sometimes with a superstar type player they're there because of name alone and not any kind of compentancy. Paul Caliguri please pick up the white courtesy phone. Hell! Look at Jerry Remy, he was a fairly good ball player and had a decent little career but it's not like he was a Hall of Fame caliber guy, and now he's a broadcasting icon!

 

Actually, this continues to be Ludacris:


I hate to be the spell-checker, but I think you meant ludicrous. Unless, of course, you're into all that Southern Hospitality.

 

MTV is really ruining education I tell ya.

 

Yes adrian is leaving. I actually found this out last year as I know him personally. Him and my dad play soccer together and we takled to him after a revs game last year. he told us hew was moving to ESPN world

 

FWIW Adrian is doing color for the CL broadcast on ESPN2 right now. I'd say that's moving on to bigger and better...

 

I noticed last week he did the PSV game- the little supers that come up with the names had him listed as an english language commentator. I meant to mention that.

 

i ask this honestly.....why is that a step 'up'?
sitting in a room doing color while watching tv sounds a bit lame.

now...if his contract extends into other espn commentary ventures (live?). maybe that would be another story. but, what else is there in the soccer commentary world. seems like it breaks down into....

1. live mls/nat team gigs (seems to be sparse and already saturated)
[plus, we've seen its mostly who ya know in that world]
2. more commentary from the sofa while watching tv
3. college soccer playoff gigs (i'm assuming those are live)

i guess it totally depends on what the 'end goal' is here?
look at all those fsc guys that have been doing 'tv' commentary for a long time...well, they seem to be still doing commentary over a tv feed, no?

if you're in the abc/espn stable....maybe you get some time during the w.c. next year....who knows? still, i think that's another tv watching gig.

any idea on what his real goals are?

 

Being live doing commentary for a Revs game that gets heard by the greater boston market and anyone with Direct Kick vs. doing commentary in a room and being heard by everyone in the world who's watching the english broadcast of a champions league game sounds like a step up to me.

 

Yeah. I'd say so. I'm not really sure how or why the manner in which theyr'e calling the game really matters. Do you know who Tommy Smith is? Could you name say the Crew's pbp guy off the top of your head?

 

huh? are you implying that england, ireland, australia and the like are listening to adrian call this cl game?

uh, i'd be shocked to hear that's the case.

again, what is the end game for a relatively socccer specific announcer?

is the end game...
an overseas gig with a bigger club? (via espn2 exposure)
us nat team or nat mls games? (saturated)
or just more studio tv commentary?

i'm just saying....it seems like the soccer commentary market is really small (esp in the u.s.). there's no way i know what the $ involved here is either. i'm thinking that if the majority of your work is in the studio watching tv....it could be not only tedious.....but, a no more/less of a 'dead end' job in the american soccer broadcasting landscape than doing live tv for an mls side (not to mention one that has nearly every game on air).

 

Anywhere that gets the ESPN International feed would get Adrian and Joe Tolleson (if they're getting the English audio). Obviously, ESPN doesn't have the rights to Champions League in Britain, but they might in the Pacific Rim, Southeast Asia, Central America, etc.

 

Last week, on espn deportes, during the psv game, they put the supers of the commentators in the lower left hand corner for all of the different languages. It said, "English: Adrian Healy, (someone else)"

It didn't say "English in the US: Adrian Healy, (someone else)" "English in UK: (so and so) "English in Australia: (so and so)"

So I will take that as being the english language commentator to anyone watching it on an espn network- obviously if Sky Sports picks up the game, they would probably have someone else doing it.

 

I think the point for Adrian, and I only know him very slightly, is that he does soccer commentary on the side, while teaching. And if you're going to do it on the side, you'd prefer to work for ESPN because you get paid more per game. Full stop. Trust me when I tell you that none of the local broadcasters in the league make a living simply from calling MLS matches. So, I don't think there really is any stepping up or stepping down going on. There are only games that need to be called and people willing to call them for relatively short money. Thankfully, many of the people willing to do the work are quite good, and we've been fortunate, on the whole, relative to the fans of of those other MLS teams who have had some real crap announcers...and still do.