The Football Ramble's Guide To Commentary

At ‘highlights’ matches, we do occasionally get the chance to record a correction to a piece of errant commentary but it never sounds quite right and regular viewers of football will invariably spot it. I suddenly found myself mistaking Andrei Arshavin for Jack Wilshire at the start of a recent Arsenal game they both played in. I used to have recurring nightmares about Steve Stone, Alan Wright and Mark Draper when they were in the same Villa team. I must admit that I have left some of those sessions fearing I recognised less players at the end than I did at the beginning, but the occasional ‘ident error’ is an occupational hazard. One of the questions I get asked most often is ‘what is the biggest difference between radio and television commentary? You’re not nearly as important in television as you are in radio.

Although, it could be the case that some commentators do indeed endorse this essentialist stereotype regarding the Indigenous Australian athlete. However, they may be guarded against using such language due to the professional and social ramifications of holding this view. The majority of research to systematically examine racial bias in televised sports commentary has been undertaken in the United States. One of the earliest studies examined live commentary yeubongda.site on American football . That study found that commentary showed more sympathy towards White players and tended to build the positive reputation of White players while doing the inverse toward Black players. The author’s theorized that while the verbalization of the commentator’s beliefs was likely unconscious, the results reflected the White commentator’s prejudicial belief in the superiority of White players and the inferiority of Black players .

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The vast majority of play-by-play announcers are male; female play-by-play announcers had not seen sustained employment until the 21st century. It is an inescapable fact that white Caucasian commentators tend to have more problems with teams full of East Asian or Black African players. But while you can anticipate inevitable difficulties with, say, North Korea v Mali and concentrate the mind more, the ones that really catch you out are the similarities you didn’t see coming.

So many specific aspects of commentary are matters of personal taste. Some people like the bawlers, some like the stattos, some like the opinionated – others hate each of them for the very reasons that make them stand out to their fans. The best sports broadcasters ooze both – Brian Moore, Brian Johnston, Reg Gutteridge – you just knew they were honest, warm men.

The pictures paint themselves, you are merely the accompaniment to them. A good score can help make a great film, but it is only ever a soundtrack to what the eyes are seeing for themselves. People often say the best referees are the ones you don’t notice, and I think the same principle applies to commentators – up to a point. The very best referees are the ones you don’t notice until there is a critical decision to make, or a bit of a dispute to solve without making a drama of it. Like referees, good commentators get the big calls right, and find the right words for the memorable moments.

Those who made the switch included Steve Byrnes , Vince Welch , and Adam Alexander (did Cup for Fox-produced TNT broadcasts from 2010–14, Xfinity on Fox since 2015) did the same too. Although the combination of a play-by-play announcer and color commentator is now considered the standard, it was much more common for a broadcast to have only one play-by-play announcer working alone. Vin Scully, longtime announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers, was one of the few examples of this practice lasting into the 21st century until he retired in 2016. The analyst or color commentator provides expert analysis and background information, such as statistics, strategy on the teams and athletes, and occasionally anecdotes or light humor. They are usually former athletes or coaches in their respective sports, although there are some exceptions. We started up ‘Commentary Charts’ with authentic reproductions of original prep notes from memorable matches I worked on, then soon began to receive requests from fans to compile impressions of charts for the iconic games played by their favourite team.

Character Attributes

Secondly, the current ingrained habits of AFL commentators are likely to influence future generations of commentators, who seek to emulate their models. And most importantly, these attitudes can extend beyond the realm of sport into the social realm . The current study found that, within the subcategory of cognitive ability, non-White players received a significantly higher proportion of negative statements compared to White players. This finding is in-line with the majority of prior research which tended to show that non-White players were discussed more negatively in terms of their intelligence or cognitive attributes .

Access to still photos and match DVD’s is far better now than it was a decade ago. Most teams are obliged to allow the media in to view training sessions on the eve of major international and European fixtures, even if it is only for 15 minutes. I completely understand the frustration of fans who say they’ve lost interest because the sport they grew up loving succumbed to money and will never look the same. But I also think if those same fans’ teams start next season 4-0, they’ll be just as engaged as they were before. This definitely sparked a downgrade in bowl-game prestige, particularly the Rose Bowl, which now rarely pits the best teams from the Pac-12 and Big Ten against each other. But the actual playoff games have generated massive TV ratings, and the regular season wasn’t devalued at all.

To make matters more interesting, the examiners are also mainly mad. Well, not clinically mad… but most viewers of a live match are ‘not all there’. ‘Fail to prepare, and you prepare to fail,’ was the maxim of the late, great Brian Moore – my predecessor as ITV’s senior football commentator. Each and every match we call is a kind of examination paper. But will it cause fans across the country to stop watching college football as frequently?