I've been spoiled by Pat Summerall

I was spoiled enough to hear Pat Summerall announce the Cotton Bowl. And then, in the Sugar Bowl, I was reminded of hot utterly idiotic many of today's sports announcers and commentators are. They don't announce. They annoy.

For an entire football game I had to listen to announcers talk about how Alabama couldn't possibly loose... even until the point where Utah basically had the game in the bag. The announcers and commentators couldn't possibly begin to admit that Utah had the better team. AND THEN. After the game these guys acted like they were the ultimate Utah fans since they were kids. It was pathetic. I really began to notice the state of sports announcers during the Olympics. I felt like they just turned into talking heads disrupting my enjoyment of the events. The sad part about it, is that a number of announcers used to be involved in the sport they announce.

One thing that really struck me about Pat Summerall's commentary is that you couldn't tell that he was a fan of either Ole Miss or Texas Tech... he merely announced the game. It is easy to tell when an announcer is rooting for a particular team or if *gasp* he has put some money down on a team. I don't wish to hear descriptions of Greek gods while I'm watching football.

Final point: I actually heard an announcer say one day that his job (and he implied every announcer's job) is to question what happens on the field. Isn't that a lousy job description? It would seem that the announcer's job is to report what is going on on the field, not tell me how it should be different than it is.