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Dr. Z's Commentator Rankings...

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by nafselon, Feb 9, 2008.

  1. Herbert Anchovy

    Herbert Anchovy Active Member

    The old Madden would have noted discrete matchups such as Ngata/Mankins.

    I've been converting a bunch of old tapes from the mid-1980s to DVD and it's not the same person, not even close.
     
  2. John

    John Well-Known Member

    As a viewer, it's the names and facts, more than anything else, that I want the TV guys to get right.
     
  3. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    The old Madden -- for all his BOOM!s and WHAP!s -- could give very cogent analysis. In 1995, a year the Dallas Cowboys won the Super Bowl, he explained why the Washington Redskins (on their way to a 6-10 season) matched up well with the Cowboys before the teams' first meeting.

    The Redskins swept the Cowboys that year, taking a 27-10 lead in the first game before holding on to win 27-23, and winning the game at Texas Stadium 21-10 despite "Baby" Heath Shuler starting at quarterback.

    That's what I miss about Madden in the middle of his fellating Brett Favre and Tony Romo. Dude needs to get a new pair of knee pads.
     
  4. Herbert Anchovy

    Herbert Anchovy Active Member

    He just doesn't care anymore. He won't try. I don't believe you get as stupid and trite as he has become, no matter the passage of time or whether he's old or not.

    Some of the very worst television ESPN has ever produced was the one-on-one SportsCenter bit with Stuart Scott and Madden.
     
  5. Editude

    Editude Active Member

    The Gumbel (Greg)-Dierdorf pairing is a strange one. Dierdorf takes it so seriously, and Gumbel is just sort of there.
     
  6. Sleeper

    Sleeper Member

    What little I heard of Dierdorf the last couple years, I've gotta say, he's really gotten better. Back in his MNF days, he was close to unlistenable.
     
  7. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    Dr. Z must've been high.
     
  8. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    no doubt. I still say it's a limited audience, but I'm glad SI gives him the freedom to write what he wants no matter how esoteric it may seem to a seamhead dope such as myself.

    And like Ben, I really respect Dr. Z for his decades on the job. I never intended for my post to come off as disrespectful. I hope I'm still employed and as passionate about what I cover as he is in three decades.
     
  9. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    I don't think either one of us was questioning Z's work in general. It's strictly the announcer rankings. They are based on criteria that are nit-picky and just bizarre for 99.9% of the viewing audience. He's not watching to enjoy the game. He's watching to chart the length of the national anthem and he freaks out if he doesn't know which 22 players on the field for a kickoff.

    It's like critiquing his column based on how many sentences begin with a vowel.
     
  10. shotglass

    shotglass Guest

    WFW.

    Z may want to give BGumbel a pass, but I don't think much of America does.
     
  11. Piotr Rasputin

    Piotr Rasputin New Member

    I think Dr. Z's influence may have made me more critical of announcers than I used to be . . .and I've always been critical. I hate when they get names wrong, I hate when the Dierdorfs (and Tim McCarvers) of the world make these grand pronouncements, where they act like that game and that player they're watching is the greatest ever. The classic in this respect was a few years ago when Rob Johnson scrambled for a first down while playing for Jacksonville, and Dierdorf said something like "I continue to be amazed by the scrambling ability of Rob Johnson, He has always been one of the top scrambling QBs in ths league."

    Johnson was of course a plodder. I believe Dr. Z mentioned this particular gaffe in that year's column, and I once again realized that as a strategy wonk, Dr. Z was speaking my language. Hell, I'm also a guy who was maddened by John Harkes' gaffes on the US-Mexico soccer game the other day. Sure, it's a niche audience, but I'm part of that Legion of Football Dorks.

    BYH, I think a lot of seamheads eat up Jayson Stark. I find his columns to be 10 inches of analysis, 50 inches of statistics. I do think Tom Verducci is like Dr. Z in that he is a great enough writer to give you the Game Within The Game and keep anyone interested.
     
  12. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    I've always liked Dierdorf: clear, assertive voice, and he makes the broadcasts sound interesting. Summerall doing the Cotton Bowl was a horror show.
     
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