At the risk of appearing heretical, this may seem like a football piece, but it applies to the sports broadcasting industry as a whole.
Over the weekend, the local all-news radio station predicted 4-6 inches of snow from Sunday night into Monday morning. My daughter was excited at the possibility of a snow day or, at the very least, a delayed opening.
Neither took place. No snow, not even ice from the all-night rain.
Which made me think: is there any other profession where a supposed expert could be so wrong so often and still maintain employment?
Evidently there is: the sports broadcaster.
I was listening to a podcast of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, which I flat-out love 99.99 percent of the time. Catching up with an episode from last week, I heard Tony Kornheiser and Bob Ryan (sitting in for an ailing Mike Wilbon). They were talking about the then-upcoming footballs matchups.
I want to quote at length here on the San Dieg0-Indianapolis game:
Ryan: This is the lock de tuti locks. The Colts will have their way … Guess which game in this entire season is going to present them at their fullest, healthiest team? They’re gonna cruise.
Kornhesier: …I think they’re going to win this game handily.
Ryan also called SD QB Rivers a “trick-or-treater,” whatever that exactly means.
They also picked Dallas to beat the Giants. Ryan: “Cowboys, with not a great deal of difficulty.”
Sports broadcasters are like athletes, I guess. They have to shake off a bad performance and, as Kornhesier always says at the end of PTI, “try to do better the next time.”
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