Horrible NFL Announcing

[Amnorix]

This piggybacks off the "Madden is being stifled by Michaels" thread. Is it just me or does NFL announcing just plain, flat out SUCK anymore?

Now it seems to be all about hyping the stars. The announcers barely know what's going on on the field they're so busy pimping Tom Brady, McNair, Manning, etc. It's like they can hardly be bothered to notice that someone ELSE made a play.

One easy example of the announcers just NOT paying attention -- during the Patriots-Jets game the Jets had one good drive all game. They took the ball early in the second half when they were trailing and pretty much marched right down the field. A bunch of very nicely executed run and pass plays.

Do you think they could have mentioned, JUST ONCE, that the entire starting Patriots defensive line was either standing over on the sidelines watching this go on, or playing out of position? The Patriots use a rotational system on their defensive line, and 2/3rds of the starting defense (ahem -- Richard Seymour and co-1st round pick Ty Warren) were standing on the sideline. Vince Wilfork, who is a starter at NG, was getting reps. at left defensive end.

It was only after the Jets had gone all the way from their own 20 to the Patriots red zone that the starters came in. The Jets scored the TD anyway, and kudos to them, but the announcers didn't even notice!!! WTF?!

Also, there's so little analysis of why a particular play worked it's not even funny.

Maybe I just hope for a too-cerebral approach to football, but you would honestly think that a little more analysis and knowledge of what's going on on the field wouldn't kill them. These are former players and coaches -- they must know what's going on, but they package it for what I can only guess is what they think NFL fans are -- morons.

While ranting, I also want to bitch about the following:

1. TV angles that are so lasered in giving you a closeup of pretty boy QB's face that they miss the snap and first two seconds of the play. All you see is the pileup.

2. Interviews with idiots that I don't care about that run right through plays.

3. Coming back from commercials just in time to see the END of a play.

4. "Welcome back -- on the kickoff [that you didn't see because we had to show our 1,000th beer or pickup truck commercial of this broadcast]....."