Chiefs Flanagan: Chiefs announcer says ‘homer’ not in his vocabulary

**Tribal Warfare** · 10-10-2008, 03:29 AM

Chiefs announcer says ‘homer’ not in his vocabulary
By JEFFREY FLANAGAN
The Kansas City Star

There is one magic word that will set off Chiefs play-by-play announcer Mitch Holthus. It’s a moniker often given to team’s play-by-play announcers everywhere.

“If you really want to irritate me, call me a homer,” he said. “That will irritate me. The way I look at it is if you’re the voice of a team, you can’t be a homer because you’ll lose respect.

“You have to do your homework and give the game some perspective. To put it in a newspaper analogy, the play-by-play guy is doing the game story, the analyst is doing the column, and the sideline guy is doing the sidebar or the feature.

“I feel strongly that I present the games accurately, and I just do it from a Kansas City perspective. I do as much homework on the opponents as anyone. Take the other day for example: That game wasn’t just about Kansas City. That game also was about Carolina coming out with fire and dominating the line of scrimmage.”

The conversation of “homerism” came up after I asked Holthus how hard it was to be the “voice” of the team when it struggling this hard.

“There is work involved,” he said. “But if you’re in this business long enough, you will go through every situation.

“My days at Kansas State actually prepared me for this. Kansas State was at the time one of the worst (football programs) in the country.”

Holthus constantly has had to perform a juggling act this season: Keep enthusiasm up for the listeners and fans while still telling the ugly truth about how bad the Chiefs have played.

“You have to be realistic,” he said. “When it’s 34-0, there’s no way you sugarcoat it. Lenny (Dawson) and I do this, I think, Lenny more than me probably. You have to be accurate. That game was like going over a tire spike.”

Holthus, who is entering the Kansas Broadcasting Hall of Fame this Sunday, said he saw the Chiefs’ tough transition coming several years ago.

“I saw this coming as early as 2004,” he said. “There were years there where it was all about today at the exclusion of tomorrow. What I’ve learned about the NFL is you really can’t approach it that way. Ever.

“You remodel the house every year. New England proved that earlier this decade. But even they have got caught a little now.

“The situation here….draft picks were lost…it was all about today. Almost like the subprime mortgage thing. And now it’s about pulling out of that.”

MU’s offense

You can count CBS’ Trev Alberts among those in awe of the Missouri offense.

Alberts said of the Missouri-Oklahoma State matchup: “T. Boone Pickens has solutions to our energy needs, but no one has a solution for these two offenses. Missouri’s offense has been spectacular, Oklahoma State has been pretty good, but Missouri has not had a three-and-out the entire season.

“Think about that, they have not had a three-and-out offensively the entire season.”

10-10-2008, 03:29 AM	Topic Starter
Tribal Warfare Man of Culture Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Far Beyond Comprehension Casino cash: $-2997187	Flanagan: Chiefs announcer says ‘homer’ not in his vocabulary Chiefs announcer says ‘homer’ not in his vocabulary By JEFFREY FLANAGAN The Kansas City Star There is one magic word that will set off Chiefs play-by-play announcer Mitch Holthus. It’s a moniker often given to team’s play-by-play announcers everywhere. “If you really want to irritate me, call me a homer,” he said. “That will irritate me. The way I look at it is if you’re the voice of a team, you can’t be a homer because you’ll lose respect. “You have to do your homework and give the game some perspective. To put it in a newspaper analogy, the play-by-play guy is doing the game story, the analyst is doing the column, and the sideline guy is doing the sidebar or the feature. “I feel strongly that I present the games accurately, and I just do it from a Kansas City perspective. I do as much homework on the opponents as anyone. Take the other day for example: That game wasn’t just about Kansas City. That game also was about Carolina coming out with fire and dominating the line of scrimmage.” The conversation of “homerism” came up after I asked Holthus how hard it was to be the “voice” of the team when it struggling this hard. “There is work involved,” he said. “But if you’re in this business long enough, you will go through every situation. “My days at Kansas State actually prepared me for this. Kansas State was at the time one of the worst (football programs) in the country.” Holthus constantly has had to perform a juggling act this season: Keep enthusiasm up for the listeners and fans while still telling the ugly truth about how bad the Chiefs have played. “You have to be realistic,” he said. “When it’s 34-0, there’s no way you sugarcoat it. Lenny (Dawson) and I do this, I think, Lenny more than me probably. You have to be accurate. That game was like going over a tire spike.” Holthus, who is entering the Kansas Broadcasting Hall of Fame this Sunday, said he saw the Chiefs’ tough transition coming several years ago. “I saw this coming as early as 2004,” he said. “There were years there where it was all about today at the exclusion of tomorrow. What I’ve learned about the NFL is you really can’t approach it that way. Ever. “You remodel the house every year. New England proved that earlier this decade. But even they have got caught a little now. “The situation here….draft picks were lost…it was all about today. Almost like the subprime mortgage thing. And now it’s about pulling out of that.” MU’s offense You can count CBS’ Trev Alberts among those in awe of the Missouri offense. Alberts said of the Missouri-Oklahoma State matchup: “T. Boone Pickens has solutions to our energy needs, but no one has a solution for these two offenses. Missouri’s offense has been spectacular, Oklahoma State has been pretty good, but Missouri has not had a three-and-out the entire season. “Think about that, they have not had a three-and-out offensively the entire season.”
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