...or maybe I'm right!
I've said it before (and I'll say it again), I'm a big fan of
SportingNews Today, the
SportingNews' daily online paper. Today, though, some guy named Dan Levy wrote something that I think is
way off base. On Brian Billick and Thom Brennaman calling the Florida/Cincinnati Sugar Bowl:
Brennaman’s admiration for Tebow during the game could be summed up in one word: uncomfortable. Even after Billick broke down the video of Tebow’s throwing motion to illustrate how he’s not an NFL-ready quarterback, Brennaman asked his partner, simply, “Why,” draped with so much how-dare-you-say that resentment it was as if Billick had told Brennaman to turn off his Wii and get in the kitchen for dinner.
I watched that entire game, and while Brennaman may have been pro-Tebow, I totally disagree with Levy's interpretation of Brennaman's "Why?" When Billick broke down Tebow's throwing motion, he didn't explain
why having a slower release would scare off some teams. Logically, the answer is that an NFL pass rush is faster than a college pass rush, but it's easy enough to tack on to the description and hardly an insult to football viewers. In an earlier game that the duo called, Billick mentioned miscommunication between a receiver and quarterback on a read route and Brennaman said something like, "A lot of viewers are probably wondering how there could be a misunderstanding; doesn't the receiver have a route he runs and that's where he should be?" prompting Billick to further explain keys on cornerback and safety coverage. Perhaps Levy thinks that was also "draped" with resentment; I think it was a veteran play-by-play man leading a new color commentator into a deeper, more interesting description. I think the Brennaman/Billick booth has been one of the great surprises in this bowl season. Certainly the best thing on Fox's coverage. Think you guys can cram a few more Reese's logos into that studio?
Funnily enough, a few paragraphs earlier in the column, Levy chastises
Football Night in America's Keith Olberman for being too "concerned with getting in his own quips." "[I]t was as if Billick had told Brennaman to turn off his Wii and get in the kitchen for dinner," anyone?
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