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Out of Left Field |
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 DICK STOCKTON ...mayonaise king? |
Announcer 'mayonaise'
is coating the playoffs
of TheColumnists.com
Watching the pro football playoff games these days
is a mixed blessing.
Most of the games have been sensational, each seemingly more
exciting and dramatic. At the same time the telecasts have been
more annoying, irritating, filled with talk, blather, misinformation
and delays upon delays for commercials and promotional announcements.
All this mayonnaise comes on top of the seemingly interminable
discussions by officials trying to come to terms with the replay
procedure.
The Fox telecast of the Philadelphia Eagles 20-6 victory over
the Atlanta Falcons Saturday night was a prime illustration rife
with elements driving viewers berserk. Announcers Dick Stockton
and former Dallas Cowboy Moose Johnson talked the idiotic talk
at the expense of a viewers’ focus on the game.
Stockton is a longtime veteran of the announcing booth, a nice
guy, wno works hard. Unfortunately, he can work too hard at preparing
himself for a game because he inserts too much extraneous matter
into the telecast when the situation demands concentration on
the action about to develop. He talked so much, so often, Saturday
night that he missed key elements.
His blah blah caused these annoyances:
* Stockton did not give the 34-yard distance of a field goal
attempt by Eagles David Akers in the first quarter as he was
about to kick A viewer wants this vital action before the kick
because it gives him or her an idea of how difficult the kick
attempt will be.
* He was behind the drama of the Falcons’ try for an onside
kick after they had kicked a field goal in the first half. He
was so busy gabbing about something else that he was late in
noting the action, thereby reducing the sense of drama coming
from the daring of the play.
* The kickoff to start a game or second half has dramatic impact,
but Stockton got in the way of the second-half kickoff by not
cutting off an interview with a racecar personage hyping some
upcoming autorace telecasts. (Anticipation of a game was always
a hallmark of CBS telecasts; they made it a point of showing
the players running onto the field during introductions. CBS
producers seems to have watered this down a bit lately in getting
involved with a whole bit of extraneous matters).
* At one point just before a snap, Stockton had the ridiculous
need to note that the Eagles were playing on this night and that
the Philadelphia 76ers--the basketball team--were playing the
next night. Who cares?
* Announcers should never be so caught up in other matters that
they lose sight of what is on their monitor, what the people
at home are seeing. There was a memorable moment toward the final
seconds of the Eagles’ victory when Eagle back Duce Staley
paid tribute to the Falcons from his huddle by pointing two hands
toward them and clapping. He was honoring a tough opponent. Stockton,
involved with wrap-up duties, didn’t note this precious
bit, probably because he didn’t see it.
* As if Stockton didn’t have enough of an overload of promos
to voice into the telecast, he made some inane comment over an
on-screen promo for the Fox show "Joe Millionaire".
He should have given it a rest, allowed the letters on screen
to provide this oh-so-vital information.
Johnson was no big help. He was a master of the obvious. He would
advise that an errant tackler should have wrapped his arm around
the runner or that a culprit should not have committed a penalty.
A good analyst doesn’t say what players SHOULD do, he explains
what is happening and why. Viewers don’t need any Football
001 lectures.
Stockton is a good guy, likeable and well-rounded. He has a zany
sense off screen that doesn’t quite come off on the air
because he is so anxious to provide information. I love that
Stockton, a longtime New York Giants’ baseball fan, used
to take his bride Leslie Visser up to the Polo Grounds each year
on the anniversary of Bobby Thomson’s epic home run and
recite some aspect of Giants’ history to her.
Stockton’s family name was Stockvisser. When he married
fellow TVnik Visser, I urged him to revert back to the name Stockvisser
for their union. Alas, he did not.
Stockton and several of the others need these reminders:
“Fooball, Gentlemen, Football.”
And “Less is More.”
© 2003 by Stan Isaacs. The Stan Isaacs caricature is ©2001
by Jim Hummel.
The illustration is from IMSI's Master Clips Collection, 1895
Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA.
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