From Where I Sit

What's wrong with the NFL

    If you asked me to name my sport I would say baseball. First and foremost, I am a baseball guy. That said, I enjoy watching football. However, in recent years, my interest in the NFL has waned. If you gave me a choice, I would much rather watch a college football game over an NFL game. There is no question that NFL Football is America's most popular sport but, then again, "Survivor" was America's most popular TV show for a couple of years, too. So much for popularity.

    There's so much about the NFL these days to dislike. Nevertheless, let's forget about the wife beatings, the murders, the weapons charges, the drug busts, and let's focus on something the average fan can really relate to - showboating.

    True story: I was watching the first quarter of the Giants/Eagles game this afternoon and the Giants had the ball first and 10 on their 20 yard line or thereabouts. The Giants snapped the ball and picked up 11 yards and another first down on the play. A great play call for the Giants, right? Then tell me why the Eagle's defensive player who made the stop after the 11 yard gain jumped up and was beating his chest and pointing at the Giants after the play!?!  He IS aware that the object of the game when his team is on defense is NOT to give up yardage and NOT to allow the opposing team to get first downs, right? Seriously, someone needs to remind him of this fact. Showboating can get annoying enough when you're beating your chest after you make a really important and impressive play but when you start beating your chest after the other team just beat you on a play that goes beyond annoying into just plain stupid.

    Dear NFL studs, play the game like you know you're a professional and you're being paid to be the best. If you can't do that, then please just sit down and shut-up!

Curt Gowdy 1919 - 2006

    I was just at the Baseball Hall of fame website and read that Curt Gowdy died today, or rather, yesterday as it's after Midnight. Gowdy was a real American original. He's considered one of the greatest of all sportscasters, particularly for baseball. He broadcast Yankee games for a couple of years in the late 1940s and early 1950s before becoming the Red Sox announcer for many years. He began broadcasting The Game of the Week for NBC around 1966. I began watching baseball in 1971 and his is the first voice I remember when I think of baseball broadcasters.

     He was casual and friendly. In his later years, he would often mistake one player for another or commit some other minor error but he was never an intrusion on the game like so many of today's pompous sportscasters. I fondly recall his friendly banter with such baseball immortals as Dizzy Dean, Satchel Paige, and Ted Williams. For many of the years I was listening, he was partnered with former Yankee Tony Kubek. My brother Joe raised me to be a Yankee-hater but that never detracted from my fondness for the Gowdy/Kubek team.

    Curt Gowdy knew his stuff, and knew it so well that he didn't feel the need to constantly remind you just how much he knew. Many of today's broadcasters could learn a great deal from listening to Gowdy or Vin Scully call a game. Gowdy's voice was truly a voice of my childhood, one that recalls happy summer days and the beginnings of my love for America's game. As a broadcaster, I wouldn't call Gowdy a home run hitter but, then again, I don't think he tried too often to swing for the fences. No, Curt Gowdy was a consistent .300 hitter, an always reliable player in a game where consistency was the most valuable attribute of a long season.