Wednesday, September 10, 2008

If I ran an NFL production booth

Watching actual games this past weekend (and especially Monday night) reminded me of the small things that the networks do or don't do that but me. If I was in charge, there would be some changes:
  • Replays, replays, replays. Not just for spectacluar plays either. Almost every penalty should be replayed so that fans can see if they're legit or not. Questionable spots, turnovers and touchdowns should be replayed quickly. This is especially true since teams actually rely on this for challenges.
  • More shots of cheerleaders.
  • Fewer meathead announcers. John Madden made it popular but it's tougher than it looks. And when it fails, it's dreadful. Smart announcers make for good TV. Limit the ex-jock factor for that same reason. They need more than a little charisma.
  • If we're going to have former players, try and keep them from covering their past teams. Listening to Troy Aikmen tell us about the Cowboys isn't great. Can't imagine how bad that must be for fans of the Redskins, Giants and Eagles. I'm not looking forward to hearing Brett Favre doing Viking/Packer games in five years.
  • Did I mention the cheerleaders?
  • Also, announcers should have chemistry. Three random people in the booth together aren't fun to listen to.
  • On the other hand, if they did pull three random people out of the stands, it might be more fun to listen to. Maybe they could put that audio track on a different channel and let people pick between them.
  • Cut the halftime interviews. Coaches never say anything interesting and the reporters always look stupid. This bit doesn't work and it's time to realize that and move on.
  • Fewer crowd reaction shots. Fewer shots of the coaches. Fewer shots of post touchdown celebrations.
  • Player introductions should only be read by trained pros. There might be a few players who can pull it off by experience has shown us that there is not one per team. Again, it doesn't work and they should stop it.
That would be for starters and frankly, it would be better.

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