Some thoughts on televised sports

By Jeff Orvis

During my lengthy non-voluntary pause in employment, I've had way too much time to watch TV. I've always been a fan of many televised sports and with the explosion of choices on the satellite system, my addiction has seemed to grow.

Many of my friends concern themselves with individual performances on the baseball diamond, gridiron and basketball court. These are the folks who seem to have even more time than I do and a better mathematical mind and are wrapped up in fantasy leagues. I don't go that route. Instead, I try to pay attention to how a particular game or event is covered. In this era where newspapers seem to be falling like so many stalks of corn before a combine in the fall, there are times I'll admit I regret I didn't pursue a career in electronic journalism instead of the printed word.

Those frustrations are intensified when I watch some of the stuff on the big screen these days. Some, not all, but some of the directors calling the shots on these telecasts seem to believe that if they show endless close-up shots of coaches and players, the directors will win Emmy Awards. Sometimes, these close-ups come at the expense of action on the field or court.

One of the favorite tricks of these directors is to focus on coach close-ups when a player is down and injured on the football field. I suspect somewhere there was a memo from the NFL or NCAA suggesting that the public doesn't need to be reminded that football can be a violent game. It's as if when a player goes down, if the director switches to a lengthy close-up shot of a coach or player or worse, goes to a three-minute commercial, the fans will forget all about the poor guy who was hurt.

They seem to forget that with the rise in popularity of fantasy sports leagues, many fans probably want to know if their star is hurt and when he might return.

Another one of my pet peeves concerns basketball play-by-play announcers. Apparently, somebody many years ago reminded these folks that since the event is televised, it's quite alright to sometimes go two or three minutes of banter, virtually ignoring what's happening on the court. Sometimes, they start talking about other teams not even on the court! ESPN's Dick Vitale is especially guilty of this. There's no disputing that he might be the greatest fan of college football in front of any TV microphone in the universe. But I just wish he would pay more attention to the action in front of him instead of gushing over a particular coach or player in another gym.

Another one of my gripes is the number and placement of commercials on some broadcasts. I realize major events come at a steep cost to the networks. There's ever-exploding rights fees paid to the sponsoring organizations and then there's the big cost of production of an event. Recently, the Daytona 500 NASCAR race was telecast. After we waited well over two hours from the start of the broadcast to the start of the race, we were subjected to what seemed like four minutes of race action and then three minutes of commercials.

I posted a comment on Facebook about what I called the “obscene” number of interruptions. I got replies from two longtime friends. One, who jumped from the newspaper world to a job in television took exception to the comment, pointing out that ad revenue can help a station or network employ reporters, editors, etc. But another friend agreed with me, calling the broadcast “unwatchable.”

After working in the media for more than 35 years, I realize that if it weren't for advertising, I would have been looking for work long before now. But the way the folks at the network decided to place the ads was comparable to how a printed news story might look if every third or fourth sentence was interrupted with an ad.

I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to switch on the TV on a snowy winter afternoon and be transported to a sunny golf course in Arizona or a major stock car race in sunny Florida. I only wish the folks in charge of camera angles and choices and ad placement and duration would remember Joe Fan sitting in his recliner in Iowa.