[Nettime-bold] Football broadcasters lose their minds

[David Mandl <dmandl@panix.com>]

Now I've seen everything.  Looks like the final push towards
uber-P.C., way beyond even the most insane overreaction we've seen on
some college campuses, is coming from...football broadcasters.  This
article could easily be passed off as a satirical piece from the
Onion.

It might actually be fun to watch a game or two to see these lunatics
squirm to find inoffensive words to describe every play.

Sorry about posting this entire long article, but each paragraph is
more ridiculous than the one before, and I just couldn't choose.
("The first thing I thought about, seeing people run out and the
firefighters and police go in, was, I'll never use the word `tough'
again to describe football players.")

   --Dave.

----------------------------------------

The New York Times
Football, Set for TV Return, Is Benching Its War Clichés

September 21, 2001

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

When college and pro football return to television screens this
weekend after a one-week absence, the presentation of the broadcasts
will be a subdued and patriotic one, network executives and announcers
said.

They have discussed an approach to language that will attempt to avoid
the war metaphors that are prevalent in football and are planning
productions that will mute or eliminate percussive graphics, blaring
music and animated football robots.

For at least this week, ABC Sports will not open "Monday Night
Football" with animated explosions or Hank Williams Jr.'s traditional
rowdy song. Fox Sports will tame its famously trumpeting theme
song. CBS Sports said it would use only patriotic music.

Each network will turn down the volume on sound effects like the
whooshing that leads into some instant replays.

"We won't come on rah-rah and get people excited from the outset,"
said Bob Goodrich, coordinating producer of ABC's college football.

Terry Ewert, executive producer of CBS Sports, said flashiness would
be out. "Everyone recognizes this is not business as usual," Ewert
said.

In adopting a more sensitive approach, network sports divisions are
following the lead of the entertainment industry, which has withdrawn
movies and music videos and rewritten scripts to avoid placing
inappropriate material before the public. But the altered
sportscasting model, however temporary, may create a problem for
announcers trying to strike a balance between exhibiting good judgment
and turning off viewers seeking an exciting weekend diversion.

"It's a fine line," said Dick Stockton, a play-by-play announcer for
Fox's N.F.L. games. "You don't want fans to feel ashamed or guilty
that they're watching a sports event, but you don't want to trivialize
what's happening around us."

In response to the terrorist attacks last week, all National Football
League games and major college games were postponed. Now as they
return, networks are seeking to replace the usual sound and visual
effects with patriotic tributes. For the first time in many years,
networks will televise the national anthem. (Usually they forgo the
anthem to show advertisements.) ABC will carry the Penn State
University marching band's rendition of "God Bless America." Fox
Sports will add a graphical depiction of the flag and CBS a
red-white-and-blue ribbon with a star to their on-screen
scoreboards. Some will carry vignettes depicting fallen or surviving
heroes of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.

The language of football has long been packed with warlike references
and bellicose imagery, from bombs to blitzes and aerial attacks to
shotgun formations.

"I was in New York when the attacks happened," said John Madden, Fox's
main N.F.L. analyst. "The first thing I thought about, seeing people
run out and the firefighters and police go in, was, I'll never use the
word `tough' again to describe football players.

"What those people did was tough. What we do is a game."

Sports have always been an escape from the vagaries of life and a way
to release daily tensions. Football, especially, has evolved into a
100-yard war - Clausewitz on the gridiron - with playbooks devised by
field generals named Lombardi, Shula or Bowden. Television played
along, emphasizing through language, graphics and sound effects the
ground game as sport's version of trench warfare and the passing game
as the equivalent of aerial bombing.

But the horrors of terrorism prompted a reassessment of the military
emphasis, even by players and coaches accustomed to using the terms as
part of their daily routine. "I'm more cautious of some of the things
that normally come out of my mouth," Giants Coach Jim Fassel said when
asked about battle analogies. "Because I don't want to draw any
references. Where our country is right now, I'd rather draw a fine
line and not get into those terms."

The Giants' quarterback, Kerry Collins, said: "I haven't really tried
to watch my vocabulary or watch what I'm saying. Maybe we need to."

The best network announcers rarely, if ever, invoke the hoariest war
clichés. And some say the term blitz, from the German blitzkrieg, for
"lightning war," has evolved into more of a football term than an
example of war lexicon.

"Overwrought terminology is not how you would do a game under any
circumstances," said Al Michaels, the play-by-play announcer of
"Monday Night Football." "But there is a sensitivity now. It's a case
of heightened awareness about the analogies you'd use. You'd never
want to stray into an analogy like a `hijacking.' But I'm not
concerned we'll fall into that trap."

Madden said: "I've never used `bomb' or `aerial attack.' I just say,
`They throw the ball a lot.' You have to be yourself and not use words
any different from the way you usually talk."

Viewers should not be surprised, executives and announcers said, if a
military reference slips from someone's mouth.  But Greg Gumbel, CBS's
lead N.F.L. announcer, said: "Some people may be offended, but it is a
football game. If everyone is going to move on and try to get back to
a normal life, you have to judge the words in their context."

How long the networks mute their approach will largely depend on the
scope of the United States' military response.

Fred Gaudelli, producer of "Monday Night Football," said, "You don't
want to use foolish terms that compare the game to acts of war." He
wants his announcers to avoid the type of linguistic belligerence that
he has heard in the past.  "I've done games where a blitzing
linebacker bowls over a fullback, sacks the quarterback and the
announcer says, `Watch Lawrence Taylor blow up the quarterback.' "

Jay Rothman, who produces ESPN's "Sunday Night Football," said: "We
can't be funny or cute. We'll avoid the military clichés: the blitzes,
the sacks, the throwing bullets. I've told my people to be respectful
and factual."

One top sports television executive, Steve Anderson, executive vice
president of ESPN, expressed a different perspective on changing the
tone and style of his network's college and pro football games. While
saying that the measures "feel right," he wondered which audience the
changes are for.

"We're concerned about being too politically correct," he said. "Do
viewers want to watch what they've always watched? Are we doing this
just for ourselves? Is it necessary? My feeling is a percentage of
viewers would never be offended, but that some would."

The effort to purge the networks of potentially offensive references
extends beyond games like football. NBC Sports, which is carrying the
MBNA Cal Ripken Jr. 400 stock-car race on Sunday, will eliminate
references to its "war wagon," from which its Nascar pit road
announcers speak.

ESPN reviewed all its in-house promotional advertisements.  It quickly
eliminated its humorous spots, and this past Monday it junked a
pay-per-view ad for college football games that promised "Saturday
soldiers fighting for every touchdown." And TBS removed from its
commercial rotation an Anheuser-Busch spot that depicted an urban
skyline - not New York's, a network spokeswoman said - with imagery
that evoked the look of the World Trade Center.


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