Re: Patriots 10 year contract extension with WBCN

["Sean Smyth" <ssmyth@suscom.net>]

Shawn Mamros said:
>> The Boston/New England market is hardly the only place where sports
>> fans like having the local announcers root-root-rooting for the home
>> team.  I grew up in Steelers country (yeah, yeah, you don't need to
>> rub it in, we'll see who actually makes the playoffs this year :-),
>> where for three decades the team's radio color commentator has been
>> a guy by the name of Myron Cope, who could probably give the late
>> great Johnny Most a run for his money when it comes to both
>> categories of "biggest cheerleader for the home team" (and is it any
>> coincidence that neither the Celtics nor the Steelers have ever had
>> a cheerleading corps, since they already had/have Johnny and Myron?
>> ;-) and "voice best suited for a newspaper" (where Cope actually got
>> his start in the biz). But Steelers fans wouldn't even dream of
>> having the game on without Myron hmmm-hah'ing his way through it.
>> His recently published autobiography is a #1 bestseller in
>> Pittsburgh, which ought to tell you something.

Myron Cope is the exception rather than the rule...most commentators on
local team broadcasts nowadays aren't homers in the true sense of the word.
Of course, they get excited when "their" team scores...but I wouldn't say
that's being a homer. Johnny Most rarely criticized the Celtics (rarely did
he have the opportunity to, either, since the teams were that good), but
guys like Gil and Gino have taken the Pats to task a bunch of times. I
consider Santos' voice one of his endearing qualities...Gino does seem like
he's slipped a little in the past few years but he also brings the fact that
he's a well-known New Englander to the table.

The reason Madden was so criticized for making that comment re: Brady in the
Super Bowl was because it was relatively stupid strategy. If the Patriots
fell on the ball and then lost the coin toss in overtime and St. Louis went
right down and scored, people would have been calling Belichick the football
equivalent of Bill Buckner. The odds were higher that the Rams would have
won the coin flip than they were for Brady (a smart, knows-his-limitations
QB) making a mistake and turning the ball over.