# Old School Football Broadcast Rant



## diospyros (Nov 14, 2005)

NFL broadcasts suck. Back in the day, the live action was a wide angle shot and close-in shots were shown in replays. With the wide shot you could see all 22 players and the pass routes and defense and the interactions between the opposing formations was much more obvious. There's a great deal of beauty in that. It was more like being at the game.

Nowadays, the live action is usually close shots and replays can be wide shots. You can see the ball better, but you have no good idea of what is happening between the teams until they show the replay and have some analyst marking up the screen to explain what you don't know. Because you couldn't see it. Because they didn't show it. Oh, yeah, and then there's the imaginery yellow 1st down line that they have to superimpose on the screen because the viewer is unable to determine just where the real marker is on the sideline. This gives a false impression of how the game is being played on the field. (Just keep reminding yourself: The yellow line is an hallucination -- it's not really there.) 

It's a show of individuals instead of teams. Sometimes it seems to be moving in the direction of professional wrestling! Warrior football instead of soldier football.
(I play fantasy football, but when a game starts, I like to watch the game not follow the stats on "my" players who are scattered around the league. FF is just making this problem worse as the networks play up the whole individual stats thing.)

So now we are getting more and more HDTV broadcasts with 16:9 images and you would think that this would allow more team vs. team views, but since the SDTV uses the same camera image the focus is still on the offensive backfield and the slice of the HDTV image that lies behind the quarterback is just wasted pixels, and wasted bandwidth. They may as well just pillar off the side of the screen behind the quarterback.

Just a rant. Nothing will change, I guess, unless NFLHD or someone wants to experiment with old style broadcasts. Sorry if I seem like a snob. A snob is a bad thing. I don't want to be a snob. I just want to see the beauty and intelligence of the game returned to TV. (Yes, I know I could just get season tickets and attend the games, but I'm lazy and cheap!)


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

I feel your pain - football is no longer a team sport. Rather, the game is a showcase for the look-at-me hotdoggers who "earn" more money from personal endor$ement$ than (not then) they do playing the game.

My personal beef is with these announcers who are in love with the sound of their own voice and who continuously jabber away with a steady stream of insignificant, meaningless minutia. 

My addled brain can only absorb so much information in a 60 minute game that takes three hours to play. Just give me the basics and please shut up every once in a while!


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## diospyros (Nov 14, 2005)

Well, I guess NFL-HD kind of makes me look like a liar. Was watching the Skins and Pats and that is pretty close to what I like. It's good that at least somebody is willing to do a more traditional broadcast style.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

diospyros said:


> Well, I guess NFL-HD kind of makes me look like a liar. Was watching the Skins and Pats and that is pretty close to what I like. It's good that at least somebody is willing to do a more traditional broadcast style.


They probably read your post.yesterday.


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## dvwannab (Dec 16, 2005)

agree with you guys. Boy as the game changed and then some. 

Problem with broadcasting is that it is a world of copy-cat(ism). One network does something different from the standard and the rest think they should follow. Besides the way the cameras are positioned for the live-action shots as you mentioned is the diaherrea of the mouth, which was introduced by goofy John Madden when he was with CBS in early 80s. I thought he was different and comical in a goofy knd of way and it works for him Well the other networks thought they needed a John Madden clone. Thats like every network trying to find a Keith Jackson clone. IT AINT GONNA HAPPEN. These guys have a unique style and cannot be duplicated. So we are stuck with every single broadcast crew with a John Madden wanna-be.

One thing that seems to be a positive is that NFL-HD seems to be doing things differently as you mentioned with their boadcasting position of their cameras. Unfotunately, in the booth I believe will be Chris Collingsworth :nono2: 

I guess we can only ask for and receive OLNY so much and no more


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## bluedogok (Sep 9, 2006)

Remember when NBC tried one game (a Dolphins game) without announcers and just the stadium sounds back in the early 80's? There does need to be a balance between none and trying to do a radio broadcast on TV.


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## retexan599 (Aug 1, 2006)

I am always thankful for my mute button.....


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## OneOfOne (Sep 19, 2006)

I have been watching network nfl since 1971 and I have never seen all 22 players on screen at once as part of their regular camera work. it used to be a tight shot of both lines and the offensive backfield and maybe a couple of linebackers. this all changed when fox got their deal and added the score bubble and the diagonal angle focused on the offense. especially with hd but in general as well true football fans would be best served with the same behind the offense wide angle shot the traditional 'coaches tape' shots provide. that way you can see what the quarterback sees on passing downs and you can also see the defensive backfield and linebackers changing and running their schemes. if fact all sports should use this type of angle so you can see plays developing. hd is perfect for this aspect ratio. of course the network directors have no clue about what true fans want. they are chasing 'casual' fans with gimmicks and moronic special effects and sounds [YEAH I AM TALKING ABOUT YOU FOX AND ALSO CBS' PATHETIC ATTEMPT TO COPY YOU]. by 'casual' fan I am referring to the idiots who use 'thunder stix' and crap like that.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

You know, I don't have a problem with the extra visual effects. Drawing the casual fan in is a GOOD thing to me. On a tight shot when you can't see the numbers on the yard markers, yeah 'the girlie line' (as a friend of my wife's calls it) *is* helpful to see how close the guy got to the first down.

HOWEVER - that being said - I'm *sick* of the need to announce EVERY SINGLE CHANGE in the score ticker with a swooshy or clangy SOUND EFFECT!! It's like the only thing that DOESN'T get it's own sound effect are the individual SECONDS on the clock!!!

To change sports for a moment, when Cal Ripken officially broke Gherig's record (when the game became official), the announcers just sat back and said NOTHING while Cal did his lap around the park. When comebacks are made, or championships are won, they just let the ambient, defeaning ROAR speak for itself. TAKE THE HINT.

Do I like it when Fox gets microphones closer up to get more of the REAL sounds of the game? Yes. That's a GOOD thing. ADDING YOUR OWN SOUND EFFECTS IS NOT!


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## dvwannab (Dec 16, 2005)

djlong said:


> It's like the only thing that DOESN'T get it's own sound effect are the individual SECONDS on the clock!!!


Rest assured, thats coming to a broadcast near you SOON!!!! :lol:

One thing I like a HDTV is the ability to unplug certain audio channels and hear only the crowd noise.

Is it me, or does Phil Simms make up $%^t? I mean, darn it, if you dont know just shut the hell up or say you dont know. :nono2:


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## jimbo09 (Sep 26, 2006)

djlong said:


> You know, I don't have a problem with the extra visual effects. Drawing the casual fan in is a GOOD thing to me. On a tight shot when you can't see the numbers on the yard markers, yeah 'the girlie line' (as a friend of my wife's calls it) *is* helpful to see how close the guy got to the first down.
> 
> HOWEVER - that being said - I'm *sick* of the need to announce EVERY SINGLE CHANGE in the score ticker with a swooshy or clangy SOUND EFFECT!! It's like the only thing that DOESN'T get it's own sound effect are the individual SECONDS on the clock!!!
> 
> ...


It seems to me that the Sunday night game has better crowd mics than the Day games. You hear a lot more noise.

Also, it's about the 10th anniversary of that yellow line now, isn't it. Can't they scale it back to just showing it just BEFORE the play. That things sits there now for so long that half the time the halfback is diving into it. Less drama for sure.

Why not just put motion sensors on the ball so we would know if the receiver had control.:nono2:

Put alarms on the recievers so we could get accurate pass interference calls:nono2:

And additional infra red sensors on the sidelines and the ball so and then we would know exactly when forward progress was stopped. :nono2:

At this point referees could stay in the both and monitor 20 or so monitors and make other calls by watch replays in the middle of the play
:nono2:


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