One thing that really irks me as a young up and coming sports personality, is really old commentators who are a disservice to their networks and the fans who have to deal with them.

I understand they are established, recognizeable, and are very well accomplished, but the fact remains most commentators abilities dramatically begin to wane in the twilight of their careers.

Some fans even enjoy watching older guys like a Lou Holtz, Pat Summerall, Keith Jackson, and Frank DeFord fall victim to somewhat senile commentary as their career winds down.

I just hate these guys because myself and a wave of other young broadcasters are foaming at the mouth to get our name out there.

That's why today I was particularly entertained by the latest slip up by the Over the Hill and Overpaid club.

During the second quarter of today's Ohio State game, Bob Griese let this somewhat comical yet to some off-putting comment fly from left field following a Nascar promotion.

It was a dumb comment and one that did not need to be made. It is somewhat racist but that's a pretty murky comment that was just really an old guy trying to hard to stretch out his career.

The thing about it is that people took notice. Many sports blogs ran with this story in the hours after the slip of tongue. Twitter blew up commenting on Tacogate.

I'm not sure how many people would have made a stink about the comment, but typical old announcer style, Griese butchered an apology for the comment as the game winded down almost 2 hours later.

Later in the game as Griese continued to just stink up the place, Spielman commented "You might not last the whole game, Bob".  My ears would have liked that.

Obviously he didn't think his comment warranted an on air apology. If he did, he would have said something either right after he said it or maybe right after the break at halftime if someone mentioned that it was in bad taste.

Instead as the game winds down he is likely told by a producer that an apology is needed. Announcers who are usually quite chatty as a game winds down, thanking the crews and giving context to the importance of the win, but in this instance both announcers are silent.

They know that Griese has to make an apology and the sand in the hour glass is moving as the clock winds down. Finally Griese breaks the silence with a pretty piss poor apology. He opens with the word "Nascar" and then goes on to not really give context to what in the hell he is apologizing for. It makes made curious and many others who were completely in the dark to what Griese was talking about.

Only Larry David could have rivaled Griese for the botched apology. It was so bad in fact, that Griese had to re apologize in a later game, ESPN released a statement, and he personally called Montoya to apologize. Obviously damage control at its very best.

At halftime of ESPN's coverage of Florida-Mississippi State, Griese apologized again.

"Earlier today on our game I made an offensive comment regarding Juan Pablo Montoya as part of a NASCAR promo. It was regrettable and I should not have said it. I really enjoy NASCAR and I follow it closely and would like to take this opportunity to apologize to Juan, NASCAR and everyone else who heard my comment," he said.

In a statement, ESPN called the remark "inappropriate."

"ESPN has spoken to Bob and he understands that his comment was uncalled for," the statement said.

In the end there are 2 things to take away from all this:

- Announcers in their twilight should be on a very short leash as their ability to vocalize events and converse with others declines.

- A bad apology only makes things worse. Just ask Larry David

Comments (1)

ESPN released a statement,
written by Jonathan1, December 22, 2009

Thanks a lot blogger for such a nice and informative blogging . I enjoyed a lot .This is really a nice post about body issue .I enjoyed a lot

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