Greatest Highlight with Chris Berman (Cal-Stanford)

[Time for a Miller]

If you didn't know ESPN is doing a bracket style challenge to find out which play America thinks is the greatest of all-time. I'm sure most traffic on this site watches Sports Center on a consitent basis. I was just wondering what you thought of Berman's "call" on the the Cal-Stanford band on the field play. Whoop and he pitches it backwards and whoop he runs left and whoop, he whoop, whoop, high pitched annoying whoop. Berman seriously made me dislike one of the best plays in the history of sports. Rather then enjoy the eventual trampling of the trombone player in the endzone I was relieved that the play was finally over. Does anybody else feel like voting for the Boise state statue of liberty play just because of Berman's butchering?

[colbyjack]

We've had the anti-Berman/ESPN in general conversation plenty of times before, but Berman in particular is so out-dated because he has been relying on the same schtick for 25+ years. At first he seemed pretty funny and his style was so new that he helped launch ESPN into the status it now enjoys. But I don't think it's a coincidence that ESPN has phased Berman out of even it's NFL coverage.

 

From "back back back back," to "rumbling stumbling bumbling" to the whole "whoop" thing, his stuff is very, very old. I can't think of any other sports personality in the history of sports that relies on so many gimmics for so long like he has. He's like Fozzie Bear -- whakka whakka whakka!

 

However, I'm not going to vote for a certain play because of how Berman calls it. That is, if I were to vote on such a thing.

[fondybrewfan]

You also have to remember that he makes a nickname for everyone. I hate it

[jason21nl]

i used to love Berman and his nicknames. As I grew older, the less and less I liked him. Now I really can't stand to listen to him. I agree that his call on the highlight with the whoop! was horrible. If you ever read Steve Czabans website he rips Berman and ESPN all the time. Berman also now has some youtube outtakes that make him look even more stupid.

[pitchleague]

I thought about posting about the whole Greatest Highlight thing, too. Especially since they pretty much gave Berman the liberty to add his own "play-by-play." So the whole thing turns into the "Greatest Highlight that Chris Berman can Announce" contest instead. I wish they would have left all the original play-by-play calls in there. Would've been a lot better.

 

Again, it's mostly because they're reaching for stuff to do that they have to have "contests" like this. Why didn't they just take all 100 nominated plays and put them on Sportsnation and have people log in and rank them 1-100 or 1-20 or something and just pick the "winner" that way? Or make a "basketball" bracket, a "football" bracket, a "baseball" bracket, and an "other sports" bracket?

 

The whole thing is dumb, in my opinion.

[PlayerHader]

I agree. The highlights should be shown with their original call. I don't care to listen to Berman's calls.

[BrewCrewForever]

i used to love Berman and his nicknames. As I grew older, the less and less I liked him. Now I really can't stand to listen to him. I agree that his call on the highlight with the whoop! was horrible. If you ever read Steve Czabans website he rips Berman and ESPN all the time. Berman also now has some youtube outtakes that make him look even more stupid.

I totally agree with you Jason. Berman's schtick is so old and outdated I hate it. He is a joke. Im also a avid reader of Steve Czaban's blog and I love it when he rips Berman/ESPN. It's a shame all those Berman outtakes from the MNF set in 2000 have been taken off youtube. I saw them all and they were all priceless.

 

[heresrobin]

Is Chris Berman the Nickelback of sports announcers? Sorry, I couldn't resist.

 

I don't care for him. I agree with everybody else so far in this thread. But I still long for the days of NFL Primetime over Football Night in America. FNA (geez, is that ever an appropriate acronym) is way too winded. Just give me the damn highlights, quick and dirty! You're with me, Highlights.

[Fatter than Joey]

Is Chris Berman the Nickelback of sports announcers?

 

No -- there was a time when he was pretty fresh, and probably helped ESPN get off the ground -- I think Berman is more like the artist that didn't adjust their playlist for the times. That is to say "classic rock nicknames" worked well for me back in 1980, but for kids 15-19 today -- I can't imagine a Deep Purple nickname makes them do anything but shake their head.