As I was listening football tonight I found out what hockey needs.

[blankrap 9]

On my way home from work I had the football game on the radio and realized that hockey announcers are always biased. (The majority of which are biased against the wings. Then again maybe it only seems that way but I can't stand to listen to vs or nbc coverage.) Anyway the guy announcing the football game was equally excited on both sides of the ball and never really leaned to one side or another. It was refreshing to say the least. Anyone else have a problem with the announcers?

[Guest Shoreline]

I hardly notice bias on national telecasts i.e. Versus/NBC. If there is, it's highly invisible.

On the other hand, most NFL games are done nationally by national broadcasters from CBS or FOX and you get whichever national broadcast based on your region (often times will get one outside too). Most hockey games are done locally by a local FSN/Comcast/whatever affiliates and are given their own announcers designated specifically to a team. While I personally would like slightly less bias, I can understand why there is some homerism (like Ken Daniels getting far more excited about a Wings goal) -- they cater to their local base and their local base watching is how they keep their job. Simple really.

[dropkickshanahans 463]

It depends on the commentators. I don't hear much bias on VS.

And as far as commentators being excited for both sides, Colorado's and Buffalo's seem to be fair. Their play-by-play guys really get you in the game.

EDIT: Mike Haynes for Colorado and Rick Jeaneret for Buffalo.

Of course I could be wrong because during the summer I subscribed to NHLVideo on youtube and they show highlight replays of the games, so this is the first time I've heard other broadcasters outside of Mickey and Ken. Well actually, the first time was when I had to stream one of the first round games against Columbus and I was stuck listening to the Blue Jackets broadcasters. Boy they were awful, that was some big time bias.

Edited November 3, 2009 by dropkickshanahans

[Guest CaliWingsNut]

On my way home from work I had the football game on the radio and realized that hockey announcers are always biased. (The majority of which are biased against the wings. Then again maybe it only seems that way but I can't stand to listen to vs or nbc coverage.) Anyway the guy announcing the football game was equally excited on both sides of the ball and never really leaned to one side or another. It was refreshing to say the least. Anyone else have a problem with the announcers?

Having to listen to 5 different sets of announcers for one team throughout the year is more of a problem.

FSN-D, VS, NBC, CBC, and many sets of away announcers.

Edited November 3, 2009 by CaliWingsNut

[WpgMikos 17]

And as far as commentators being excited for both sides, Colorado's and Buffalo's seem to be fair. Their play-by-play guys really get you in the game.

EDIT: Mike Haynes for Colorado and Rick Jeaneret for Buffalo.

Was thinking the same thing.

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

On my way home from work I had the football game on the radio and realized that hockey announcers are always biased. (The majority of which are biased against the wings. Then again maybe it only seems that way but I can't stand to listen to vs or nbc coverage.) Anyway the guy announcing the football game was equally excited on both sides of the ball and never really leaned to one side or another. It was refreshing to say the least. Anyone else have a problem with the announcers?

Fans when they are overly critical or paranoid will always find excuses on why certain annoucers are against their favorite teams, when more often than not they are just going about their business broadcasting like normal and creating debate/controversy just doing their jobs. I typically tune annoucers out and just watch games, it's not worth getting worked up over them.

[zettie85 106]

You hit it right on those buddy. The problem I find is most games are brodcast from the local network, where they are paid to be biased so there isn't much getting around that. TSN though always favors the Canadian team. CBC has play-by-play guys that are good but the colour guys are extremely biased in the same way that local networks are because they brodcast the same team every Sarturday. Football is different in that they get 2 different teams almost every week. The guys who colour the games on CBC have ties to the teams that they are covering.

[zettie85 106]

I hardly notice bias on national telecasts i.e. Versus/NBC. If there is, it's highly invisible.

On the other hand, most NFL games are done nationally by national broadcasters from CBS or FOX and you get whichever national broadcast based on your region (often times will get one outside too). Most hockey games are done locally by a local FSN/Comcast/whatever affiliates and are given their own announcers designated specifically to a team. While I personally would like slightly less bias, I can understand why there is some homerism (like Ken Daniels getting far more excited about a Wings goal) -- they cater to their local base and their local base watching is how they keep their job. Simple really.

The problem with NBC/Versus is that Emerick favours east coast teams. He works for MSG. He's the Devil's head play-by-play guy. He may work nationally bradcast games but you can hear how pro east he is.

[Hack & Whack Rule! 160]

I thought you were going to say "Defense".

But, seriously folks, I was telling my wife the same thing as last season was winding down. I was watching a lot of hockey and they all had their biased anouncers. Some were worse than others, for sure, but I can't remember for which teams.

[kylee 727]

It depends on the commentators. I don't hear much bias on VS.

except for eddie olczyk

[Carman 387]

Bill Clement and Gary Thorne need to do the play by play for every hockey game.

[kylee 727]

This.

IMHO both VS, and NBC have done a terrific job on their national telecasts; both teams getting equal amounts of praise, and criticism.

wasn't there like a blue line comic of a four-way faceoff for the most nationally televised team between like the pens, rags, and some other eastesn teams?

funny and true.

the penguins and rangers get way too much tv time.

[cusimano_brothers 1,655]

...

are always biased.

...

No.

[T.Low 1,011]

I thought you were going to say "Defense".

But, seriously folks, I was telling my wife the same thing as last season was winding down. I was watching a lot of hockey and they all had their biased anouncers. Some were worse than others, for sure, but I can't remember for which teams.

I think it must be that the one game a week format for football encourages people to watch other teams almost as often as their own favorite team. Sundays, a fan can catch up with a lot of the games around the league. In hockey and basketball, the games come too fast and too furious to catch up on every team, so you end up watching just your own fav and then a few other easy to watch teams. This all goes for announcers, too. Bias then easily creeps in.

Just my theory, but a damn good one.

[aw1340 0]

It depends on the commentators. I don't hear much bias on VS.

And as far as commentators being excited for both sides, Colorado's and Buffalo's seem to be fair. Their play-by-play guys really get you in the game.

EDIT: Mike Haynes for Colorado and Rick Jeaneret for Buffalo.

Of course I could be wrong because during the summer I subscribed to NHLVideo on youtube and they show highlight replays of the games, so this is the first time I've heard other broadcasters outside of Mickey and Ken. Well actually, the first time was when I had to stream one of the first round games against Columbus and I was stuck listening to the Blue Jackets broadcasters. Boy they were awful, that was some big time bias.

I hope your kidding about the Colorado play-by-play, that guy is a huge homer.

Yes Columbus is bad too. For whatever reason my NHL centre ice always picks that broadcast for the Jackets games, same with the Penguins games its always FSN Pittsburgh and they also have a brutal announcer.

[Guest Lidstromboli]

i love how larry murphy emphasizes random words, it keeps the viewer guessing

[action jackson 6]

the last really bad announcers I can remember were the Rangers guys, that was really painful, maybe it was because of preseason, don't know

I liked the coyotes announcer team this season so far

[Guest Shoreline]

The problem with NBC/Versus is that Emerick favours east coast teams. He works for MSG. He's the Devil's head play-by-play guy. He may work nationally bradcast games but you can hear how pro east he is.

Joe Beninati does a lot of Versus/NBC broadcasts. Does all the Comcast Sportsnet games for the Caps. He does fine. So does Emrick. John Forslund does Versus broadcasting pretty regularly, and works for the Canes local broadcasts. Rick Peckham does recent broadcasts for Versus/NBC.. Tampa Bay Lightning local broadcasts. Every single Versus play by play announcer does broadcasts for a local team, and they are all just fine in regards to not being biased when they do national broadcasts.

If you want an actual substantiated claim, try the notion that when they do broadcasts for Versus/NBC, their random banter about stuff while the puck is in play increases tenfold, especially with idiots like Olczyk doing color. The notion that Emrick favors the "East" is without merit.

Edited November 3, 2009 by Shoreline

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

Also with regards to Versus, my alma mater has had their past 3 footall games broadcasted on Versus, and soon to be 4th this upcoming weekend. I believe the same guys do a good bit of the hockey broadcasts on Versus as well. At least one of the guys voices is easily recognizable and I've heard him on Versus. Don't remember the names and don't really pay attention to them that much in detail as a I am just interested in the games, but from what I've heard on the football games, no real bias towards one team or another, they try to give equal pub to both, even if one of the teams isn't as good. And they could easily be homers towards my school right now given that they are still undefeated and in the top-10 in football.

[Wombat 26]

My take is similar to some above but with a bit of a twist...

I think a lot of hockey fans get used to listening to their own local, biased announcers for most games. That becomes the "norm". In our case, it is an 80% focus on what the Wings are doing (both on and off the ice).

When the Wings get on a national telecast, we then have to watch national guys that have to do a 50/50 split on the teams. They aren't as comfortable with the names/stories of the Wings, and since they don't talk up the Wings as much as we're used to, it seems like bias. But it's not. They are generally giving both sides fair coverage, but we are so used to "over the top" Wings coverage that it looks biased by comparison.

You don't see that in football because no team has local TV announcers that cover the games. They are all national, and so we are always used to hearing the same 50/50 coverage.

Of course some exceptions exist, such as all NFL guys having to talk about Favre and seemingly all NBC telecasts needing to talk about Crosby. But overall, they do a good job.

[hockey&beer 16]

Personally, I like having the local announcers. Not only can they pronounce players names, they can usually provide a random story here and there that is interesting.

If it were possible to have national announcers for every game, then bias is avoidable. Although when everyone's buddy Melrose was around that wasn't the case, even Jones can be brutal some times (I know they don't call games, but just the fact that they are national broadcasters).

And as far as I am concerned NFL and NASCAR really cannot be compared to any other sport. The one-game-a-week schedule makes being a diehard fan WAY too easy.

[kook_10 1,705]

The notion that Emrick favors the "East" is without merit.

I think he just knows the eastern teams cold, and doesn't for the west so much. I can't remember when the game was, but in the not too distant past he called a Wings game and was just brutal - misreading numbers, calling players wrong names, etc. He could also stand to ease up on the word "DRIIIIIIVE".

Edited November 3, 2009 by kook_10

[Guest Lidstromboli]

doc might favor eastern teams because most of them are a short DRIIIIIIIVE from each other

[StevieY9802 6]

Someone said it, CBC and TSN are biased towards the canadian teams for sure. Especially as you move down to not Hugson or Cole or Cuthbert. You can hear them sound almost sad when a non-canadian team scores on a canadian one. On VS and ESPN back in the day they got on player bandwagons but never noticed a bias where it seems they are routing for a team.

[kook_10 1,705]

doc might favor eastern teams because most of them are a short DRIIIIIIIVE from each other