***It occured to me after I posted this that it might not be a good strategy to put the discussion of what your title reflects after a bunch of other crap so I did a little rearranging.

Now, if you're still with me, let's get to today's topic:  My sports announcers pet peeves.  I've actually got quite a few:

Sports announcers who repeatedly harp on a topic.  This can take on a couple of forms.  If there's a big sports story at the time, then it might be talking about that.  The TO saga is a perfect example.  When that story was all over the news a couple of weeks ago, it wouldn't matter if you were watching the Colts/Pats and Manning just ran for an 80 yard TD to win the game.  Whoever was announcing the game was going to find some way to work TO into that conversation.  Like "Hey, do you think if TO wasn't suspended the Pats would have picked up TO play in their secondary?"  Or, let's say a defensive player makes a couple of tackles in the first two or three minutes of the first quarter.  For the rest of the game, any time that guy makes any kind of play, the announcer will say something sarcastically like "Look who it is." or "Guess who?"

Sports announcers who try to fill in the words of what a player or coach is saying.  For instance, at the end of a college basketball game, something will happen and the announcer will say "Look at Bob Knight down there on the bench.  Right now, he's telling his kids "keep calm, keep calm."  But you know Bob Knight or whoever the coach is is saying "You know they're going to foul, and you decide to pass the ball to our 7'2" center from Croatia?!?  Guess who just lost his scholarship!"

Sports announcers who say that a guy just made a "heads-up" play.  Listen, I know a lot of these guys aren't the brightest dudes in the world, but you don't need to portray them as apes.  If a team is trying to run out the clock at the end of the game and the tailback remembers to stay in bounds, is that really a "heads-up" play?  I mean, the guy's been playing this game all of his life.  The rules haven't changed. It's a very simple concept.  I think my personal favorite is when there's a fumble and the announcer will say "What a play by the big man.  Not only did he recover the ball, but  he had the presence of mind to pick it up and get into the end zone."  Call me a Rhodes scholar, but I don't see how picking a ball up and running towards a painted end-zone has anything to do with presence of mind. I mean, really, what are his other options?  Is the guy going to pick the ball up and eat it? 

Pat Sumerall.  Ok, I liked the guy in his prime, but at the end of his run I don't think I've ever seen a better case made for euthanasia.  The poor guy had completely lost it.  Check out this transcript from an actual game:

"Niners have the ball.  Three minutes left on the clock. Young, back to pass.  He's looking for Favre in the end zone.  Touchdown, Emmit Smith!  And on trots Summerall for the extra point."

Old news last.  I must admit, when I saw the first line of Walnuts' comment end with "men will be men," my initial thought was that he clicked on my "Gay Athletes in the NFL" blog for some good old fashioned gay bashing, and he wasn't going to be denied, even if I wasn't writing on that subject.  Then, by the time I read all of it, I got more of the lighthearted, "Home Improvement" style of  "men will be men" comedy  vibe from what he was saying.  While I'm not really sure I share his stance, I think if there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that Jonathan Taylor Thomas is probably gay.

I would also like to say a big thank-you to StaceyMargarita for her defense of me, although being as incredibly non-confrontational as I am, I don't think I really want to take it to the personal level.  I have an incredibly guilty conscious so let's say Walnuts read your response, got all mad, and starting beating on his wife and kids.  I would feel partially responsible.

My boy Lex has the right idea with how to attract readers, and I also like Bigwags and Eastern's angle--drop a compliment about somebody else's post and then do a little self-promotiion.  Kudos to them.  If I were a computer programmer, I would come up with a program that could visit everyone's blog and post a comment like "That's good stuff.  If you like this post, then you might want to check me out at..."  Unless the blog had anything to do with T.O.  Then I would have the computer post something like "For the love of all things holy, that's enough."  Has anyone seen that blog on the front page that won't go away.  It says "2 words for T.O., Ba Bye."  Not only are you going to choose to write about probably the most overexposed story in the history of sports, you have to include a catch-phrase from a mid-90s SNL bit.  I find your unoriginality striking.  And that is as insulting as I will ever get.  Remember, this blog teaches tolerance and reaches out to all cultures.  So holla at me, dawg, and I'll keep trying to Git-R-Done.

One more thing.  I ended my last post with "A guy can dream, can't he?"  That just didn't feel right at all.  I felt like I was trying to be some bootleg Mitch Albom at the end of a Sports Reporters monologue.  No more rhetorical questions from me to end a post.  I apologize.