Friday, February 09, 2007

 

That Went Down Smooth

"There are few professions more rarefied than that of the color commentator; it's perhaps the only job for which you aren't qualified intellectually unless you've already achieved success in a vaguely related physical context. If these guidelines were applied to all aspects of life, it would be impossible to become an architect unless you had already spent twelve years chopping down trees and building log cabins. Members of the media are often criticized on the grounds that bookish writers can't understand a game they've never truly played, but it seems like this argument should work both ways; I'm not sure why playing (or even coaching) a sport necessarily authorizes someone to talk about it on television. Howard Cosell used to refer to this phenomenon as the "jockocracy," and Howard forever felt insulted that he was forced to broadcast games alongside men who had merely played halfback for the New York Giants."
--Chuck Klosterman

Comments:

Klosterman rules. I don't have my copy of Fargo Rock City handy but his review therein of Appetite for Destruction is worth the price of admission.

Goilers.
 


Incidentally, Mr. Klosterman derives no small part of his income by being a non-athlete who comments on sports.

Just saying.

(Incidentally, I think he's a crummy writer who has probably made two original points worth reading in his life.)
 


Incidentally, Mr. Klosterman derives no small part of his income by being a non-athlete who comments on sports.

That's admitted in the quote. But the point is he's not trying to play sports.
 

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