Limbaugh, Guerrero both poor examples of on-air talent
By Grant Hughes
In case you've been unconscious for the past few days, last Sunday Rush voiced his opinion that All-Pro Eagle's quarterback Donovan McNabb has been over-hyped by the media because he is black. Whether this is or isn't true (it isn't) doesn't matter. What does matter is that moronic, uninformed statements are popping up on NFL telecasts faster than the steroid zits on David Boston's back. The cause of this problem is completely obvious to me, and it should be so to everyone else: Networks are putting people who know little to nothing about football in positions where they are supposed to wax intelligent on the subject. On-air "talent" is being selected for all the wrong reasons lately, and I'm sick of it.
Rush Limbaugh is only exhibit A, in my case, against the decisions by the ratings-hungry networks. Why couldn't they see that disaster was bound to strike when they hired Limbaugh? They should have known that, at some point, Rush's ignorance was going to lead to him saying something ridiculous. Doesn't anybody remember Dennis Miller? While his Monday Night Football comments were never overtly offensive, Miller suffered from the same affliction of ignorance that downed Limbaugh. The difference was that Miller resorted to obscure literary references and biting political satire when he realized he had no idea what a zone blitz was. In the cases of both Limbaugh and Miller, football illiteracy led them back to subjects they were comfortable with - Limbaugh to controversial social discourse and Miller to neoclassical British literature. Either way, the football fan loses.
It gets worse though, and her name is Lisa Guerrero. Never has there been a more unqualified sideline reporter and, consequently, never have there been more stupid questions asked on Monday Night Football broadcasts. In one instance, she asked Washington Redskins quarterback Patrick Ramsey what it was like to play against former Jets teammate Laveranues Coles. The first problem here is that Patrick Ramsey has never played for the Jets. The second is that Coles is Ramsey's teammate and, unless there are dramatic rule changes in the NFL, guys on the same team usually don't play against one another. Ramsey's "are you kidding me with that question" stare and the ensuing 10 seconds of awkward silence should have been enough for ABC executives to banish Guerrero back to the pages of FHM where she belongs.
So, network executives, I propose to you this solution: Create a show that is composed solely of football ignoramuses. Ã If ratings are what you want, I can guarantee viewers will tune in just to see how bad television can get. I figure that somewhere around the first two minutes of the premiere, Rush Limbaugh will be calling for a census of illegal aliens playing in the NFL, Dennis Miller will have described the Packers' defense by reciting Dante's "Inferno" from memory, and Lisa Guerrero will be blankly staring at the camera, straining to see her own reflection in the lens. Just for kicks, maybe we could throw in Tom Arnold to laugh hysterically at his own jokes and bounce around in his chair like a Ritalin-deprived 5-year-old boy. I'm sure Fox would eat this idea up.
Look, I have no biases toward any particular gender, political affiliation or level of education when it comes to NFL TV personalities. But when I'm watching football, or hearing it discussed, I don't think it's too much to ask that the people doing the discussing know what they're talking about.