Guided By Voices

- Having completely missed the NFL preseason, I put on the game tonight to check out the sport's return to NBC. For so many years, the AFL/AFC were on NBC, and the NFL/NFC were on CBS, and that was the way it was, period. It still feels a little unnatural to me when I see the AFC on CBS. And the thought of seeing any NFL games on NBC seemed strange - wow, it's been eight years!

But when I turned on the game, it all seemed very familiar...except for the referees' uniforms, anyway. And that's because they have Al Michaels and John Madden doing the game - it's like deja vu all over again! There doesn't seem anything new about this at all. I'm a bit surprised that the network didn't want to put their own stamp on the coverage in the form of some new voices.

So at the risk of belaboring the point, once again I'll say that I think it's a great idea for ESPN to hire the distinctive voice of Trevor Denman for the Breeders Cup. It will go a long way to making the coverage seem fresh and new on its new network home, and I think he has the kind of style that new racing viewers will really get a kick out of.

- In the article I linked to above about the referees' uniforms, the author tells of how he/she searched the internet via Google to find reaction to them. And she wrote: The funniest I saw were references to horse jockeys, but I'll tell you the truth. I like them. [DelmarvaNow.com]

A horse jockey? What's that? As opposed to a lawn jockey, or jockey underwear? Anyway, do they remind you of horse jockey silks? Let's see...







Hmmm, well, maybe they have a point there! It conjures an image of a jockey throwing a little yellow flag when he or she gets fouled.