Allow me to make a confession… I am a bit of an MLS fan. I know, I know, it’s not world class soccer by any means, but I try to support the local team (Columbus Crew) and catch a few games throughout the season. It’s not too often though that we receive tweets or e-mails about announcing for MLS games at AA though. MLS isn’t exactly on the national radar, no matter how many times an MLS team loses 5-0 to one of the top European clubs. However, @MayerWeisel sent us this tweet about the Rapids/Revolution game in Colorado on the weekend, and I just had to check it out…
Chris Marlowe is the play by play man of the Denver Nuggets, but you probably know him better as the voice of NBC’s Olympic coverage of beach volleyball. I have no idea how many soccer games Marlowe has announced in his career, but I’m guessing it’s not very many as he had to check with his analyst for what a red card meant. A tip for any aspiring announcers out there – you should probably know the rules of the sport you are broadcasting. SBN blog Burgundy Wave breaks down the embarrassment of Altitude’s minor league coverage of the Colorado Rapids expertly here. This is what they had to say about Marlowe’s performance this weekend…
…last night we saw a taste of Chris Marlowe, Nuggets play-by-play man and, well, this might have been the worst one yet. The worst flub on the night was when Chris accidentally let it slip that he didn’t know whether or not Chris Tierney’s red card meant an ejection, leading to quite a bit of ribbing for the guy on twitter. (Mostly from @Soccerinsider) He also didn’t seem to realize that a referee pointing to the spot indicated a Penalty Kick as after both PK’s he spent a good couple of minutes trying to figure out if there would indeed be a penalty kick. These were just the biggest problems among a whole plethora. An embarrassment to the Rapids, their fanbase, and Altitude as a whole.
Watch as New England’s Chris Tierney fouls Colorado’s Sanna Nyassi from behind in the box drawing a red card, creating a moment of announcing brilliance…
“So the red card’s an ejection, correct?” – Chris Marlowe
Every time I think soccer is making the next step in this country, the play by play man for the defending MLS champions doesn’t know what a red card means. Sigh.
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