NBC Sports Reportedly Hiring Arlo White As Lead Soccer Announcer
Back in August we told you about the move by NBC Sports to snag a portion of the MLS television contract. While MLS certainly hasn't been a ratings gold mine for ESPN and FOX Soccer Channel, the domestic league hasn't truly been a focal point for either network in the past. But, with nearly 50 MLS games slated for the artist formerly known as Versus, the hope amongst American soccer fans was that NBC Sports could work wonders in raising the profile of MLS on TV, much like the network has helped to revive the NHL after its exile from ESPN.
But, key to how true soccer fans react to NBC's MLS and U.S. National Team broadcasts will be the presentation from the network. Will they follow the ESPN route and treat soccer with the respect and on-air personalities as they would other high profile TV properties, or would NBC go the FOX route and treat soccer as a second-ring circus act? Well, the first official move by the network, if initial reports are true, should be highly encouraging.
Reports out of Seattle have NBC Sports hiring Seattle Sounders play-by-play man Arlo White for their lead announcer spot. White, a name originally floated by SI's Grant Wahl between his reports on David Beckham's every move, is a young British announcer who should provide NBC the best of both worlds in terms of soccer announcing. The Brit has that classic English soccer prose combined with American enthusiasm that even the great Gus Johnson would be proud to hear. Just listen to this YouTube compliation of some of Arlo White's goal calls for the Seattle Sounders this season.
Trust me, White may not be a well-known name amongst AA Nation (I feel dirty typing that... since when did everything become a nation anyway?), but the prediction is that he will soon climb the ranks to join the likes of Ian Darke in terms of popularity amongst American viewers. If NBC can continue to round out their soccer crew with the likes of the polished Kyle Martino (currently of FOX Soccer) and a few more shrewd hires (meaning the opposite of loudmouth bleeding hearts like Alexi Lalas or Erik Wynalda), they could be well on their way to competing with ESPN for the hearts and minds of American soccer fans. Oh, and they definitely need to give Ray Hudson a call.
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Im sure glad that ABC/ESPN did the same to all those people who compared Bush to Hitler. Oh, wait...thats ok. Never mind!
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Honestly, the second sentence of this post is an unfair cheap shot at FOX. These are Hank Williams' words and opinions, not FOX's. Now Hank is entitled to his opinion, it's all good. But with free speech comes responsibility and this is one of them. There's definitely many other way he could've put that same take differently and there wouldn't have been consequences.
@crippenstation Why is Fox and Friends bringing in a MUSICIAN to talk POLITICS, though? The Daily Show had a great bit at the end of the show last night where they showed one of the "friends" wondering why we cared about what some celebrity thought about politics, then showed another host introducing Williams (though not the Hitler remark) captioned "ONE HOUR LATER".
Good question. I view FOX more as the 'free speech' news channel. If you come on as a guest, you can basically say whatever you want as long as you don't insult the host or say a whole bunch of rubbish <i>as fact</i> with no way of proving it. I doubt FOX expected this to be said, even though he's just an American citizen making a statement. Just take a closer look at the faces of Doocy and Kilmeade as soon as the comment was said.
LOL this is hilarious on a lot of levels. Personally I've been sick of Hank's MNF schtick for years now, so I hope he's gone permanently (although I shudder to think of what terrible replacements they have in mind).
People ripping Obama is fine by me, but the "Politician X = Hitler" business is old, dumb, and meaningless. Kinda like Hank.
@chrisw "Are You Ready for some Football?" is still the best way to start a football game in the business, despite how ESPN has been trying to ruin it in recent years with some of the goofy stuff they've put in the intro (seriuosly, get beatboxing out of my Monday Night theme). It helps that "Waiting All Day For Sunday Night" has proven to be so weak.
yeah, comparisons to hitler are a tad bit an exaggeration.
hitler killed millions in an attempt to wipe out an entire people. it pales to anything bush or obama has done.
and really "obama=hitler". i think the last thing any nazi would ike is to have thier leader compared to the leader of the free world who is the product of an interracial relationship.
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Gee, I wonder how many of us would make the same type of comments, given this opportunity? I for one, would!! Where's that mike?
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Sounds like Hank got a little rowdy with the bottle there. That's definitely the C'mon Man! for the week.
