2023/1014 NFL Football discussion

[August]

Originally Posted by ReallyDedPoet

Nicely explained The complexity of the game is part of its appeal, and at times its frustration There's a great book I picked up a number of years ago by Pat Kirwan (NFL Sirius Radio), Take Your Eye Off the Ball: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look. He has since published a 2.0, which I have yet to read, but no doubt will.

Back in the day before live broadcast censor delays (thanks a lot Janet Jackson), I would watch the game on TV with the sound turned down and listen to the radio announcer do the play-by-play. I learned a lot about the game doing that. It's because the radio guy always gives a much better description of the formation setup and play while the TV announcer usually babbled about stats or something irrelevant.

I got to see what a shotgun formation looked like for example as it was being described in detail and knew who was setting up wide right or inside left or was stationed in the backfield.

Alas there is now a 15-30 second delay between what you hear on the radio and what you see on TV and it's too frustrating to monitor them both simultaneously.