I have ZERO respect for Boomer. He is one of many reasons I literally never watch ESPN unless there is a live sporting event.
I did, however, catch myself reading the Patriots blog on ESPNBoston, because I like Mike Reiss. There was video of Trent Dilfer and Merril Hoge really breaking it down, mixing it up, talkin' X's and O's, chalk talk, real insider stuff just two guys gettin after [trails off, vomits in throat]. Foolishly, I watched it.
The first thing that Merril Hoge says in the segment was after Trent Dilfer pointed out that credit was due to Dante Scarnecchia, the offensive line coach of the Patriots for over 30 years. Hoge says "Ok really, wow, I didn't know that, somebody like that needs to deserves some credit."
Hoge's job, HIS JOB, is to cover the 32 teams in the NFL. Dante has been the offensive line coach of the most successful of those 32 (not 302) for the entire time he has covered the NFL. How could you not know that?
Oh, I guess I know how you could not know that. You're Merril Hoge. You're a complete stooge. Yet he still does the smug slow head shake that all of the morons on ESPN who would never be hired by an NFL team do. The slow, "yes yes, I speak the language of football for I played football and I'm on this network" shaking of head that they all do on their stupid, pointless, daily football shows.
Goodness, I honestly watch no ESPN analysis and when I do, I'm instantly reminded as to why.
Merril Hoge has that hair in real life and goes on TV with that hair. Merril says nothing other than the ridiculous "I didn't know that" comment until over 2 minutes in to the segment, and then just says stupid things that any person ever who has ever watched more than 3 football games with the sound on could say. He talks for slightly over a minute, and says nothing even remotely insightful or intelligent. He does this constantly, on television, and makes lots of money for it. He does drop this absolute gem:
"In THIS league, we don't talk enough about, is a smart football." He is an incredibly stupid person.
Also, Trent Dilfer watches film, knows the names of people, and knows a little bit about football. You would think that Merril Hoge would be very embarrassed to be on a show with him, seeing as how he seems to do next to no prep work at all, and knows near nothing about the sport. But, being an incredibly stupid person, he probably does not even know that Trent knows the things he knows. For he is Merril Hoge, professional stupid person.
Patriots-Colts Recap - ESPN Video - ESPN