Given up on Sports Talk Radio - This Week

[Nunchucks]

All I hear on sports talk radio is a rehashing about losing Welker, what a win means to a Manning legacy, what a loss would mean for Brady?, how disappointed should I be if the Patriots don't win another Superbowl?

Really? That is what people want to talk about?

I want to talk about the Patriots secondary, how it has really come together and is relatively healthy. How do they match up? Will the Patriots blitz with their DBs? What does Collins add to the equation? Will the Patriots run the ball or will they throw? Will the Broncos be able to stop the run, why? So much to talk about, but none of it is being addressed.

Instead it is fluff drama pieces. BLAH!

A rehashing of old offseason topics under the lens of the AFC Championship game is completely boring to me. I don't care!

I am listening to music in the car until Sunday.

 

[MossWelkowski]

All I hear on sports talk radio is a rehashing about losing Welker, what a win means to a Manning legacy, what a loss would mean for Brady?, how disappointed should I be if the Patriots don't win another Superbowl?

Really? That is what people want to talk about?

I want to talk about the Patriots secondary, how it has really come together and is relatively healthy. How do they match up? Will the Patriots blitz with their DBs? What does Collins add to the equation? Will the Patriots run the ball or will they throw? Will the Broncos be able to stop the run, why? So much to talk about, but none of it is being addressed.

Instead it is fluff drama pieces. BLAH!

A rehashing of old offseason topics under the lens of the AFC Championship game is completely boring to me. I don't care!

I am listening to music in the car until Sunday.

No you're not. You're going to Listen to sports talk radio this afternoon and Friday and Saturday and Sunday.

 

[jmt57]

Regardless of the sport, the closer it gets to the championship the more superficial the conversation will become, the more the focus will be on gossip and off-field issues, and less time will be dedicated to genuine X's and O's.

While that blows chunks for diehard fans, there is a legitimate reason for this to occur. As you draw closer to the championship game, a higher and higher percentage of those viewing, listening or reading will be casual fans, ones who do not necessarily watch every week.

The suits at corporate realize that the vast majority of diehards are going to tune in regardless. For those casual fans though, the discussion needs to be dumbed down a bit. They need to grab those additional consumers and not lose them to the competition; the risk of losing a handful of diehards is well worth the incremental uptick in consumers to their site or station.

It stinks for people that are so into the game they come to a site such as this one on a daily basis, but those casual fans are what will make or break a network's ratings, and as a result their exceed or miss their ad revenue quotas. To them this is not a sport; it's strictly a big business with shareholders demanding certain expectations be met.

 

[Nikolai]

I am listening to music in the car until Sunday.

I'm learning Turkish, myself.

Turkçe biliyorum

 

[hwc]

I just don't "do" sports talk radio, ESPN, or newspaper sports coverage.

Biggest disappointment this week has been PFW In-Progress on the Pats website. Tuesday's show was pretty much unlistenable. Rook's show wasn't much better. Yesterday's Playbook with Chris Price substituting was excellent.

I listen to Sirius NFL radio. It's good football talk, although you do have to put up with Lions talk...

 

[captain insano]

Regardless of the sport, the closer it gets to the championship the more superficial the conversation will become, the more the focus will be on gossip and off-field issues, and less time will be dedicated to genuine X's and O's.


.

that's not true. it doesn't happen in hockey or baseball. the coverage in hockey is outstanding all the way thru the cup and even espn has decent coverage of baseball.

 

[hwc]

Pat Kirwan opened his Sirius show with a lot of Patriots talk:

Among the nuggets:

1) The Pats run behind Mankins 70% of the time on first down. Power runs to the left. Power runs to the right with Mankins pulling. And zone blocking runs to the right with the cutback lane at Mankins.

2) Said that Belichick hires him to do special projects charting stuff. One was having Kirwan chart all the undrafted free agents signed by teams, where they went to college, by position, etc. Looking for trends. Kirwan said that it seemed like busy work and then he realized that Belichick planned to poach these guys off practice squads.

3) Said that, in the off season, Belichick stacks up all of his team's game films from exactly ten years earlier and watches them while he's on the phone or whatever. Looking for stuff that worked 10 years ago that has fallen by the wayside. He then asked if it is a coincidence that the Pats offense right now is the 2004 Corey Dillon offense.... hmmm....

Stuff you don't get from Felger...

 

[SalemPats]

I just don't "do" sports talk radio, ESPN, or newspaper sports coverage.

Biggest disappointment this week has been PFW In-Progress on the Pats website. Tuesday's show was pretty much unlistenable. Rook's show wasn't much better. Yesterday's Playbook with Chris Price substituting was excellent.

I listen to Sirius NFL radio. It's good football talk, although you do have to put up with Lions talk...

I agree, I can only listen to Sirius NFL radio

 

[Danger Zone]

Stuff you don't get from Felger...

Enjoyment... actual football knowledge... appreciation for our success... a bit of respect or humility...

 

[p8ryts]

All I hear on sports talk radio is a rehashing about losing Welker, what a win means to a Manning legacy, what a loss would mean for Brady?, how disappointed should I be if the Patriots don't win another Superbowl?

Really? That is what people want to talk about?

I want to talk about the Patriots secondary, how it has really come together and is relatively healthy. How do they match up? Will the Patriots blitz with their DBs? What does Collins add to the equation? Will the Patriots run the ball or will they throw? Will the Broncos be able to stop the run, why? So much to talk about, but none of it is being addressed.

Instead it is fluff drama pieces. BLAH!

A rehashing of old offseason topics under the lens of the AFC Championship game is completely boring to me. I don't care!

I am listening to music in the car until Sunday.

yes, it was so bad I was going back and forth between Howie Carr and NPR.

 

[hwc]

Another Kirwan nugget. No big surprise, here, but...

Kirwan says that when he charts Pats games, Belichick ALWAYS shows something in the first series (on both sides of the ball) that the opponent has never seen and couldn't have prepared for. ALWAYS. According to Kirwan, Belichick wants the other team to have to go to bench and coach how to deal with that wrinkle. Then, if they adjust, he stops doing it.

I've long suspected that there were hidden agendas in the play calling on Pats early series in a game. It's why I chuckle at bashing the play calling. I figure nobody watching on TV can have a clue about what is really going on with play calling.

---------------

He also made a great point about Lagarrette Blount, asking who was playing QB with him in Tampa and whether defenses were scared of the passing game? "They were playing Blount..." Can't play Blount with Tom Brady at QB....

 

[dales804]

Another Kirwan nugget. No big surprise, here, but...

Kirwan says that when he charts Pats games, Belichick ALWAYS shows something in the first series (on both sides of the ball) that the opponent has never seen and couldn't have prepared for. ALWAYS. According to Kirwan, Belichick wants the other team to have to go to bench and coach how to deal with that wrinkle. Then, if they adjust, he stops doing it.

I've long suspected that there were hidden agendas in the play calling on Pats early series in a game. It's why I chuckle at bashing the play calling. I figure nobody watching on TV can have a clue about what is really going on with play calling.

---------------

He also made a great point about Lagarrette Blount, asking who was playing QB with him in Tampa and whether defenses were scared of the passing game? "They were playing Blount..." Can't play Blount with Tom Brady at QB....

Pat Kirwan is a great read. I've never listened to him on Sirius but am always sure to catch his articles on CBSsports.com. Thanks for sharing!

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Kirwan is great on the radio. Props for posting the stuff here that I'd missed.

And a warning to the easily offended here at Patsfans. Do NOT look at the current headline of the Boston Globe regarding The Prisoner. Nice job Globe, like we didn't know that already. At least those of us who go outside the blackout cocoon here to keep updated on the unprecedented developments.

 

[patfanken]

I find that I have about 1o minutes of patience for sports talk radio before I have to change the station. The only time I go longer is if I luck into an interview with someone interesting. BTW- My back ups are NPR (both GBH and BUR) and 105.7 (WROR I think) which has music from the 60's, 70's, and 80's. You know... the good stuff.

I was at the Gym this afternoon and they have a system where you can plug in to treadmill, elipticals, and bikes and watch one of 8 TVs or listen to FM radio. I usually bike 30 minutes, and I lasted about 5 listening to Felger and Maz. They were doing the Manning Brady thing and just pissing me off with one of my pet peeves. People seem to forget that in BOTH Brady's superbowl losses, he drove his team down in the 4th quarter to take leads. In BOTH games the defense had to make only one stop and we win. So its not just one Welker drop that kept the Pats from running the clock out.

The thing that finally caused me to turn to 105.7 was the continuing canonization of Joe Montana. They referred to the "the Drive" against Cinci as an example of his greatness(and to contrast Peyton's lack of a drive against NO) What people forget is that early in that drive, the faultless Montana air mailed a pass right into the chest of a Bengal DB, who dropped it. If he makes the simple catch where is Montana's legacy now? It only shows the capricious nature of history. What is Brady's legacy now if Welker makes that catch, or Samuel makes the catch, or helmet catch never happens, or Eli;s called "in the grasp' or the holding on Seymour is called. Any ONE of those events happen and "history" is drastically changed.

BTW- one interesting stat that made my 10 minutes worthwhile was that: While we all know that Peyton leads everyone in playoff ones and dones, with 8. It was interesting to note for 2 reasons, that the QB in 2nd place had 4. First because Manning has DOUBLED that sad place in NFL history, AND to my surprise the guy who owns 2nd place to that dubious award was none other than Joe Montana

2 other things that I found out was that music makes the time go faster when you are working out, and, at my age, the best part of my workout, is when I walk out the door.

 

[hwc]

Oh, I forgot another Kirwan stat in a jam-packed first hour:

Which receiver among the four teams still in the hunt has been thrown to the most number of times this year?

Julian Edelman.... The most targeted receiver still in the playoffs...

 

[Deus Irae]

Sports talk radio is fine. It's no different than any other sports discussion medium, be it radio, internet, or a bunch of buddies shooting the breeze.

Varying degrees of knowledge
Varying degrees of sanity
Lots of boring and repetitive talk
Arguments over issues small and large
Occasional nuggets of insight



That's the same, whether it's ESPN, NFLN, WEEI, 98.5, Patsfans.com, or "Jimmy, Bob, Pete and Joe talking around the grill".

 

[bruce_w]

Boston sports radio is the worst in the country. Especially when it comes to football.

 

[CISGS]

Boston sports radio is the worst in the country. Especially when it comes to football.

Haha I don't know man. I actually live in Pittsburgh and it isn't pretty here either. Very uneducated.

All of this bad reporting made me start a blog lol.

 

[Tunescribe]

Gresh and Zo middays on 98.5 are OK but that's about as far as it goes regarding Pats talk especially now. Felger and Li'l Puke-arotti always pursue angles that make me pissed and anxious.

 

[SebertJr]

I can't listen, or watch except for the 1st or 2nd day after a game, beyond that...too much BS