Tirico Tells Us How To Talk
July 16, 2010 – Something of a maelstorm was arisen when Sportscream suggested that ESPN didn’t have any “classy guys” on their broadcast roster, so they had to resort to free lancer Jim Gray for the Lebronshow. What Pat O’Brien wasn’t available?
The storm says that ESPN/ABC has Mike Tirico for these types of spots, but he was unavailable because he was in St. Andrews for the British Open. The storm says CBS has Jim Nantz and NBC has Bob Costas and ESPN/ABC have Tirico. Think again storm.
Tirico does have his Syracuse background. And he does have considerable scandalous sexual harrassment mileage in his past. And he has the plumb assignments that Disney/ABC/ESPN want to post up down low against Costas and Nantz. But Mike is a giggling B-lister who tries to coin things he overhears into convincing people they are his thoughts.
For the British Open we have him referring to “keeping long and left,” and darn it, he’s dead set on making us refer to golf’s birthplace as “Sen Andrews,” if it kills him. As if “Luh-ville” and “Norlens” weren’t enough.
