Matt Millen, Joe Theismann Fight Each Other To State The Obvious
- Saturday, November 13, 2010 1:30 PM
- Written By: Steve Scafa
I have to admit that when I watch a football game, I despise all of the commercial interruptions. However, Thursday night while watching the Ravens-Falcons game on the NFL Network, I welcomed them. As far as I can tell, at least ,some of the people in some of the commercials took a breath once in a while when speaking. Unlike in the broadcast booth.
You see, it's never a good idea to put three men in a sports broadcasting booth in any sport, let alone football. And especially when two of those guys are Matt Millen and Joe Theismann. If any game made me want to put a gun to my head, it was this one. These two started off slowly while feeling each other out and then went mano a mano (or was that mouth-o a mouth-o) as to who could make the better point while stating the obvious.
Baltimore was moving the ball on its first drive when QB Joe Flacco was flushed out of the pocket and forced to throw the ball away. Millen swooped in like Larry King in a singles bar. He said, "Right there is what the Falcons have to do to have success. They have to put pressure on Joe Flacco." Putting pressure on the QB is a key to success? You don't say?
And later on in the game when the Falcons were inside the red zone, both Theismann and Millen would tell us that now was a good time "to look for Tony Gonzalez." So looking for a future Hall-of-Fame tight end down near the end zone is another key to success? Insightful, gentlemen. Very insightful.
For those of you keeping score at home, yes, one or the other -- and many times both -- had something to say after every play. Except the play that they should have said something. And that was when 9-year vet, Ed Reed, signaled for a fair catch on the first punt of the game from Atlanta at his own 6-yard line. Hmmm. Is it ever a good play to fair catch a punt at the 6? And, yet, our chatty duo fell silent. Hey, I guess it was early and they hadn't gotten warmed up yet. Oh, well. Little did we know what was in store for us the rest of the night.
Read more of Steve Scafa on the original "I Had To Turn It Off When" blog.
