Monday, May 2, 2011

OPEN THREAD: Draft Coverage

Wow, that is one dull topic.  But maybe we can have a spot of fun with it.

My employer has thoughtlessly demanded that I work from rising in the morning until turning in at night, so I've been unavoidably detained.  I know I owe you a PART 2 to that PART 1 of a few days ago.  I'll get to it.

So I'm giving you a cut-rate post and asking you to give the Nation your thoughts on The Ticket's draft coverage.

My cut-rate view:  It was excellent, as always.  I follow exactly one college football team, and if the players involved aren't from that team my interest is somewhat attenuated.  But during my normal listening hours, I listen to The Ticket's draft coverage as though it were a regular showgram.

I have two highlights, and one new element that I'd like to hear your views on.

The highlights, which I think most Confessors will agree with, are

(1) Bob Sturm's analysis.  I have no idea if he's right or wrong most of the time, but it sells me.  I especially enjoy it when he cocks his radio eye at a proposed pick, asking how that pick would fit into the selecting team's scheme.  Ooo, good point!

(2) Junior Miller's droll mini-summaries of the players selected.  Very funny.  More important, he's trying.  Rewarding the P1 for tuning in -- he cares enough about a quality presentation to give them something to anticipate.  I think it almost always works.

The DCC signal the drafting of kicker David Buehler
in the 5th round of the 2009 draft
OK, here's the wild card I'd like your views on:  Jean-Jacques Taylor's contribution.  I'll hold off on any major JJT STD.  I'll just say that (a) he's still damned hard to hear and understand if you have your radio -- expecially your car radio, which is fighting with tire and engine noise -- tuned to hear the normal radio voices at normal volume (which I've griped about on an earlier occasion), and (b) I make a special effort to make sure I do hear what he has to say.   For now I'll just say -- well, nothing.  I'd rather hear what you have to say.

Thanks for checking in during this quiet time.

8 comments:

  1. I've got nothing on this subject. I'm usually only marginally interested in the draft, but this year I couldn't muster a single crap about it. I'm so off the NFL right now that Aikman could have announced a comeback and I wouldn't have been able to pay attention.

    FYI, the secret word I have to type in to post this is "humplaps". Best. Capcha. Ever.

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  2. I enjoy the draft coverage, but I too was just not too motivated to go out of my way to listen. I like JJT in the mornings w/ Scott? Harrison on Sunday. He had a very interesting upbringing.

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  3. JJT is an automatic tune out for me. Everytime.

    Draft coverage brilliant as always. I feel like Norm does a better job than the talking heads on the TV.

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  4. Draft coverage? Oh, is that the crap that was on Saturday morning - the first time I had a chance to catch The Orphanage in months?

    Also, JJT is a tune-out.

    Also, off-topic, I see now RaGE has a Tuesday New Music segment. They really will rip off anything. They should be embarrassed.

    -Anon B

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  5. I know Norm pretty much invented the draft coverage they do, but he has pretty much become irrelevant now. There's no real need for him to be in NY, pretty much every pick is known a good minute or more before the actual announcement thanks to Twitter, and Bob is way more knowledgeable about the NFL than Norm is. I wonder how much longer the station will keep sending him.

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  6. Wow, I pretty much used a million "pretty much"es there.

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  7. I listened to most of it while I was taking care of mundane stuff this weekend. My scatter-shooting notes:

    - Punch-drunk coverage from rounds 4-7 is always fun to listen to

    - It's nice to listen to the banter between ticket personalities that normally don't work with each other (i.e. Corby's one-liners, the Donny-David Moore pairing, the Jub-Jacques pairing, etc)

    - The way Norm will shush everyone so that the announcement of a pick can be heard, no matter how irrelevant, is priceless. Grubes told the inside story a while back about how insanely upset Norm gets whenever the station has to go to commercial and how he demands to be put back on air so some non-contending team's 5th round pick gets its fair airtime...vintage prima-donna Norm

    - I think Newbury could have played a useful role in the day 2/3 coverage, since he's got a direct line to USC players and seemed to have some knowledge of later-round players based on his tweets

    - Goose Gosselin is the best at his craft. I wonder why he hasn't been approached for a TV role like Kiper or Mayock, since those two probably couldn't hold Goose's jock when it comes to mock drafts

    - Bob's sports ADD is awesome, and his day one draft coverage was the perfect forum for it

    - Eric the Red deserves a lot of credit for engineering for Norm in NYC for the entire presentation. I didn't hear any hiccups in any of the three days, and when you compare that to the failed BaD Radio remote from last week, or the terrible audio from the Hardline in LA on Monday, it's pretty darned impressive

    - I can name the round-1 pick, and I know they drafted a broken LB and a spare RB in day two. I can't remember who the Cowboys took in day 3 -- perhaps the draft coverage should focus a bit more on those players, even if it means missing a few picks here and there

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  8. All good comments, thanks.

    I thought I'd get more STDs on Jean-Jacques Taylor. I'm developing a couple but I need to listen to Soul Patch a few times.

    I like Norm, but I can see how he would be a bit of a trial to his colleagues from time to time. Or maybe all the time. He seems to take the endless ribbing and drops with pretty good grace. And dishes it our from time to time.

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