They say familiarity breeds contempt. 

 

Based on the Cold, Hard Football Facts’ ill-suited ridicule of ESPN sportscaster Chris Berman, I’d say there’s some truth to that old chestnut.

 

Growing up I had a buddy who, no matter how much he initially liked a particular rock album, sooner or later decided he hated it. When I pointed out that the stuff he originally liked about it hadn’t changed, he couldn’t see it. The album sucked, so did the band, and that was it. On to the next big thing.

 

Now Berman, the guy we watched and learned from growing up, finds himself the target of knuckleheads too stupid or too jaded to recognize talent and substance when it stares them in face.

 

Back when ESPN debuted, it was like a wet dream for sports fans. Sure, it was all monster trucks and Australian Rules Football back then, but it also had SportsCenter.  For fans used to seven minutes of sports on the local news, SportsCenter was like a gift from God. A gift delivered by Chris Berman.

 

ESPN has its faults, but CHFF is killing the messenger because Berman himself hasn’t changed a bit. He’s still the same guy we loved when we first watched him. 

 

We loved the nicknames. We loved his enthusiasm. We learned from his historical perspective. We were tickled by his pop-culture references, because we identified with his experience. He was a sports fan, like us.

 

Thirty years later, Berman still delivers the same sportscast, but his place in fans’ hearts has been usurped by announcers who followed the very trail he blazed, announcers who distorted his humor and pop-culture references and replaced it with jaded irony and attempts at cutting-edge hipness. Today, the game takes a back seat to the personality talking about it.

 

Berman’s relatively straightforward broadcasting style, absence of mean-spirited sarcasm, and fan’s enthusiasm for the game is now passé. Nowadays, if you’re not taking the piss out of something, you’re not cool. 

 

Yet, Berman owes his longevity to his traditional style. It’s fitting that he incorporates rock-and-roll culture into his sportscast because, like rock traditionalists AC/DC, he owes his longevity to unwavering, superior delivery of fundamentals. 

 

In fact, the careers of Berman and AC/DC share remarkable similarities (see my magnificent chart comparison of the two here). Both have seen their popularity wax and wane over the years in place of the next big thing only to remain firmly entrenched when the dust clears. It’s proof that substance always trumps style and attitude in the long run.

 

In a world full of weasels, the Cold, Hard Football Facts are picking on the wrong guy.

 

 

We'd be remiss if we didn't leave you with a Chris Berman of rock: an old-school AC/DC classic: