Why do TV sportscasters always talk about what they talked about?

[Snakes on a Wii]

I've noticed that TV announcers almost always word things in a curious way. Instead of talking about what's happening, they talk about how they talked about or mentioned what is happening. Eg,

*pass complete for 20 yards*

Jim, we talked about this guy, he just gets open every time

*10 yard run up the middle*

Talk about an every down back, we mentioned to watch for this guy.

Every time. Don't believe me? Turn on the NFL games today and listen for it. You'll never not be able to hear it again.

[volfanbill]

what do you want them to say? They give you the keys for the game, then when those keys are highlighted, they bring it up. I don't understand why this sounds weird to you.

[Snakes on a Wii]

You can talk about what's happening without talking about how you talked about it during the break, at the media day the day before, or mentioned it on the pregame show. It draws attention to you, the announcer, and how smart you were for predicting something, rather than the actual act.

[dhendri]

Because it fills the dead air. There's only so much you can say about a 2 yard run up the gut.

[volfanbill]

Originally Posted by Snakes on a Wii

You can talk about what's happening without talking about how you talked about it during the break, at the media day the day before, or mentioned it on the pregame show. It draws attention to you, the announcer, and how smart you were for predicting something, rather than the actual act.

have you ever tried to call a game? Football is extremely hard because of the down time and baseball is next to impossible because of all the dead time. You can only say "Frank Gore with a four yard gain on a sweep. Nice blocking by the offensive line to get him some running room" so often.

[JokermanVol]

Often times it is not what they say that bad, it is the fact they're talking at all.
Some of the best calls imo are ones where the announcer simply makes the call at whatever emotional level then shuts up. An if it's not truely insightful or if it has been mentioned in more than let's say 2 other broadcasts (like Stokes having a size 20 foot or just turning 18), it probably doesn't need to be said.

[GBO18]

OP you need to get a life.