"Those who fail to remember history are doomed to repeat it."---George Santayana.
I'm sure that by now you've heard about UFC announcer Mike Goldberg's disastrous maiden voyage as an NFL announcer for Fox on Oct. 12. The Fox suits thought this would be a good way to cross-promote their UFC coverage by having UFC's primary voice, Goldberg, calling an NFL game. Luckily for them, it wasn't "America's Game of the Week", else it would've been worse.
Goldberg was assigned the Lions-Vikings game, partnered with former player Brandon Ayanbdejo, himself a 1st year announcer, insofar as I know. To read of the negative reaction to Goldberg's efforts, and his rant on Twitter, returning fire, shall we say, I was reminded of one of the worst decisions in WWE history.
In 2008, Vince McMahon hired former NFL player/announcer and American Gladiators commentator Mike Adamle, bringing him onto his broadcast team. At the time, Adamle, long away from the NFL, had been a sportscaster, and still is, last I knew, in Chicago. To say that he was caught like a deer in the headlights, despite his years of experience as a broadcaster, would be putting it mildly, and being kind. Adamle didn't last the year, as he resigned in the fall after a similarly bad run as Raw GM.
I am not entirely sure if Goldberg had any previous experience calling football prior to Oct. 12, but it certainly sounded as though he was caught unprepared, just like Adamle, nearly 7 years before him. In hindsight, Fox hired the wrong guy for Lions-Vikings. Goldberg had players on both teams mixed up, and Ayanbdejo, to my knowledge, wasn't much help.
If Fox really wanted to make an impact move in the booth, especially in terms of UFC, they really needed to call in Jim Ross.
Ross has experience as a football announcer. As memory serves, he was at one point during his WCW days the radio voice of the Atlanta Falcons, and also did a talk show for WSB in Atlanta. He has done football on TV before, albeit Vince McMahon's ill-fated XFL in 2001. Sure, Ross is just getting his feet wet doing MMA, but I haven't read or heard anything about his work with Chael Sonnen the other week, be it positive or negative. What I do know is that Ross, perhaps the most famous fan of the University of Oklahoma on the planet, would've been a good fit. I figure, why not have him fill in a few Sundays a year, while waiting for another shot at calling MMA?
In defense of Mike Goldberg, he was on McMahon's radar a few years ago, but, perhaps wisely, turned down WWE. Maybe the Adamle Debacle might've helped his decision, I don't know, but at least the same Fox suits who thought in terms of cross-promotion were smart enough to pull the plug on this experiment after 1 game. Just the same, I'd not be surprised to tune in some afternoon, and hear good ol' JR talking about slobberknockers, and referring to the battles in the trenches between the offensive & defensive lines of, say, the Cowboys and the Seahawks.
At least it won't be a disaster in the making.
