Don't hate the DP

Fletch is back with a short take full of hate - he usually writes much shorter in the comments section here and much longer over at Blog Cabins.

I'll never understand why people hate on Dan Patrick. He's light years ahead of every other sports talk radio show host out there. While the local guys can't stop talking about the local teams for more than two minutes (because Arizona Cardinal talk is so thrilling), and Rome (while often entertaining) can't stop pausing to talk every now and then, Patrick ran an intelligent, funny, A-list show over at ESPN. Now he's gone, and in the meantime, here are just a couple of the things radio hosts and broadcasters do that piss me off:

* The letter "a." Yep, that single letter manages to piss me off on more occasions that I care to recall. See, for some reason, somewhere along the way during the past twenty years (I can't pin down the date), broadcasters and talking heads got it into their skulls that it wasn't just enough to "lose [Player X] to an injury." No, now all anyone ever says is how terrible it is to "lose A [Player X] to injury." Not making sense? "Well let me tell you, when you have a Brett Favre on your team, you know what you're gonna get week in and week out."

WTF?

There's more than one Favre in the NFL? I was not aware of this. Unless we're talking about Steve Smith or Anthony Thomas or the like, there's no reason to place that goddamn "a" there. Or at the least add "player like," as is "when you lose a player like Steven Jackson." Thanks.

* Now, I like to perform a radio show interview with you - please play along.

"When you made that dash to the hoop in the third quarter, you seemed to really freeze out the defenders. Talk about what was going on in your head as that play unfolded."

"Tell us about your foundation for autistic monkeys and all the work you've been doing there."

"The hours leading up to a playoff game like the one you just played in can be hectic and nerve-wracking. Describe for us what goes on in the locker room and what Coach Z was telling you guys."

Call me anal or a stickler, but where the f*ck are the questions? Yeah, I know throwing a simple "Can you" onto some of those may officially make them questions, but that seems a minor technicality. This is what passes for journalism these days? Okay, using "journalism" may be a bit generous there -- this is what passes for entertainment?

There's a reason that segments from Dan Patrick's show were cut and pasted into the back page of ESPN the Mag every other week -- they were interesting and often funny. Dan knew how to conduct an interview, and how to ask probing questions, whether in a serious or playful mood. Athletes have to be considered the worst interview subjects on the planet as it is, what with not wanting to offend anyone or provide bulletin board material, so why make them any duller by asking lame, cliched "questions?"

Patrick's new show starts Monday -- I'll be listening.