Top sports analysts work hard at their craft, memorizing athletes' details, keeping tabs on up-and-comers, studying tactics and technique, all while ensuring they convey information to viewers in a coherent way. So how in the world did former tennis star John McEnroe—"an entitled air quaffer, a lapsed past master turned trifler who refuses to work at it"—beat them to land roles calling top tennis matches for major networks including ESPN, NBC, and TNT? asks Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins. She tuned in to ESPN airings of Wimbledon matches with McEnroe and his younger brother, Patrick, in the broadcasting booth this week. Her list of complaints is long.
The pair, known to confess their ignorance live on air, have "given the viewer about as much information as a couple of air compressors, complete with the irritating hissing," Jenkins writes. But John McEnroe—unapologetic after his late arrival to set at the French Open men's final last month—especially irks her. At one point this week, when Grigor Dimitrov hit a 140-mph ace, the commentator observed, "That's got to be the biggest serve he ever hit," only to be contradicted, she notes. Then there's his mangling of players' names, referring to Flavio Cobolli as "Carbelly, Cowbelly and Cahbally," and Alex de Minaur as "di Miner, de Minhour and di Minoor," Jenkins writes, concluding network executives ought to kick him to the curb for spouting "verbal gunk." Read the full piece here.
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