While we approach a time of being thankful at Thanksgiving, we also approach that time of year that the calendar dictates we recognize all those individuals that truly put the “Awful” in Awful Announcing this year. But this isn’t just your normal list of turkeys of the year. In honor of the great John Madden, our turkeys list is bigger, badder, and better than the others. Therefore, our list is the Turduckens of the Year.
What does it take to qualify as a Turducken of the Year? It’s a mixture of the comically absurd and the absurdly comical.
First some of my choices for Turducken of the Year, then the selections of the rest of our staff, and finally your vote to crown the winner…
We have to start the list with someone who got a great opportunity on the national stage and blew it. UFC announcer Mike Goldberg called his first game for the NFL on Fox this season. It was also his last. Goldberg got into profane arguments with Twitter users who criticized his performance and Fox took him off another scheduled assignment. Goldberg’s performance in the booth was well below par and his social media antics only compounded the embarrassment.
For someone who wrote the 100 rules to live by on Twitter, getting suspended for something you did on Twitter certainly qualifies as a Turducken moment. ESPN’s Darren Rovell was sat down by ESPN for a week after a mean joke about a Bulls fan. No word on if the tweet was forwarded to Charles Shipan.
AP reporter Terry Collins had a great scoop when he reported the Raiders had fired head coach Dennis Allen on Twitter back in September. But then when his report received nationwide attention, he deleted the tweet, recanted, and said he was never covering the story in the first place. Allen was fired the next day.
Kirk Minihane and WEEI. From Mike Missanelli cheering Victor Cruz’s injury to Boomer Esiason ripping Daniel Murphy for paternity leave to the two guys in Arizona who almost came to blows on air, it was quite the year in sports talk radio. But the Turducken of the Year in radio was definitely Kirk Minihane for his profane rant at Erin Andrews in Boston and WEEI’s embarrassing behavior as a whole.
Kevin Byrne, Baltimore Ravens PR. “Why I Like Ray Rice.”
When it comes to “Turducken of the Year,” Peter King’s 2014 is like Babe Ruth’s 1927 season. Not only did King have jaw-droppingly awkward social media moments, his reporting (or lack thereof) into the Ray Rice saga only served to obfuscate the situation as he basically threw up his hands a la Bud Selig over whether or not the league had seen the videotape he reported they had. Seemingly takes it upon himself to share sad news with strangers.
https://twitter.com/SI_PeterKing/status/498982297757306882
King took such a shellacking this fall it led to important internet thinkpieces like “The Problem with Peter King.“
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