Bloody Wraps is a recap of the day’s biggest or most interesting stories that runs every weekday night. At least, that has been the intention in the several times that the feature has come and gone…
As a member of the MMA media, I get to occupy an interesting space. The UFC’s aggressive scheduling causes me to shout about burnout and decreased card quality, but multiple week stretches without a UFC event leave me shaking my fist at my laptop, lamenting the lack of stories to get us through the day.
And that news slowdown is what leads us to second day coverage of The Great Mike Goldberg NFL Experiment. Goldberg’s predictable disaster of an NFL announcing debut led to some brutal criticism. Some outlets called the broadcast the worst they’d ever heard, he was clearly reading off roster sheets without having memorized at the very least key players (such as moments where he announced players on the wrong teams simply because of jersey numbers).
Announcing shouldn’t ever be confused with being an easy job, despite what your uncle might tell you seven beers into Thanksgiving. But, honestly, Goldberg has been spinning his wheels as mediocre-at-best while calling the UFC, a position he’s held since 1997. To expect him to jump into NFL broadcasts, which have established expectations for rhythm and knowledge, and have any success was to ignore the very simple reality that it’s Mike Goldberg.
Pairing him with Brendon Ayanbadejo did him no favors, and led to this review by SB Nation’s Detroit Lions blog Pride of Detroit:
FOX managed to outdo itself on Sunday with the worst broadcast of a football game I have ever witnessed in my life. The announcers, Mike Goldberg and Brendon Ayanbadejo, had no business calling an NFL game, as evidenced by their constant mistakes. They repeatedly misidentified coaches and players — no, Golden Tate and Sam Martin aren’t on the Vikings — and it felt like they did zero preparation for this game. Actually, it felt like they were reading from an error-filled script and had no prior knowledge of either team. It was painful to listen to them on Sunday.
That was yesterday.
Today, the news became Goldberg’s inability to deal with the criticism that is to be expected when you’re in a high profile position.
As the criticism rolled in, Goldberg responded by tweeting “Dude f— you” in response to one attacking tweet and calling someone a “douche” in another.
It feels to me like an extension of his never having being reigned in by the UFC when responding to similar criticism. Something that has always seemed to serve as a part of the “edgy culture” of the fight promotion, but now has some outlets suggesting that it’s the sort of thing that could lead to his removal from the NFL booth.
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In keeping with the theme of criticism and the reaction to it, Fallon Fox jumped into The Underground and had a discussion/argument with a number of the types of people who would frequent an internet message board.
Fox was put in the unenviable position of sitting at a keyboard while morons throw dated Austin Powers “That’s a man, baby” lines at her along with the same recycled arguments against her competing against women that have been tossed out for the past year.
That Fox had moments where she lost her cool is hardly surprising. She promoted a new highlight video of her career and ended up in a Q&A session wherein she responded to insults with insults (not dissimilar to Goldberg).
The struggle for Fox is that she faces a much different struggle from simply being criticized for her job performance, but rather is criticized for her very being.
To expect that things would go smoothly for her in an internet forum Q&A or that the concerns that may legitimately exist might be discussed without resorting to insults and hate speech is to expect too much.
But, there are even issues in the write-up at MixedMartialArts.com that highlight the uphill battle Fox faces.
The article doesn’t make it one word in before running afoul of accepted language for a trans person. It refers to Fox as “transgendered,” which is incorrect. “Transgender” is correct.
The article’s usage of “transgendered” doesn’t read as coming from a place of being mean-spirited, but this isn’t a world in which education on trans issues is particularly strong, which puts an onus on us as writers to use correct terminology and do our part, even (especially) if we have mixed or strong feelings on her place in the sport of women’s mixed martial arts.
That’s how we begin to move the discussion to a point where healthy, constructive dialogue can take place, which is far more important than feeding the trolls who just want to make cruel jokes.
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Chan Sung Jung is now sidelined for two years as he reports for his South Korean mandatory military service. That’s sad news for fans of The Korean Zombie, who had actually began to position himself as a potential breakout star prior to a litany of injuries putting him on the shelf.
By the time he returns to action he’ll have only had once fight since early 2012. He’ll also be 29 and battling years of rust.
In a way it feels a little like we heard that Jung is retiring today. Or, at least, that the version we knew, who was one of the most reliably entertaining fighters in the sport, is gone for good.
I’ll spend the next couple years hoping I’m wrong though.
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And, finally…here’s a video that might just give you nightmares.
Listen to the sound when this head kick lands: