Saturday, October 22, 2011

Mike Francesca Still Hasn't Got The Hang Of This "Interview" Concept



I don't know if anyone respects or likes the job Mike Francesa does within his craft. I don't know too many football fans who do. Not too may basketball or baseball fans either. Just as well. Seems the players also can't stand this air head either as demonstrated by Darelle Revis when he hangs up on him mid interview after being badgered about an "iffy" call from Sundays Jets-Dolphins match up.




The full interview is included, Revis manages to contain himself 
until 4 mins in if you'd like to skip to the meat of it.

I have a couple thoughts on the actual play itself (found here on NFL.com)
 
 I like to think I'm a pretty objective fan. Much like John Gruden I thought this was a mugging 100%. However after listening to Revis' walk through of the play and going through multiple accounts of the tale which included Brandon Marshall's own views (which still didn't satisfy Francesa) I noticed two things which may initially get missed at full speed. 

One, Marshall did in fact trip/stumble over himself(and not Revis).

Two, Revis was in front of Marshall the whole time(not Marshall in front of Revis) with his head turned/turning toward the ball.

The rest was vintage Revis taking advantage of opportunity. It indeed looks like he was playing the ball and not just assaulting Marshall because he doesn't like his Miami Vice looking wardrobe. Aside from that even if Revis did in fact use illegal means to intercept that pass, if the ref didn't call it there is no penalty. Sure you can say the ref missed it or blew the call but honestly I think that play could have gone either way and people would still be upset.

After giving a thorough once over I think it was clean but the trouble is that catches, non-catches and route interference is officiated so helter skelter these days that no one knows what the hell is going on so you can't even blame Gruden for thinking this is a travesty of a missed call.

Francesa though, this guy is a piece of work. He comes off as more of a cop than a broadcast journalist. I thought he was about to hunt Revis down and water board a confession out of him next. It's not unusual for Francesa either. There is a long history of him being very nonsensical on air. There happens to even be a site dedicated to his nonsensical ways aptly titled STFU Mike Francesa. I think he could earn a little more respect by toning himself down a bit and not stroking tiny imaginary cocks in his photos.