Giving Them Lip

As you probably know, I have watched a lot of sports in my time. And for as long as I have been watching sports and hearing people calling the games, one thing which I have never understood is the announcers who feel the need to apologize when one of the ambient microphones networks use to enhance things like crowd noise accidentally picks up someone swearing during a game. First of all, as someone who has never been very offended by language, I simply fail to see the big deal. They are just words and their ability to offend is only as powerful as the person listening gives them. At this point in my life my shock value is pretty high, so the random f-bomb doesn't even cause me to bat an eyelash and I'm pretty sure everyone watching the game was swearing at one player or another a couple minutes ago. Also, these mics exist to try and people closer to the game and - I hate to be the one to have to tell you this - people swear while playing sports. Like, a lot. If the swearing wasn't part of the broadcast it would be nearly as authentic. Honestly, it is just the cost of doing business.

The main reason I actually find the apology more annoying than the swearing itself is that the announcer is apologizing for something they didn't do and for someone who didn't know they were miked up in the first place. I get thoroughly annoyed when people apologize for another person's actions. If an announcer lets a swear slip during a game than they probably should say they are sorry because it just sounds unprofessional. But no one is holding announcers accountable for everything that goes out over the air - they are no more responsible for what a player on a sideline says than you or I are for what a random stranger says on the train and I certainly won't say I'm sorry to the people around me when someone outside of my group swears into their phone, as if I am the spokesman for the train. That is the action of a crazy person. And if you asked a player about getting caught on camera swearing they would (rightfully) point out that these networks are essentially eavesdropping and as such they shouldn't be expected to sensor what are normally private conversations.

With that in mind you can imagine my latest pet peeve, which is when networks such as ESPN feel the need to go back and show a slow-motion replay of an athlete swearing, but then blur the person's mouth. This feels really stupid on a lot of levels, the first of which is all ESPN is doing is creating more work for themselves because they don't have to show us that clip to prove the player was mad about something. They could show us the moments before or after the swear and I'm pretty sure we would still be able to correctly read their body language. Plus, if you actively try and read someone's lips when you have a pretty good idea that they are not wishing their opponent a Happy New Year then you are doing so at your own peril. (You want to talk about the actions of a crazy person.) I've certainly never heard of a rational person who complained about this kind of thing before. Thus, I can only assume the network does this to try and make itself look better - some kind of moral stance against swearing which no one asked them to take. It is also unnecessary because if this clip which has been floating around the internet for a couple weeks proves anything, it is that lip-reading isn't as easy as they may think it is.