Legendary broadcasters discuss criticism

ESPN’s The Sports Reporters made its long-awaited return on Tuesday, albeit with four sports broadcasters.

Minor quibbles aside, the conversation was a fascinating one for sports media aficionados. How often do you get to see Joe Buck, Mike Tirico, Kevin Harlan, and Ian Eagle chop it up about the state of broadcasting?

Host Jeremy Schapp returned for this YouTube version of the iconic ESPN show and the first episode back garnered some great conversation and insight into how these four legends handle their business.

One of the more intriguing conversations they had was around the topic of social media. Chiefly, how do they deal with the criticism that comes from it and what lessons would they pass on to younger broadcasters?

The conversation kicked off with Harlan sharing a heartbreaking anecdote from broadcasting legend Verne Lundquist .

“Verne Lundquist told me at one of the seminars that Ian and I attended at CBS many years ago,” started Harlan. “He said ‘I always thought I was…a pretty good broadcaster. I thought I had a lot of answers. I thought I was kinda coasting along. And then I made the mistake about peaking into the world of social media and I said I was deflated. I was heartbroken.’ And for him to say that–I was a younger broadcaster at the time–that resonated with me.

“So I’m not on social media. I do use it as a news source and a newsreel, but I never go toward my own name because of that fear that I have…I’m scared of what people might say.”

“Social media is, it’s brutal,” added Buck , who certainly knows what it’s like to be attacked there . “It can drive a person crazy. Especially when they’re accusing you of things that you don’t feel.

“That’s why I tell young people that get into this business ‘Turn off social media.’ Find three or four people whose opinion matter to you, whose opinion you trust, listen to your own stuff, be a great self-evaluator. Don’t go to social media to find out if you’re any good because they’re gonna tell you you’re awful.”

Tirico then praised Buck for how he’s handled a lot of the criticism and hate he’s encountered over the years.

“Credit to Joe cause he’s given a lot of us a roadmap on how to handle the criticism that comes with social media,” Tirico said. “You’re not gonna make everyone happy. Usually, there’s a direct correlation of people who are disappointed/angry with you and which team lost or which team is losing. Of course, in a three-and-a-half-hour broadcast, you say things that you’d like to take back. I think we all love the adrenaline of working without a backspace key… Three and a half hours, you’re not gonna be perfect.

“We’re all in quest of the perfect game somewhere down the line, right? We make no mistakes. We identify everyone. We get out the words exactly the way we want them and they fit the pictures. But it doesn’t happen. So of course you’re gonna get criticism, just like the officials do, just like the quarterback does, just like the coaches do.

“You just kinda have to understand that it’s out there. Accept it for what it is. And don’t let it impact your best intentions of how to do the job and how the people around you, as your bosses, want the job done.”

Eagle finished the conversation by saying that if you can accept knowing criticism is out there, you can learn to live with it without letting it impact the quality of your work.

“You’re using your best instincts when you’re wearing the headset,” said Eagle . “And you’re making split-second decisions and those decisions, of course, can be scrutinized and criticized. Once you understand that it’s all part of this, then, at least for me, I don’t let the small stuff affect me in that manner.

“Take it with a grain of salt. Some of it’s positive. Some of it’s a negative. But don’t let that lead you. Don’t cater towards it. Do the game the way that your instincts tell you to do the game. And at the end of a broadcast, I feel satisfied and confident when we’ve all worked together and done it collaboratively and put together the best broadcast that we can do.”

[ ESPN ]

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