Before Mike Mayock became the G.M. of the Raiders, he had served for years as one of NFL Network’s primary voices in and around the NFL draft. Mayock recently shared past frustrations regarding the manner in which NFL Network staffed other aspects of its draft coverage.
“I think there are too many guys that just get used to — because they were such good players — having people give them things,” Mayock said on The Ross Tucker Football Podcast, via Sam Neumann of Awful Announcing. “And it was one of my really sore points at NFL Network. It used to drive me crazy when they’d bring in a guy for the draft that was a big-name guy, that was going to talk about his position, and couldn’t tell me three names in the draft.
“And I would be like, ‘What are we doing? Like, what’s important here?’ And the producers and all the people would be like, ‘He brings credibility.’ And I would be like, ‘What about Daniel Jeremiah, Charles Davis, and me doing all the grinding of the tape? Isn’t that all the credibility we need?’ And the answer was pretty much, ‘No, we need these names.’”
It’s not an uncommon approach. Some networks prioritize names over knowledge, sizzle over substance. They believe that having played the game, for however long or short of a career, leads to a perception of inherent expertise that supersedes years if not decades of study.
Why does it happen? There are several reasons for it. One is that the bar for educating a broad audience is low. If the information that is conveyed in basic, digestible sound bites can be communicated by someone with a bigger name, that’s better for the network.
Could someone else who didn’t play know more? Sure. But there usually isn’t enough real estate for the audience to listen to a big-name player and conclude, “This guy is clueless.”
Basically, the guys who made it on the field can usually fake it ‘til they make it with a microphone. And the presence of a big name also makes it easier to fulfill the overriding goal of leveraging those big names into bigger advertising revenues.
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