FIRST NAME QUARTERBACKS

by wwtb?, Pacifist Viking

Do you ever notice (thanks, Seinfeld) how announcers sometimes call quarterbacks by their first names, and just their first names? You know, “Brett is just out there trying to make a play” or “That’s a perfect throw from Peyton.” Not every player gets the first name treatment from the announcers, and typically it’s an elite white quarterback that gets such chumminess.

The first name treatment for some players but not every player reveals a clear bias: the announcers are showing that they are siding with that player. If you’re attempting to objectively call a game, you would generally use last names for all players (or at the very least use the same name form for all players). But by choosing to call certain elite quarterbacks by the more informal first name, announcers are showing they aren’t trying to be objective, and that they are siding with a particular player. It’s not necessarily that they are rooting for one team or against another team (though it sometimes sounds that way), but that they are sympathetic to, understanding of, and nestled in with, one player. The first name is familiar, intimate: you only use it if you’re comfortable with the person, and expect the person to be comfortable with you (that’s why people sometimes ask if it is alright to call you by your first name: “Jim, can I call you Jim?”). When announcers reveal this intimate familiarity, it makes it hard not to see that they are pulling for that player to do well when they’re using that first name. The fact that they're likely doing it unconsciously just further signifies a bias.

And mostly, whatever. Who gives a crap? But if your favorite team is playing the Packers or the Colts, this will likely drive you absolutely, utterly insane (like “Let’s hire Norv Turner” insane). When the announcer keeps calling the most prominent player on an opposing team by his first name, you feel like you’re watching the game with that player’s personal friends, and they’re constantly rooting for him, supporting him, sharing their intimacy with him. Your own team is an afterthought: the players on your team are merely the obstacles in the way of Brett or Peyton achieving their goals.

During the course of a game, announcers will probably call several players by their first names; it's the repeated, frequent first name identification of particular players that stands out. So play attention: what players get repeated first name treatment from the announcers? Brett Favre and Peyton Manning get the adoring first name love of announcers: what other players do you notice being identified by the first name?