No More: Billy Packer

Hasn't it been nice not hearing that RB Billy Packer at all this year? That's been one of the highlights of the season for me! Yahoo! recently had a list of the 50 worst announcers in sports today, and Billy turned up....#1. Congrats! He won, even though he's not even in the competition:

1. Billy Packer: The man who annually managed to turn the most exciting three weeks in sports, the NCAA tournament, into a visit to your cranky grandfather's house. Griped and moaned about everything from women in sports to mid-major invitations (this, just before George Mason reached the Final Four). All credit goes to coaches; all blame goes to players. Thankfully put out to pasture with Bobby Knight. Boy, there's a joyful combo, huh?

I should say something about how great I think Mike Giminski has been... but I digress.

Here's a funny video about Billy Packer from the N&O:

Billy Packer is an Ass

Even people who don't follow Carolina/Duke or the ACC are incensed by Billy Packer's remarks after "the incident" with Gerald Henderson:

"Anonymous said...
I am a 48 year old former athlete with a family. I have much more to worry about than the outcome of a ballgame. However, I still enjoy watching games with my son and it is a wonderful way to bond with him. We sit and watch and cheer for our favorite teams.

My son was quite surprised at my reaction to Billy Packer. I was yelling at the T.V. for his absurd analysis of the situation. I have never written an e-mail regarding a sporting event in my life. This is my second one since Sunday evening. Enough said!"

It's not just Carolina fans who think Packer was out of line. This is like one of those political scandals where the cover-up becomes worse than the crime. It's somewhat understandable how play can get out of hand, and a foolish action can lead to a bloody mess. But the real problem for me is the aftermath....no apology from Henderson to speak of, Coach K insinuates that it's Roy's fault for having Tyler in the game, and Billy Packer says 11 times in 4 minutes that it was not intentional, that it should have been just 2 free throws like any other foul. And he's defending his comments today. More from Charlotte Observer here:

PACKER: I felt the call was just not consistent with common-sense refereeing. I've seen the replay probably a dozen times. The more I see it, the more I believe what I said on the air. It should have been a shooting foul, and that's it. There's no way it was premeditated, that Henderson said: "I'm going to go get Hansbrough."