Made For TV Lynch

July 17, 2009   ·   Paul Raymond   ·   Jump to comments

When a former athlete makes his move to TV there are two roads, bash a former teammate or praise one in a tough situation. Well new FOX Analyst, John Lynch decided to take both roads. During an interview on the “Waddle and Silvy” show on ESPN 1000 in Chicago he bashed Brandon Marshall while praising new Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler.

Lynch was doing an interview with the Chicago radio station talking about his two former Denver Broncos teammates. One of whom is already a Bear and another they’d love to bring in.

“I don’t like saying [buyer beware], but you’ve got to call a spade a spade, and I think it’s a dangerous proposition,” Lynch said. “I don’t think you’ll see the Broncos sign him to a long-term deal, because right now the behavior he’s demonstrated off the field, I don’t think you’d feel comfortable doing anything long term.

His comments aren’t completely out of line, it’s what almost everyone’s thought about Marshall. He’s one of those players who has all the talent in the world that makes you ask the question, can my team deal with the headaches for that level of production? It’s a question every NFL general manager and owner asks when it comes to players like Terrell Owens, Plaxico Burress and now Marshall.

Later comments by Lynch thou made me wonder if he feels any owner should take the chance.

“As I said, on the field, he’s very comparable to a guy like Terrell Owens. He’s that good of a player. But being a professional in my mind … takes doing it on the field and off the field. You can’t have all choir boys. I believe in first and second chances, but when you’re talking about 13 or 14 … I think at a certain point you’ve got to say this guy’s got some issues that he’s got to work out before you can trust him.”

A comment like that tells me that Lynch doesn’t think the Bears or anyone should take the chance till Marshall proves he’s changed. I’d like to agree with that but really I think Marshall has proven he won’t change much like T.O. won’t. You take your good and bad, while hoping the production on the field outweighs the bad days.

While comparing his comments to other new analysts the last few years they aren’t too harsh. I’m speaking of NBC’s Tiki Barber there. He made his debut on TV by bashing Eli Manning, will Lynch make his FOX debut downing Marshall’s for his off the field lifestyle?

I’m not sure, actually I’m not sure if we can decide what kind of analyst Lynch will be yet. In the same interview he praised former teammate Jay Cutler.

“This is a guy, in my mind, that’s a once-in-every-15-year-type talent. He’s got that kind of skill. I think he’ll grow into the other things. I sometimes think during this whole ordeal, they tried to paint him as a bad guy, but he’s not a bad guy at all. He’s got some growing up to do, but hopefully he learned something from this whole ordeal and offseason.”

In the interview, Lynch also said “I like Jay, he’s a friend of mine”. So yea, these comments could partially be, because well he likes Jay. One thing I do like is that he made sure to say Jay still had some growing up to do. But at the same time it shows that he is like most TV personalities he’s got his favorites.

Which isn’t wrong at all, in fact it could make for some fun TV. Take a look at Michael Strahan, he’s got his favorites the entire New York Giants defense and he doesn’t hide it. Every week he’ll go about praising those guys, he’s got his boys but goes about it in a fun way.

When it comes to being a sports analyst there’s a fine line between going to far either way. In the interview, I feel he toed both lines of overly bashing and showing too much praise. It could be that it was a radio interview that he just spoke from the heart about. That’s fine if that’s the case.

What I think this radio spot showed is that Lynch is made for TV. He’s not going to hold back, if you’re doing something wrong he’s going to say it. At the same time, if he likes what you’re doing he’ll say it.

The question is how much animation can he provide to those topics, will he make himself watchable? Will he be the analyst that you want to hear what he has too say?

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