I heard a rant from Drew Remenda on a radio program he did in Saskatchewan
where he got understandably defensive when he was (told he was) "too close to the team" to see things--this was after the Sharks lost Game Four so badly (to) Detroit, and could they choke? How difficult is
it to remain objective with a team that not only pays your salary, but also
with whom you've formed a bond, with the players, the fans, the management...?
Well, I don't think we are objective. I
think whenever push comes to shove, at least in the way I approach my
job, I'm gonna fall on the side of the San Jose Sharks. I'm not a
network broadcaster, I'm a local broadcaster, and every two weeks I get a
paycheck, and there's a logo of the San Jose Sharks on that paycheck.
I feel this
responsibility of our broadcast to be truthful and to be
realistic in how we describe what we're seeing. Because we're not radio, you
don't have to take our word for it, you're actually seeing it.
Drew can speak for himself on the way he does his job, but if my play-by-play was fictional, pretty soon you'd find out because you're actually watching it while I'm saying it, as opposed to radio I could make stuff and you'd have to take my word for it. And I'm not implying that our announcers do, I'm just (saying I could) there.
My loyalty is to the Sharks, and it's to the fans of the Sharks, in that order.
