I realize that this post may amount to a sacrilege for people who were born and raised in Kansas City, but it's something that must be said: is it just me, or is Len Dawson the worst football color analyst in the NFL? I can't stand listening to him!
The normal setup on a radio broadcast is to have two jobs: a play-by-play guy and a color guy. The play-by-play guy is the one who describes in words what is visually happening on the field. The color guy is the one with the funny stories, the background info, the interesting factoids, the strategies of both teams, and all sorts of other stuff to spice up the downtime between plays. In terms of listening to a game on the radio, a good color man is priceless. Len Dawson is not priceless.
I realize he was a great QB back in the day, he took the Chiefs to a Super Bowl win, he's in the Hall of Fame, yadda yadda yadda. Fine. But just because he was an outstanding player doesn't mean he's any good at analyzing. Those are two completely different skill sets that have nothing to do with each other. Read the brief bios of the Chiefs' broadcast team and ask yourself what's different about Dawson compared with all the other guys. The rest of them all contain significant accomplishments and/or tenure in their respective fields...but not Dawson. Holthus has been doing play-by-play for decades, Gammon was a former player for years, the other guys are long-time broadcasters, etc. What do they list as Dawson's experience as a color analyst? Um, he was a really good player back in the day.
Wha-huh...?!
I was thinking about this again over the weekend as we listened to part of the most recent game while driving around, and I think that it's a good thing Mitch Holthus is outstanding at what he does. He's so good that he does the play-by-play and most of the color commentary. Who tosses out the interesting factoids about the players? Holthus. Who informs the listener of a team's history and tendencies? Holthus. Who's talked to the coaches and players to gain insight into the strategies being used in the game? Holthus. Seriously, what does Len Dawson add to the broadcast? All I heard were a few brilliant witticisms like "If they don't get a few yards closer, they're going to be out of field goal range" or "Player X appears to be limping off the field...hopefully he'll be okay". Really, Len? Is that the best you can do? Because I'm pretty sure I could have figured that stuff out on my own even without a Super Bowl ring from 40 years ago. I half suspect Mitch Holthus was sliding him a Post-it Note with even those sentences on it, anyway.
I think this is nothing more than the media stations in this city wanting to have bragging rights about having LEN DAWSON on their team rather than about providing a quality experience for listeners. Too bad Holthus -- and the Chiefs nation -- is stuck with him.
I tend to agree. It's been awhile since I've listened to a Chiefs radio broadcast, but Dawson was never an interesting part of the broadcast. Guys like Ron Jaworski (former player and film nut), Brian Billick (opinionated former coach) or Rich Gannon (former player and astute guy) all succeed by adding unique perspectives that enhance the broadcast. It's too bad, because Harlan (former KC play-by-play) and Holthus are really good.
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