RON FRANKLIN BENCHED
Ron Franklin, the stentorian voice of Saturday night football on ESPN, has been benched. Kanu at Dodgy At Best captures the moment with lucid fury:
Ron Franklin is the best voice in CFB by a mile, and he certainly is the voice of the big Saturday night game on ESPN. My sis donned him “Uncle Ron” about 10 years ago because his voice is so great and comforting/comfortable that he sounds like your favorite uncle calling the game for you at a weekly family gathering. As damn near all things ESPN related have turned to complete and utter shite around him the last 15 years, he had remained one of the very few great things that remain at now-shittastic ESPN.
Uncle Ron will now be have the honor of broadcasting day games between major conference foes and their 1-AA scheduling gimps. Here’s hoping he leaves, signs with FOX, and takes the Musburger route to renaissance when the “Bread and Circuses” network gets its claws on college football.
College football on FOX, with “The Running Man” at halftime. Who do you love?
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1
Crabapple Buck says:
After seeing he was paired up with Ed Cunningham, I’m just glad he didn’t commit suicide so he can announce again for another, more appreciative, network. All after Bob Davie gets the main gig. Go figure.
September 21st, 2006 at 4:02 pm
2
Lion4Life says:
Jeez:
I no longer have any sort of motivation to watch the PrimeTime games- Is this because of the whole Holly Rowe thing? Who’s running this network- Mickey Mouse?
As a side note:That was a moving article, it had me in tears right up to the point where he said “great ACC matchup in primetime” Now I can’t stop laughing.
September 21st, 2006 at 4:07 pm
3
Kinnick North says:
15…10…5….Touchdown
Always smooth and calm on the call.
September 21st, 2006 at 4:10 pm
4
rebel84 says:
Seriously, ESPN must be in the middle of some sort of move to alienate all their college football fans so they can eventually drop coverage of college football games to make room for more Poker, Cup Stacking, and Scrabble coverage.
What a joke. First they essentially sell out Gameday and pretty much ensure it never visits an SEC campus again. Then they demote Ron Franklin. Next thing you know they’ll be cutting away from live action to bring you the thrilling conclusion of Heidi.
September 21st, 2006 at 4:13 pm
5
Phil K. says:
I’m guessing you wanted a Running Man graphic there. It’s a German clown, which makes less sense but is still funny.
September 21st, 2006 at 4:22 pm
6
brink says:
Terrible move by an increasingly terrible network.
First Gottfried and now Franklin. For years, my favorite announcing tandem.
September 21st, 2006 at 4:23 pm
7
SeaTrojan says:
Replacing Franklin with the hyperbolic Mike Patrick is bad, but it’s indicative of a much larger truth: We will look back on this year as the one where college football became “NFL-ized”, where money talks and integrity walks. Whether it’s the rule changes, GameDay changes, announcing changes, or administrations eliminating student seating at games for rich donors (USC), this fundamental shift is now complete. Obviously money was most important before, now it’s the only important thing.
September 21st, 2006 at 4:24 pm
8
doubtingthomas says:
Who is better than Ron Franklin anywhere in college football? 10 years ago Keith Jackson was king, but he got a bit senile towards the end. Musburger is good, and Brad Nessler isn’t bad, but Ron Franklin is by far the best. And he’s gone???
September 21st, 2006 at 4:26 pm
9
U-Dub Dish says:
fuck shit fuck…if joe buck gets any part of the Fox telecasts, someone should set fire to him…and then franklin should replace him of course.
September 21st, 2006 at 4:33 pm
10
matt says:
keith jackson was always an overated old fuck…whoo nelly…I hated all his over-the-top bullshit
September 21st, 2006 at 4:35 pm
11
The Stos says:
They should just fill in with Ron Barr from EA sports.
September 21st, 2006 at 4:44 pm
12
Kanu says:
L4L- by great ACC matchup, I meant over time, in a 1990-2006 way, not in a 2006 only kind of way; basically that the ESPN Primetime game is 80% of the time a great or good SEC game, and 20% of the time an ACC game, which needed to be very appealing on paper to take the slot away from the SEC.
DT- He’s not gone, just moved to the earlier in the evening matchup on ESPN2, which last week was Texas-Rice and this week is NC State-BC. That’s not quite like having Walter Cronkike on The View, but it is pretty damn shitty.
September 21st, 2006 at 4:46 pm
13
kf says:
has 5, has 10…wtf was the rat thinking? I figured he was going to be promoted to the big network with Keith Jackson retiring, instead they replace him with that complete hack Mike Patrick who together with Theismann and McGuire formed the worst announcing team of all time (and yes that includes anything with Pam Ward as the play by play). Next thing you know they’ll promote Theismann to Monday night…oh wait. At least they let go of that no talent assclown Paul McGuire…oh nevermind.
September 21st, 2006 at 4:47 pm
14
Nick says:
Ron Franklin – “I’ll be back.”
ESPN – “Only in reruns.”
September 21st, 2006 at 4:49 pm
15
Dave says:
What’s next, Holly Rowe swimsuit specials?
September 21st, 2006 at 4:54 pm
16
Ltrain says:
I just died a little on the inside.
September 21st, 2006 at 5:00 pm
17
Jeff says:
Somebody has to have the Youtube capture of his Holly comment at the ND-Purdue game. That’s the most fitting tribute to the man.
September 21st, 2006 at 5:04 pm
18
Tarpon says:
This is a sad day indeed. And you know Ron loved to pine over his past sexual escapades during commercial breaks. He banged coeds on the Grove like Mike Patrick brushes his teeth. And I’ll bet no one ever sees Mike’s balding ass at the Houndstooth before an Alabama game. ESPN is officially bushleague. I’d say they are running a Mickey Mouse operation, but they really are!!
September 21st, 2006 at 5:12 pm
19
Lone says:
The guy is only moving to ESPN2… it’s the end of the world. Dry your tears little ladies… at least he wasn’t found hugging an intern at Outback
September 21st, 2006 at 5:24 pm
20
Hawkeye Dan says:
I can understand Gottfried getting yanked… I saw the Iowa-ISU game (he and ….shudder… Pam Ward) and it sounded like he had Parkinson’s.
But Franklin getting booted from the prime-time game is an outrage, especially when Bob “FOOTBAW” Davie got a better gig out of it.
Hell, Davie sucked when he was doing the 11 a.m. Big 10/Big East games. He isn’t bringing anything more to the table now.
September 21st, 2006 at 5:29 pm
21
JG says:
This is really a disgrace. An utter disgrace. I hate ESPN and have for a long time like most people with some level of brain functionality. What could possibly be the rationale for this move? It’s either a delayed punishment for the Holly comment, or ESPN is simply trying to see how much they can piss people off before those people stop watching. In no way can ESPN feel that they are improving their presentation of the prime time game.
September 21st, 2006 at 5:36 pm
22
Comment This says:
If I may ask, what was the Holly Rowe comment?
September 21st, 2006 at 5:53 pm
23
J.J. says:
I’m so glad to hear outrage from the rest of the nation over the affront to God that was the Mike Gottfried-Pam Ward broadcast of Iowa/Iowa State.
I visited Deadspin the day after, and read comment after comment asking if Pam Ward’s a lesbian and if Gottfried’s had a stroke. So it wasn’t just Iowans getting pissed off about it. Worst broadcast ever. And shoving the microphone in front of Klinkenborg at the end was the coup de grace.
Orson,
You showed incredible restraint being able to stop yourself at 52 reasons.
September 21st, 2006 at 5:56 pm
24
sjs1959 says:
1) yres, it sucks, but blame the Rat for moving Patrick off the NFL coverage where he was OK, in my book. This is about Patrick and having a place for him, since he was demoted from the prime NFL gig back to CFB.
(yes, that’s how most of the non-SEC world sees, it, kiddies)
Pairing him with Cunningham? THAT’S a slap in the face. I’;ll bet that this means that the ACC (Patrick’s area of expertise) gets more Saturday night at 6:45 CST games than the SEC now.
September 21st, 2006 at 5:59 pm
25
doubtingthomas says:
Yes, what was the Holly Rowe comment?
September 21st, 2006 at 6:12 pm
26
Chris says:
Let’s hope Fox gets the Big 12 (the only BCS conference not locked up for a while) and Ronny jumps to Fox to do the Big 12 and one of the BCS games. Or better yet, have him take over the BCS Championship Game duties from Thom Brennaman, who I’m sure will do fine, but he’s no Ron Franklin. Ronny Franker has proven he’s pretty smart, so he’s probably considering a move like this.
Mike Patrick fucking blows. There is just something about the way he enuciates words that bothers me. Plus he’s ugly, never brushes his teeth, and probably has respect for that know-nothing cow Holly Rowe, who Uncle Ron put in her place. According to Wikipedia, Mike is actually Dan Patrick’s cousin. So he’s from the side of the Patrick family that doesn’t know shit about sports.
And Paul Maguire actually isn’t bad when you surround him with competant people, like the Nessler-Greise team, but Patrick and THEES-man were just so bad they made him seem like an ass.
At least the mouse didn’t get rid of Brent or Brad yet, but they do somehow have Dan Fouts above Gary Thorne.
September 21st, 2006 at 6:20 pm
27
domer04 says:
the holly rowe comment -
nd was beating the tar out of purdue last year, and they went to the horribly screwed holly rowe on the purdue sideline for a report. she then said that the coaches were giving up and doing that sends a horrible message to the players. so, she was in a bad situation and said something retarded. franklin responded with, “It’s 49-21 sweetheart.” in the most demeaning tone you could imagine. it was hysterical.
i’m thinking that had something to do with the demotion. though, moving footbaw up i cannot explain.
September 21st, 2006 at 6:59 pm
28
Tom says:
Repeat: What was the Holly Rowe comment? You can even paraphrase
September 21st, 2006 at 7:02 pm
29
domer04 says:
to add to my last comment, here is espn’s take (through the ombudsman-type-thing-idiot solomon)
“Franklin’s comment, and demeaning tone, in response to Rowe’s legitimate observation was disrespectful to the audience and to a colleague. “It was an inappropriate comment, and we’ve communicated that to Ron,” said Mo Davenport, senior coordinating producer for college football. “There’s never a reason to say something so mean-spirited. Ron apologized. We dealt with it internally.”
My take: Play-by-play commentators need to take sideline reporters — many of whom are women — more seriously. So does ESPN, which needs to give these reporters more airtime and more serious issues to address. ”
he took a really tough stance there, didn’t he?
and a parting shot at solomon, the very next line in that column: “Mark May, usually one of the best at what he does” … I don’t think I even have to add anything to that
September 21st, 2006 at 7:03 pm
30
Lion4Life says:
The Holly Rowe comment was during the ND/Purdue game last year:
She was on the sideline blabbing on about something and then incorrectly reported the score of the game… back to you Ron.
Ron: “Its actually (actual score), sweetheart.”
I knew something was up when they split the three of them up- Rowe is with a totally different crew and they of course, moved Davie to the Primetime ABC game.
Sorry Kanu, just playing with the ACC love- great post!
September 21st, 2006 at 7:06 pm
31
domer04 says:
sorry, i left out the first part of the quote
“Holly, it’s not giving up; it’s 49-21, sweetheart.”
September 21st, 2006 at 7:23 pm
32
Jason says:
If you go to the ND vs Purdue video on this guy’s webpage (awesome page btw), you will find it towards the end of the video, complete while seeing Burgundy, I mean Franklin, say it.
http://dietler.net/nd/videos/
September 21st, 2006 at 9:09 pm
33
Stacy Keibler Loves Me says:
Keith Jackson is “The Man” Dept:
Saturdays without the Greatest-College-Football-Announcer-Of-All-Time Keith Jackson is not the same, even when he was losing a little towards his last few years of doing Pac-10 games.
I actually enjoyed his southern accent when it sneaked out every now and then during the telecast.
On the West Coast we have had or have some legendary announcers, such as Chick Hearn for Laker games, Vin Scully for Dodger games, Bill King for Raider games, blah, blah, blah. But Jackson was the Man, for college football.
Hearing Jackson’s old color commentator, Dan Fouts, do play-by-play is BRUTAL. Not to sound like Constanza from the Seinfeld show, but even I, good ol’ SKLM, could do a better job of calling the action than the tacky bearded one.
September 21st, 2006 at 9:11 pm
34
J.J. says:
Wow. SKLM loves Keith Jackson, a raving, senile, Dome-hater.
September 21st, 2006 at 10:06 pm
35
J.J. says:
“Holly, it’s not giving up; it’s 49-21, sweetheart.”
It may have been phrased a little dickheadedly, but didn’t she deserve it?
September 21st, 2006 at 10:10 pm
36
RyderCup says:
Ron Franklin = College Football. To Hell with the Gloved Rodent. I am placing a call to CBS Friday on his behalf.
“Sweetheart, It’s 42-17″ indeed. “Me” needs more gents like Ron on “MY DAY,” CFB Saturdays.
September 21st, 2006 at 11:58 pm
37
AUAlum says:
For me, college football is Gottfried and Franklin in the booth with Adrian Karsten on the sidelines for a ESPN night game at Jordan-Hare.
Franklin would do a great introduction throwing in a Toomer’s lemonade reference and Karsten would open the cage for the eagle flight.
I think I will have to dump my four shares of Disney stock after this one.
September 22nd, 2006 at 12:03 am
38
father figure says:
What a disgrace. At this point, Fox should buy all college football, replace all but four plays per game with commercials (”what, four plays isn’t enough? We have to get the games under 3 hours, and cutting commercials is unAmerican, dammit!”) , add advertising to college uniforms, and have Joe Buck, Paul Maguire, and Jim Nantz do the play-by-play for every game that we’re lucky enough for Fox to allow us to see.
September 22nd, 2006 at 1:24 am
39
Beergut says:
Ron Franklin will probably end up doing Big 12 games again, so he can suck up to texas. He used to do radio broadcasting for the t-sips.
If you think Franklin is something special, you’ve obviously never heard him do a Big 12 game involving texas, b/c he is anything but objective (although his blowup at P.J. Tucker during last season’s A&M-texas basketball game was classic).
September 22nd, 2006 at 3:19 am
40
NewAZTiger says:
ESPN:2000s :: MTV:1990s
It’s all so very clear.
September 22nd, 2006 at 7:47 am
41
father figure says:
“ESPN:2000s :: MTV:1990s”
Ron Franklin :: Ricky Ractman?
September 22nd, 2006 at 8:09 am
42
bsa says:
How sad and foolish. What with Bob Davie and Tony Kornheiser, it is becoming almost impossible to watch ESPN football coverage…
September 22nd, 2006 at 9:32 am
43
The Stos says:
If sideline reporters want to be taken more seriously, they should stop doing ridiculous bits about how the back up QBs uncle was the first man in his county to tie 3 goats together and ride them into the next county.
Here’s a thought, get somebody down there that knows football. Our “Good Buddy” and Swanny do a pretty good job.
September 22nd, 2006 at 9:56 am
44
gamecocktony says:
Sigh.
Was there anything, ANYTHING, better than Uncle Ron from The Plains or Rocky Top or ‘Tween the Hedges’ on a cool, autumn evening?
He always made the game feel bigger without upstaging the game itself. The consumate pro.
I always felt like if you ran into him somewhere you could buy him a bourbon drink and he’ d be happy to sit with you and tell stories about The Bear or Vince Dooley or Johnny Majors. Just a class act.
“Give ‘em five, GIVE EM TEN! Another (insert your favorite school here) first down.”
September 22nd, 2006 at 9:57 am
45
Mike says:
ESPN is a mere shell of it’s former self…this is what happens when you have a bunch of corporate Disney assholes pulling the levers who are more concerned with good ole boy backroom deals than the integrity of college football. I had a bad feeling that this would eventually happen when ABC/Disney bought ESPN.
CBS PLEASE HIRE RON FRANKLIN!
September 22nd, 2006 at 10:11 am
46
gamecocktony says:
For what its worth, I decided to send an email to ESPN Ombudsman, George Solomon.
“Dear Sir,
I am sure you are well aware that many college football fans are upset with what we perceive as a ‘demotion’ of one of the best college football announcers in the business, Mr. Ron Franklin.
I sincerely hope you will take the time to read many CFB message boards to see just how much Mr. Franklin has meant to us fans who have loyally watched ESPN’s coverage of NCAA football over the past 20 years.
Not having Mr. Franklin covering the main game on Saturday nights has undoubtedly led to viewers, such as myself, looking for other programming options when we decide what telecast to tune into.
While we fans realize that the decision on what announcers to use to broadcast certain games is more complex than those of us not in the media can ever imagine, the fans of Mr. Franklin’s class and knowledge of the college football landscape will hope that our choice not to watch ESPN/ABC’s games can be directly attributed to what we consider a slap in the face to THE voice of big-time CFB.”
September 22nd, 2006 at 10:13 am
47
Paco says:
Fuck it….Give Lou Holtz play-by-play duty. That would ROCK!
not really.
September 22nd, 2006 at 10:38 am
48
Travis Swenson says:
Back when I had the stomach to watch the ESPN Saturday night game, I would’ve been crushed to hear this news. However after 5 years of watch Sherrill & Croom single-handedly (double-handedly?) drop the SEC’s stature as a conference. Now it’s just another reason my college football day ends after MSU’s 11:30 beating.
September 22nd, 2006 at 10:47 am
49
Ron Franklin sucks says:
I feel so bad. He won’t get to kiss SEC and TEXAS ass anymore. What a shame a man who turned water into wine and drank some of it during broadcasts it going to a DIFFERENT TIME SLOT.
Oh, i thought they fired him, he is just moving to a DIFFERENT TIME SLOT. My bad.
September 22nd, 2006 at 11:37 am
50
hoopinion says:
“I’m so glad to hear outrage from the rest of the nation over the affront to God that was the Mike Gottfried-Pam Ward broadcast of Iowa/Iowa State.
I visited Deadspin the day after, and read comment after comment asking if Pam Ward’s a lesbian and if Gottfried’s had a stroke. So it wasn’t just Iowans getting pissed off about it.”
I’m pretty sure that Gottfried did have a stroke.
I’ve never hung out with Pam Ward, so I couldn’t speak to other issue which concerns you.
September 22nd, 2006 at 2:41 pm
51
Brandon Lang says:
Once Adrian was gone, you knew the dream team couldn’t last forever. I will say this: I made absolutely no plans on college football Saturdays when Ron Franklin was doing games. This includes driving home from and then returning to a scout camping trip with my son. Nothing better on God’s green earth than Ron Franklin doing a Saturday night game. In contrast, I had plans last Saturday night and I do again this Saturday night.
One of Ron’s trademarks was his insistance at calling the snap of a field goal back to the holder a “pass”–which it is. He is also one of the few people associated with football that correctly knows that there is no such thing as what is commonly referred to as a lateral. There are backward passes and forward passes–no such thing as a lateral.
Before there was such a thing as the yellow line, Ron was always careful to tell us that the “line to make” was on every play. We needed that.
Mike Patrick is not a bad guy. And the much maligned Paul Maguire isn’t so bad on the college games. Is it possible that Theismann may have been the problem on those Sunday night games?
I only hope that Ron Franklin knows how much he is loved. And missed.
September 22nd, 2006 at 11:43 pm
52
Post-Munson idle speculation « Get The Picture says:
[...] for some reason, ESPN has steadily soured on him over the past few years (he’ll be calling Big XII games this year – lousy time slot), so maybe [...]
June 21st, 2007 at 5:02 am