No doubt Bob is a TN lifer, and he worked his whole professional life to get the job he has. He does a decent job, but most of us were spoiled on the brilliance of John Ward. I think most of the problem people have with him, besides name pronunciation (and lets be honest, that's more parents' fault than his), is his relative impartiality to what is happening, no matter who's got the ball...
..Here's my theory, Bob spent most of the first part of his life as a sideline reporter, and calling games from the booth for Raycom / Jefferson-Pilot, etc. where he honed his craft calling games where he had to be impartial, it was built into his job description. After 20 + years its hard to get away from that, and that's why I think he surrounds himself with excitable guys like Tim and Bert, to fill in on the rah-rah stuff and the visceral reactions. Contrast that with John Ward and Bill. Bill is a treasure, but spoke mostly in sentence fragments, and an occasional "whoo", when John wasn't painting the complete picture. That being said, I think Bob gets a bad rap. He does get excited from time to time, and he has busted his butt pulling double duty for 22 years and whatever other functions in between, and brings the same level of dignity to the job that John did....When its all said and done, his name should be up there with John, Lindsey, Gus, Haywood and other program lifers.
**now go ahead and hit me with the "is that you, Bob?" replies.
..Here's my theory, Bob spent most of the first part of his life as a sideline reporter, and calling games from the booth for Raycom / Jefferson-Pilot, etc. where he honed his craft calling games where he had to be impartial, it was built into his job description. After 20 + years its hard to get away from that, and that's why I think he surrounds himself with excitable guys like Tim and Bert, to fill in on the rah-rah stuff and the visceral reactions. Contrast that with John Ward and Bill. Bill is a treasure, but spoke mostly in sentence fragments, and an occasional "whoo", when John wasn't painting the complete picture. That being said, I think Bob gets a bad rap. He does get excited from time to time, and he has busted his butt pulling double duty for 22 years and whatever other functions in between, and brings the same level of dignity to the job that John did....When its all said and done, his name should be up there with John, Lindsey, Gus, Haywood and other program lifers.
**now go ahead and hit me with the "is that you, Bob?" replies.
