You'll have heard them called 'the perils of live television': the term producers, presenters, and contributors attach to the phenomenon of people royally screwing up, and having their shortcomings and malapropisms shoved to the front of half the world's consciousness.
Given that a larger proportion of it is broadcast live than virtually any other genre of TV, Sports presenter meltdowns are more frequent than most others.
Here are some of our favourites:
Sports Presenter Meltdowns: Boom Goes The Dynamite
The daddy of all sports presenter meltdowns. The network was Ball State University's student-run channel, and the presenter was Brian Collins. It was Collins' first stab at on-camera work, and unfortunately for him, it's managed to garner 11,4 million views on YouTube. Collins came across as utterly petrified, and seemed unable to keep up with his autocue, leading to long periods of excruciating silence.
What catapulted this clip to viral immortality, however, was a further, exasperating addition. Collins tried to add some ESPN-style bombast to the highlight clips, and managed to conjure up the Holy Grail for American TV fame: the Catchphrase. A piece of incredibly vague commentary 'and he passes it to the man' was scrubbed from history by the four words that followed:
'Boom Goes The Dynamite', delivered in an incongruously meek tone, earned Collins brief fame, including appearances on David Letterman, and a parody on Family Guy:
Sports Presenter Meltdowns: Mean Gene Vs Falling Poster
A nine-second clip, but glorious nonetheless. We love how Gene stays in 'booming sportscaster' character even when giving out to production staff. We like the idea that Gene ordered his coffee in that voice.
Sports Presenter Meltdowns: Charlie Nicholas
If you're going to land a gig on Soccer Saturday, then be ready for a Blizzard of B****r. Poor Charlie wasn't.
Sports Presenter Meltdowns: Jim Everett
Here's Jim Rome acting like a moron. The presenter had Jim Everett on his show, after the NFL QB was going through a dodgy patch of form. He appeared on Rome's show after being sacked a number of times against the San Francisco 49ers when playing with the San Diego Chargers.
He had been hit so often that suffered "shellshock", and at one point in the game, when dropping into the pocket, collapsed to the ground in anticipation of a hit, before ever he was met by the 49ers' defensive line.
Jim Rome decided it would be funny to call him 'Chris', in reference to female tennis player Chris Evert. Jim Everett took exception. (We think the Curb soundtrack came was added in post-production).
Sports Presenter Meltdowns - Nick Collins
Man falls off ladder.
Sports Presenter Meltdowns: Dan Marino
Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino is perhaps the greatest NFL quarterback never to win a Superbowl, but judging by this clip, it wasn't for a lack of professional standards: fluffing his intro brought about a very angry reaction.
SEE ALSO: Roy Keane Throws Incredible Shade At Spurs For Amazon Documentary
