Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
There was nothing technically wrong with what Wills said, save for his suggestion that Mike Smith has wrestled back the starting job with a couple decent performances. I thought that was jumping the gun, and attributed it to his overtly favorable view of Smith. But where Wills erred was in taking it personal. He was clearly rattled, and the moment he said “the difference between you and me...” I thought he had lost the debate.
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Wills can't be looked upon for an objective fact-based opinion on the Flames on any manor that is not positive. His role as play-by-play broadcaster of the Flames makes it inherently prerequisite to have an optimistic view (or at least an outwardly optimistic view in public) of everything Calgary Flames. He has to travel with the team and at times even represent the Flames brand in public at various venues. That's part of the deal with Fan960 being a rights holder and Wills being a recent add as voice of the Flames. The second he's in there agreeing with Pinder or acknowledging a non-rose colored glasses reality he's probably immediately fired upon request of the Flames. There's simply only 30 other equivalent jobs out there in the NHL and he would have extreme difficulty getting another one.
We always laugh at Kevin Quinn and his call of Oilers games in March every year with the team way out of it, putting on the brave face, amplifying his voice on every Oiler shot on goal as if it's a quality scoring chance. Quite honestly, if the Flames were ever that bad for that long, you'd still see their on-air personalities carry water for the team and from a career / personal level I can't blame them. Too few jobs and far too much competition for people vying for them (Secondary to dreaming of actually being an athlete, every sports fan has probably dreamed of being a sportscaster).
On the other hand in today's 'hot take' sports coverage universe, Pinder's career arc is actually positively correlated to the amount of outrage generated, manufactured or fact-based.