NBC Fires Bud Collins

Via On the Baseline:

Bud Collins, who has been the face and voice of tennis journalism for decades, has been fired from NBC Sports.

The official reason? Time to go in a new direction.

Oh THAT explains it.

Not. Just what the hail does that mean? What direction? What does this babble say?

"A new direction" - where have I heard that line before?

I HAVE heard that line before. In a very bad place. It's kinda like the one about needing "new blood."

For what, pray tell?

People with legitimate and defensible reasons for what they do aren't so euphemistically glib.

The media ratings fall. In the overcrowded lifeboat the old guy is the first scapegoat to get thrown overboard.

They need a new direction all right. And they can start by cleansing journalism of fiction writing technique. But they never will admit that. They'll just keep finding scapegoats.

Bud contributed something unique to tennis coverage with his anecdotes and characterizations, plus a perspective that reaches back four decades to the birth of the Open Era. NBC thinks it needs to get of that special contibution right now, like it's an emergency or something.

Wow, this firing will save NBC a lot of money you know.

Read the rest of You can't Be Serious! to learn more about Bud's contribution to the game. Weigh in with NBC via email.

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