This weekend Atlanta welcomes the top four remaining college basketball teams in the NCAA March Madness tournament - Florida, Georgetown, Ohio State and UCLA. And Saturday the Final Four will begin in the Georgia Dome.
Unfortunately, I will not be covering the event, but that's OK. Instead, I'll be watching the game on my brand new television - with the mute button firmly ON.
Why? Two words - Billy Packer.
For those of you unfamiliar with the aforementioned name, I envy you because I wish I didn't know who Billy Packer was, either.
Packer is a sportscaster for CBS, the station responsible for showing the Final Four and the NCAA national title game on Monday. He's covered every NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship since 1974, including the Final Four.
Packer is a bitter, sad man. I suppose Dick Vitale has a little to do with this, since at one point Packer was actually the face of college basketball. But this was before Vitale became more popular around the mid-1990s.
It's like Burger King with Packer - the only way he sees it is his way, so that's the only way you the viewer is going to get it. Granted, sometimes he actually does provide valid points; however, for the most part he comes across as a school yard bully on the sidelines.
But it is so blatantly obvious as to which team Packer is pulling for each night on-air, and this is a major reason why I feel he is hurting the game rather than helping it.
If you enjoy constant negativity and second guessing regarding every single decision made on the court by coaches, players and referees, then Packer is your man. The words "I don't agree with that play at all" or "Oh, I don't agree with that call" erupt from his mouth during every stinkin' game, making it a very unpleasant experience to watch - and this weekend should be no different.
There are numerous mishaps involving Packer during his controversial career
In 1996, Packer remarked on-air that Georgetown's Allen Iverson was playing like a "tough monkey" during a game between Villanova and Georgetown.
In 2000, Packer publicly apologized to several Duke students after making sexist remarks to them before a basketball game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Several years later and during a live broadcast, Packer and St. Joseph's head coach Phil Martelli engaged in a heated spat regarding why Martelli's team had received a No. 1 seed by the NCAA selection committee.
And quite possibly one of the most ridiculous and most absurd things I have ever heard anyone say came on March 4 when Duke visited North Carolina, hosted by none other than CBS and Mr. Packer.
After an obvious intentional foul by Duke's Gerald Henderson on UNC's Tyler Hansbrough - a blow in which it left Hansbrough with a bloodied broken nose and loosened teeth - Packer repeatedly insisted the foul was "clearly unintentional."
Despite Packer's stubbornness and stupidity, Henderson was ejected for the flagrant foul and even had to sit out the first game of the ACC tournament.
And during the Kansas-Kentucky matchup in this year's NCAA tournament, Packer insisted he had never touched broadcaster Jim Nantz while watching a basketball game. The strange moment came after a promo Nantz read for "60 Minutes," featuring a story on American Idol judge Simon Cowell.
Packer got the wrong impression that Cowell's "inappropriateness" concerned physical interaction with other people - a mistake a 5-year-old wouldn't even have made.
Type "fire Billy Packer" on Google and you get approximately 294,000 hits. There are even Web sites with petitions that you can electronically sign advocating his dismissal from CBS, in which thousands have already actually signed.
This year the CBS tournament ratings are averaging 6.2 percent of U.S. households, which is down 7 percent from 2005. I'm willing to bet Packer might even have something to do with that, although he would dismiss the notion as nonsense.
There are plenty of talented college basketball analysts who could easily step into Packer's place (i.e. Jay Bilas, Doug Gottlieb, Vitale).
In the meantime, I'll be watching the tube in complete and utter silence - unless some of those Peyton Manning commercials air - then I'll turn it up because those are pretty darn funny.
Unfortunately, I will not be covering the event, but that's OK. Instead, I'll be watching the game on my brand new television - with the mute button firmly ON.
Why? Two words - Billy Packer.
For those of you unfamiliar with the aforementioned name, I envy you because I wish I didn't know who Billy Packer was, either.
Packer is a sportscaster for CBS, the station responsible for showing the Final Four and the NCAA national title game on Monday. He's covered every NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship since 1974, including the Final Four.
Packer is a bitter, sad man. I suppose Dick Vitale has a little to do with this, since at one point Packer was actually the face of college basketball. But this was before Vitale became more popular around the mid-1990s.
It's like Burger King with Packer - the only way he sees it is his way, so that's the only way you the viewer is going to get it. Granted, sometimes he actually does provide valid points; however, for the most part he comes across as a school yard bully on the sidelines.
But it is so blatantly obvious as to which team Packer is pulling for each night on-air, and this is a major reason why I feel he is hurting the game rather than helping it.
If you enjoy constant negativity and second guessing regarding every single decision made on the court by coaches, players and referees, then Packer is your man. The words "I don't agree with that play at all" or "Oh, I don't agree with that call" erupt from his mouth during every stinkin' game, making it a very unpleasant experience to watch - and this weekend should be no different.
There are numerous mishaps involving Packer during his controversial career
In 1996, Packer remarked on-air that Georgetown's Allen Iverson was playing like a "tough monkey" during a game between Villanova and Georgetown.
In 2000, Packer publicly apologized to several Duke students after making sexist remarks to them before a basketball game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Several years later and during a live broadcast, Packer and St. Joseph's head coach Phil Martelli engaged in a heated spat regarding why Martelli's team had received a No. 1 seed by the NCAA selection committee.
And quite possibly one of the most ridiculous and most absurd things I have ever heard anyone say came on March 4 when Duke visited North Carolina, hosted by none other than CBS and Mr. Packer.
After an obvious intentional foul by Duke's Gerald Henderson on UNC's Tyler Hansbrough - a blow in which it left Hansbrough with a bloodied broken nose and loosened teeth - Packer repeatedly insisted the foul was "clearly unintentional."
Despite Packer's stubbornness and stupidity, Henderson was ejected for the flagrant foul and even had to sit out the first game of the ACC tournament.
And during the Kansas-Kentucky matchup in this year's NCAA tournament, Packer insisted he had never touched broadcaster Jim Nantz while watching a basketball game. The strange moment came after a promo Nantz read for "60 Minutes," featuring a story on American Idol judge Simon Cowell.
Packer got the wrong impression that Cowell's "inappropriateness" concerned physical interaction with other people - a mistake a 5-year-old wouldn't even have made.
Type "fire Billy Packer" on Google and you get approximately 294,000 hits. There are even Web sites with petitions that you can electronically sign advocating his dismissal from CBS, in which thousands have already actually signed.
This year the CBS tournament ratings are averaging 6.2 percent of U.S. households, which is down 7 percent from 2005. I'm willing to bet Packer might even have something to do with that, although he would dismiss the notion as nonsense.
There are plenty of talented college basketball analysts who could easily step into Packer's place (i.e. Jay Bilas, Doug Gottlieb, Vitale).
In the meantime, I'll be watching the tube in complete and utter silence - unless some of those Peyton Manning commercials air - then I'll turn it up because those are pretty darn funny.
