How do sports commentators remember everyone’s names?

Question

Do they have to do a tonne of research on each player before the game and how do they recognise players from lesser known nations?

In: 17

Answer 1

Often they meet the players before the games. It’s easier to remember somebody’s name if you have had several conversations with them. And a lot of times, the same commentators cover the same teams. Even still, they have cheat sheets. They also know which player is in which position, which helps a lot.

Take Division 1 college football. Each team can have 85 scholarship players. Let’s say you have commentators who normally broadcast games from the Southeastern Conference, which has 14 teams. 14 teams x 85 players per team equals over a thousand names. That’s a lot.

But, the commentator knows that right now, Auburn and Georgia are playing. So that cuts it down quite a bit. They also know that one team is on offense, and the other is on defense. So you don’t need to worry about the name of Auburn’s wide receivers when their team’s defense is on the field. Plus, they talk to the coaches before the game, and the coach often tells the commentators if he’s got any trick plays up his sleeve. So if the commentator sees #87 walk out onto the field with #32, he knows something special might happen.

A really good college football team might have 3 or 4 big stars on offense, and maybe 3 or 4 on defense. So the commentator will definitely know their names (#6 is quarterback Don Stevens, #20 is runningback Carl Johnson, etc). And if you see somebody in that position who *isn’t* wearing that number, then you know they switched him out for somebody else and you check the cheat sheet.

There are plenty of players on the team who the commentator doesn’t know. If a bunch of injuries happen and the third string linebacker ends up on the field, the commentator isn’t going to just rattle his name off from memory. But they’ve got a staff passing them notes and whispering in their ear, saying “that’s Doug Smith, a sophomore from Dry Creek, Nevada.” And commentators are good at just keeping the flow going so you don’t even notice.