The Sky Sports NFL pundit Nick Halling yesterday published a strange article on the NFLUK.com website ostensibly looking ahead to the uncertain future of the NFL, but one that ended up being a passive aggressive attack on his detractors.
Regular visitors to the site will be familiar with the large amount of negative content targeted at Sky's coverage of the game and Halling himself. As I don't have access to Sky, my opinions on Halling are largely based around the work he does on the NFLUK podcast, Inside the Huddle.
Much of the criticism of Halling stems from his supposed bias for his favourite team, the Pittsburgh Steelers. And when he talks about the Steelers there is clearly an intensity to his love for the side. When Pittsburgh are playing on Sky, Halling tends to let his colours shine through rather too vividly for some people's liking.
I can live with that. Whether a sports pundit should ever come out openly as a fan of any team is another matter, but Halling supporting the Steelers shouldn't necessarily cloud the judgement of his analysis.
However, having listened to his breakdown of many games, he does seem to have certain personal prejudices against figures within the game, such as the questioning of the methods of Patriots coach Bill Belichick in the AFC Divisional game against the Jets in benching Wes Welker:
'Well you know what I think about Belichick. The man lives in his own weird world. If they ever did a psychological evaluation of Bill Belichick, he'd be a care in the community case.'
For a prominent pundit on the game to come out and make such extreme statements about one of the leading coaches, even if it were in jest, is showing a serious lack of tact.
More frustrating still is the vague air of arrogance that surrounds the analysis on occasion. Halling has worked in the sport for so long that his knowledge clearly outweighs the majority of us, but the manner in which he delivers information can come across in an abrasive fashion. For example when commenting on a key interception made by Jarrett Bush in the Super Bowl, Halling referred to the relatively obscure player with matey familiarity as a 'smashing fella', an endorsement which rightly or wrongly doesn't ring true.
So Halling doesn't always offer the most in-depth analysis available, but maybe this is unfairly stretching his remit. His role on Sky is to be a familiar face that can make the game more accessible to the more casual fan, a job he does well.
To write an article wallowing in self-pity comes across as unprofessional at best. Whilst there is undoubtedly an disproportionate percentage of bile aimed at Sky's coverage in general in the forums at NFLUK, this criticism should always be taken with a pinch of salt.
The internet is awash with forums full of people whose sole pleasure in life is attacking anything and everything produced by someone else, and when much of the content is written in semi-literate English and adds nothing constructive, it is best considered void as an opinion.
Given this, the idea that Halling reads the spam and troll-infested NFLUK forums at all is surprising, and more surprising still that such comments would personally hurt him. The modern journalist needs a thicker skin; the new interactive media world has changed dramatically to that in which Halling began his career.
Halling has contributed a significant amount to the growth of interest in the sport in Britain, and it would be a shame for him to turn his back on the game now, and more so in such a disappointing way.
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