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Friedman Still One Of The Best

August 13, 2016, 6:25 PM ET [218 Comments]
Matt Henderson
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
It’s the summer – the middle of August – and I’m spending a lot of my evenings and weekends watching high level sport with Elliotte Friedman calling the action. I can’t think of a better way to enjoy these Olympics than listening to Elliotte call the action in the pool, but a huge mistake by Hockey Night in Canada’s brightest star while calling a Phelps Gold medal win opened him up to huge criticism. From what I could see, the Canadian audience kept that criticism to themselves and offered up compassion instead. Damn rights, Canada.



What you can see in the video above is Michael Phelps dominating the field in the 200 individual medley on his way to Gold as Ryan Lochte fails to make the podium. What you can hear in the video is Friedman making a passionate call as Ryan Lochte finally beats his fellow countryman and the most decorated man in the history of the Olympic games, Michael Phelps. And if that had actually happened then damn that call would be one for the ages.

Friedman was mixed up on the lanes and he thought Phelps was Lochte and vice versa. How do you mix up who Michael Phelps is? He’s the greatest swimmer of our generation and almost certainly of all time. Well, Friedman’s colour man mixed the two of them up part of the way through the race and really lead him down the wrong path. I was watching live and was definitely confused by the time the race was done and “Lochte” finished first but “Phelps” appeared on the screen.

As soon as he had a chance he put this out on Twitter:




Michael Rosenberg of Sports Illustrated asked Friedman about the mix-up but Friedman refused to blame anyone but himself for making the mistake. In the interview, which you can read here, Friedman was obviously still shaken by the mistake. He didn’t have long after the Phelps race before he had to call Oleksiak’s Gold medal winning performance. He goes on to tell Rosenberg that if he had failed to properly call Oleksiak’s race then he would have quit in the morning. “If I didn’t say that she’d won the gold, I would have been on a flight this morning and I would have gone home. I would have quit. There’s no question in my mind.”

I have long felt that Friedman has been Rogers’ best reporter and overall best asset in their Hockey broadcast. While the bombastic Kypreos, overly hip Strombopolous, and perpetually dismissive Shannon would each take turns trying to have the best sound-byte, Friedman’s focus has always been on accuracy and sound reasoning. Whatever circus performance he’s dropped into he always maintains a level of professionalism that befits a journalist in his position. And you can see how important those standards are to him when he talks about why the mistake he made rocked him so much:

“I’m not gonna lie to you. I believe that there is a certain standard that’s required to broadcast the Olympic Games. I don’t even feel that badly for myself. I feel badly that I let my network down. That’s the thing I feel the worst about.”

The mistake at the pool is probably the lowest point of Elliotte Friedman’s professional career, but it’s such an abnormal performance and he’s such a consummate pro that I’ll never hold it against him. I think we’re lucky to have someone who holds himself to the standards Friedman holds himself to. There’s a reason the response to Friedman’s apology was so overwhelmingly compassionate. It’s because he’s one of the best in the business.

Had the same mistake been done by a different announcer I’m not sure that person would have escaped with almost an entire nation still in their corner. The quality of his work really stands out to me. I can’t speak for anyone else, but his voice at these Olympics, mistakes and all, have cemented in my mind that Friedman ought to be the voice of sport in Canada the way Armitage and MacLean were before him.

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