First on SBI
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Just weeks after ESPN made the decision to remove Eric Wynalda from its broadcast team for MLS and U.S. national team games, the network has completely severed ties with the controversial analyst.
Sources have told SBI that ESPN and Wynalda have parted ways after weeks of negotiations to find a new role for Wynalda. The original plan was to have Wynalda work on Champions League broadcasts but the network and Wynalda could not agree on his role. It is believed that ESPN bought out the remaining year on Wynalda’s contract.
Wynalda sparked controversy for several remarks he made, both on and off the air. He was reprimanded by ESPN for comments he made about Jim Rome a year ago and last fall SBI reported on an unfortunate remarks Wynalda made during an MLS playoff game. Wynalda only made things worse for himself when he followed up that comment with his own explanation to SBI of what happened that night. An explanation several sources confirmed was completely fabricated by Wynalda.
Wynalda had his share of fans who loved his brash and outspoken style, but he also had several detractors who hated his over the top approach.
So what next for Wynalda? Don’t be surprised to see him wind up in San Jose as part of the Earthquakes broadcast team, assuming he doesn’t just take some time off to spend his buyout money.
What do you think of this development? Are you sad to see Wynalda leave ESPN? Are you happy he won’t be ruining Champions League matches? Are you eager to see him back on air soon? Share your thoughts below.
One night with Harkes should make it clear he will be missed. He was terrible and irritating – Waldo was usually just irritating.
Why can’t we just hire a quality european and get over the idea it has to be an american? They can learn the players and won’t be influenced by previous relationships.
Every EPL broadcast on FSC is better then what we can possibly hope for.
Give it up on the California comments, Ives. It’s all a little ridiculous.
A satire by Joe D. Shaw
I Dim Wome am wwiting to wefute dhe wumor dat I dewiberatewy avoided being pwesent on my wadio show for dhe interview with Steben Cohen,socca authowity of Fox Football Fone-in on FSC. Dr. Wupert Cownbwatt, my shwink, can vewify that I,King of Bwowhawd Wadio, was under his cawe dat day. He and I awe twying to figuwe out why I go bawwistic about socca;and why I have wecuwwing dweams dat Ewic Wynalda is shooting socca bawws at me while I’m in a stwaight jacket. Not ownwy dat but he is cawwing me a wight wing wunatic and a degenewate cwetin. I admit that I hate wibewils wike Winda Wondstadt and I often have fwunkies caww in to set up a contwibed comedy wiff that wacks owiginawity and any humowous mewit. My pwobwems stem being booted fwom so many cowweges ’cause I could not keep my twap shut. I can’t wemembew if I went to Santa Cwawa, Santa Bawbwa, or Santa Cwaus. So fowgive me Steben Cohen, but things would have gotten ugwy if I had been pwesent to heaw youw Engwish accent. Dr. Cownbwatt says I am neawing a bweakthwough…or a bweakdown. Lets twy again next yeaw if it is not a bweakdown.
Youws Twuly,
Dim Wome aka L’l Dim
A satire by Joe D. Shaw
I liked Wynalda – a refreshing change. I hope they don’t get rid of Foudie – she is pretty outspoken. I have never liked Rob Stone, why don’t they get rid of him.
Im kinda upset to see Wynalda let go. He was honest and a little cocky but knew his stuff. I never understood why people hated on him all the time. Would you rather listen to somebody with no personality or that sideline geek allen hopkins (i think thats his name) Wynalda was the best ex-player commentator we have ever had in soccer. Somebody had to put Rome in his place and then he got blasted for it. The funny thing is, I couldnt stand him as a player…..Go U.S!
Inspite of Eric Wynalda’s contributions to U.S. Soccer, I am glad I won’t have to listen to his endless comments anymore. I hope he can get another soccer-related job, but one where he won’t be able to insult people’s intelligence with his endless offering of personal opinions…
And I hope his replacement will assist me, in a professional manner, in watching the games, recognizing the players, and will allow me to judge for myself whether a pass or shot or save or substitution etc were good.
I really enjoyed Wynalda on the games. I didn’t always agree with him, but I liked the way he had an opinion, put it out there, (usually) supported it, and was willing to defend it. Did he get everything right? Nope. But who does.
The laundry list of live broadcast analysts who were worse than Wynalda is very, very long. Dick Vitale springs immediately to mind. Tommy Heinsohn, Joe Theismann, Ron Jaworski, the entire Raycom Sports college football broadcast team, Bryan Gumbel, and that’s just in about 8 seconds of thought. No, those aren’t soccer guys, but that’s my point – in sports where the broadcast pool is much deeper, there are still crappy analysts.
I really enjoyed Wynalda when he used to guest on the ESPN morning shows – occasional sub co-host on Mike nad Mike, and random appearances on Colin Cowherd’s show. He was fun and engaging on those shows, and I wish he’d been able to do more radio. Sadly, now that he’s cut ties with ESPN, even if he does get on radio, it won’t be ESPN.
thank god wynalda is gone. he made marcelo balboa look like gene sheperd.
thank god wynalda is gone. he made marcelo balboa look like gene sheperd.
Not sure I understand all the anti-Tommy Smyth sentiment. I generally like his commentary and he at least has a sense of the game’s European roots.
ESPN is not ready for Ray Hudson. People won’t understand his genius until a couple decades have passed. And I shudder to think about watching Real Madrid with no Ray Hudson because GolTV’s lineup is VERY thin.
Interesting. We started out with an overwhelming consensus that Wynalda being gone is a good thing. Now the Wynalda fans are everywhere.
I will say this. A lot of the people speaking up on behalf of Wynalda are mostly correct in what they are saying about his positives. Such as being outspoken, passionate, and the fact that almost no one is that much worse etc., but they seem to want to overlook major flaws. Such as derailing the commentary on the game to make it his own personal talk show, his understanding of the game being pretty bad for someone who was a professional player, his ridiculous bias, and even though it’s good to be outspoken when so many in the profession are so dull and pandering, you can’t be constantly getting into personal conflicts with your co-commentators during a game. It’s one thing for announcers to be dull and clueless, but he was making each game a showcase for his ego.
How many of you loved the “Old Onion Bag” and “I know a lot more about the game than you boyo!” Tommy Smyth vs the “Why is everyone an idiot but me?” and “Hey, Tommy, your making yourself look self look like an idiot with that onion bag comment” Eric Wynalda matchup? As bad as Tommy Smyth is, at least he realized a game was on and tried to stay focused on it.
Then there was all of Wynalda’s trash talking about Arena. Then when he gets in the booth with him we hear nothing but “That’s a great point Bruce” or “that’s a really nice tie Bruce”. Wynalda at least had enough sense to avoid conflict with Arena in the booth because despite what some people may think about Arena, Wynalda is a soccer half wit compared to Arena and he would have been embarrassed badly by Arena if he had trotted out all of that soccer “knowledge” that only works on the people he usually shares the booth with, who seem like they just started watching soccer the day before.
I guess the bottom line is that we desperately need better soccer announcers and personalities, but Wynalda, overall, was not really helping.
I believe that to be an announcer you have to have professional training in boradcasting. I know many ex-professionals in many sports are given the opportunity to be commentators because of their celebrity. Hoewever, it does’t seem like some of them do their homework. I look at Emmit Smith on National Television and ponder, what are they thinking? Wynalda is the same way only with a much more overinflated ego and a false sense of confidence. I don’t think he reads enough about soccer and its history. Most of his comments are as if he was actually on the field playing and responding to situations. He often criticise officials which as a commentator he needs to be a proponent of all aspect of the game. Bashing players and officials is not doing the game any favors. Being objective in not in his nature. Yes, he is a member of one of the most successful generations of soccer players in our country but he is a long way from being a professional journalist in the area of broadcasting matches. I aggree with ESPN on letting Eric Wynalda go. I would have done it after the firs season. He’s not suited for that profession.
I loved how Wynalda spoke is mind. He didn’t get along with Tommy Smith it seemed though. I just hope Balboa doesn’t get more air-time.
Wynalda brought passion to American soccer, both on the pitch and in the booth. This intensity (widely used by European broadcasters) has yet to be replicated in the U.S. by any other soccer commentator. I think it is a mistake to let Wynalda go.
Oh, and I heard Max say a couple of weeks ago Tayran, Eeeran and had nooooo idea what he was talking about. Feel free to tone down your attempts at accents Max . . .
Umm . . . Stoner and Wynalda are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than one Max “root for the Mexicans (or whoever the Americans are playing today)” Bretos who can’t even seem to research an MLS team (other than the Galaxy) before broadcasting a match. LarentoVicz? Really now . . .
Hudson’s delivery is sharper than a porcupine’s backside.
I liked Wynalda.
Ray Hudson is MAGISTERIAL!
Good riddance, both of them! I hated their commentating. When will our soccer announcers understand they should be talking about the action as it happens? The game is the draw, I prefer understated announcers that let the game do the talking. JP is definitely the better direction.
The Eric Wynaldas, Rob Stones and Max Bretoses of the world make watching FSC/ESPN broadcasts so brutal — and make soccer in the U.S. seem so amateurish and desperate. I so enjoy watching the EPL on FSC because the announcers understand the game, comment primarily/only on the game and feel no obligation to apologize/compensate for the fact that soccer is slower and more strategic than, say, basketball.
I really hope some talent can emerge stateside, or that we can import some announcers who don’t get in the way of the games.
Thank God – he was atrocious.
Wynalda is a studio guy, and will get hired by either FSC or Gol (and be a major improvement over their current studio talent).
ESPN IS AFRAID, and maybe they should be. They are under the glass eye, they run from controversy, and they don’t want something as small as “soccer” causing issues within their fraternity. IT SUCKS that ESPN is letting Eric go, HE IS my favorite commentator because he’s not afraid to say it as he sees it, to stand up for what he believes in, and NOBODY can match his passion in the booth. Good Luck in what’s next Eric. You will be missed on MLS Primetime.
ESPN, please don’t put the fat englishman in the booth. He maybe a good analysis, but he sucks as a commentator.
Ives, does this development make you happy? How long have you been waiting?
You did an exemplary job of exploiting his comment.
According to Bueno and Cardenas, you and Wynalda haven’t been on the best of terms since October.
Maybe FSC is hiring? I liked/disliked Wynalda. Sometimes he was annoying, sometimes spot on. Maybe a bit better than Max Bretos is. 🙂
I will not miss him in the booth, but I always liked him in the halftime or pre-game analyst role. That is where he shines, ’cause that is all about opinion. But I also think his color commentary style was hampered by his inability to hide his dislike for Tommy Smyth. And I am no TS fan, but it always seemed petty to have such beef with a leprechaun.
I didn’t mean Rob Stone is gone. I just meant he doesn’t actually do commentary, just halftime and such.
Bad for the game?
How can someone who stirs the pot in the homogeneous, boring-ass American soccer scene be bad for the game?
Bad boy? You bet. Bad for the game? No way.
I wasn’t going to comment, but the pro-Waldo camp clearly needs another vote.
He could be over the top, but I’d be hard pressed to name 3 guys I like more. Ray Hudson, Derrick Rae (who isn’t color), and … I wish he stuck around long enough to get his style a bit more under control, but our broadcast options are poorer today than yesterday. Come to FSC, Wynalda.
I wasn’t a huge fan of Wynalda as a player. But I generally like him as an analyst. His lapses in judgment like bashing a coworker (though Rome deserved it) and the fire comment just weren’t worth risking continuing the relationship. Wyanalda seems to have got paid and should land somewhere decent in time. The bigger news is O’Brien stepping back. Though improved, he still near ruined many a game for me.
I was never a big fan of his work, but really, did anyone actually take offense to the ‘looks like California’ comment? Totally had the feel of observers looking for a controversy.
I liked Wynalda in the booth. He always spoke his mind, and he knows the game. yeah, I know his abrasiveness wore on some people, but most of the time he was right. With that said I think Harkes will be very good w/ jp, if thats who’s replacing him.
count me in the “Glad to see him gone” category. I’d been emailing mls and espn for years to drop him and rob stone. between stone’s uber fan boy comments and wynalda’s inane “cause I use to play the game” comments, it was really hard to listen to the broadcasts.
wynalda, if you’re reading, I’m glad you’re gone!
Listen, Wynalda is not the problem with ESPN broadcasts. He did his job. Why doesn’t everyone watch how ESPN and Fox cover football. 90% of their color commentary guys are over the top.
I’m fairly certain that ESPN instructs their color commentary peopel to offer perspective – and the more controversial the better – rather than just analysis of the game. Even over in the UK, you see former players saying outragous things left and right.
The problem is that Wynalda crossed the line a few too many times for SoccerMom MLS.
I’ll tell you this Wynalda is annoying like a train wreck – you may not like it, but you wnat to see what he will say. I’ll take that over the human snooze bar Bruce Arena any day.
I thought Wynalda had interesting things to say, and his unabashed support of US soccer was nice. PbP wasn’t his best thing (got really annoyed at those freekick lines he’d always draw…Eric, we know where it’s going), but DOB was the real problem in the booth, not him.
And honestly, I didn’t think that much of any of the so-called “scandals”. They were all blown out of proportion.
So only putzes like Rome are allowed to have controversial opinions?
I’m hoping he’ll devote his time to a Mercury Morrisesque campaign v. Landon on why he’s still the greatest USMNT goal scorer.
@Joe_in_ND: “he was a average USA Soccer player at best.”
Um, I hate to be the one to interrupt a rant, but until very recently, he was the all-time goal-scoring leader for the national team. There’s simply no definition by which that qualifies as ‘average’
I was no great fan of Wynalda’s. I thought he tended to be overbearing, dismissive, and somewhat contemptuous. I also think that he said things just to get a rise out of people.
However, I’ll tip my hat to him for not being afraid. There was never a question as to where he stood on an issue.
I think JP is a major step up in broadcasting class, and I don’t find Harkes as abrasive, but I’ll miss Wynalda.
Now if we could only find a way to get Foudy to leave…
Wynalda could’ve been a personality to help bring soccer into the mainstream. His opinionated style really challenged the post-graduate stereotype of soccer fans. Wynalda needs to continue his involvement with the soccer media in this country somehow.
I am glad he is gone. In another 10 years with the talent we have coming up I think most wont mention his name and his scoring record will not be mentioned anymore because Landy past it and so will our up coming talent. 🙂 Laterz Whine-alda.
I don’t see what makes Wynalda “controversial”. As this thread and others shows, lots of people think he’s a poor announcer. But if that’s the defintion of controversial, you’d have to classify most sports annoucers as “controversial”.
The Rome comments were an opinion expressed in a bar – nothing more – and the notion that the California comments were controversial was just bizarre, especially since this is a league with a team (Chicago Fire) that is ACTUALLY NAMED after a disaster that killed hundreds more than last summer’s fires. The comments clearly offended no one in California. Any controversy from those comments came only after we were all told we SHOULD regard them as controversial, mostly from this blog, alas.
Anyway, he knows more about the game than I do, and though sometimes he needs to shut up, he at least speaks the English language more more less correctly. (Yes, I know in American sports broadcasting many, if not most, regard that as irrelevant) And he doesn’t speak as if he’s reading (poorly) off cue cards. So odds are the broadcast quality will now go down.
Rob Stone is gone, too?
Wynalda was awesomeness. This bites. So now there’ll be no Stoner AND no Wynalda doing the games. This was the best soccer combo we had going in my mind. Please FSC, pick him up. No one you have is better than him.
Tom Cruise?
I saw this was given as the source on the SI.com truth and rumors page. Great job Ives! Love seeing your website out there.
Wynalda had fans? As an analyst?
Look, he’s a U.S. soccer legend. And it’s great when sports analysts are not afraid to speak their mind.
However, he was a complete idiot. His genius on the field completely deserted him in the booth. I’d rather listen to Tom Cruise call a game than Wynalda.
Here is an idea…
I watched EPL fanzone the other night with my Son and we laughed our heads off. I particularly liked it when Bullard scored on the free kick and the Fulham guy says, “Moments ago, I said he should be off the field, I WAS WRONG!” We laughed so hard, we woke my wife up.
I believe there are several audio channels, wouldn’t it be interesting to have announcers that were bias for their teams?
So, if you are NYRB fans, listen to audio channel 1, if you are a DC United fan, listen to audio 2. The clubs would be responsible for finding the talent to represent their interests.
Let’s face it, the broadcasts are just too damn boring and there is no emotion in the announcers. I am thinking along the lines of the old Michigan announcer Bruford on WJR back in the 60s and 70s – he was biased, he was a fan, and he was funny as hell.
Same thing with National Team broadcasts. I want a Patriot in the booth adding some emotion to the broadcast. A fan of the team, not a monotone drone that likes to hear himself talk.
I know FSC is doing MLS fanzone…maybe the clubs should consider hiring their own and adding a little drama to the broadcast versus the…it has to be boring because that is the standard of broadcasting.
If MLS did this and made it interesting, I think it would attract a broader audience just for the entertainment value. Let’s face it, we need more Ray Hudson types saying stuff like, “That ball had red crosses all over it.”
Just an idea.
A lot of good comments on the board. Wynalda got on almost every last nerve I had with his sneering style (he sounded like an overgrown frat boy) but I appreciated the fact that he was a good booster for American soccer without being comically strident like Rob Stone (Soctober anyone? Perhaps on “The Ocho”). I especially agree with the commenter who suggested the ESPN crew be taken over to Europe and shown how they call games over there. Like the play on the field American soccer commentary and analysis lacks subtlety and nuance. Then again American commentators HAVE to be more open and amenable considering the skill level is just not the same in this country. Have you ever seen an EPL or other European announcer after a midfielder misses a SINGLE long cross or a forward shoots off-target? They seem almost personally offended. Heck, in the MLS they’d be reduced to tears by halftime.
If Wynalda has any role it’s to rile things up a little bit in the studio. He’s sort of like our Charles Barkley, an accomplished player who is smart and occasionally funny and who initially injects life into the party but who’s also a whiny, ill-prepared loudmouth who wears out his welcome quickly over a longer broadcast. Of course he also kind of reflects the way that we American soccer players often tend to be a snarky, anti-authoritarian bunch (probably an outgrowth of being ridiculed and picked on by other athletes so long ;)).
Seriously though, it’s good ESPN is moving on because the business side of the sport is growing up and the the booth needs to grow with it and show more authority. I’ve always been happy with JP and I think he’d do a solid, professional job. Foudy and her nails-on-chalkboard voice obscures her unspectacular but yeoman’s work in the booth but ESPN can also do better there as well. It seems she’s survived primarily on tokenism. At the end of the day the commentary will improve most as the quality of the American game in this country shows more improvement as well. At that point the audience and market will demand that the broadcasting begin to mature past the insecurity of hiring big names for their possible notoriety alone and more into hiring and grooming former players and coaches with better talent in front of the camera. That approach will help the most to solidify the sport’s growth and popularity and make the game experience better for everyone.