Sports on the air
Guerrero's looks offset fumbles
By JOHN C. COTEY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 12, 2003
As far as debuts go, Lisa Guerrero's first week as Monday Night Football's newest sideline reporter went about as well as, say, Philadelphia's.
The former cheerleader has been savaged by critics for her performance in the Sept. 4 and Monday night games, starting with her now infamous baffling of Redskins quarterback Patrick Ramsey by asking, "I saw you talking to Laveranues Coles, your ex-teammate (before the game). What did he say to you?"
Ramsey and Coles are new teammates who hooked up several times against Coles' former team in 60 minutes of football that Guerrero somehow ... missed?
Inexcusable, really, but you wanted to forgive her, and write it off as first-game jitters. Then came Monday's ridiculous report on Bucs center John Wade's sweaty butt ("We have to keep an eye on the situation."), the constant glancing at her notepad and tossing around meaningless medical terms.
It was enough to make some want to stick their plantar fascia through the TV.
I confess - I thought she would be better only because, well, she wasn't this bad on the Best Damn Sports Show, Period. There she was calm, cool, held her own and sometimes even ad-libbed.
Week 1, she fell apart. Her week went so poorly that people actually forgot her FHM lingerie photo spread hit newsstands during the weekend. And if you've seen the pictures, replacing that as water-cooler talk is quite an accomplishment.
Still mentally scarred by the Dennis Miller-Eric Dickerson era, some critics are calling for her head. But other than noticing that, yes, she is really, really bad, does anyone watching at home honestly care?
If ABC thought they did, surely it would have hired Suzy Kolber, one of the few female sportscasters revered by men for more ESPN talent such as Michelle Tafoya and Pam Ward. Maybe promote its own Samantha Ryan. Steal away the underrated and overcriticized Jill Arrington from CBS. Or maybe hire - gasp! - a man.
Then again, it's not as if ABC doesn't care at all, or we could've gotten Britney Spears sideline lip-synching (with less flashy, more mature Lesley Visser as the voiceover).
ABC falls somewhere in between Kolber and Spears. It cares just enough to provide eye candy in the guise of sportscaster, instead of an actual sportscaster.
And so what? For a few minutes a night on Mondays (and even less if Guerrero keeps fumbling), there's a break from Al Michaels sounding bored and John Madden pointing out the obvious. The male viewers MNF targets get a pleasant view, and she can be fun to listen to in a Jessica Simpson sort of way.
I mean, what will she say next?
Maybe in Week 2 she asks Bill Parcells if his Giants can beat Dallas. Maybe she looks down at her notepad and forgets to look back up. Maybe she has a nervous breakdown.
It's just one week. One very bad week. But the Eagles aren't going to go 0-16 based on Monday night's performance.
It should be fun watching if Guerrero does.
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