Speech Events in Football

Watching football on tv, for someone with a slight to medium grasp of the English language, can sometimes be a painful experience. Commentators are usually a combination of verbose "old-school" journalists and barely literate ex-players who have taken one too many shots to the head. Needless to say the favorite code used by commentators (as Hymes describes it) are cliches. "Football speak" is full of them. It is literally impossible to watch a televised football game without hearing a multitude of horrible similies and metaphors. It's almost as if the speakers do not recognize the linguistic context of the situation. We as the audience are in a position of power because we do not just hear the commentators like we would if the game were only broadcast on radio, but rather we see the action first hand and are able to judge the commentators based on how well they tell us about what we are already watching. It sounds kind of ridiculous. Football commentary is, therefore, primarily referential, but I can't help but feeling that the commentators are really trying to build rapport with the audience, creating some sort of false phatic communion.