ABSTRACT
The discourse of the TV sports commentators provides a model of sports consumption which reinforces the mode of attention demanded by postindustrial work. As with most television programming, the soundtrack of any televised sports event is addressed simultaneously to the attentive spectator and the distracted fan. In TV sports, the commentators in particular mediate between the flow of sports programming and the distractions of the viewing situation. The direct address of the commentators is thus central to the discursive organization of the sports narrative, and to the placement of spectators in relation to the sports metatext, and to each other (Rose and Friedman, 1997, p. 5).
