The title of an expert is one that every other sports analyst seems to have. However, I have watched sports for a majority of my life and I see these analysts who have been dubbed as experts get information wrong.

“There’s a lot of guys that are talking heads on TV or so-called experts just because they were a Division I football player. They don’t know what they are talking about,” California Lutheran University’s Head Football Coach Ben McEnroe said. “You just have to watch a pregame show on any given network and you’re going to find somebody who doesn’t know what they are talking about.”

Being a former player does not make you an expert on the game you are covering. There have been too many times during sports broadcasts where the panel will be full of former players and only one knows what they are talking about.

You even have Sports Illustrated magazine, which arguably should be the most accurate out of the bunch, saying that the decision between Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert and Cam Newton would be the, “toughest call in football.”

Any sports fan knows that hasn’t exactly been the case as Locker retired at the age of 25 and Gabbert is a free agent quarterback who won’t be more than a solid backup in the NFL for the remainder of his career.

Stephen A. Smith is a big face of ESPN, but when it comes to his expert predictions it’s a bit of a different story. He talks about the NBA mostly and from the things he says you’d think the man is an expert.

Well, the expert has picked the wrong winner in each of the last six NBA finals.

Mashable.com even made a chart of analysts and their percentage of correct predictions in NFL games. None of them scored higher than 60%, and more than half of the ones they ranked were below 50%.

There are very few experts in all fields especially with sports. Every other analyst is labeled an expert and that word is very misleading.

So the next time you see someone labeled as an expert, make sure you conduct your own research. Don’t be gullible and believe everything you hear or read.

Gabriel Naudin
Staff Writer