Traina Thoughts: Booger McFarland's Praise For The Bengals Didn't Sit Well With 'Monday Night Football' Viewers

Booger McFarland gets mocked for heaping praise on Bengals

1. It's usually not fair to pick out one thing a broadcaster says during a three-hour plus game and criticize him for it, unless it's very egregious.

Booger McFarland got egregious last night. For some reason, McFarland thought it was a good time to heap praise on the Bengals while they were getting blown out by the Steelers in a loss that would move them to 0-4.

The Monday Night Football analyst had nothing but positive thoughts about Cincinnati head coach, Zac Taylor. McFarland also kept comparing the Bengals to the Rams since Taylor was their quarterbacks coach last season.

While sports fans can be overly critical of broadcasters, it really doesn't sit well with them when your spin is just bizarre and non-sensical. Naturally, Twitter noticed and had a lot to say about McFarland.

“I do like what Zac Taylor is doing here In Cincinnati. I like what they’re building. I like their energy that Zac Taylor has brought from the West Coast to the East Coast.” — Booger

What energy? They’re 0-4. What exactly are they building? Is Andy Dalton future of franchise? pic.twitter.com/lEbxVI0rwB

— #StopCopCity (@ChuckModi1) October 1, 2019

Booger: I like what Zac Taylor is doing in Cincinnati. I like what they're building. I like the energy that Zac Taylor has brought from the west coast to the east coast.

First off... what?

Second... Cincinnati is not on the east coast.

Lastly, Bengals are 0-4.

— Rod Hissong (@RodHissong) October 1, 2019

Booger likes what Zac Taylor is doing, he says.
The zero-win Bengals are currently getting the piss beat out of them by a team that came in with no wins.

— Colin Dunlap (@colin_dunlap) October 1, 2019

Booger McFarland saying he loves what Zac Taylor is doing with the Cincinnati #Bengals offense.

174 total yards tonight.
6 sacks.
1 fumble.
1 interception.
0/3 in red zone.

?

— Big Bob (@BigBobWins) October 1, 2019

This MNF broadcast seems to be a great example of when you have scripted talking points that you don't get to use but want to get them out there anyway. No other reason to be saying nice things about Zac Taylor right now.

— Adam Fromal (@fromal09) October 1, 2019

Man, I didn’t realize that taking Witten out would mean more Booger. This might be the worst commentary I’ve heard in my life. “Juju, he’s a weird guy! He has a dog and an instagram!” “I LOVE what Zac Taylor is doing in Cincy!” (Cincy is about to be 0-4).

— Sean (@wildvulture) October 1, 2019

Booger "likes what the Bengals are doing under Zac Taylor." I bet Booger would have been a big Dave Shula fan, too.

— Dave Biddle (@davebiddle) October 1, 2019

Booger McFarland constantly comparing the Bengals to the Rams is like my grandmother constantly saying I look like David Beckham.

Neither comparison is remotely close. But if you love someone enough, even a turd looks like a diamond.#MNF #Steelers #HereWeGo #Bengals

— Brian Shoemaker (@brian_shoemaker) October 1, 2019

Booger : if you watch the rams it’s a run based offence.

The day after Goff three the ball 68 times and had 11 total rush attempts. #firehim

— Kyle (@KyleVikings10) October 1, 2019

*The Bengals snap the ball*

Booger McFarland: Thats exactly what the Rams do

— Donnie Druin (@DonnieDruin) October 1, 2019

Booger McFarland just said Cincinnati is on the East Coast? I mean, I went to public school but I don’t think that’s correct. 🇺🇸

— Jerry Mullery (@jerrymullery) October 1, 2019

The people who have to be most bummed out by fans' reaction to McFarland as MNF's lead analyst has to be those at CBS. With Tony Romo's contract up after this season, you can bet that ESPN is gonna throw absurd money at the former Cowboys quarterback to jump ship.

2. Today marks the 40th anniversary of Chris Berman's debut at ESPN. Here's a nice tribute video the company put together for the legendary personality.

40 years ago today, Chris Berman started at #ESPN.

Congrats Boomer! pic.twitter.com/Ul89zwQKNC

— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) October 1, 2019

3. Let's check in and see how Bill Belichick bs'd his way through today's press conference regarding the Patriots' game this Sunday against the Redskins.

Bill Belichick with all kinds of praise for #Redskins offense "Those guys are very efficient at getting the ball into the hands of their very good skill players. ... Great skill players at every spot. ... [Gruden] does great job of game planning and creating problems for defense"

— Kareem Copeland (@kareemcopeland) October 1, 2019

Belichick has repeatedly said the Redskins have an impressive group of skill position players. Talked about guys running open down the field even if the passes dont connect

— JP Finlay (@JPFinlayNBCS) October 1, 2019

4. The Ravens are using their own website and Zapruder-like film to spin Marlon Humphrey's "choke" on Odell Beckham.

There’s been a lot of talk about the play between Marlon Humphrey and Odell Beckham Jr.

Close-up video shows exactly what happened, and that Humphrey didn’t choke him.

📰: https://t.co/mdpmljNMxl pic.twitter.com/AO9KAfCW6a

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) October 1, 2019

5. Snoop Dogg gives NFL players rap names is an amusing as you'd expect.

We asked Snoop to give these guys rap names 😅 @SnoopDogg @GenesisUSA #genesishalftimeshow pic.twitter.com/ALEWz00E4i

— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) September 30, 2019

6. The latest SI Media Podcast features two interviews. First up is John Ourand from "Sports Business Journal," who discusses various sports media news stories including the increases in NFL pregame show ratings, FOX's new college football pregame show and Tony Romo's contract status with CBS. Then Matthew Berry from ESPN joins the podcast to talk about what it's like to cover fantasy sports for a living.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Stitcher.

7. RANDOM YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY: With The Rock announcing that he'll be on SmackDown Live's debut episode on FOX Friday night, we will post vintage Rock/SmackDown videos all week. We start with a classic Rock promo.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on iTunes, Spotify or Google Play. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.