Sports broadcasting has always come with interesting debates about homerism. Degrees of homerism from local MLB, NBA, or NHL announcers are often seen, and they\u2019re sometimes embraced and sometimes criticized. But homerism usually isn\u2019t seen as much in football TV broadcasts, where most broadcasts are national. And it can sometimes be hard for former players to keep their allegiances off-air, as famed former CFL and NCAA player Tracy Ham has found out.<\/p>\n
Ham is a member of both the College Football Hall of Fame (inducted in 2007<\/a>) and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame (inducted in 2010<\/a>). He shone for the Georgia Southern Eagles in college from 1983-86, helping them to back-to-back Division I-AA titles in 1985 and 1986 and becoming the first-ever collegiate player to pass for 5,000 yards and rush for 3,000 yards in a career. He was then drafted in the ninth round of the NFL draft by the Los Angeles Rams, but after finding out they wanted him to play running back, he instead went to the CFL. He\u2019d play there from 1987-99 with Edmonton, Toronto, Baltimore (where he was part of the 1995 team that remains the only U.S.-based squad to win the Grey Cup), and Montreal.<\/p>\n Ham\u2019s now back at Georgia Southern, working as<\/a> the Eagles\u2019 senior associate athletics director (administration). He recently spoke to Awful Announcing via email as part of a promotional campaign for Canadian casino guide CanadaCasino.ca<\/a>, discussing the various leagues he played in, his current athletics role, and more. But, to start with, his comments on why broadcasting his school\u2019s games didn\u2019t work out for him are perhaps especially notable.<\/p>\n \u201cI enjoyed doing the games here at Georgia Southern,\u201d Ham said. \u201cI did do a little college broadcasting here, but they kicked me out because I said \u2018us\u2019 and \u2018we\u2019 too much! I\u2019d go, \u2018Hey, we have to do this.\u2019 \u2018Oh, you can\u2019t say \u2018We gotta go.\u2019 But that\u2019s my team, right? So it was interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n That perhaps is further evidence of the challenges we\u2019ve seen many face in making the jump from playing to broadcasting. But despite calling games not working out for him, Ham said he has a lot of respect for those who do perform that role, as well as the media overall.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a lot of respect for the media, the homework you have to do,\u201d he said. \u201cI have a lot of respect for the industry simply because a good interview is worth its weight in gold and it\u2019s always based on the questions that you ask. So I have a lot of respect for the broadcast industry because their preparation calls for them to be the educational side of the game, and then you\u2019re trying to educate people on what they see.\u201d<\/p>\n And Ham said he\u2019s encouraging some of the athletes he works with in his current athletic department role to check out broadcasting.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of fun in our media department,\u201d he said. \u201cI watch our young kids now grow up in it. I\u2019m always encouraging our kids to get involved in the broadcast side of it. We have our own ESPN production here on campus [for ESPN+ games and more], and so we have a really good group of kids that are getting into the industry. And I think it\u2019s a great industry to get in.\u201d<\/p>\n On his own playing career, Ham said the CFL was a particularly great experience for him, giving him a chance to go shine at quarterback that the NFL didn\u2019t offer.<\/p>\n \u201cThe NFL was a tough experience for me because they moved me to running back and so I really was out of position,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I really enjoyed the CFL as a quarterback, especially as an African-American quarterback coming up during the mid-eighties when we were moved positions. And Canada was always open arms to a quarterback that had a skill set that he can be mobile. It wasn\u2019t really \u2018What\u2019s your stature,\u2019 it was \u2018What\u2019s your ability?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n