Ray Hudson Commentator Extraordinaire

Let’s get one thing straight; I can’t bear to watch (football) soccer. Despite its worldwide popularity I find it to be the most boring game ever invented with typical 0-0 or 1-0 outcomes.

That is unless former soccer player Ray Hudson is on TV calling the game.

I was part of a captive audience at a pub recently, so there was no way of avoiding the Peru vs. Chile game playing on ten TV sets and blasting over the sound system of the bar.

As unexciting as the game was, the commentator was not letting it affect him. Every play was exciting. With lyrical metaphors, alliteration, vague poetical and pop-culture references and pure bombast, this man was making what was on the TV a spectacle not to be missed.

Here was my discovery of Ray Hudson.

Ray Hudson made every minute of a nothing nothing game among the most entertaining sporting events I have ever witnessed.

I don’t know all that much about soccer and its announcers, but doing a quick web search I discovered that Hudson is either loved or hated; there is little middle ground among fans.

One thing is certain, Ray Hudson loves the game and what he is doing. Baseball, basketball, hockey, football, tennis, even golf would benefit from an announcer like Ray Hudson.

It’s not just his great Scottish accent, it’s Hudson’s quirky combination of words that seemingly flow spontaneously.

Sentences like, “Merciless. Like Kathy Bates with that sledgehammer. Remember that movie?” or “This piece of orgasmic passing is perfection.”

Who would come up with an in game description like that? For his enthusiasm alone let us salute Ray Hudson the greatest sports announcer of the 21st century.