As you can tell from my title, I am planning to provide an exhaustive inventory of dumb things that sports pundits and commentators say. I will begin with an enormously widespread, and perfectly idiotic, tic. When a player fails to do something that the commentator thinks the player should have done, the commentator says, “He’s got to make that play.” Obviously not! And then the player does something the commentator thinks the player should not have dome, the commentator says, “He just can’t do that.” (Can’t miss that shot, can’t get picked off in that situation, can’t lose the man he’s supposed to be guarding.) But obviously he can! Save words, commentators, and just imitate our President: say “Bad!” Your “can’t” and “must” add nothing to that verdict.
