Fox’s acquisition of the UEFA Champions League’s U.S. TV rights, beginning next season, means that American fans may not have to put up with Tommy Smyth much longer.
As Steven Wells notes in the Sport Blog, “fans will be hearing a lot less of quite possibly the world’s most hated sports commentator …” Smyth acknowledged that there’s an online petition to get him fired, and he even received an online death threat in 2007 while on a trip to Australia to cover the A-League. ESPN dubbed the security detail to protect Smyth — you guessed it — “Operation Onion Bag.”
Smyth’s style annoys many fans. Lazar Treschan went so far as to launch www.nomoreonionbags.com website with an expat Irishman, Cass Crockett, who hates Smyth’s accent. “In each of the years that he’s left County Louth, his accent has gotten stronger to such an extent that he’s now 94 percent angry leprechaun.”