Hosting An NFL Pregame Show Seems Like A Shitty Gig

Samantha Ponder replaced Chris Berman this year as host of Sunday NFL Countdown on ESPN, where she shares a set with Rex Ryan, Randy Moss, Matt Hasselbeck, and Charles Woodson, along with updates from Chris Mortensen, Adam Schefter, and Louis Riddick. Hosting these kinds of shows sometimes looks, to an outsider, like herding cats—you try keeping gabby football men on track in a shifting football conversation—even without the show being bloated by as many as seven different non-host contributors. Ponder has her work cut out for her:

Despite numerous tries from a few different angles of approach, Ponder never could direct the conversation to any actual football motive for making the move. Watch the full segment, and count how many different times she tries to point the conversation in that direction:

By the time they eventually get around to Riddick’s input, she’s been reduced to making chirping noises between Rex Ryan syllables. Watching it makes me grind my damn teeth. Gentlemen! Will someone just friggin’ tell me whether Tyrod Taylor is a poor fit in Rick Dennison’s system! Dammit.