Context. Knowing Berman is a Dead Man Announcing changes the perspective. Given his contract non-renewal and Dwayne Wade-like treatment by ESPN (you’ve lost a step kid and millennials think you’re a boor), it’s mean-spirited to pick on Boomer. Since he’s in ESPN’s virtual hospice ward of terminated announcers, he knows one slip and he’ll be prematurely off the only network he’s ever worked. (For more on how otherwise milquetoast comments can lead to an early boot from ESPN, see Bill Simmons, Colin Cowherd, Jason Whitlock, Curt Schilling, et. al.). So no “Cano Cannot” or “Giancarlo Mama Mia Stanton” as they’d sound racially or culturally insensitive. Instead we get “Down Goes Frazier,” a line that perfectly captures Berman, a safely accurate, albeit obvious and dated tag line. So cut him a break if he says BACKBACK about a million times. The ESPN spotlight is fading on poor ol’ Chris.

Maybe Berman would still be at ESPN if he’d said “Stanton looks like Brock Lesner in the Octagon tonight!”