Cliches We Can Do Without

[Mr. PrettyGood]

Any person watching sports for any length of time is almost certain to hear a few phrases that either don't sit right with them or just come up too often. Tell me yours, because I'm certainly going to tell you mine.

"Score the basketball": I lettered in basketball in high school, spent a season as a referee, and have watched a crap load more of the game. The reason that the game's namesake is such a focal point is that there is nothing else out there that can be scored. This phrase has two too many words.

"Quietly": This comes in the context of "they've quietly won 8 straight games," The people calling it quiet are the ones who decided not to talk about it.

Anything name for a fan base ending in "Nation": I don't really need to explain this.

"Take it one game at a time": No kidding! You can't win Thursday's game today?! I'll be danged.

"The umpires/refs stole this one/screwed us": Nothing screams "crybaby" quite like that phrase even if the officials got a (or many) calls wrong.

"He knows how to win": This is fine at the lower levels, but once a player is in the major leagues of his/her sport, this should be a given.

I'm sure I'll have more once football season starts.

 

[Mr. PrettyGood]

"Defending champions": I hear this way too often in situations in which a championship is not lineal. Outside of boxing and a few other combat sports, championships are not generally not defended. A back to back champion in a seasonal sport or annual event didn't defend the previous championship; they won a second one. "Reigning champions" is okay.

 

[Chris]

That one is acceptable for me whenever the previous champion actually makes it to the finals again. At that point yeah they can claim their defending but by all definitions this "title" is vacant still lol

 

[R-Troop]

Iron Sharpens Iron...

 

[Chris]

Iron Sharpens Iron...

I don't even think that's necessarily true in the practical sense either to make it worse

 

[Mr. PrettyGood]

"Regular season": I don't know of very many irregular seasons that aren't shortened by a strike. "Preseason" and "postseason" literally mean "before the season" and "after the season" respectively, which means the term "season" suffices for what we often call "the regular season".