I did a Julie Browman 180
She may not pronounce hockey names well but, hey, who does?
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I’m a person who makes jokes a lot on Twitter. I have learned that there are safe targets and there are unsafe targets of my sometimes mean-spirited whimsical comments.
Trayvon Martin is not a safe target (no pun intended).
For whatever reason Julie Browman, in-studio host for Altitude Sports and Entertainment, is.
Cracking wise about her difficulty pronouncing the names of Avalanche players and her somewhat elongated features is not likely to cause an avalanche of death threats to rain from the Twitterverse. I know. I have made fun of her many times.
I didn’t much care for Julie Browman until fairly recently. That, coupled with the fact that she’s unprotected by the sentiments of her viewers who Tweet, has caused me to dump a verbal clip into her on more than one occasion.
This evening I am here to defend her.
My Julie Browman 180 began when my partner, John Reidy, and I interviewed one of Julie’s contemporaries, Lauren Gardner, on our podcast. I took a jab at Julie off-mic and Lauren said “she’s good”. Lauren, who I believe has worked with Browman in the past, had enormous respect for her both professionally and personally.
Months later I spoke to an on-air co-worker of Julie’s who said that she was a wonderful person and that, if I met her I would love her. Then, a guy who works in radio told me that she had a slammin’ bod and that she took amazing care of herself.
That last comment made me watch more closely.
I consume plenty of Browman. I watch almost every Nuggets game and about half the Avalanche games and I watch ’em on Altitude. I see Julie with Kyle. I see Julie with Mark. I watch the George Karl Show, the Round Table and every other production Julie is in. She’s been a part of my sports life for years. She never really caught my eye until recently.
It’s funny how perception works. We hear and we see through various filters. Once we form an opinion that opinion turns everything a certain shade. I had decided that Julie wasn’t very good. That perception colored everything I watched her do. Then her fellow broadcasters held her up in a different light and I saw a different Julie.
She is a phenomenal broadcaster. A real pro. She works her glutes off and delivers the goods. Altitude leans on her hard and she responds.
Julie is from Evergreen. Who doesn’t love a local kid? Better yet, she was in the San Diego market for awhile before we got her back. She was even in SD the night the Broncos won Super Bowl XXXII – right down on the field!
Tonight I saw her riding scooters with Mark Rycoft. I’m sold, baby!
It’s easy to slam the people who bring us our news and our sports on TV and in the papers on the radio. And it’s easy to assume that we could all do what they do. But the fact is that most of us couldn’t. There is more work involved in it than any of care to know.
We flip on our sets and we fire up our Twitter machines and we let in fly. I do, anyway. I love to talk sports on the social network. But I love to talk smack even more.
Julie Browman has been my victim a time or two. And she probably will be again. But I like her. Next time I make fun of her please keep that in mind.
