a soccer commentator calling a dirty player "committed".

player x doesnt have a "footballing brain"

has a good touch for a big man

having a "cultured left foot"

It is also completely and utterly false as well (at least in football).

Anytime anybody is referred to as a "clutch" player or something similar.

i lol'd

some more horrible soccer ones:

'it's a game of two halves'
'good feet for a big man'
'a relegation six-pointer'
'[player] should hit the target/test the keeper from there' (sometimes this isn't a stupid thing to say but often it is bc it's like they assume just kicking it at the keeper >> going for the corner and just missing, which is obv dumb)

and any reference to 'team x haven't beaten team y in twelve years', like it's at all relevant when 80% of both squads have been playing for their team less than 2 years.

and maybe this one's just me, but whenever someone says after the game 'team X put up a real fight against team Y today, to be honest they could have won it.' of course they could have won it. if man utd play wrexham and win 7-0, then wrexham still 'could have won it'. they just didn't. what a meaningless thing to say.

from managers:

'he's not that sort of player' - after one of the manager's players badly injures an opponent with a horribly dangerous challenge.

'the referee's cost us the game today' - used by pretty much every manager everywhere bc they're spineless punks who won't admit their team played bad. worst offence is when they take a minor error (e.g. giving a corner instead of a goal kick) and say that it cost them the game even though they lost 4-1 but it 'totally changed the momentum of the game'. sam allardyce i'm looking at you, you fat disgusting POS.

Freshman mistake and rookie mistake are actually used pretty accurately a good bunch of the times, in my opinion. They might be cliche, but you seem to be arguing that the cliche isn't accurate, which I think it is.

My favorite "rookie mistake" in football that seems to pop up every now and then is when the rookie receiver drops a knee or falls without being touched and tosses the ball.

Eh, I've noticed announcers getting much better at this and consistently talking about the specific kicker's range. It IS annoying when they start talking about what they "were hitting in warm ups." You have stats, often over multiple seasons, covering multiple scenarios.

"this is going to be a long ___(down) and ___(distance)"

and yet this will keep getting trotted out ad nauseam even if the #31 D in the league wins the Super Bowl.

NBA:
"volume scorer" = shoots too much
"streaky shooter" = bad shooter
"cagey veteran" = old and slow
"good fundamentals" = bad

General:
"We win as a team and we lose as a team" = 1 player cost this team the game.

"those 2 and 3 yard gains are going to turn into 6 or 8 yard gains in the 4th quarter!"

This is just a gritty guy. A great route-runner and sneaky fast. He's in the mold of Wes Welker.

to be fair going down 1-0 early probably shifts the win percentages a lot more than going down one FG.

nice

QB whose only completions are checkdowns and screens: "He's being smart, just managing the game out there"

"It couldn't have happened to a better guy", said when some "good guy" wins a ring. Really? There really isn't a better guy on Earth who is deserving of a ring? We have to lie to ourselves and claim that the person who just won is a really good guy and not just a really good athlete and leave it at that?

Also, anytime anybody who used to play sports dies: "Everyone who knew him said he was the nicest, most down-to-earth athlete that you could meet. We really lost someone special today."

No, "we" didn't. We lost a dude who could throw a football really well 40 years ago and probably an average person outside of that. Stop pretending everyone who dies who used to play a sport was "the nicest", there is only 1 "nicest" and you have no ****ing clue how to judge that so STFU.

i always find it funny when players thank god.

as if god is wearing an orioles jersey or whatever, and making sure than the blue jays hitters' line drives are hit right at the defenders.

This category of cliches is the worst ainec.

How about this doozy...

"He's a better person than he is an athlete." or the like (even more painful when it's said about a great player)

"the winning run is at the plate," especially where (a) if the batter gets out, his team could still win or (b) the batter could score and his team could still lose

Game of inches

He's got a nose for the sticks/goalline

fail

"2 goal lead is the most dangerous lead in hockey"

Good pitching beats good hitting.

"3rd down. It's a long 3 and a short 4 to go."

"That [white guy] is really a pure shooter."

The fact that mistakes are more costly if they "take points off the board" is misused grossly from what I've seen.

We have to give 110%.

Any variation of emphasizing winning.....

"All we care about is winning"
"We just want to win"
"Winning is most important to us"
"Our goal is to win it all"

EVERYONE WANTS TO ****ING WIN.

Coaches/Players say this **** as if they think there's teams out there that want to lose.