Website / Men in Blazers

LEFT TO RIGHT: Michael Davies, The Raven and tiny Brazilian bananas, Roger Bennett, and courage.

"Soccer is America’s Sport of the Future. As it has been since 1972."

—Practically the Men in Blazers philosophy

Men in Blazers is the combined creation of Michael Davies (born March 3rd 1966) and Roger Bennett (born September 19th 1970) — two British men that live in New York, who hope to spread the English footballing culture all over the United States. They have a weekly podcast, an official website, and a late-night TV series on NBCSN that began in 2014.

They mostly talk about international teams from Association Football outside of America, but mostly the English Premier League. They were made a household name to some after their coverage of the 2014 Brazil World Cup, and their popularity has increased from there, probably being one of the biggest reasons why soccer is becoming the new football in the country.

Outside of Men in Blazers, the two men are often behind the scenes of TV products. Michael is a TV producer that is responsible for US versions of the British shows Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and Wife Swap, and Roger is a journalist, documentary producer and narrator, and research author.

But when the two men come together, it’s kind of like Car Talk, but without the cars.

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Tropes include:

• A Day in the Limelight: Mostly on Twitter, there is often a mention in the tweets about England teams outside of Premier League. During the final weeks of the League Two final in May 2016, there was occasionally tweets about Plymouth Argyle FC, and even an interview with the New Jersey-born manager.
• Arc Words: “Courage”.
• Audience Participation: The franchise often asks their fans to take part in memes, activities, and there's also the annual BlazerCon where the fans meet up.
• Big Brother Is Watching You: Be careful what you say when you notify them on Twitter. They won’t be afraid to retweet your message or even respond to it.
• The Cameo: Often television presenters from NBC Sports who specialise in football (all friends of the two men) made cameos in the franchise, such as Rebecca Lowe, Ian Darke and Arlo White.
• Catchphrase:
  • "The crap part of SoHo",^note referring to SoHo in Manhattan which is where their TV show is filmed.
  • "Courage."
• Celebrity Resemblance: Often happens to Roger on Twitter with fans.
• Christmas Episode: A pod special from 2013 took place in a pub in New York that featured a pantomime, special guests and carol singers.
• Crossover:
  • With The 2 Robbies in the final episode of the 2015/16 season.
  • Katie Nolan from Garbage Time with Katie Nolan became a co-presenter during the 2015 BlazerCon.
• Current Events Blog: The franchise talks about the world of English Premier League football, as well as The FA Cup, La Liga, UEFA Champions League and what's going on in the MLS.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Both men have their moments.
  • Before their TV show airs, the Men in Blazers Twitter page releases the official leaderboard of the Premier League, in which the names of the teams reflect the men’s reactions to how said team have performed that week.
  • The Twitter page itself during liveblogs of matches.
• Disco Dan: Roger. He often talks about music and musicians from the 1980s, as well as other things from the '80s like the government back when he was in England, and movies at the time (there's one instance in a podcast when he and Michael cannot believe that The Breakfast Club is over thirty years old).
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The term Men in Blazers is a nickname for EPL pundits during the matches, but the uniform looks more like a school uniform.
• Eagleland: Roger often talks about The USA in an “America the Beautiful” way. When he eventually got his American citizenship, this became exaggerated to the max.
• Enemies List: Roger apparently has one. People featuring on it include Phil Collins and Justin Bieber.
• Even Heroes Have Heroes: When Michael and Roger often meet EPL soccer players, whether former or retired, or other media personalities, such as a producer behind Mad Men.
• Fan Convention: BlazerCon is an annual Men in Blazers convention that is held in New York, which is sponsored by Mini cars. Michael and Roger honour a special personality every year with the Golden Blazer for their work in the world of football. Some of the winners have been US women's national team veteran Julie Foudy, and US Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: In the TV series, special guest Guy Richie and Rog have a twenty-second conversation in Hebrew. Rog and Michael are amazed with how fluent Richie is.
• Greatest Hits Album: For 2014 and 15, Men in Blazers has released a compilation album full of edited pod specials, titling them as "The Best of".
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Michael and Roger.
• Hidden Depths: Most of their guests on their show — mostly the American ones that aren't soccer stars — practically down to some of their expertise on players and EPL and UEFA teams.
• Informed Judaism: Roger sometimes talks about his Jewish heritage in interviews and pod specials.
• In-Series Nickname:
  • Michael’s nicknamed "Davo" and Roger’s nicknamed "Rog". Special guests are nicknamed "GFOP" (Great Friend of the Pod”), and the fans are called this too.
  • Roger's also nicknamed "Toilet".
  • The Capital One Cup is nicknamed as the "Cuppity Cup Cup".
  • Ian Darke is often called "Sir Ian".
• Irishman and a Jew: Michael (although he's English) and Roger.
• Lemony Narrator: Both men when they're talking about football.
• Nice Jewish Boy: Roger.
• Nostalgia Filter: Roger often talks about musicians and bands from the 1980s or earlier. Most of the British bands he refers to are from that era, which is understandable because he left the UK in the early 1990s.
• Oop North: Roger is from Liverpool. He was a teen during the controversial leadership of Margaret Thatcher and became inspired to emigrate to the US after watching John Hughes movies and Miami Vice because they created a saccharine world that was nothing like the dreary unemployment atmosphere in his area.
• Product Placement: Even though they probably drink it casually, the two men are sponsored by Guinness beer, as well as MINI cars.
• Recurring Character: Some of their guests have often appeared more than once in their television shows and on their podcasts.
• Running Gag:
  • The "Curse of Rog" (#CurseOfRog on Twitter), in which an event in sport occurs after Roger has interacted with it. A good example is the sacking of Jose Mourinho from Chelsea soon after Rog interviewed him.
    • In April 2016, it was assumed by fans on Twitter that it'd died after Roger interviewed Liverpool FC manager Jurgen Klopp, whose team managed to beat Everton FC a few days after. It probably has because a month later, Roger interviewed midfielder Dax McCarty from New York Red Bulls FC, whose team won the New York derby hours after the interview aired online.
  • During their TV debut during the 2014 World Cup, the two men often point out how small Brazilian bananas are.
  • Leicester City player Jamie Vardy's phrase "Chat shit, get banged" is sometimes referenced, but it's mostly from the MiB fans on Twitter.
• Self-Deprecation:
  • When the 2Freestylers had a guest appearance, Michael and Rog point out that they try and make their show "as crap as possible" so that it would look much more "artistic".
  • The men often call where they live "crap" and their own TV show "crap". When talking about themselves, Michael and Rog often call themselves "immigrants", even though many people find that phrase offensive.
• Separated by a Common Language: Occasionally discussed, whether it be about British and American accents, or phrases, or British customs. For example, an American fan wrote to the men about how confused they were over British nicknames, recalling a time at university abroad when he knew British students with nicknames like "Gazza", saying that it took them a long time to realise that so-called "Gazza" was Gary, they ask that would their nickname be "Cassa" because their name is Carson. Roger and Michael reply that it would actually be "Carsy", and then apologise immediately between laughs.^note "Khasi" is British slang for "toilet".
• Soccer-Hating Americans: The series often plays on this. There was one feature in which a Major League Baseball player tried to "translate" how soccer works into baseball.
• Special Guest: In their TV series, they would occasionally interview Major League Soccer players (and the NWSL players), and other sports players (National Football League quarterback Andrew Luck and Brandon McCarthy from the New York Yankees), as well as celebrities (such as Will Ferrell, Molly Ringwald and fellow Brit John Oliver).
• Those Two Guys: Again, Michael and Roger.
• Three Plus Two: Inverted. Whereas this ensemble trope begins with a trio that are joined by two other members, Rog and Michael are occasionally joined by Ian Darke, Rebecca Lowe and Arlo White.
• Trademark Favourite Food: Michael and Roger drink Guinness beer. They also make special guests eat pukka pies to make predictions over the outcomes of football matches.
• Younger Than They Look: It’s hard to believe that Michael’s in his fifties and Roger is almost there too.

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Viri Recte Estiti