I think Alan Green on Radio 5 was the first person I noticed doing this. He'd huff and puff or tut if the game was less than exciting instead of doing his job and selling the game to us..... and if his beloved Liverpool were playing poorly he'd sulk for the rest of the game, I heard Jimmy Armfield RIP (the co-commentator) a couple of times having to tell him to buck up.
Your absolutely right in what you say....but i always think back to Stuart Hall when radio commentary is mentioned.
Back as a kid in the mid 70s i always had my litte transistor radio for sat pm football ,in partc the "round the grounds" feature on radio2...and used to love listening to Hall who was invariably at Maine Road...boy did he bring the afternoon to life..whilst other commentary was more muck and nettles...Hall would be going on about pigeons on the pitch..,Peter Swales Toupee blowing in the wind, the roar of the kippax,storm clouds over the North stand..basically a highly theatrical 1min snippet in which he mentioned the actual score ,right at the
very end ...as tho it was incidental!
Anyway fast forward 30 yrs and i noticed a Hall interview on u tube( before the sex case allegations ) taken at his home address in leafy Cheshire.(?).clearly a very wealthy man..an interviewer asked him
Stuart ..how did you manage to make such interesting radio commentary?
Without a moments hesitation,and with a dead-pan expression, he replied " Oh i just made it up!"
That was that then .and then i found out he was a sex pest ..oh great.you spend your sat afternoons as a kid listening to a deceiptful pervert. Lol
Anyway ...id rather have a dull presenter giving it how it really is,than showbiz bollocks.
I reckon Hall might still be inside ,doing his time,he was an avid supporter of Swales back in the dark days he may well be reading this..so much more to hall than " here come the belgians "