Tarnishing an Otherwise Unblemished Commentary

David Norrie served as the commentator to the play-by-play announcer during the most recent "cross town" football battle between the University of Southern California Trojans, and the University of California at Los Angeles Bruins won by USC. In his "color" commentary Norrie referred to formerly first and second-ranked teams in the country which suffered defeat during the season thereby damaging their chances of eventually playing in the national championship game in New Orleans in January. Below, Norrie mentions the plight of Arizona State's football team while managing to tarnish his own commentary through misuse of a critical word:

"Arizona State's record was 9-0 until their blowout loss to Arizona (University of Arizona in Tuscon). They subsequently suffered another big loss to USC (University of Southern California) which took a lot of tarnish off the early season."

Mr. Norrie meant to say polish or a similar word.

tarnish: to dull or destroy" Merriam-Webster Dictionary

polish: a smooth, glossy surface; state of high development or refinement Merriam-Webster

Truly, before their collapse in Tucson, Arizona State had been mentioned in the same breath as LSU (Louisana State University) and Ohio State University, the two schools whose records, though not unblemished, still had enough of a gloss to land them in the Big Easy for a national title showdown.