Monthly Archives: December 2008
What They’re Saying- December 26th, 2008
I hope you had a blessed and restful Christmas. Let’s see how many of the sports media columnists from around the country have contributed content today…
Michael Hiestand of USA Today has an end-of-the year sports media quiz…
Dave Darling at the Orlando Sentinel has some famous, or in some cases infamous, quotes from 2008.
David Barron at the Houston Chronicle tells us that viewers will be able to see NFL doubleheadders on both Fox and CBS…
Neil Best at Newsday looks at the ever growing ratings enjoyed by the NFL…
Bob Raissman at the NY Daily News talks of the media backlash surrounding the latest Yankees spending spree…
Phil Mushnick at the NY Post has a piece on a new wrinkle to an ESPN Poker program. The Post also has 5 questions for Fox’s Howie Long…and Boomer Esiason’s take on the Jets.
Doug Nye at the State looks back at the impact of the 1958 NFL Championship.
Barry Jackson at the Miami Herald seeks an explanation as to why the NFL/NBC chose not to shift the Dolphins/Jets game to prime time.
Scott D. Pierce at the Salt Lake City Desert News has the story of how replay impacted a pair of local college basketball games…
Ray Buck at the Fort Worth Star Telegram recommends ways to spend our holiday gift cards.
Tom Hoffarth at the LA Daily News has a preview of the NHL Winter Classic.
Diane Pucin at the LA Times looks at how the Cowboys still dominate news in the NFL.
John Maffei at the North County Times previews Sunday night’s Broncos/Chargers tilt.
So does Jay Posner at the San Diego Union Tribune.
Mel Bracht at the Oklahoman talks with ESPN’s Craig James…
Gary Washburn at the Seattle Post Intelligencer looks at the debut of the MLB Network…
Dan Caesar at the St’ Louis Post-Dispatch looks at local sports radio story in his 2008 review…
Why Aren’t All NFL Studio Shows This Good?
So, I had a pretty heated discussion with a friend a couple weeks back about NFL studio shows. Yes, I’m the kind of person that can have heated arguments about a studio show. It’s my curse.
Anyway, I was doing a “links of the week” post on the other blog I write for (shameless plug), and came across this little gem. It’s a clip from the NBC postgame show after Brett Favre’s first NFL game, in which he came off the bench for Don Majkowski, throwing a long game-winning touchdown. Here’s the video of NBC’s NFL Live postgame show featuring O.J. Simpson, Buddy Ryan, and Bob Costas and their interview of Favre:
Now, I watched this video with an eye toward the limitless amount of unintentional comedy in it. The circa-1960 headset NBC was using? priceless. O.J. Simpson, here as always? amazing. Costas having to explain his pronunciation of Favre’s last name? I almost lost it.
But the best part? The awesome discussion between Ryan, Simpson, and Costas about the strategy of the prevent defense and how Brett read and reacted to the play. And then they brought in Favre and asked him relevant football questions to supplement what they were saying!
I mean, where was the constant, oh-we’re-just-regular-guys joking around? the hot girl doing weather reports? the fourth, fifth, and sixth studio analyst? How did they survive without bashing Terry Bradshaw’s inability to pick football games correctly? How did football fans live?
Seriously though, the argument me and my friend had over these studio shows is that some people don’t want to talk about football, they just want to watch the spectacle. They don’t want to know the difference between a Cover 2 and Cover 3. They don’t care about why a QB pump-fakes before throwing a bomb to the outside. They just want to know the results, laugh along with some ex players, and watch Frank Caliendo do his John Madden impression just one more time. I don’t want to sound like a stuck up football fan, but I want to watch guys who have spent their life playing and learning the finer points of the game to talk about, you know, the finer points of the game.
Studio shows shouldn’t dumb down to the fans that don’t know anything about football, they should try to educate them. If they’re real fans, they’ll listen and learn like we all did. It’d be like if they decided they weren’t going to teach phonics in elementary school because little Timmy’s parents didn’t read to him when he was a kid and now he doesn’t know the difference between the letter P and G. It’s madness of the highest order.
Believe it or not, I don’t hate the shows as they are now, they’re still entertaining, but they could be so much better. The only studio shows that approach this level of quality are TNT’s Inside the NBA and ESPN’s Baseball Tonight when they used to have Harold Reynolds on.
So where do you stand on studio shows? Do you think they’re alright now or could they be better with less people and more discussion centered around the game?
A Few More Reasons Why Newspapers Still Don’t Get It
I was reading Jason Whitlock’s latest column in the Kansas City Star today and my thoughts again turned to why the newspaper industry is failing, and how the barons who run it continue to not see the forest through the trees.
I love Whitlock, but his reasoning that newspapers need to survive is flawed. If newspapers are to survive, they need to stop running their businesses as news papers. When are they collectively going to realize that the printed news sheet, at a faster rate each day, is fading out of relevance? And that they need to consider themselves as news organizations, not news papers?
Papers will tell you that they have websites that keep readers up to date with the latest news and that these are being well received by readers. Agreed, but papers now need think of their online presence as the priority and their print editions as secondary. Most papers, with websites, are not doing this.
I give credit to the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News in announcing last week that they will be cutting back on home delivery of the paper to only three days a week. They appear to be weaning subscribers off the print teat that has restricted these news organizations over the last few years. Others should do the same.
Even though just about all major newspapers have websites, they seem to treat those readers with less respect than those who subscribe to the print editions.
As an example…I usually work on this site early in the morning, before I begin my real job and shepherding my daughter off to school. When I compile my sports media columnists links on Friday morning you have no idea how many stories I miss because they are not posted on their newspaper website at the time I am assembling my post. Often I will go back to see that a story is posted on a newspaper website well after 8am (check out the time stamp at the top of the article). What service is this to readers?
Why is it that when an editor sends a story to the press that it is not simultaneaously sent to the website? Haven’t we come to a time when there should only be one keystroke to make this happen? Other newspapers have no problem accomplishing this. To those who don’t, if there excuse is that they want their print subscribers to access the content before their online readers, then congratulations, you will soon be out of business.
What They’re Saying, December 19th, 2008
Time once again for a look at what the sports media columnists from around the country are writing today…
Michael Hiestand at USA Today gives us a preview of the NHL Winter Classic in Chicago…
Ray Buck at the Fort Worth Star Telegram also has a look at the game…
David Barron at the Houston Chronicle has a look at this weekend’s local TV football offerings.
Dave Darling at the Orlando Sentinel looks at 2008 and sports advertising…
Bob Raissman at the NY Daily News writes about the story behind the story in the Yankees’ signing of C.C. Sabathia.
At Newsday, Neil Best talks with CBS President Les Moonves about WFAN radio…
At the NY Post, Phil Mushnick talks boxing…Justin Terranova gets Phil Simms thoughts on the Giants…and has 5 questions for Bob Davie…
Nancy Marrapese-Burrell at the Boston Globe has the latest on Hazel Mae and her new role at the MLB Network…
Doug Nye at the State let’s us know our sports viewing options on the Christmas Holiday…
Barry Jackson at the Miami Herald has the story of one local play-by-play man looking for help from the fans…
Scott D. Pierce at the Salt Lake City Desert News says the Mountain West Conference is getting some deserved recognition…
Daniel Brown at the San Jose Mercury News has the story of the end of an era in the 49′ers radio booth…
Judd Zulgad at the Minneapolis Star Tribune has the latest on the legal troubles of a former KFAN host.
Tom Hoffarth at the LA Daily News has the media angle of Sports Business Journal’s 50 Most Influential Sports Figures of 2008.
Ray Frager at the Baltimore Sun tells us that other NFL teams, other than the Cowboys, face controversy…
Paul Christian at the Rochester Post-Bulletin looks at the Christmas NBA offerings on TV…
Dan Caesar at the St. Louis Post Dispatch writes of new hires at St. Louis’ new sports radio station…
Jay Posner at the San Diego Union Tribune has the story of a local high school football post season awards show..
Diane Pucin at the LA Times writes of Gary Payton’s new role with NBA TV
Mel Bracht at the Oklahoman reports on the BCS 3D offerings in the state…He also has a story on the demise of a local sports talk radio station. And the local TV ratings…
Gary Washburn at the Seattle Post Intelligencer has a piece on missing the Seattle voice of the NBA…
ESPN Does It Right With Dr. J. and Daughter Meeting
Sports media analysts revel in picking on ESPN. They are the 1000 lb. gorilla. But I’m here to plug something they do very well…Outside the Lines.
Case in point, this weekend they have the story of Julius Erving meeting his estranged daughter. Here are two previews:
Outside the Lines has always been ahead of the curve in terms of its journalistic integrity and effectiveness. Please make a point to check this out. The ESPN.com story is here.
