Category Archives: College football

New Showtime documentary: The scheme ‘Bear’ Bryant used to bring black players to Alabama

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The latest from Showtime and producer Ross Greenburg is a don’t-miss.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News wrote his column on the documentary.

But after he joined Showtime last March, Greenburg decided to go back and serve as a driving force behind “Against The Tide” with George Roy and Steve Stern as key storytellers.

“We only devoted about six to seven minutes on that game (in the HBO documentary), and that just didn’t do justice to the depths of the story,” Greenburg explained. “It was much more intriguing and complex. It needed the full treatment.

 “To me, it remains as fascinating a story now as it was then. But it’s really a 12-year process of how it happened for Bear Bryant, and how it finally unfolded with the help of his friend, John McKay. That’s a whole other story, too.”

Here’s the official rundown from Showtime:

Did University of Alabama coach Paul “Bear” Bryant schedule the historic 1970 showdown with the University of Southern California as a statement against integration?  “AGAINST THE TIDE,” a full-length documentary examining the subject and the controversy surrounding one of the most important college football games in history, premieres this Friday, Nov. 15 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME.

SHOWTIME Sports presented a private screening of upcoming documentary “AGAINST THE TIDE” Friday night at Cobb Theaters in Tuscaloosa, Ala.  The feature-length film, which premieres this Friday, Nov. 15 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME, paints a vivid picture of Bryant, the state of the turbulent South during the Civil Rights Movement, and the 1960’s era football program at the University of Alabama, one of collegiate athletics’ most dominant programs in any sport.

In attendance at the screening were Executive Vice President and General Manager of SHOWTIME Sports Stephen Espinoza, Executive Producer Ross Greenburg, Civil Rights activist Percy Jones. former Alabama quarterback who led the Crimson Tide during the 1970 game Scott Hunter, former Alabama federal judge U.W. Clemon, and former Alabama State Senator Fred Horn.

The following are key quotes from the screening:

PERCY JONES:

“When I was a freshman there were 62 black students out of 13,000 students.  Now when I come back here 45 years later, I see the progress that has been made.”

ROSS GREENBURG:

“It takes a lot of courage for people in television to go back and do these stories. It doesn’t happen so easily.  When old stories are rich like this they need to be told. I thank Stephen Espinoza personally for giving me the opportunity to tell this one and many more.”

“When we do these stories and then we put them together, you’re always thinking of all these people that helped us make it. You want them to sit in a room like this and screen it, and when the credits roll at the end, to have them say, ‘that’s the story.’  As long as you get their confirmation that you did it right, that’s all I need. Then I can sleep at night. If it becomes entertaining and grabs at your heart, then we’ve done our jobs. But at the end of the day, if you’ve told the story of the subjects that lived it, then that’s all you can really do.”

 

STEPHEN ESPINOZA:

“Over time, stories like this tend to become over-simplified. You tend to lose the complexities and the subtleties. This game didn’t integrate Alabama football, as Ross clearly points out. There were already steps in place, but over time those maybe outside the state of Alabama looked at this game and said, ‘that’s the game that made Alabama football become integrated.’ Even though you’re telling a story of decades, it’s a very personal story. Hearing Scott Hunter and Percy Jones talk candidly and tell a very personal story, or hearing Jimmy Jones talk about players taking weapons to the game – it puts you in the moment in a very real way. That gets lost over time if the story is not retold.”

 

 

Army-Navy: New CBS Sports Network documentary on importance of ’63 game following Kennedy’s death

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Several new and compelling sports documentaries will be coming your way in the next week. Always at your service, I will be providing sneak previews.

Tomorrow at 8 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network has Marching On: 1963 Army-Navy Remembered. 

Occurring just 15 days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, it obviously wasn’t just any game. It’s a strong film, telling the role sports played in Kennedy’s life and how he as a former Navy man felt about the rivalry. You understand why the game had to be played.

This extended clip provides a taste of the emotions that took place on that day.

Here’s the rundown from CBS Sports Network:

 

CBS Sports Network presents MARCHING ON: 1963 ARMY-NAVY REMEMBERED, a documentary about the monumental football game played between Army and Navy on Dec. 7, 1963, 15 days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The one-hour documentary airs on Thursday, Nov. 14 (8:00 PM, ET), 50 years to the week after Kennedy’s death. Actor Josh Charles of THE GOOD WIFE narrates the program.

Through the lens of this historic game, the documentary explores the impact Kennedy’s death had on the nation, and the game’s role in the country’s healing process. Interviews include Senator John McCain; New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, whose father was a Navy assistant coach at the time; former Navy coach Wayne Hardin and former Army coach Paul Dietzel; Navy players Roger Staubach, Skip Orr and Tom Lynch; and Army players Rollie Stichweh, Dick Nowak and John Seymour; as well as Tony Verna, the game’s television producer, a number of Kennedy historians, including Robert Dallek, and many others associated with the game.

The game, which was played in front of 102,000 fans at Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia, Pa., also had important implications on the field, as a win would put No. 2-ranked Navy into the National Championship.

 

 

Tebow has name, but what makes anyone think he would be good as analyst?

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This was inevitable.

Yesterday, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported that Tim Tebow has hired CAA’s Nick Khan to join agent Jimmy Sexton in planning for his future. And that future doesn’t look like it will be on a football field.

Despite the rash of quarterback injuries this year, nobody is calling Tebow. I mean, Matt Flynn is on his third team.

So it looks like option B will be using the headsets for a different purpose. Matt Yoder of Awlful Announcing speculated on the broadcast possibilities for Tebow.

The likely option: the new SEC Network that launches next year. Guess who owns that network? Yep, ESPN, lover of all things Tebow.

Yoder writes:

But there’s one option that may be the best of all for Tim Tebow and ESPN – the SEC Network.

Tebow is the best SEC player in a generation.  And next year when ESPN launches the SEC Network next year it’s going to need people with ties to the league to feature on the network.  Besides Paul Finebaum of course.  SEC Network would be the best fit for Tebow because of the audience, the regional exposure, and the reps he could get as an analyst.  And he could appear on ESPN whenever the network sees fit.  If there’s any of these scenarios that seems most likely, I’d be willing to lay my money on Tebow joining ESPN as an analyst for SEC Network.

However, what makes anyone think Tebow would be a good analyst? He’s a really nice guy. Is he really going to knock a player or coach? Or even second-guess?

More likely, Tebow will say, “(Player X) really gave 100 percent effort there…”

That might be as rough as it gets for Tebow. His candor seems to be on par with his skills as a pocket passer.

Now Tebow’s deficiencies in a studio or booth won’t be as important as they were on the field. Given his name, he will be in demand.

It just seems unlikely that he will be any good.

 

Baltimore Sun: Maryland used social media PR campaign to sway opinion on Big Ten move

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Terrific piece of reporting by Jeff Barker of the Baltimore Sun. It really illuminates how teams, universities, players can help shift opinions in the modern media world.

Barker writes:

The University of Maryland anticipated most fans would initially react “emotionally and negatively” to last year’s decision to join the Big Ten Conference. So the school sought to influence the debate with a plan to lobby media pundits and plant positive comments into fan message boards.

Scores of documents and emails, obtained by The Baltimore Sun in response to a Public Information Act request, detail a public relations strategy that was as secret as the Big Ten negotiations themselves.

Maryland announced on Nov. 19, 2012, that it would depart the Atlantic Coast Conference after 60 years and join the Big Ten, effective in July 2014. It, as school officials predicted, led to fans expressing sadness and anger over losing popular ACC-related traditions such as facing rivals Duke, North Carolina and Virginia.

The public relations campaign was meant to help turn the tide in favor of the move. It included hiring a corporate communications consultant to help shape the message and also working to prevent news of the negotiations from getting out before the move was imminent.

“So far, this is unfolding just as we expected,” Brian Ullmann, the university’s assistant vice president for marketing and communications, wrote in an email to deputy athletic director Nathan Pine on Nov. 18, one day after negotiations on the impending move were disclosed in the media. “We knew that in the absence of our messaging during this initial stage, most fans would react emotionally and negatively. That has occurred and clearly the message boards and comments sections skew heavily negative. Several of us placed comments on boards and media sites last night to help balance it out.”

The Scott Van Pelt angle:

In the days before the Big Ten discussions were made public, Maryland and its consultants considered how to release the story.

“Scott Van Pelt is a powerful voice in the media and a loyal UMD grad,” public relations consultant John Maroon wrote to a Maryland communications official before the story broke. “It would be in our best interest to let Van Pelt break the story and talk about all of the positives.”

Van Pelt is an ESPN television and radio commentator who attended Maryland and remains involved with the university.

In an interview Wednesday, Maroon said his thinking was that Van Pelt had a “national platform” and could have helped introduce a conference move expected to produce “varying emotions.”

News of Maryland’s negotiations with the Big Ten was reported on ESPN.com under the bylines of several reporters, but not Van Pelt’s.

“The consultants provided many suggestions, of which that [giving the story to Van Pelt] was one,” Pine said in his email to The Sun on Wednesday. “We decided not to pursue it.”

Van Pelt could not immediately be reached for comment.

Super Thursday: With Oregon-Stanford, Baylor-Oklahoma, who needs Washington-Vikings?

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As Thursday nights go, this is a most excellent pre-Thanksgiving feast. Maybe the best ever for college football.

ESPN has No. 3 Oregon traveling to No. 5 Stanford tonight. Meanwhile, Fox Sports 1 will show No. 6 Baylor hosting No. 10 Oklahoma.

Two games with four top 10 teams and plenty of BCS implications on a Thursday night. I mean, who needs Washington at Minnesota on NFL Network? That’s Mediocre vs. Terrible.

How did this bounty happen? According to ESPN, Stanford was slated to host a Thursday night game this year, and the network requested the one against Oregon. Voila, ESPN now gets one of the best match-ups of the year on any day.

Fox Sports 1 also has a strong game. The staggered starting times will allow college football fans to watch the end of both games: Baylor-Oklahoma starts at 7:30 ET and Oregon-Stanford is at 9 p.m. ET.

How unusual are these Thursday night powerhouse games? Bill Connelly of SB Nation writes that since 2009, there only have been two match-ups on Thursday nights featuring ranked teams: Sept. 15, 2011: No. 3 LSU 19, No. 25 Mississippi State 6; Nov. 10, 2011: No. 10 Virginia Tech 37, No. 21 Georgia Tech 26.

Connelly:

We rarely expect to see elite teams playing on Thursday nights. These games are usually reserved for programs that are happy to risk iffy weeknight attendance for a spot on national television. We’ve seen a lot of Georgia Tech on Thursday nights over the years, for instance. But the big teams and huge games are typically saved for Saturdays.

Alabama-LSU is slated for Saturday night on CBS. That should be more than enough to fill your plate. ABC is showing Notre Dame at Pittsburgh in primetime. When in doubt, always go with the Irish, right ABC?

However, for quality and quantity, it will be hard to top Thursday night. Both ESPN and Fox Sports 1 should do strong ratings. Whether they beat the NFL monster remains to be seen, but the pros will lose many viewers to the college games.

Enjoy the feast, college football fans.

 

Nick Saban on 60 Minutes: Armen Keteyian gets inside access to Alabama coach

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Nick Saban and Alabama get the treatment from 60 Minutes tonight. Here’s a preview.

The rundown from CBS:

The best investment the University of Alabama ever made was the hiring of a football coach who delivered a team that has won three of the last four national championships.  So says Dr. Robert Witt, chancellor of the University of Alabama about Nick Saban, who created a football dynasty in Tuscaloosa, Ala. in just a handful of years under a contract that pays him more than $5.5 million a year.  Armen Keteyian gets to see up close how Saban managed this feat, as he profiles the famous Crimson Tide coach and takes cameras into his practices and coaches meetings.  Saban’s profile will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES, Sunday, Nov. 3(7:30PM, ET/7:00PM PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Keteyian speaks to Dr. Witt as part of his profile of Saban. The question posed to the academic head of the Alabama University system was simple. As the highest paid coach in collegiate sports, was Saban worth it?  Dr. Witt responds without hesitation, “Nick Saban is the best financial investment this university has ever made. We have made an investment that’s been returned many fold,” he tells Keteyian.

Some believe Saban has gotten the team to its lofty heights by being tough on his players. But it’s not entirely accurate, says the coach of the undefeated Crimson Tide.  “Well, I don’t know if it’s fair [to say] I am really tough on people,” says Saban.  “We create a standard for how we want to do things and everybody’s got to buy into that standard or you really can’t have any team chemistry.”

If he seems to be tough on players, he’s just trying to weed out mediocrity – something there is no room for on the number-one ranked team.  “Mediocre people don’t like high-achievers and high-achievers don’t like mediocre people,” says Saban.

In a twist on the old “winning is everything” strategy, Saban pushes his players not to think of winning, but to concentrate on executing each down — a method he uses to make his team play their hearts out every play.   “The approach was to challenge the players to play every play in the game like it had a history and a life of its own…it really is the simple way to do it and it’s the best way to [win],” says the Alabama coach, whose success has earned him a statue on the university’s campus.

Keteyian and producers spent months on the story, bringing cameras to numerous practice sessions and to a youth football camp Saban runs. Keteyian also interviews Terry Saban, his wife of 42 years.

CBS Sports Network’s Aaron Taylor will be careful about wardrobe in calling first Notre Dame game

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Aaron Taylor will be paying special attention to his tie Saturday.

Taylor, an All-American offensive tackle at Notre Dame in the early 90s, will be on the call for the Irish-Air Force game on CBS Sports Network. It will be his first time working as an analyst for a game involving his old school.

So Taylor is acutely aware of not wanting to play any favorites.

“I know I have to be more careful,” Taylor said. “I remember once doing a San Diego State game. I happened to wear a tie with red in it. Well, I heard about it on Twitter and Facebook, and this was just from doing the open to the game.

“No question, the level of scrutiny will be up Saturday. I’ll be very careful with my tie. Definitely, no blue and gold.”

Taylor hardly is the first former player to work as an analyst for his former team. He knows the drill.

“I’m not going to be crying on the air if my alma mater is losing,” Taylor said.”I know I’ll be walking a fine line.”

However, make no mistake, Saturday’s assignment is special for Taylor. He said it will be “coming full circle” for him.

“There was a time when Notre Dame might as well have been England to me,” said Taylor, who grew up in the San Francisco area. “I had no idea where South Bend was when the recruiting letters started to come in. Notre Dame is on my Mt. Rushmore of the choices I’ve made in my life along with my wife and kids. It was paramount to what I’ve become.”

Taylor experienced the last truly sustained period of excellence at Notre Dame. From 1990-93, his teams went 41-8-1 under Lou Holtz.

Taylor believes Brian Kelly has a chance to replicate what Holtz did.

“They both have the vision and a specific way to execute that vision,” Taylor said. “Holtz was a little more hands-on. Kelly tried that in the beginning, but he got back to letting his coaches do their thing.

“Holtz was very methodical. Every week we had a game plan. We knew as players if we executed the plan, we’d win the game. Kelly strikes me the same way. You don’t enjoy the kind of success he’s had without having a plan.”

 

 

Native American group says Corso’s dressing as Seminole leader showed lack of respect

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OK, here we go.

Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic and others didn’t find much humor in the Bill Murray-Lee Corso exchange during Saturday’s edition of College GameDay.

The headline said Corso dressing as the Seminole leader is “the Native Equivalent of Black Face.”

Cohen writes:

Evidently, no one at ESPN stopped to think: “Hey, maybe some folks might consider Corso’s dance inappropriate” especially for a network that has covered the “Redskins” controversy and has a huge stake in the success and reputation of the National Football League (and college football, for that matter). And clearly no one afteward at the network seemed inclined to offer any sort of explanation or rationale for what had just aired.

But the fact is that many people did consider the episode highly offensive. Here is what a spokeswoman for the National Congress of American Indians told me Saturday evening:

“This is a perfect example of how Native Americans are ridiculed in the course of sports entertainment. Good-natured rivalries are one thing. Wearing the native equivalent of black face is quite another. The Eagle Staff carried by Mr. Corso and thrown into the crowd by Mr. Murray is a sacred symbol of leadership and today is used to honor our Native veterans who have served this country. That it was used as a prop in this mockery and shown such disrespect is proof that our heritage and culture are not honored or respected by the slurs and caricatures used by sports teams.”

I posted the video on my site Saturday afternoon. I thought it was funny, and was shocked that GameDay landed Murray as a guest picker.

However, I did get some responses from people who criticized ESPN for showing a lack of respect in the segment. ESPN is declining comment.

Corso is a Florida State alum and loves the school. It isn’t the first time he has done the Seminole dance on the show. However, given the current climate, it might be the last.

 

 

New documentary: ‘Schooled’ examines what NCAA doesn’t want you to see

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There is a telling scene in Schooled in which UCLA running back Johnathan Franklin is shown playing a college football video game. And who is carrying the ball? None other than Franklin–at least the animated version.

Franklin, of course, lights up, knowing full well he won’t see a penny for his image being used.

“It really showed how he felt at that moment,” said producer Andrew Muscato.

Schooled: The Price of College Sports is full of many moments that examine what college sports is (big-money) and what it also is too often (failing athletes). The documentary debuts tonight at 8 p.m. ET on Epix, a premium cable channel that is following the mode of HBO and Showtime of using sports as a vehicle to widen its audience. The film also is available at epixhd.com,  iTunes and will be out as a DVD.

Former baseball manager Bobby Valentine is listed as the executive producer; the film is being done by his production company. Muscato said it was inspired by Taylor Branch’s 2011 article in The Atlantic detailing how athletes are being, well, schooled. Branch also is one of the executive producers in the film.

“Taylor made it more than just about money,” Muscato said. “He made sense. As soon as he said yes (to doing the film), we hit the ground running.”

Muscato’s goal was to show “how the sausage gets made.” Indeed, it can be a meat grinder for those involved.

The biggest challenge, he said, was getting athletes, past and present, to agree to be interviewed. A break-through occurred when Arian Foster, formerly of Tennessee and now with Houston, decided to participate.

Foster told the story of being hungry as a student-athlete, requiring him to get money on the side while at Tennessee. His comments created early headlines for the film.

“He kept telling us how hungry he was,” Muscato said. “He was projected to be a second-round pick (after his junior year). If he was so hungry, why did he stay in school? We kept pressing him on that, and finally he said, ‘Yeah, I got paid.’ It all made sense. We knew we got something special.”

And there’s much more here, and it goes beyond money. There is a compelling segment about the academic angle and problems at North Carolina. It isn’t news that schools compromise standards and just push athletes through the system. However, it becomes more vivid when faces and names are attached.

“If (getting a scholarship) is the compensation for the athletes, fine,” Muscato said. “Then make sure their education isn’t compromised. Make sure they are getting the education as promised.”

The film concludes with an extensive discussion of whether athletes should be paid. ESPN analyst Jay Bilas stands out, chiding college administrators who say a proper payment system can’t be put in place. Bilas said that shouldn’t be an excuse.

“The problem is the athletes don’t have a voice,” Muscato said. “They need a seat at the table. Right now, you have one group telling other people, ‘We know what’s right for you. This is the way it should be done.'”

The NCAA declined to have a current representative be featured in the film. Why, if they think why they are doing is right?

Ultimately, the NCAA and people involved in college sports have major accountability problems on many levels, according to the film. Again, that won’t come as a great shock.

What makes this documentary work is, well, seeing how the sausage gets made.

“We hope people will look at college sports differently and wonder if they do enough for the athletes,” Muscato said. “We hope this furthers the national conversation.”