Tag Archives: football

My lunch with Steve Sabol: In search of art museums at a Super Bowl

Posted on by

Like everyone else, I was a big fan of NFL Films.

So when I was approached during Super Bowl XXXV in 2000 about having lunch with Steve Sabol, I jumped at the opportunity. I looked forward to discussing football, the upcoming game between the Giants and Baltimore in Tampa, and film making, most definitely film making, with the famed president of NFL Films.

Now my memory is a bit foggy, but I’m fairly sure we initially started by talking about art museums. Yes, art museums.

Sabol loved going to art museums in towns he visited, and he was interested in what Tampa had to offer.

I’m not from Tampa and hardly an art expert. But thanks to my parents living in Sarasota, I was able to tell him about the Ringling Art Museum. I had been there once. All I knew is that Ringling (from the circus) was a notable collector and had some famous paintings from the 15th and 16th Centuries.

“Really?” he said, scribbling the name on a piece of paper. “That sounds terrific.”

I learned quickly that Sabol was a different breed. In fact, he had no interest in sports other than football.

“I have no idea who played in the World Series,” Sabol said. “Don’t care.”

Who knows? Sabol might not have had an interest in football if not for the chance to put the game on film.

Looking back, it really wasn’t a surprise that he was in search of a art museum during a Super Bowl. He truly was an artist with his vision for NFL Films.

My favorite was a series called Lost Treasures of NFL Films. It featured vintage old footage that had never been used before.

In a 1999 story for the Chicago Tribune, I wrote:

The programs are like opening a time capsule, tracing the roots of both the NFL and NFL Films, which first started shooting games in 1962. The shows go back to a period when everything was innocent, gritty and more passionate. Everything looked more genuine.

Included are vintage shots of Bears games at Wrigley Field, botched attempts to get audio from Vince Lombardi and the incomprehensible notion of players simply handing the ball to officials after scoring a touchdown.

“You think to yourself, `Boy, how have things changed?’ ” Sabol said. “There were no earrings or headsets. The feeling you get is like sitting around with a bunch of friends, saying, `I can remember what it was like.’ “

The original plan was to have actor Richard Kiley narrate the films. Unfortunately, the actor died two weeks before production.

Fortunately, it led to Sabol filling in. From the story:

Sabol doesn’t read from a script. Instead he talks over on the film, remembering things as he sees them again.

“It’s like sitting around with a proud father who has a bunch of old movies and is dying to talk about it,” Sabol said.

Sabol, the proud father, told those stories as only he could. In the clip above, he discusses working with John Facenda.

“The first words he said for us, ‘It starts with a whistle and ends with a gun,” Sabol said in this Lost Treasure. “We knew we were on to something. He read our scripts as if he was an after-dinner speaker for the Last Supper.”

Hence, Facenda’s nickname, “The Voice of God.”

Sabol, though, was the star of this series. He showed the evolution of the league and NFL Films. It was like an artist detailing every brush stroke.

And then there were stories. It seemed like every frame of film had a tale behind it, one better than the other.

“My dad has a great expression,” Sabol said when his father and NFL Films founder Ed was inducted into the Hall of Fame. ” ‘Tell me a fact, and I’ll learn. Tell me a truth, and I’ll believe. But tell me a story, and it will live in my heart forever.'”

Thanks to his work at NFL Films, Sabol’s stories will live forever.

Thinking back at our lunch at Super Bowl XXXV, I wonder what art museum Sabol chose to visit. I’d like to think he took the hour drive down to Sarasota to see the Ringling Museum.

It would make me feel good to give something back to Sabol considering all that he gave to us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q/A with John Clayton: His 24/7 study (obsession) of football; That’s what I do

Posted on by

First of two parts:

Here is what’s more amazing than John Clayton becoming a YouTube sensation (more than 2 million views) with his new ESPN SportCenter ad: The fact that he even took a day off to shoot the ad.

Clayton rarely takes days off. Maybe 10, 15 tops, all year, he says.

The truth is, a day off separates him for doing what he truly loves: Studying football.

Study, not cover, is exactly what he does for ESPN. Hence, his nickname, “The Professor.”

I always have been fascinated by Clayton. In Chicago, he does a weekly report on Wednesday at 4 p.m. on WMVP-AM 1000, the ESPN-owned sports talk station. I am continually astounded at his knowledge and his ability to name players buried deep on a team’s depth chart

How does Clayton do that?

I now know how after talking to Clayton late last week. His schedule is insane. For instance, after covering the Atlanta-Kansas City game during week 1, Clayton woke at 3 a.m. the next morning so he can begin watching replays of the other games prior to going to the airport.

Note: Our interview was interrupted twice because he had to takes call from NFL front office people. No doubt, calling him for information.

Here it is:

Who is the third string running back on the Bears?

They just made the change. Remember, they had Kahlil Bell, and they cut him. They made the adjustment with Armando Allen, who they brought up.

How do you keep track of all that? You’re talking about a guy who barely gets on the field. Do you have photographic memory?

Oh, well. Any free moment I have, I study it.That’s what I try to do. I’m even doing more things this year than I ever have before. I find it so essential to do.

I want to know everything I can about a roster. Everything.

I keep track of every contract in the league. I have every roster in the league. I make sure my rosters are updated every day.

I have these databases. One data base has every salary of every player, every age of every player, every height and weight of every player, every year of experience, every entry level.

What I do with the salaries I build a program, takes the salaries and add them up. I have the proration of their signing bonuses, and the money they are likely to earn. I mix that all together so I can put together a salary cap number of every team in the league.

Second data base: How they were built. I’ll have the name of the player; what year he came into the league and position he plays. I can keep track of whether the team is too old, how many new players they have.

I keep track of the inactives on Sunday…

Why do you need to know all this?

Because that’s what I do.

Not everybody does this.

OK, do I follow the salary of a player because I care about what he makes? No. A decision is made for that guy to make that salary. What does it mean that you have a back up who is making $2 million? Well, before the start of the season, they’re going to come to him and ask for a pay cut. You know going in, certain guys are going to go.

If you’re above the cap, you know Kyle Vanden Bosch is going to redo his contract to give (the Lions) cap room.

I also need to know who is the third receiver. When I talk about fantasy receivers, how do they use those guys? People want to know.

You live in Seattle. Nothing is close to you besides the Seahawks. Why do you feel you have to be at a game every Sunday as opposed to watching all of them on DirecTV?

To me, it’s the best way to get a feel for football and finding the changes and finding the trends. The game changes to a certain degree every 3 or 4 weeks. I’m at the game and I’m watching every game. I’ve got the iPad.

When you’re at the game, you get a full view of what’s going on and the immediacy of going down to the lockerroom and answering those questions. You don’t have the ability to ask those questions if you’re sitting at home.

I go to Atlanta-KC. I see what I see. Then I have the ability to go over to Matt Ryan and talk about what he’s doing with his offense; get a feel for the Chiefs.

I’d go to 32 training camps if they let me. When you’re watching practice, I’m pretty intense about following everything. You watching and saying, ‘this guy is in good shape, this guy has lost some speed…’ You’re putting that all in perspective and you have the immediacy of asking somebody.

Do you watch every game eventually?

Before I’d tape every game I could. Now thanks to NFL.com, they have the digital version of every game in 30 minutes. So literally in KC, I got up at 3 on Monday morning. I watched four games at the hotel. Went to the airport and watched three more. I had seven games done by the time I flew back home. When I got home, I watched the rest.

Does anyone do what you do?

The teams are. If teams are doing it, and if I can get in the heads of the teams, it might help me out a little bit.

You go, ‘All of the sudden. Wait a second. If the fourth round pick is ahead of the third round pick, then you start to realize maybe the third-round pick is being phased out.’

Do you have GMs hitting you up for information?

Yeah.

How do the players treat you? I imagine it is different than when you were covering the NFL as a newspaper reporter.

In 2000, ESPN did a Clayton Across America. I went to 31 teams in 28 days. The top players would be nice enough to come over to you, particularly on teams 23 and 24. They were following me. They would come over and say, ‘Hey John, I know you must be really tired. Do you need me for anything?’

I always do the Inside the Huddle notebook, because I’m trying to stay on top of trends. Once I started doing that segment, the top players on the teams were so cooperative. They would tell the little things they were doing differently. What trends they spotted.

If you’re a negative, ripping person, they’ll like you or hate you. I am what I am. I try to find the trends and do the most honest job I can. For whatever reason, that’s gone over well. Most of the top players are good to me when I see them or need them.

So what’s your daily routine?

I get up every day at 4,5,6. I try to go as long as I can before I get fatigued.

How much writing do you do?

Today, I did 3,500 words. Tomorrow, I’ll do about 1,400 words.

Do you ever see your wife?

Every Friday night is date night. As soon as I get done with my last segment, I take her out.

Do you ever take any days off?

Year round, maybe take 10-15 days off. It’s a seven-day-a-week job.

Do you feel if you did anything less, you’d be slacking off?

I would, yeah. What it all comes down to is that even though I’ve been doing this for a long period of time, I’m trying to always reinvent myself. I’m trying to get better. You can only get better when there’s so much new information out there.

You really love this, don’t you?

My only goal in life was to be an NFL beat writer for a team. Now instead of doing it for one team, I get to do it for 32 teams.

It’s phenomenal how much fun it can be. There’s so much information out there. I would like to do more with the numbers from a sabemetrics perspective. Sort of like what they do for baseball. Could I find a wins against replacement number for a QB, WR, Offensive tackle? I can see things visually, but I’d like to translate them into numbers.

It’s a fantastic job, and it’s only getting better.

Tuesday: Clayton on the making of the commercial, the reaction, and what’s really in his office.

 

 

 

 

 

What’s new for NFL 2012: NFL Network gets more quantity, quality; Finally continuity with Nessler-Mayock

Posted on by

Last in a series:

The NFL didn’t just give the NFL Network more games. The league also gave the network an improved schedule.

NFL Network kicks off its expanded 13-game schedule Thursday with Chicago-Green Bay at Lambeau Field. I’m sure ESPN would have preferred that hated rivalry game over Baltimore whipping Cincinnati for its Monday night debut.

Then again, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the NFL took care of its own with a marquee opener. The league wants to build this enterprise, which is a big reason why the Thursday night package landed on NFL Network as opposed to another network.

More Thursday night games will help drive more eyeballs to the network. And it will put more pressure on Time Warner Cable, the lone holdout with Cablevision now in the fold, to finally come to a resolution with the NFL Network.

During a conference call, I addressed those issues with Mark Quenzel, senior vice president of production and programming for NFL Network.

What is the impact on the network of having games in September as opposed to starting in November? 

Quenzel: I think we have a lot of great quality programming, some great people and great shows on our network, and great analysis that we do.  But the bottom line is there’s nothing that even comes close to games.  And to be able to have five additional games to start the season, to be able to deliver that kind of value, and to have the kind of promotional platform that games bring, allows you to talk about everything else you’re doing. Our network is a lot more than just games obviously, and it allows us to tell our fans, to tell NFL fans, what else is out there that they can watch and be a part of.  So that’s a huge thing.

What does it mean for the distribution of the NFL Network?

Quenzel: Obviously we are thrilled Cablevision came on two weeks ago, and that’s a big, big score for us, particularly in the New York market. It’s a big deal.  Obviously a lot has been written about Time Warner, and they’re the only major carrier that doesn’t have NFL Network.  I’m hoping, I think we’re all hoping, that we can figure it out because there are a lot of NFL fans in those Time Warner markets, and they deserve to see the 13 games, and they deserve to see all the other programming and have that choice.

I’m hopeful that we can work something out with them, and I think that would be obviously to everybody’s advantage, but clearly to the NFL fan, that’s the best thing that could possibly happen.

Regarding the schedule, it seems like this is the best NFL Network ever has had. The league obviously owns the channel; they make the schedule. Is there any connection there? What goes into determining who gets what games?

Quenzel: As in most things with the National Football League, and I’m telling you from my heart, it’s an incredibly level playing field.  I go in there, there’s a gentleman named Howard Katz, who is the master of all things with the schedule, and I go in probably right behind the ESPN guys and right behind the NBC guys and I beg Howard for the best games I can possibly get, and he looks at me and smiles and says, I’ll see what I can do.

But the point is I think that ‑‑ look, I know it’s the NFL Network, but speaking frankly, we have some great, great partners that pay us a fair amount ‑‑ pay the NFL a fair amount of money, and they deserve great games.  So while I’m thrilled about our schedule, I think if you look at it, I think if you asked Fox how they felt about Green Bay‑San Francisco yesterday or NBC with Peyton Manning against the Steelers last night, I think they feel pretty good about their games, too.

I’m thrilled with the schedule.  I think that we got some great games to start off, and I think we’ve got some real potential, particularly in the back end of the schedule, New Orleans‑Atlanta, obviously Denver‑Oakland, those games, divisional games, so I am thrilled with it.  But I do think if you look across the entire spectrum of our broadcast partners that everyone has got some things to be excited about, particularly after yesterday and some of the initial ratings I’ve seen from (week 1) look like they’re pretty darned good.

*******

Continuity in the booth

For once, one thing that won’t change for the NFL Network is the announce team. Brad Nessler and Mike Mayock return for their second year in the booth with Alex Flanagan on the sidelines.

That’s no small item for a network that has struggled with its announcing team. Remember Bryant Gumbel on play-by-play?

Continuity is a good thing. Nessler, Mayock and Flanagan appear to be in for the long haul.

Quenzel: It’s not a secret that we’ve had a little bit of a revolving door in terms of our on‑air talent for Thursday Night Football. The three of them I thought were spectacular last year, jumping in, by the way, for the first time really together and trying to do it midway through the season.  To have them back for a second year, to start at the beginning of the season, I can’t tell you how excited I am about being able to do 13 games with them and really being able to get a rhythm because I think they’re fantastic.

Nessler:  Mark talked about Mike and Alex and I, and our production team.  We kind of feel like we were just getting revved up when the season ended for us last year because of the half‑season schedule, and so this year we’re ready to go full bore.

 

 

 

No longer marquee: ESPN, Big Ten Network losers with Penn State sanctions

Posted on by

Regarding the NCAA’s announcement, since this is a sports media site, I’ll discuss the TV aspect:

Make no mistake, when the Big Ten added Penn State as its 11th school in the early 1990s, a major component was television. The addition of the school delivered the large Eastern TV market to the conference. It led to marque match-ups with Joe Paterno’s Nittany Lions going up against Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin, not to mention attractive non-conference games against Alabama, etc.

Penn State’s presence then gave the conference a wide enough national footprint to launch the wildly successful Big Ten Network.

The Big Ten will continue to cash in on a TV deal with ESPN that runs through 2016-17, and the BTN isn’t going anywhere.

But both of its broadcast outlets will feel the pain of the NCAA’s sanctions. Gone for many years is the idea of Penn State football being a marquee draw for television.

Frankly, I think Penn State would have been better off with a one-year “Death Penalty.” The unprecedented long-term penalties for bowls and scholarships are devastating. Unless new coach Bill O’Brien pulls off a miracle, the Nittany Lions are doomed to be 2-10, 1-11 for several years. Or as one tweeter said, “Penn State just became Indiana.”

Penn State had been a showcase team for the Big Ten, with several of its games playing in primetime. In fact, it has two on the schedule for 2012: an Oct. 20 game at Iowa, and Oct. 27 at home against Ohio State.

Will those games be moved back to afternoon starting times? Probably.

Suddenly, Penn State-Ohio State, Penn State-Iowa, or Penn State-anything no longer looks attractive. Perhaps there might be a curiosity factor at first to see how the Nittany Lions and their fans react to the sanctions. But if the product on the field suffers, as expected, viewers won’t watch for long. Those 40-0 blowouts can get boring fast.

Also, bowl TV will be impacted by the four-year postseason ban. Penn State always delivered solid ratings in the bowls.

The brand of Penn State has been diminished, if not decimated. The program was one of the great TV draws throughout the years. Now it is the object of national scorn.

Last fall, I attended the Northwestern-Penn State game. After the Nittany Lions won in what turned out to be Paterno’s final road game, its faithful fans marched through the streets of Evanston, proudly chanting “We are Penn State, We are Penn State…”

Looking back, I wonder what those fans are thinking now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NFL Network plans to launch new morning show

Posted on by

The NFL Network is following the lead of the Golf Channel’s Morning Drive with plans to launch a new live morning show on July 30. From the release:

Debuting Monday, July 30 just as training camps open, the new four-hour “NFL AM” kicks off at 6:00 AM ET each Monday through Friday.  NFL AM will blanket the world of the NFL with seasoned and opinionated talent who will report and debate news and examine the personalities that play the game. The show’s discussion will cover a wide-range of NFL-related topics including the cultural convergence of sports, entertainment and music. Each morning, NFL AMwill collaborate with NFL.com to take a look at the latest in fantasy football news and information.

Beginning Monday, Sept. 3, NFL AM will encore each weekday at 7:00 AM PT for West Coast fans.

It makes sense to have live programming instead of a taped show from the night before. Given that virtually every coach starts their day before dawn, you could expect to see plenty of early morning interviews.

“NFL AM will give fans a great reason to look forward to the morning,” said Mark Quenzel, NFL Network senior vice president of programming and production. “We know that our fans are looking for more football and we are excited to provide a personality-driven show which focuses on football and everything around it. There will be no better way to start their day.”

Here’s the amazing, or rather crazy thing about the show. It will orginate live from the network’s studios in Los Angeles. That means NFL AM begins at 3 a.m. PT, when some of that town’s citizens are just getting in from their PM activities. Hard to imagine that lifestyle.

NFL Network, though, did get some people to sign on. Here are the poor souls who will get their last full night of regular sleep on July 29.

Mark Kriegel (@MarkKriegel), the author of two New York Times best-sellers (Namath: A Biography and Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich), joins NFL Network from FOXSports.com where he spent five years as a national columnist and host of the bi-weekly “Bar Fly on FOX” chat with athletes, celebrities and media. Previously, he was a distinguished media voice on the New York sports scene for 10 years as a columnist for the New York Daily News and the New York Post. He also served as a contributing editor for Esquire magazine. Kriegel’s upcoming book on boxer Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, titled The Good Son, will be released in September.

Eric Davis (@_ericdavis_), who played 13 NFL seasons at cornerback, comes to NFL Network after spending last year as co-host of “Tierney and Davis” weekdays on 95.7 The Game in San Francisco. In addition, Davis will begin his second season as the radio analyst for 49ers games this fall.  Previously, he served as an NFL analyst for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area and for KPIX-TV telecasts of 49ers preseason games. A three-time All-Pro, Davis played six seasons (1990-95) in San Francisco, helping the team to a victory in Super Bowl XXIX. A second-round draft choice from Jacksonville State, Davis also played for Carolina (1996-2000), Denver (2001) and Detroit (2002).
Brian Webber (@bwwebber), a former anchor and reporter for Fox Sports Net and a sideline reporter for NFL games on FOX, joins NFL Network after six years as lead host of Fox Sports’ digital media programming. With Fox Sports Digital, he anchored studio coverage of the NFL, MLB and NASCAR, as well as on-location coverage of the Super Bowl, Final Four and Stanley Cup Final. For the past nine years, Webber has also served as studio host and play-by-play announcer for the Tennis Channel. A graduate of Stanford University, Webber began his broadcasting career began at Fox Sports Net-Bay Area 19 years ago and later included stints as a play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports Net, ESPNU, CBS Sports Network and NCAA Productions.
Nicole Zaloumis (@nicolezaloumis) comes to NFL Network with more than a decade of sports broadcasting experience, most recently as an anchor and reporter for Comcast SportsNet New England since January 2011. Previously, Zaloumis worked for the Big Ten Network, where she co-hosted “The Friday Night Football Report” and “The Women’s Show,” and was a sideline reporter for football games. Earlier in her career, Zaloumis worked for Fox Sports Northwest, Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, the ABC affiliate in Phoenix and the NBC affiliate in Washington, DC.

Steve Wyche (@wyche89) begins his fifth season with NFL Network and NFL.com, providing reports from team facilities and games on a variety of programs including NFL GameDay Morning and NFL Total Access. Additionally, Wyche is a regular columnist on NFL.com and is the co-host of the site’s ‘Cover Two’ podcast. Previously, he covered the Falcons for four seasons for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Wyche has more than two decades of sports journalism experience including posts with the Washington Post covering the Wizards and the NBA, and the Miami Herald on the Dolphins, Heat and University of Florida beats.