Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports media….
ARod: Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes about Alex Rodriguez’s media strategy.
Rodriguez’s publicist, Ron Berkowitz, said Thursday that there was no campaign plan, no scripted rollout of television interviews that would reinforce the dual messages of his 40-minute Francesa interview: first, that Bud Selig is the cowardly commissioner of baseball for not testifying at the arbitration hearing over the 211-game suspension that Selig has imposed on him, and second, that he is not guilty of taking performance-enhancing drugs (in the particular case Major League Baseball is waging against him), obstructing justice or intimidating witnesses.
“Yesterday was a spur-of-the-moment event,” Berkowitz said of Rodriguez’s appearance on WFAN (and consequently the YES Network). “We gave Mike a ring about 20 minutes before, to tell him we were coming over.”
Kennedy assassination: Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News speculates on how sports leagues would react today.
Red Smith, writing for the New York Herald Tribune, also railed against the New York Giants’ game to be played at Yankee Stadium:
“In the civilized world, it was a day of mourning. In the National Football League, it was the 11th Sunday of the business year, a quarter-million day in Yankee Stadium, a day for selling to television a show which that medium not always celebrated for sensitive taste — couldn’t stomach.”
Dan Dierdorf: The veteran analyst tells Richard Deitsch at SI.com why he is retiring after the season.
“The reality is, from a physical standpoint, it’s too much for me, especially the travel,” Dierdorf told SI.com from his home in St. Louis. “I have two artificial knees, two artificial hips, nerve damage in my legs, and it’s a struggle for me to walk. That’s the reality of it. Ask anyone who has seen me go through a press box.”
Fox golf: Geoff Shackelford is pleased that Mark Loomis looks to be in line to oversee Fox Sports’ coverage of golf. Jason McIntyre of Big Lead broke the news via his Twitter feed.
Loomis helmed ABC’s golf coverage during the Tirico-Azinger-Faldo years and more recently started ESPN’s coverage of The Open Championship. A single-handicap golfer who grew up playing Winged Foot, Loomis widely respected in the television industry with both on and off-camera people. Considering Fox’s inexperience in televising golf, and the pressure to be “fresh and innovative,” a Loomis hire would provide a much-needed credibility injection for both Fox and their new partners in Far Hills.
Mike Tirico: Brad Gagnon at Awful Announcing praises Tirico for his candid call of the controversial finish to Monday’s game.
Monday night in Carolina, we had the most controversial finish of the 2013 NFL season. If that holds up, it’ll be the second consecutive year in which ESPN’s Monday Night Football will broadcast the season’s most controversial game, because Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden were also in the booth when Seattle beat Green Bay on the now-infamous “Fail Mary” last September.
Tirico and Gruden handled both moments extremely well, and it only reinforced for me how much better ESPN’s national NFL product has become than most if not all of its competitors.
Peyton-Brady: Richard Deitsch of SI.com has a preview of NBC’s coverage of the 14th meeting between Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.
NBC is billing it with a title befitting a Super Bowl:
Manning-Brady XIV.
Next week’s Sunday Night Football telecast will be the 14th time Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning meet on a football field as pros. It is one of the signature games on the 2013 NFL schedule, and given the historical significance of the game, the core staff of SNF held a three-hour meeting last June 20 at NBC Sports Network’s headquarters in Stamford, Conn. specifically to discuss ideas on how they could make next Sunday night’s production special for viewers.
“I think what makes these games special is they play the position with an acumen not seen by many players,” said SNF producer Fred Gaudelli. “Yes, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers fit there, too, but the command of everything around Manning and Brady is uncanny. We will have some nice, historical material, but I’m also looking for things in the game to showcase why these guys are two of the greatest to have ever plated this game.”
Bad sports talk radio: Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing says it has been a year filled with many not-so-great moments for the sports talkers.
There are many great sports talk radio hosts throughout the country that don’t need to rely on shock jock antics to draw an audience. They should be applauded for not taking the easy way out and diving into the gutter. Nevertheless, there is a pervasive attitude that exists in the industry that produces the likes of Damon Bruce. He is far from alone. Here is a list of the notable controversies, suspensions, and firings to emerge from sports talk radio in the last 13 months…
Heidi Game: Neil Best of Newsday reflects on the 45th anniversary of when NBC switched from a football game to a movie about a young girl.
Forty-five years ago (last) Sunday I was worried some silly football game would delay the beginning of “Heidi,’’ which I and many of my fellow 8-year-olds were very much looking forward to watching.
Happily, NBC executives left the Jets-Raiders game right at 7 p.m., and all was well! Kind of.
College hoops TV first: Classic Sports Media and TV has a look at who was on the crew for networks’ first college games.
first on ABC
Sat 12/15/1973, UCLA vs NC State (at St Louis), 5 pm, Keith Jackson, Bill Russell
(Note: not part of a package, but a single-game deal arranged by ABC after losing NBA rights)first on NBC as part of the national package it began in the 1980s
Sat 11/29/1975, Indiana vs UCLA (at St Louis), 11:30 pm, Dick Enberg, Billy Packer
(Note: this was a live telecast – the game started at 10:30 local time)