Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports media….
RedZone: Neil Best of Newsday talks to Scott Hanson, my hero, about last Sunday’s terrific day for viewing on RedZone.
It still was early afternoon in Southern California, but it already had been a full day at NFL RedZone headquarters, what with snow falling in several stadiums, touchdowns coming at a record pace and a series of frantic finishes.
“When those games ended, when the dust settled, we looked around at each other in the studio and were like, ‘Did that all really just happen?’ ” host Scott Hanson recalled three days later. “It was like watching a movie where you think you hit the crescendo and now a new thing makes your jaw drop. It seemed like whenever one finished, the next one outdid itself.”
NFL beat writers: Richard Deitsch at MMQQ does a roundtable on issues and obstacles in covering the NFL.
HOW DO YOU IMAGINE YOU WILL DEFINE THIS JOB FIVE YEARS FROM NOW?
Keim: I don’t know that it would change a whole lot from now as much as it will just continue to evolve, but I do think the way social media is going and with more teams enhancing game-day experiences, that the ability to go beyond what is seen will be more important. Some teams already have apps that allow fans at a game to watch replays from various angles. In five years, I’d imagine everyone will have that ability, and I think that makes fans smarter. That means writers have to keep pace and provide their unique perspective and work even harder to not tell you what happened but why. I also think the need to be multidimensional will increase with the rise in videos in particular.
Dickie V: Richard Deitsch at SI.com talks to Dick Vitale, who at 74 wants to keep broadcasting forever.
Dick Vitale is crying. This is not uncommon for the 74-year-old ESPN broadcaster. Vitale readily admits he is an emotional man, especially on the subject of his professional mortality. While there is always a lot of performance with Vitale, this moment during a 45-minute phone conversation appears genuine. The question was a simple one: How often do you think about when your broadcasting career will come to an end?
“I want to do it forever, obviously,” said Vitale. “We all do. I see Vin Scully and I get excited. It gets me emotional, really. Thinking about the day it is over, I know it is going to tear my heart apart. I love it, man. I love it. …
He is choked up. He puts down the phone. He needs to gain his composure.
“But I do think about it, man,” he continued. “You can’t hide the number (his age). I can’t hide the number. I told my wife when I came back from doing the [Duke-Michigan] game last Tuesday that I walk into the arena and the kids chant “Dickie V, Dickie V.” I go over to them, give them high fives and I can’t tell you the rush it gives me. I get emotional about this a lot. I have shed some tears about it.”
Dickie V 2: Michael Bradley also writes about Vitale for the National Sports Journalism Center site at Indiana.
Except for Chris Berman, there is no one who symbolizes ESPN more than Vitale. And since Berman generates far more animus – at least if you read the media reviews of his work – than does Vitale, Dickie V may actually be a more accurate personification of the entertainment and sports giant. Some people love him. Others can’t stand him. And that’s the way it is with ESPN. There is no middle ground.
Curt Schilling: Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News talks to Schilling about his new role as an analyst for ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.
“(As a player) I remember saying this is something I would never do,” Schilling said. “At one point there was animosity on my end to the people doing this. I felt there was a lack of accountability at times. I didn’t like to hear things from people who I would never see. So, going into the clubhouse and being around the managers and players is something that will be part of my job.”
Wilson is a smooth and polished speaker, eager to please with his effusiveness and politeness. He is “a human Hallmark card,” as the Seattle columnist Art Thiel called him.
Kaepernick behaves like a schoolboy banished to the principal’s office. His microphone is where well-intended questions go to die.
“Stop acting like a jerk,” one San Francisco columnist wrote this season.
John Ourand: Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing does a podcast with the media writer for Sports Business Daily, reviewing the year in sports media.
Joe Tessitore: The ESPN announcer talks about his upcoming role with the SEC Network in a podcast with Ken and Keith at Sports Media Weekly.
Ted Leonsis: Alex Silverman of the Povich Center for Sports Journalism writes about Leonsis’ view of media in the ever-changing climate.
The former AOL executive who boasts he “sent the first AIM instant message,” advised aspiring journalists and media executives to find companies with “green arrows,” those that create value and have multiple revenue streams. The traditional media industry is shrinking and is not helping young people develop their skills they way it once did.
For this reason, Leonsis believes it is imperative for students to find companies that see the value in a “double bottom line,” one that is not only about profit but also about contributing to the greater community. To Leonsis, sports is the ultimate double bottom line business. He knows if the Wizards start winning, “the community will go crazy,” and added he does not let business decisions get in the way of trying to win. Community conscious businesses grow the fastest and have the happiest employees, according to the Georgetown graduate.
Snowed out: Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that viewers in Milwaukee missed an important part of Sunday’s Packers game because of extended weather coverage during a break.
We all understand TV is obsessed with weather coverage. But to the point it actually trumps a Packers’ game telecast? That’s insane.
There are some other words that come to mind about the decision to pre-empt live Packers game coverage to give us traffic and weather news.
Incompetent is one.
Shameful is another.