Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports media…
Al Michaels: Richard Deitsch of SI.com talks to Michaels about his Olympic hosting duties and how much longer he intends to work. Michaels turns 70 this year.
“In my brain, I feel 19,” he said. “I’m a rascal in my head. I like to have fun, I like to laugh. I have great pals and colleagues in the business. So a couple of things here: Number one is health, and knock on wood, I have stayed healthy. I don’t like to travel but that is part of the deal. Nothing is perfect. I still love the games. I have been a sports fan since I was six years old. I find them exciting. I love competition at the highest level in any sport, which is what the NFL is. I love strategy and drama, that still excites me. When a game is really good I am still excited as I ever was.
“I think when I get to the point where I can’t do it the way the way I am happy doing it, that will be the sign. Health is out of my hands. But if I can’t do it the way I want to do it, then it’s sayonara. I know one thing: I will not hang on. If I can’t do it the way I’m happy doing it, I’m out.”
Dan Jenkins: Sports Book Review Center has a look at Jenkins’ new autobiography. I will have my take on it soon.
As you’d expect, there is plenty of Jenkins’ style on display here. He not only quotes old leads from past stories that he composed, but comes up more than a quota’s worth of laugh-out-loud lines that the rest of us could never match. There are also funny lines by others. Mix that in with some name-dropping and other stories accumulated over a lifetime, and you have an entertaining book.
Dick Button: It’s a good day any time I get to type in Dick Button’s name. Sandy Keenan of the New York Times did a Q/A with the legend, who still looks spry at 84.
Are you ever tired of talking about skating?
Never. Skating encourages you to learn about so many art forms: dance, performance, athleticism, history, choreography, even haute couture. How could anyone tire of it?
Who is the next Dick Button?
Probably Johnny Weir. Now, wait a second — I can’t say that.
You just did. What do you like best about him?
He’s thoughtful, clear and recognizes what he has to do in this world to be firm and honest about what his passions are.
Kentucky Derby: Steve Lepore at Awful Announcing that NBC has signed a new 10-year deal to air America’s great race through 2025.
Erin Andrews: Reva Friedel of Awful Announcing asks if sports viewers will tune in to watch her on Dancing With The Stars?
Okay, first of all, I think I know approximately zero guys who are now going to watch DWTS with Andrews as the new co-host. People are more interested in watching the show for the “talent” rather than the hosts, am I right? Also, let’s keep in mind that this is a show that Lindsay Lohan turned down, so it has bigger problems than finding a younger, hotter, co-host.
SportsNet LA: Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has a proposal to resolve the distribution issues over the new Dodgers network in LA.
Time Warner Cable, we agree to your financial terms. But the deal is, our customers have told us they want to see only the games. So we want the channel only from March 1 to Nov. 1, when there are exhibition- and regular-season contests.
For those other four months, the channel disappears and we don’t pay for it.
The math should work on this. Eight months at $4.50 means $36 per customer during the season. If TWC discounts the cost to, say, $4 to cover the entire 12-month period, that’s still $48 per customer. TWC would have to lower it all the way to $3 per subscriber for the full year to make it equal to the eight-month, full-price agreement. And you really can’t see that happening.
Michael Sam: Manny Randhawa of the National Sports Journalism Center reports on the media circus that was Sam’s press conference at the NFL Combine.
But the name of the player heading to a podium was not Michael Sam. It was Missouri’s other star defensive end, Kony Ealy, a projected first-round draft pick who would climb the steps to the stage. Much of the media throng that awaited Sam’s arrival also had questions for Ealy, and they weren’t all related to football, or even him.
“Kony, for those of us who don’t know Michael Sam, how would you describe him as a person?” was one such question asked of Ealy. He responded that Sam is “a loving brother,” and “caring for the team.” He added that “he’s fun to be around and fun to play with … there’s no other guy I’d rather go to war with.”
The next question?
A follow-up:
“How would you expect him to handle the type of scrutiny that he’s going to garner as he goes through this process and after he’s drafted?”
“Like a professional,” Ealy said. “He’s not a collegiate player anymore. He’s a professional, and I expect him to handle it no other way.”
Ealy was asked other questions about Sam, including one that spoke to the media’s preoccupation with the story about Sam’s sexual orientation over his ability as a football player:
“How does it feel to be getting less attention as a potential first round pick than Michael Sam?”
Olympics ratings: Sports Media Watch does a comprehensive review of NBC’s ratings.
Though the Sochi Olympics averaged the second-lowest primetime rating ever (12.3), NBC topped its competition on the other three major broadcast networks every single night of the games. By comparison, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics was the top draw of the night on 14 of 17 occasions, and the Turin Olympics topped the charts just 8 of 17 times. NBC beat ABC, CBS and FOX combined by 32% in ratings, 45% in viewership, and 51% among adults 18-49 during the Olympics, which the network says is a record.
Athletes and media: Michael Bradley of the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana has issues with LeBron James’ advice to Tony Romo.
“Don’t watch ESPN. All these so-called everyone knows what to do, but they never put on a uniform, trying to tell you what to do. It’s not about that. I think Tony’s at a point now in his career where he’s one of the great quarterbacks we have in our game. It’s because of his work ethic.”
Forget for a moment the silly comment about Romo’s being one of the “great quarterbacks” in the NFL and focus on the bigger picture.
Don’t watch ESPN? There are a lot of reasons to follow that advice, but James is the last one to have any credibility about anybody’s relationship to the network. There may not be an athlete on the planet who has benefitted more from ESPN’s broad reach and promotional relationship with the NBA than James has. ESPN’s Bob Ley said as much when he tweeted at James, “Help me here @KingJames. Don’t watch ESPN – except when you’re the focus of a 1 hour show announcing your free agent decision?”