Monthly Archives: April 2012

Which network gets Peyton’s season opener?

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Oh, to witness the scrambling within the networks to see which one lands Peyton Manning’s regular-season debut with Denver.

Talk about backroom politics.

Manning’s first game will be the biggie from week 1 in the NFL. It will be quite a sight to see No. 18 in an orange uni playing in a game that counts.

The schedules will be announced today with both the NFL Network and ESPN having special reports tonight.

NBC already has the NFL opener with Giants-Dallas on Sept. 5. I’d have to say Al Michaels and company will be the leading contender to land the game with Eli’s brother.

The NFL has to want Peyton’s debut in prime time. The ratings should be huge. And it just feels like a Sunday night game. Besides, it would allow NBC to hype the heck out of it during the Giants game earlier in the week, not to mention during the three-plus weeks of the Olympics.

Sorry, ESPN. And you too, CBS, which will get plenty of shots at Manning with the AFC package.

However, here’s one thing to consider: Is Manning truly healthy? What if you commit to Denver for the Sunday night opener and Manning is sitting in the press box? That would take considerable appeal off this game. I just looked at Denver’s roster and saw Caleb Hanie’s on it. Trust me, from living in Chicago, no network wants to see Hanie in prime time.

Still, I’m guessing that the NFL will take the gamble that Manning will be on the field for game 1. His presence will make the winning network very happy.

 

 

 

 

Reporter wins Pulitzer Prize for Penn State coverage

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One day on the beat, and we’ve already got a Pulitzer Prize winner for a sports-related story.

Sara Ganim and the Harrisburg Patriot-News were cited for their coverage of the Penn State-Jerry Sandusky saga. They were awarded a Pulitzer for local reporting.

From the Patriot-News:

Ganim broke the news in March 2011 that Sandusky was being investigated by a grand jury. Hundreds of journalists descended on State College after Ganim’s story drew national attention following Sandusky’s arrest in November.

“What really struck me about this story and about Sara’s work is that this was not a case where we uncovered some big issue or wanted to look at some big issue or did a massive investigation. This was a case of a reporter doing her job,” Patriot-News editor David Newhouse said.

Congratulations to Ganim and the Patriot-News, although it is a little bit of good news-bad news for the paper. Winning a Pulitzer at age 24 means Ganim will be in high demand.

 

 

 

ShermanReport.com makes its debut

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As Brent Musburger would say, “You are looking live…”

Welcome to the debut of ShermanReport.com.

I did consider naming this site in the honor of Jack Craig. He was the legendary Boston Globe columnist who launched the first sports media column in the 1970s. I read him in the Sporting News. He made me, and countless others, think, “Wow, you really can make money watching TV.”

Thanks to Craig’s inspiration, I went on to become the sports media columnist for 12 years at the Chicago Tribune. It definitely was a favorite beat during my 27-year run at the Tower.

Sports media truly has been a life-long passion. I learned how to read from the box scores. I also was inspired by my father, Jerry (pictured here with my boys Sam and Matt in a 2005 photo), a great sports fan who never went a day without reading the sports section.

While considering the next move in my post-Tribune career at the end of 2011, I started to think about sports media. Frankly, I was influenced by seeing a Sports Illustrated cover, heralding a 20-page review of the year in sports media. Interesting.

One thing led to another, and here I am on the first day of ShermanReport.com. Sorry, Mr. Craig, but I was convinced to use my own name for branding purposes, as they say.

I’ve always been a student of all things sports media. It’s a fascinating industry that has so many different spinning wheels. It is ever changing, even in the two seconds it took you to read this sentence.

Unlike athletes, you’re doing interviews with personalities who want to talk to you–at least most of the time.

As for how this site will work, I plan on covering all the latest developments and trends in sports media. The site will have regular Q&A interviews with the top personalities in the business and with the key executives who call the shots. I also will have analysis of breaking stories and offer reviews and critiques of sports programming.

In addition, ShermanReport.com will follow what’s being written about sports media. Much like JimRomenesko.com, who runs a highly successful site on journalism, I will highlight and run excerpts from important stories about the industry.

The site also will have regular features, such as a spotlight on the latest sports books and vintage videos and stories.

I think there are several good sports media sites out there. They do a solid job of tracking this complex business.

I’m just looking to add my voice to the discussion. I hope you will join me and contribute a comment or two along the way.

And thanks Jack Craig, from all of us.

Cheers.

Update: NFL schedule to be released Tuesday; why so mysterious?

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An update: Did somebody at the NFL hear me? The league just announced the schedule will be released Tuesday at 7 p.m. (Eastern) on NFL Network.

Still why all the mystery? Here’s what I wrote earlier:

There’s plenty of speculation that the NFL will release the exact contents of the 2012 schedule Tuesday.

However, it’s only speculation because the NFL isn’t saying.

Mike Florio of PFT quotes the NFL’s Greg Aiello as saying the release will be “soon.”

Then Florio writes, “which is at least more informative than ‘at some point before September.'”

Given the interest in all things NFL, why wouldn’t the league be promoting the heck out of a schedule show. People definitely would watch.

I’d bet NFL fans would watch a show announcing the exact date the schedule is going to be announced.

Doesn’t make sense to me.

 

 

 

NHL scores with every game playoff coverage

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I’m a fairly avid Blackhawks fan. I watch most of their games. But otherwise, I’d consider myself to be a casual hockey fan.

So the new playoff TV format is geared to snaring fans like me, the casual hockey fan. And it has worked, big time.

Airing all the games on NBC, CNBC, and the NHL Network is exactly what hockey needed. Opening night had an NCAA Basketball tournament feel to it. I watched the end of the Pittsburgh-Philadelphia overtime game on the NBC Sports Network and then quickly turned to the exciting climax of the Detroit-Nashville game on CNBC. Then I even went back to NBCSN to watch the beginning of the Los Angeles-Vancouver game. I haven’t watched that much hockey in one night for a long time, and I continued to do it throughout the weekend.

Funny thing: At one point, my 16-year old Matt cried out, “Dad, what channel is CNBC on?” He wasn’t looking to watch James Cramer.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told SI’s Richard Deitsch:

“This has been the partnership we envisioned and we could not be more pleased  with how they have worked with us.

Yes, indeed. The ratings were strong for the opening two nights. I’ll have an update from the weekend later.

 

 

 

Facing the inevitable in LA: Replacing Vin Scully

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It was great to see Vin Scully return to the booth Sunday after missing the Dodgers’ first five home games with a bad cold.

Everyone in LA hopes Scully will go on forever, and he just might. However, the reality is that he is 84-years old. At some point, somebody will take his place.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News examined life after Scully in a recent column. He writes the team doesn’t really have a plan for a successor.

Scully, at 84, with a cold, sends a chill down everyone else’s spine. Enough to where you’d think by now the Dodgers, as they are currently constituted amid an ownership change, would have a security blanket ready to wrap everyone in, either for the short term or long term.

They really don’t, according to a variety of sources who spoke off the record about it. That by itself should be unsettling.

While Scully has stayed in bed at his Hidden Hills home the past three Dodgers games, the hope is that he’ll be back sometime this weekend for a Prime Ticket telecast at Dodger Stadium between the San Diego Padres and Dodgers, and we can all breathe easier.

But there are no guarantees. He’s day-to-day, the team says. “Aren’t we all?” Scully once said in what has become a famous line attributed to him.

He also is fond of saying that if you want to make God smile, you tell Him your plans. But that shouldn’t preclude the team to begin accounting for the time when (gasp) Scully disappears like Cheshire Cat, as he said recently, and all that will be left is his smile.

They can keep using a combination of Charley Steiner, Steve Lyons, Eric Collins or Rick Monday, but all that seems to be is a scripted fire drill.

 

 

 

Gehrig biographer takes on heavy hitters in Chicago

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There probably are easier and perhaps smarter things you can do than try to battle ESPN, Comcast Sports Net, and the major newspapers in Chicago. But that’s the challenge being taken on by Jonathan Eig.

Eig, who wrote bestselling books on Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, Al Capone (which one of those three subjects doesn’t fit in with the other two?) has launched Chicagosidesports.com. Despite several sports site dedicated to covering all things Chicago sports, Eig thinks there is room for another one.

In an interview I did with him for my blog at Crain’s Chicago Business, he said:

“I just felt there’s a great appetite for sports news that isn’t being met on  the Internet. The Tribune and Sun-Times have good sports  coverage, but they haven’t really packaged it for the web. ESPN is the 800-pound  gorilla, but ESPNChicago hasn’t made the effort to make it look Chicago. It  doesn’t look any different than ESPNLA. It’s not something people are talking  about.”

Basically, Eig’s site is running one feature/analysis piece per day. Case in point is a story by former Bulls player Paul Shirley on his realization that his playing career was over. Thursday, Eig and James Finn Garner spoofed the Ozzie Guillen debacle in Miami.

The site also has links to the other Chicago sports site on important stories of the day.

“We’re not looking to replace ESPN and the Tribune for getting the scores,”  Eig said. “We think we can be a road map to tell people what’s out there.”

Here’s why it might work.

Writers will receive a small fee upfront with the chance to receive a portion of  the profits at the end of the year, assuming there are profits. He said  ChicagoSide will be running “a lean operation,” which will help keep it  sustainable.

Given his work as an author, Eig brings a high level of credibility to this endeavor. Can he pull it off? If he does, look for versions of ChicagoSide to pop up in other cities.

 

 

 

Novelty element drives Magic-Bird play

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I caught the new play Magic/Bird while I was in New York last month. The play still was in previews. So technically, it wouldn’t be fair to do a complete review.

Then again, I’m not the New York Times.

I came away thinking the play was good, not great. Everyone knows the story of the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird rivalry so well, it’s hard to feel like you’re seeing something new.

Still, there’s something to be said of the novelty of seeing a sports tale played out on a stage.

The play begins with Johnson’s HIV announcement in 1991. Then it quickly flashes back to the root of the relationship: their first meeting in the 1979 NCAA title game.

The rivalry builds from there, as does their friendship. The big scene is a lunch at Bird’s home in 1985 during a commercial shoot. Bird’s mother is portrayed as bringing the stars together, and she (played by Deidre O’Connell) gets the audience laughing by professing her love for Bill Laimbeer, much to Bird’s dismay.

The actor who plays Bird, Tug Coker, has the mop of blond hair and has the look of a basketball player. He does a nice job capturing Bird’s low-key demeanor.

Kevin Daniels has a much bigger challenge playing Johnson. If people feel he comes up short, it’s not his fault. In real life, the Lakers legend is a huge presence with a huge personality. It’s easier to play low-key than high voltage. The only person who really could have played the role was Magic himself.

On the positive side, the staging was effective with video boards and stadium lights and a hoop dropping down from above. It wasn’t game 7 in the Boston Garden, but then again, few things are.

It’s good to see Broadway taking on sports. This play was done by the same people who did Lombardi, which previously ran on Broadway. There’s no shortage of material in sports, and I hope there will be more.

If you’re a sports fan, you’ll probably enjoy the play. I can’t say for sure about non-sports fans. You see, my wife decided to go see Jesus Christ Superstar instead.

CNN: New media hastened resolution of Petrino case

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It wasn’t the New York Times, Sports Illustrated or even a local newspaper in Arkansas which broke the story that led to the downfall of Bobby Petrino. Nope, it was a somebody who goes by the handle of “Hoggrad” who first started to mention that the coach had an accident with his motorcycle on Woopig.net, an unofficial site that covers the Razorbacks.

Terrance Moore, writing for CNN, says journalism has come a long way from the days of Walter Cronkite. He writes that new media definitely accelerates the process in these cases.

Moore quotes Georgia Tech athletic director Dan Radakovich:

“All of this (instant reporting of scandal) in regards to how it relates to the electronic media has certainly heightened the information and interest and lessened tolerance…(Electronic media) certainly has sped up the process. Before, it may have taken a lot longer to make a decision (on whether to fire somebody). You had to talk to a number of different people before you felt like — or the organization felt like — they had gathered enough information to be able to make a reasonable or rational decision.

 

Now I think that all comes a lot quicker. And, in some ways, there’s an expectation that the decision should come quicker. I just hope that in these circumstances that the gathering continues to be thorough and that all sides of the issue are being reviewed.”