Monthly Archives: December 2012

Ed Goren: Q/A on remarkable career of TV sports producer; talks of Musburger, NFL on Fox, and future of sports TV

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Ed Goren greets me on the phone.

“I haven’t been this relaxed in 46 years,” he says. “What can I do for you?”

I tell him I want to talk about his career. The production guru has been in the frontline of several revolutions in sports television.

His ride started at CBS Sports in the early ’70s, back when an NFL pregame show was a novel idea. It took him through the dramatic launch of Fox Sports in 1994, which completely and forever changed the sports landscape.

Goren stepped aside from his role as vice-chairman of the Fox Sports Group earlier this year. However, he hardly is retiring. He remains at Fox as a consultant and is working on numerous other projects. He is even going to do some consulting for a new football league in India.

“If I had more time I’d try to do what you’re doing,” said Goren, apparently unaware of the pay scale for doing what I’m doing.

Goren definitely has plenty to say. In my interview, I asked him to look back and look ahead on sports television.

Note: Goren has a long and terrific story about his relationship with Jimmy “The Greek” that I am going to save for a future post.

On his start: In 1966, I went to work at CBS News. To be a kid on the copy desk during the hey day of CBS News, with Walter Cronkite and Eric Sevareid. It was something else to be around those legends as a 21-year-old kid. I look back and feel fortunate that I was there and making $90 per week.

On move to sports: My first assignment for CBS Sports was to be part of the production team for the Pan American Games in Mexico City (in 1975). The first guy I worked with was Jack Whitaker. It was really the first time the Cuban athletes really resonated in an international sporting event. Somebody at CBS thought it would be a good idea if Jack and I could get on the Cuban charter back to Havana.

CBS literally sent an accountant to Mexico City. He came to my hotel room and spread $10,000 cash on the bed to be used if we had any problems getting out.

We wound up spending 48 hours in Havana. It probably was a rather average produced piece with one memorable moment. We came across a blind piano player playing in the street. Whitaker took that and turned the whole piece into complete poetry.

On Brent Musburger: The original hosts of NFL Today were Jack Whitaker and Lee Leonard. At some point, one of the two couldn’t make it and (then CBS Sports chief Bob Wussler) called on Brent, who was doing local sports in Chicago. He was pure Brent. His opening was, ‘Folks, I’m like a kid in the candy store with all these monitors here.’

Brent just lit it up. He was the kind of guy who really didn’t need a teleprompter. Howard Cosell also was like that. Brent always had the ability to hit his mark. He blew everyone away.

On Phyllis George: There were people who said she was fluff. She was brilliant. She fought for stories. If it weren’t for Phyllis George making her mark on CBS, who knows how long it would have taken for somebody else to say, ‘Let’s put a woman on network sports television.’ She really was a pioneer. Wussler and Phyllis never got the proper credit for what they accomplished.

On John Madden: When he was first hired, nobody at CBS thought he would be as big as he was. This was a mid-round draft choice who went on to be the best ever in any sport. There will never be another John Madden. He was brilliant.

If I show five guys a painting, four of them will tell me what is in the painting. John would point out something in the background like somebody wearing two different sneakers. He saw beyond the obvious.

Those Lite beer commercials contributed to him being a character. He created a personna. It was John. It was honest.

John would always say, ‘I’m just a football guy.’ I would say, ‘You’re more than that. There are a lot of football guys doing football. Nobody is like you.’ He hated that, but the reality is he was an entertainer.

On NFL moving to Fox: When it happened in the early 90s, it was in a soft ad market. The networks were cutting back on their production costs. At CBS and NBC, there were games with only four cameras and two tape machines. When we started Fox Sports, one of the conversations I had was, ‘Even if the game was only going to 10 percent of the country, those people in that market could care less. They deserve a quality broadcast.’ The fewest we ever went with were six cameras and four tape machines, which is a lot more than four and two.

At a time, when people were cutting back, we elevated the production. We threw more money into everything. We were the first to have an hour pregame show. It forced others to step up.

The deal was a game-changer on the production side. And it was a game-changer on the economics side of the sport, for all sports.

On Fox Sports chairman David Hill: If you cut him open, he’s really a producer. If Hill and I had a quarter-penny for every time the Fox box is used, we’d own an island somewhere.

I can’t say enough about our relationship. We were at a press conference in New York to introduce (Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long for Fox NFL Sunday). At the end of the press conference, I see Jimmy Johnson just quit at Dallas. I said to David, ‘I’ll see you in a couple of days.’ I didn’t even say I’m going to Dallas. He said, ‘Fine, just check in.’ That would never happen at CBS. It would be, ‘What are we doing? He’s not in the budget.’ With David, it was, ‘Just check in.’ That’s pretty cool.

We always felt the danger is not trying something and failing. The danger is sitting back and not trying at all. If it didn’t work out, we’d go to the bar and say, ‘We screwed up. What are we going to do next?’

On his announcers and analysts: Looking back, to have Terry, Howie and Jimmy all these years. Finding a young Jim Nantz in Salt Lake City. Running into Joe Buck’s mother at the 1994 Super Bowl and having her tell me that she has a son who is an announcer. Getting someone like Michael Strahan. I’ve been very fortunate in that regard.

On biggest concern for future of sports TV: If there’s a concern, and I’d hate to see it, but if there is a real estate bubble and a tech bubble, at some point do we have a sports rights bubble? There’s nothing healthier now than sports on TV. Look at how much sports is available. How much is in prime time.

Looking back, the $400 millon and change Fox paid for the NFL (in 1994)…What a bargain. There are two things you learn: Whatever you think is expensive today, you’ll look back and say it was a bargain. And in today’s world, if you don’t get the rights to something, you’re out of the game for 10 years or more. There aren’t any four-year deals anymore.

But when is enough enough? I mean, how does ESPN do it paying $55 million for one Monday night game? The business is becoming more difficult because of the elevated rights fees. It’s challenging. Maybe I’m not quite smart enough to figure it out. Hopefully, the people at the various networks are smarter than me.

On where sports TV is going: Everyone still is looking at the magic pill on how we’re going to monetize that second screen. How are we going to make the broadcast more interactive? Nobody has been able to figure it out. I don’t know. Maybe that’s a good reason for me to realize that it is time to move on.

There are a lot of bright young minds who are more in tune with what is happening today and with what the younger demo wants. If I had the answer to what the next great thing is, I’d still be working.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whitlock podcasts: Costas wishes he had more time for commentary; Whitley says should have handled tattoo column differently

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Jason Whitlock is using his podcast on Fox Sports to focus on the media. He’s been busy this week with shows featuring Bob Costas and David Whitley.

If you follow the media, both podcasts are worth the listen.

*******

Costas definitely owed Whitlock after he quoted extensively from one of his columns during his anti-gun commentary at halftime Sunday night.

“I don’t think there is anything wrong with a sports announcer occasionally addressing some of the issues that go beyond the field,” Costas said. “I guarantee you that if I had said, ‘Well, it was a tragedy, but let’s understand that only people commit murder, not gun,’ then (the pro-gun faction) would have stood up and applauded me.”

Costas did say he wished he had more time to discuss other issues related to the tragedy such as domestic violence.

“The time limited my focus,” Costas said. “It left me open to some misunderstandings.”

********

Whitley appeared on Whitlock’s podcast Monday to address his SportingNews.com column about Colin Kaepernick and his tattoos. Whitley sent me a response Friday morning, but he wasn’t fully aware of the extreme backlash at the time. He definitely was by the time he talked to Whitlock.

“This isn’t one of my prouder moments,” Whitley said. “If I had to do it over again, I’d do it differently…My intent was to be thought provoking. I wasn’t trying to start a race war. I regret that it came to that.”

Whitlock chastised Whitley for mentioning in his response to me that he has adopted two African-American children.

“Your defense of the column was so flippant,” Whitlock said. “I was disappointed that you brought up your two adopted daughters….It was like, ‘I’ve adopted two black people, therefore you can’t accuse me or being racially unfair and insensitive.’ We’re all capable of being unfair and having blind spots.”

Whitley responded: “It’s not the first time I’ve been accused of racism. I never mentioned them before. But here, suddenly I was the face of the KKK in America. Then I was asked for a comment. I thought, ‘What does a guy have to do?’ I threw that in there to try to calm the fire.”

 

 

 

Tale of two legends: new documentaries examine careers and lives of Barry Sanders, Earl Campbell

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They had two different styles carrying the ball. Barry Sanders ran around people; Earl Campbell ran through them.

They also had two different lives after football. Sanders retired early long before his body burned out; Campbell wasn’t as fortunate. It is stunning to see the one-time beast in a football uniform struggle to walk.

The careers and lives of both legends are examined in two new documentaries. Still Standing: The Earl Campbell Story, produced by Ross Greenburg, airs tonight at 11 p.m. (ET) on NBC Network. Wednesday, Sanders is the latest subject of A Football Life on NFL Network at 8 p.m. ET.

Here’s the rundown on both films. Highly recommended.

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NBC Sports Network presents Still Standing: The Earl Campbell Story, a riveting documentary about one of the greatest running backs in the history of the NFL, and the touching life story that followed his retirement. Still Standing: The Earl Campbell Story, debuts Tuesday, December 4 at 11 p.m. ET/10 p.m. CT/9 p.m. MT/8 p.m. PT on NBC Sports Network.

Born in Tyler, Texas, to a family with 12 children, Earl Campbell began his life working the rose fields and living in a shack, where his brothers joked, ‘you could see the big dipper from your bed at night.’ His father, B.C. Campbell, died of a heart attack at the age of 50, when Earl was 11, leaving his mother, Ann, to raise all 12 Campbell kids.

After winning the Texas State Football Championship in his senior year at John Tyler High School, Campbell went on to the University of Texas, where in his senior year he won the coveted Heisman Trophy (1977). He became the No. 1 pick in the 1978 NFL Draft when the Houston Oilers traded with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the top pick in the draft, and the Oilers immediately chose Campbell.

Campbell’s Hall-of-Fame career was a highlight reel of running over those who would attempt to tackle him. Campbell’s 199-yard, four touchdown performance in a 35-30 win over the Miami Dolphins before a national audience on Monday Night Football in Week 12 of his rookie season is the signature individual performance of his career.

Halfway through the 1984 season, Campbell was traded by the Oilers to the Saints where he rejoined his mentor and coach Bum Phillips. He finished his career in New Orleans, retiring during the 1986 preseason, but he will always be remembered as the best of Bum’s Bunch in Houston.

After his retirement, Campbell battled five spinal surgeries, two knee replacements and an addiction to pain pills and alcohol. He was confined to a wheelchair for six years, but due to a successful spinal surgery performed by Dr. Stan Jones in Houston, and his sons Christian and Tyler convincing him to check into a rehabilitation center for his addictions, Campbell is still standing today. He is walking again, and tossed the coin at a University of Texas game in Austin earlier this season.

*******

For 10 seasons, Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders electrified the NFL with unbelievable runs while putting up prolific rushing numbers. Yet just before the start of the 1999 NFL season, as one of the league’s biggest stars, he quietly walked away from the game.

 NFL Network’s Emmy-nominated series A Football Life continues Wednesday, December 5 at 8:00 PM ET with a profile of one of the NFL’s greatest players who retired during the prime of his career. Barry Sanders: A Football Life examines Sanders’ incredible Hall of Fame career, his unexpected retirement and the reaction it garnered throughout both the NFL and the city of Detroit, and his relationship with his late father, William.

The one-hour documentary features a sitdown interview with Sanders in which he discusses his fascinating football life. The NFL’s third all-time leading rusher talks about how he was overlooked in high school, his decision to attend Oklahoma State, the unwanted media attention that came as a result of winning the Heisman Trophy award in 1988 and being an NFL superstar, and the lessons he imparts to his children, including his son BJ Sanders, a redshirt freshman running back at Stanford University.

Additional interviews include fellow Hall of Fame running backs Emmitt Smith and Curtis Martin, former teammates Thurman Thomas, Herman Moore, Kevin Glover and Lomas Brown, former Lions head coaches Wayne Fontes and Bobby Ross, and Hall of Fame guard for the Detroit Pistons, Joe Dumars, among others.

Barry Sanders: A Football Life also includes past interviews with his father and Barry reading the statement he released to the Wichita Eagle announcing his retirement for the first time publically.

Costas fallout: He defends anti-gun commentary; columnist wonders if he could have addressed touchy NFL issue

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Bob Costas caught plenty of flak for his halftime commentary during Sunday night’s game. However, he wasn’t about to back down Monday.

In an interview with Bill Carter of the New York Times, Costas addressed the reaction:

After a flight overnight Sunday back from Dallas, where the Cowboys hosted the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night, Mr. Costas said he woke to “a zillion text messages and phone messages” about his commentary. Most of them were supportive, he said, but there was also a torrent of harshly critical comments from defenders of gun ownership, whether online or on TV shows like “Fox and Friends” on the Fox News Network. Some of those critics called for NBC to fire him.

In the Monday interview, Mr. Costas said, “I am emphatically not backing off from anything I said.” But he noted that in the commentary he had quoted from a column posted on the Web site of Fox Sports by the writer Jason Whitlock. Since he was not able to reach Mr. Whitlock before going on the air on Sunday, Mr. Costas said he did not feel it proper to edit or add extensively to those comments.

What he sought to do in his comments the day after, Mr. Costas said, was not to clarify his remarks but to expand on them. Chiefly, he said, he wanted to emphasize that “I do not think the Second Amendment should be repealed and I do not think, under reasonable circumstances, that people should be prohibited from having guns.”

But he said, “I think most reasonable people think we do not have sufficient controls on the availability of guns and ammunition.”

Later, there was this passage:

The issue of guns has come up far too often in sports already, he said, with athletes seeming to be among the groups with the most gun owners. “Do you think the place guns have in sports is appropriate?” Mr. Costas asked. “That it’s healthy?”

He added: “I defy anyone to give me one example when an athlete having a gun averted trouble, defused a situation, protected someone from harm. But we can think of countless situations where an athlete having a gun led to tragedy.”

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Eric Deggans, writing for the National Sports Journalism Center, took note of Costas quoting extensively from an anti-gun passage in Jason Whitlock’s column. Deggans, though, says the main point of Whitlock’s piece wasn’t about guns; rather he felt the Chiefs shouldn’t have played the game.

Deggans questions whether Costas could have addressed that issue on a NFL telecast.

Deggans:

He didn’t note, for example, that a larger share of Whitlock’s column was about a slightly different subject: The NFL’s decision to tell the Carolina Panthers to travel to Kansas City as planned Sunday, setting up the situation where they would play a game just one day after a starting linebacker there killed two people.

Whitlock’s column began with the line “Football is embarrassingly tone deaf.” Seven paragraphs in, he really got going, writing “Football is our God. Its exaggerated value in our society has never been more evident than Saturday morning in my adopted hometown. There’s just no way this game should be played.”

If Costas really wanted to make a statement, he could have talked about that part of Whitlock’s column, which consumed about three quarters of a 20 paragraph column. In an odd way, the sports anchor’s focus on the tail end of the column confirmed Whitlock’s words: Can anyone expect an NBC Sports anchor to note criticism of the NFL during a game currently underway?

Costas didn’t discuss that particular question with Carter. However, he did say this about commentaries related to the NFL:

Mr. Costas added that he had routinely used his time during halftime coverage to make personal observations and comments on a number of football-related subjects, including the level of violence displayed on the field.

 

 

 

Posted in NBC

Surprise choice: Cubs select Jim Deshaies as new analyst

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Nobody saw this one coming.

The Cubs have selected Jim Deshaies to replace Bob Brenly. Deshaies had been the analyst for the Houston Astros, where he was a long-time pitcher.

From Paul Sullivan in the Chicago Tribune:

“It was a very tough choice,” Deshaies said of leaving the Astros’ booth. “The Astros have been very good to me and I’ve spent the lion’s share of my life here. As an Astros guy, I was very hesitant to leave. As a baseball guy, going to the Cubs and watching games at Wrigley Field, I look at that job as the best in the game.”

Later, Sullivan wrote:

While Cubs business president Crane Kenney made the final call, Kasper was instrumental in pushing for Deshaies, a source said. Deshaies spent an inning in the Cubs booth with Kasper and Brenly near the end of the season.

It’s an interesting choice considering Deshaies name never came up in any of the speculation. People were focused on the ex-Cub factor in writing about Eric Karros, Dan Plesac, Rick Sutcliffe and others.

But as the Cubs showed in bringing in Brenly, who never played for the team, the ex-Cub thing wasn’t a priority.

 

 

Posted in MLB

Following in Jordan’s footsteps: SI names LeBron Sportsman of the Year

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It was inevitable. Sports Illustrated named Michael Jordan its Sportsman of the Year after he won his first NBA title in 1991.

So it logically follows that James would receive the honor in 2012 on the heels of his first NBA title.

Despite their dominance and stature in the game, Sports Illustrated made both players wait until they got the ring before giving them the honor. It took seven seasons for Jordan and nine years for James, who had a couple extra years thanks to turning pro out of high school.

Of course, the difference is that Jordan was universally revered back then. James, meanwhile, still feels the backlash of “The Decision.”

Still, it is hard to deny James’ impact on sports, and that Game 6 performance in Boston was something to behold. Perhaps you could have made a case for Usain Bolt, but a cover featuring a Jamaican sprinter isn’t going to sell as many magazines as James.

Here is the link to Lee Jenkins’ story.

Here is the announcement from SI:

Sports Illustrated today announced that Miami Heat and USA Basketball star LeBron James is the 2012 Sportsman of the Year. James who accomplished the rare feat of winning an NBA Championship, an Olympic Gold and being named league MVP and Finals MVP, joins an elite group of immortals such as Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King, Arthur Ashe, Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky to receive this honor.  James is just one of six professional basketball players to be named Sportsman including Heat teammate Dwayne Wade (’06); Tim Duncan and David Robinson (’03), Michael Jordan (1991), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1985) and Bill Russell (1968). 

Annually, the magazine presents the Sportsman of the Year award to the transcendent athlete, coach or team who by virtue of their superior athletic achievement and comportment took us all to a higher place.  The award debuted in 1954, and in describing the feats of the first Sportsman, Roger Bannister, the editors introduced the award’s guiding principle: “While the victory may have been his, it is not for the victory alone that he is honored. Rather, it is for the quality of his effort and manner of his striving.”

“This year there was an endless list of high-quality possibilities,” said Time Inc. Sports Group Editor Paul Fichtenbaum. “But LeBron’s stirring accomplishments on and off the court were impossible to ignore. He showed tremendous heart during times of adversity, and he delivered with relentless determination. Equally as impressive, although much less heralded, was his development of a hands-on educational program in an Akron, Ohio, school district which will have a profound and long-lasting impact on its students. His accomplishments embody the finest traditions of this award.”

For the Sportsman feature SI Senior Writer Lee Jenkins presents a myriad of poignant voices from those who know him best. Perhaps the most thoughtful was LeBron himself who talked openly about a coming of age.  Jenkins writes: And so, less than 29 months after he sat on a stage at a Boys & Girls Club in Greenwich, Conn., and incurred a nation’s wrath, LeBron James is the Sportsman of the Year. He is not the Sportsman of 2010, when he announced his decision to leave Cleveland in a misguided television special, or 2011, when he paid dearly for his lapse in judgment.

 “He is the Sportsman of 2012. ‘Did I think an award like this was possible two years ago?’ James says. ‘No, I did not. I thought I would be helping a lot of kids and raise $3 million by going on TV and saying, ‘Hey, I want to play for the Miami Heat.’ But it affected far more people than I imagined. I know it wasn’t on the level of an injury or an addiction, but it was something I had to recover from. I had to become a better person, a better player, a better father, a better friend, a better mentor and a better leader. I’ve changed, and I think people have started to understand who I really am.’”

Last season, James became only the third NBA player to achieve the NBA Champion, Gold Medal winner, MVP trifecta (Jordan and Bill Russell) and just the seventh in NBA history to have three MVP awards (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jordan, Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Moses Malone).  He followed that by leading Team U.S.A. to an Olympic Gold medal, and was described by many as that team’s MVP. 

Less heralded but incredibly impactful has been his work to support children’s education.  While working closely with the Akron, OH school system he launched a Wheels for Education program which supports to the city’s third grade students who have been deemed at-risk. More the 500 students participate in the program which is already making an impact. The preliminary report of Kent State researchers, tracking the group’s progress, found that James students averaged 14.7 absences last year, compared with 18.9 for their peers in the district. Even after the Wheels for Education kids pass third grade, they remain in the program. They will be monitored by James and his staff until they graduate from high school. The first commencement ceremony will be in 2021. In testament to his impact Austin Qualls a senior at Akron’s Firestone High, one of 19 Wheels for Education ambassadors says, “I’m not doing this because LeBron is a basketball player. I don’t even watch a lot of basketball. I recognize him more for his fatherly side.”

Also from the story:

Team U.S.A Basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski who coached LeBron in two Olympic competitions says: “The game is a house, and some players only have one or two windows in their house because they can’t absorb any more light,” says Mike Krzyzewski, head coach of Team USA. “When I met LeBron, he only had a few windows, but then he learned how beautiful the game can be, so he put more windows in. Now he sees the damn game so well, it’s like he lives in a glass building. He has entered a state of mastery. There’s nothing he can’t do. God gave him a lot but he is using everything. He’s one of the unique sports figures of all time, really, and he’s right in that area where it’s all come together. A voracious mind has caught up with a supreme body. The marriage is a marvel.”

Heat President Pat Riley (who interestingly addresses LeBron as B.O.A.T – Best of All Time). Jenkins writes: “After James had unleashed 45 points, snatched 15 rebounds and sucked all the juice from an expectant crowd, he marched toward [Pat] Riley, the Heat president who lured him to South Beach two years ago with his six sparkling rings. He was just a few steps from Riley when a 20-something man perched above the tunnel poured what remained of his beer through a net canopy, dousing James’s head and jersey…

‘From where I was standing, there was a backlight on LeBron from the arena, and as the [beer] pellets sprayed up in the air, they looked like they were forming a halo over him. This is what I saw: The good Lord was saying, ‘LeBron, I’m going to help you through this night because you’re a nice person, and I’m going to give you 45 and 15. But as you walk off, I’m going to humble the heck out of you.’ And, you know what, that’s the best thing that could have happened.’”

 

 

 

Kruk joins ESPN’s Sunday night booth

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Looks like Dan Shulman and Orel Hershiser are going to be in for some bigger meals on the road.

ESPN announced that John Kruk will be the third man in the booth for its Sunday night games. Kruk replaces Terry Francona.

It’s a good move. Kruk is a fun listen, and this sets up the hitter-pitcher dynamic with Hershiser.

Here’s the info from ESPN:

ESPN’s John Kruk will join Sunday Night Baseball – the exclusive national Major League Baseball game of the week – as an analyst beginning in the 2013 season. Kruk, who has served as a Baseball Tonight studio analyst since joining ESPN in 2004, will team up with NSSA Sportscaster of the Year Dan Shulman and analyst Orel Hershiser to form the new Sunday Night booth. The trio is also joined by reporter Buster Olney.

 “It’s a real honor to work with Dan and Orel, and to be front and center on baseball’s biggest game of the week,” said Kruk. “When I was asked to join the team, I couldn’t have been happier.”

 Kruk has served as a guest analyst for ESPN’s MLB game telecasts over the years, including Sunday Night Baseball. Additionally, he’s contributed to the network’s coverage of the State Farm Home Run Derby, Little League World Series and Rawlings Gold Glove Awards Show.

 Mike McQuade, ESPN Vice President, Production, added, “Kruk has every attribute that makes an analyst great. He’s intelligent, he’s opinionated, he brings a ton of personality and his track record at ESPN speaks for itself.”

 Kruk played 10 MLB seasons (1986-1995) as a first baseman and outfielder with the San Diego Padres, Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago White Sox. He was a three-time All-Star and finished his career with a .300 batting average and 100 home runs.

 “I always admired the way John competed on the field, and every time I’ve been on Baseball Tonight with him, I’ve been impressed with his depth of knowledge about the game,” said Sunday Night’s Orel Hershiser. “Now I’m looking forward to sitting next to him every Sunday Night.”

 “Krukkie is funny, knowledgeable and passionate about baseball,” said Dan Shulman. “I think he and Orel will make a terrific analyst combo in the booth, and I can’t wait for the three of us getting started.”

CBS’ NFL Today makes wrong call with Kansas City murder story

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It isn’t always easy when the real world collides with sports. It happened over the weekend with the tragedy in Kansas City.

As a result, the tone and coverage of the Sunday NFL pregame shows had to be altered. It wasn’t a normal day for football.

For the most part, the networks got it right. Fox NFL Sunday dumped a Kurt Russell opening and instead began the show with a somber discussion of what occurred. ESPN’s Sunday Countdown also eliminated Frank Caliendo’s regular comedy bit and put its focus on the tragedy.

Then there was CBS’ NFL Today. The opening of the show made it seem as if it was just another Sunday. The analysts talked about the playoff races.

Richard Deitsch of SI.com wrote in a harsh critique:

Had CBS headed straight into thoughtful analysis and reporting of the story  after its opener, it would have saved itself from these kind of critiques. Instead, CBS compounded the shill job  by opting not to talk about the murder-suicide for the next five minutes.

Think about that kind of editorial judgment. What did The NFL Today  talk about? It talked about clothing. After analyst Bill Cowher mentioned what  kind of ties he and Shannon Sharpe were wearing, viewers were treated to a  chuckle-hut segment on the AFC playoff race. Then came a discussion on the NFC  postseason picture. Finally, after an excruciating five minutes that should be  shown in journalism schools across the country as an example of what not to do  on a big story, Brown made the most awkward-of-awkward turns by saying, “All  right, fellas, a little switch here.”‘

Michael Hiestand of USA Today had the response from CBS:

When asked Sunday if CBS should have done things differently, executive vice-president/production Harold Bryant told USA TODAY Sports: “I don’t know. It was about trying to find the right balance. We covered it very well.”

The balance, he says, was about giving CBS’ NFL studio analysts more time to talk about the Belcher news — they got two segments — but also “still cover what’s going on today.”

The backlash has been pretty intense. There was only one top story going into Sunday’s games, and it wasn’t the playoff races with five weeks left in the season.

I’m pretty sure CBS realizes it made the wrong call.

 

 

Posted in CBS

Heated message: Bob Costas quotes from Jason Whitlock column in an anti-gun commentary

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Bob Costas usually doesn’t need help in writing his halftime commentary for NBC’s Sunday Night Football.

However, last night he quoted heavily from Jason Whitlock’s column in Fox Sports. Whitlock wrote that handguns should be banned in the wake of the tragic events in Kansas City over the weekend.

Costas went with the same theme. Interestingly, he used Whitlock’s words to help carry his message. Costas even prefaced his statement that he doesn’t always agree with the columnist.

Predictably, the gun supporters railed on Costas. There was this tweet from Ted Nugent.

Hey Bob Costas we all kno that obesity is a direct result of the proliferation of spoons & forks Get a clue

Deadspin’s Sean Newell was outraged. The headline to his piece read: “Here Is Bob Costas’s Sanctimonious, Horseshit Editorial On Jovan Belcher”

Newell wrote:

Bob Costas got on his phone books and condescended to a national audience about perspective—a glorified sports columnist editorialized on the Second Amendment during a fucking football game while pitting himself against those without perspective. It is so laughably out of touch it almost has to be satire.

That’s a pretty extreme reaction, even for Deadspin.

SI.com’s Richard Deitsch wrote:

One thing is certain: I don’t think any other NBC Sports employee would have  been granted the editorial freedom on such a hot-button topic.

I think any time somebody wants to have a discussion about guns, it’s OK by me. And Mr. Nugent, that woman in Kansas City wasn’t killed by a spoon and fork. Her life ended because of a gun.

Care to discuss?

 

 

 

Posted in NBC

Sporting News editor responds: Issue in tattoo column was generational, not racial

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Just catching up with this.

SportingNews.com editor Garry Howard wrote a response late Friday afternoon, addressing the furor over David Whitley’s column about Colin Kaepernick and his tattoos.

Howard wrote:

As a sports editor who also happens to be African-American, it is my job to vet each and every opinion piece to ensure that the message does not get lost and I certainly could have done more, in retrospect, to make sure it did not. In particular, the inference that many people with tattoos have been to prison, or that having tattoos is an indicator of criminality, was problematic to many readers.

Still, the overriding point of the column was there and one nationally televised discussion, in particular—on “First Take” with Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless—did a great job of explaining that the column was indeed more generational in tone and that tattoos in today’s society are not necessarily a great thing for young, prospective job candidates of all races.

Howard also quotes Whitley. Whitley wrote in an email:

“I fully realize sailors and Hell’s Angels aren’t the only people with tattoos these days. But tattoos still carry a negative stigma, which is why you don’t see a lot of politicians and captains of industry sporting ink.

“NFL QB represents the ultimate CEO figure in sports. And it’s been tattoo-free except for the few players who’ve lived up (or down) to the bad-guy tattoo image. Now along comes Kaepernick, a role model in the Tim Tebow category. His success would help shatter the tattoo stereotype. If old guys like me have a hard time dealing with that, too bad for us.

“That was my intended point,” he continued. “I wish I’d done a better job getting that across. What I didn’t factor in was that admitting I don’t like tattoos was going to be equated with me admitting I don’t like African-Americans. The women at the gym I referenced in that column are white. So is Jeremy Shockey. I once asked Dwight Howard if he’d ever get a tattoo, and he said no way. His aversion was based on religious ground. Mine was based on the fact I think tattoos look silly. I knew that would stamp me an Old Man. I didn’t know it would stamp me a racist.

Howard then concludes:

Hindsight always helps you see things clearer and the reaction to this—even inside our very own newsroom and the discussion I joined on Twitter last night and earlier today—has surely opened our eyes. It was not our intent to offend anyone, and if we did, we apologize.

However, we should be able to—in this day and time—have a discussion on the subject of tattoos without it morphing into a race debate when in fact, it was about a new generation doing things in a fresh and different manner.

That’s all I’m saying.

On Friday, I did a post featuring Whitley’s initial comments to the uproar. He said:

If they were old enough to read, my two adopted African-American daughters would certainly be disappointed to find out I’m a racist.