Stir, don’t shake? Or shake, don’t stir? Muddled or as is? How do you prefer your messages mixed?
Johnathan Franklin is the UCLA running back/student-athlete who two Saturdays ago on FOX ran for a TD against USC, then stood in the end zone, and, looking up at the crowd, made a slow, deliberate throat-slash gesture, as if he had just carried out or ordered “a hit.”
No big deal. Only cost 15 yards, not his college scholarship, for which he is granted six years at no cost, whatsoever, to earn a degree.
A knife thing, huh? Turns out that Franklin’s bio identifies Ray Lewis as his sports hero. Does that constitute a coincidence, an irony or both?
Lewis pleaded guilty to misdemeanor obstruction of justice in a 2000 double-homicide stabbing and was fined $250,00 by the NFL for his still fully undetermined role in those murders.
He later reached a financial settlement with the families of the stabbing murder victims — an odd act for an innocent man.
But, again, no big deal. Lewis still is celebrated by the NFL and its TV networks as the league’s most prominent head-breaker, allowing him to be rewarded as a steady commercial promoter of league-licensed products. And his favorite color is purple.
What a world. There’s Ray Lewis, starring in NFL commercials despite a criminal past and a reputation of on-field intimidation through the promise of violence.
The next moment, there’s Tom Brady, appearing in an NFL promo to soulfully explain to a worried mother not to worry — the NFL is trying to reduce head injuries.
Back to you, Ray.
No need to cut to sideline for sideline reports
For all the forced, foolish and often glamor-minded cuts for “reports” from football sidelines, NBC on Thursday night proved they can be quick, useful and smartly presented.
In the third quarter of Patriots-Jets, NBC threw it to Michelle Tafoya for a sideline report — off camera.
Tafoya: “Jets’ wide receiver Clyde Gates is out with a head injury after that Kyle Arrington hit late in the first half. And you saw [Pats’] Julian Edelman heading to the locker room. He has a head injury. He’d spent a lot of time on the bench talking with trainers.”
Perfect! No “he told me” nonsense, just good reporting. And with no good reason to leave the view of the field, we didn’t.
Compare that to the early-third-quarter, on-camera report from FOX’s Packers-Lions on Sunday. After Packers kicker Mason Crosby missed two first-half field goals in Detroit, Pam Oliver relayed her halftime chat with Green Bay’s coach:
“Mike McCarthy told me that Crosby has got to start putting the ball through the uprights.” Oy.
Still, staying on the field or court — the ability to present a live sports telecast without directors and producers demonstrating indiscriminate trigger fingers — remains a diminished discipline.
Thursday, as Bob Wischusen and Marty Lyons noted on ESPN radio, with seconds left in the first half and the Jets eager to spike the ball to stop the clock, the officials had trouble transferring the ball to spot it at the line of scrimmage.
According to the radio guys, the officials literally kept dropping the ball (now more commonly known as “putting it on the ground”).
This wasn’t shown on TV because NBC, with the clock running and down to 15 seconds, needlessly, and, most likely mindlessly, cut to a sideline shot of Rex Ryan.
There’s no good reason why radio should be able to tell any keep-your-eye-on-the-ball story better than TV.
* The Mets have put 2013 tickets on sale. Prices have risen while the starting times of all Saturday tickets are stamped “TBD” — to be determined — and Sunday games again can be switched from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. depending on the prepaid-for desires of FOX and ESPN.
But it is Bud Selig’s job to make suckers out of those foolish enough to still buy tickets. Shame on him? If Selig could be shamed the team owners wouldn’t have given him his own key to the executive washroom, plus $12 million-$15 million per.
Also, know this: If the Mets stink, most of their weekend games will begin at logical times. If they’re decent, many will start at illogical times. Same with the Yankees. Same with New York/New Jersey’s NFL teams. Savvy? Of course, by now, you do know.
Hoops experts fumbl-Lin
Basketball fans and media who should know better continue to weigh Jeremy Lin in superficial, context-free, ESPN-like terms — his stats — as opposed to having briefly represented the concept of push-it-up, share-the-ball, get-the-easiest-shot, make-everyone-better, team basketball. Pity.
* Tony Romo, as of Thursday, has three 400 yards-plus throwing games. The Cowboys have lost all of them. And that, despite what TV would have you think, stands to reason.
* There is nothing so silly that it’s unworthy of duplication and perpetuation. Been listening to Marty Lyons work Jets games on the radio for years. Though he used to point out the need for “the Jets to move the ball,” he never found the need to add, “vertically.” Now he does.
* Jack Taylor, the Division III sophomore whose wrong-headed coach allowed him to score 138 points on 52-of-108 shooting in a 75-point win, is now known as “Chuck” Taylor. Incidentally, where national TV mostly applauded this record-by-slaughter, some local TV and radio guys — Mike Francesa, Russ Salzberg and Chris Russo — called it what it was and is: pathetic.
* Few in and around boxing figured Hector “Macho” Camacho had a chance to die of old age or of natural causes.
* Tuesday’s Indiana-Georgetown game from Brooklyn, on and for ESPN, tipped off at 10:10 p.m. Hey, as long as the money’s right, games now start after they should be over.
* NBC Sports Network (first known as the Outdoor Life Network, then Versus) today, live at 6 p.m. from Toronto, presents the 100th Canadian Football League championship, the Grey Cup — Calgary Stampeders vs. Toronto Argonauts.
* More than two decades later, the “instant” replay rule continues as Frankenstein’s Monster. The NFL just changes the bolts in its neck every season.
* From reader Henry Blaukopf: “Peyton Manning is still the smartest athlete. He bought a bunch of Papa John’s Pizza franchises [21, all in the Denver area] just before Colorado legalized marijuana.”