FUMBLE! Dick Ebersol made plenty of mistakes as the head of NBC Sports, including tape-delay Olympic coverage and the XFL partnership with pro wrestling bigwig Vince McMahon (above). (New York Post)
This is one of those dirty-job columns.
Dick Ebersol, big-shot head of NBC Sports since 1989, abruptly resigned Thursday, a story that’s impossible to ignore. Equally impossible to ignore is that though others quickly then persistently crowned him a “TV Genius” — a title that immodesty prevented Ebersol from rejecting — this column never was a big fan of Ebersol.
And all I have is my take — my version — so here goes:
When Ebersol arrived at NBC Sports, it was loaded with good and talented people, an easy, good-faith place to deal with, and a trusted stop for audiences.
That quickly began to change as skilled producers, directors, executives, announcers and media-relations folks were expelled in favor of those who played by Ebersol’s rules and rule — all swearing allegiance to The King. That these new subjects often were less able than their predecessors was irrelevant.
As the TV emperor of the Olympics — under Ebersol, despite his boasts that he was way ahead of the network pack in fiscal responsibility, NBC badly overpaid for Olympic rights — the Games no longer existed as a sports and news event, but solely as a prime-time, cut-and-paste flag-waving melodrama aimed at the easy (remember John Tesh?). Discerning viewers knew that much of what they were watching was needlessly on tape, the most popular events held for prime time.
The Ebersol Olympics meant NBC owning exclusive, first-run rights to events that were 6-12 hours old. The thrill was long gone.
That Ebersol became tight with IOC head Juan Antonio Samaranch, an unrepentant World War II Fascist, also was difficult to indulge.
That viewers in Ebersol’s hands so often never knew that the Olympics, tennis, golf and other events were being shown on tape became a steady feature of NBC Sports. The slick term “plausibly live,” as Ebersol explained things, also meant intentionally deceptive.
Heck, what NBC began to present as “Sports News Updates” were nothing more than promos for NBC goods, the biggest games ignored because they appeared on other networks. With Ebersol at the wheel, bad faith from NBC came in packages big and small.
As a TV genius, Ebersol made some colossally wrong-headed moves. When NBC chose not to renew NFL rights for the 1998 season, Ebersol grandstanded, bragging that he would not allow NBC to pay ransom for any sport. Yet, without the NFL, NBC soon would pay a ransom to retain NBA rights. And in 2006, NBC, having learned the hard way, again bought NFL rights at both auction and ransom.
Ebersol also was responsible for the biggest embarrassment in sports and prime-time TV history.
Ten years ago he had NBC proudly team with his good, low-brow buddy Vince McMahon to present the vile, vulgar XFL, an enterprise designed to blend pro wrestling-style sex, sleaze and blood with pro football. No better way to lure desensitized kids, teens and male slugs of all ages.
This hideously antisocial see-through, hear-through, smell-through, made-for-TV “sport” lasted one season before drowning, headfirst, in the cesspool from which it emerged.
But Ebersol, as they say in pro wrestling, still “got over” with many, those who blindly accepted his self-aggrandizement as a TV visionary, a genius.
If there’s a little story that captures the big one, it occurred in November 2007, when NBC “flexed” the Patriots-Bills game from 1 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. Of course, it did; the Patriots were 9-0. But Ebersol figured the country was too stupid to know better. He explained that NBC made the switch because “You always like a strong, scrappy underdog at home.”
He added, “Tthe magical factor in it all is the enthusiasm that Buffalo has shown toward the Bills throughout my long association with the AFC, when we had it before.”
That’s right, as a personal favor to the good people of Buffalo, Ebersol was switching a Nov. 18 1 p.m. game in Buffalo to an 8:15 start. No need to send thank you cards.
Oh, the strong, scrappy Bills lost, 56-10.
Soon enough, it’ll be gay-OK
Jared Max, longtime WCBS Radio sports anchor now host of a morning show on ESPN 1050, Thursday became the latest sports figure to publicly acknowledge for the first time that he’s gay.
The only problem with such an admission is that there is no problem, no matter the problems it may cause Max. Though gay rights have become a political issue, logic dictates gay Americans eventually will overcome because virtually everyone in this country is bound to discover that he or she has at least one loved one — and likely more than one — who is gay.
Those who think their friends and family are “immune” from such a “some of my best friends” reality, will soon know better.
Sports guy Jared Max is gay?!
He’s just a few years too early for, “So what?”, “Who cares?” and “No big deal.”
* Ten years ago a young pro with an abnormally thin leg sent the PGA and columnists scrambling when he successfully sued to use a golf cart in sanctioned tournament play.
What has happened to Casey Martin since? ESPN’s “Outside The Lines”, this morning at 9 (ESPN2, at 10) tells us he’s the golf coach at the University of Oregon.
His physician, Dr. Donald Jones, tells “OTL,” “I would have thought that he would have either had a fracture or had enough discomfort that he would request an amputation. So I anticipate that will be the case in the future, but I’d love to be wrong.”
* What’s up with Joe Buck’s voice? Why so muted and raspy? He has had a virus in his left vocal chord since February; it’s expected to eventually clear.
* The Braves-Mets game on Sunday, June 5 has been changed from a 1:10 p.m. start to an 8:10 p.m. start for ESPN money. And hey, kids, it’s Batting Helmet Day, er, Night! For refunds, contact Bud Selig, c/o MLB.