IGNORE What You See, Believe What You’re Told, Continued: Saturday, ESPN2 carried Indiana-Purdue, Joe Tiller’s last game before retiring as Purdue’s coach. It was over by halftime, when Purdue was crushing IU, 41-3.
No matter, in the second half, and well into the fourth quarter, Tiller not only left his starters in, he seemed eager to thoroughly humiliate IU.
At 48-3, Purdue continued to throw, long passes, too. Purdue even used gadget plays – a double reverse – as the score became 55-3, then 62-10, the final. Purdue’s starting QB, Curtis Painter, was 38 of 54 for 448 yards. In all, Purdue was 41 of 58, 479 passing yards: obscene totals in a game won by 52 points.
No matter, the pandering ESPN announcers, play-by-player Pam Ward and analyst Ray Bentley, spoke none of it. With visual evidence only to the contrary, throughout the fourth quarter they took turns telling us that Tiller is a nobleman, a class act, a great leader of young men. A sampling:
Bentley: “Ya gotta feel good because you know Joe Tiller, the things he stands for, for him to go out like this, it’s apropos.”
Ward: “He has treated everyone with respect.”
Geez. Why not say nothing, instead?
At game’s end, it was sent to ESPN’s college football studio, where anchor Wendi Nix added, “Congratulations to Joe Tiller, who goes out in a big way! That’s a perfect way to go out!”
Is this really their sense of sport?
I’ve watched Joe Tiller’s weekly show on The Big Ten Network. He sounds like a nice man. Then, again, if you choose to believe what you hear and ignore what you see . . .
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Saturday’s flipside was provided by another out-going head coach, Syracuse’s pre-disposed Greg Robinson. After a late comeback win at Notre Dame, Robinson, already informed that he’s out after the season, was speaking with NBC sideliner Alex Flanagan when the ND band began to play.
“Hey,” Robinson told her, “I hate to interrupt, but this is their alma mater. I hate to interrupt that.”
Robinson then called out to his excited team to clam up. All immediately complied. There’s hope.
The NFL’s TV partners are now so immersed in serving fantasy leaguers that significant news is being lost. Yesterday, during Jets-Titans, CBS’s update crawl kept giving Donovan McNabb’s numbers vs. the Ravens, numbers that for one hour read, “D. McNabb, 8/18, 59 YDS, 2 INT.”
Sure, they were stuck on those numbers: McNabb had been benched at halftime! Or wasn’t that news worth knowing? It’s 2008, and these telecasts keep going backward; fantasy now supersedes reality.
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And the supply of Grade D baloney served on NFL telecasts is endless. Yesterday, just 1:30 into Giants-Cards, we got our first plateful.
After Amani Toomer dropped a long pass, Fox’s Daryl Johnston, who delivered loud speeches whistle-to-whistle, hollered that CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie “makes another good play on the ball!”
Really? While Rodgers-Cromartie was doing a how-great-I-art dance, it looked like he’d been beaten, that Toomer simply dropped it. A replay then clearly showed just that.
Given a good-faith chance to say, “Oops, my mistake, Toomer just dropped it,” Johnston didn’t. He acknowledged that, “Amani Toomer has to make that play,” but this time praised Rodgers-Cromartie because he “didn’t allow [Toomer] a second opportunity at the ball.” Come on.
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On CBS’s pregame show, Charlie Casserly reported that if/when Adam “Pacman” Jones returns to action he will be subjected to a “zero tolerance” policy on misconduct. What was his previous percentage of tolerance?
Fox’s Tony Siragusa, yesterday, actually helped more than he hurt, starting with when he noted that the Cards’ DBs are accustomed to practicing against taller, Giants-sized receivers. . . . Two WFAN regulars called Saturday’s Army-Rutgers game, but neither on FAN or a sibling station. John Minko is Army’s play-by-play man on WABC-770, Chris Carlin is Rutgers’ over WOR-710.
So 22 years later, the NFL is still working out kinks in its instant replay rule. Now we’re going to have second opinions of replay reviews in order to reverse good calls that were reversed by replay – perhaps – and reversa vice versa.
Apparently, NFL Network won’t stop celebrating its 5th birthday (who knew?) until we send a gift. (As if the network wasn’t intended to be an NFL gift to itself). . . . Lookalikes: Frank Scancarella, Clifton, NJ, submits ex-NFL WR and current ESPN studio analyst Cris Carter and Jaleel White (Steve Urkel from “Family Matters”).