I’D like to report that there’s a TV alternative to tonight’s Giants-Browns game. If only I could.
Monday Night Football on ESPN is particularly aggravating for fans of the teams that are playing. Such viewers more easily recognize that what ESPN often presents as insight is actually sounds good or looks good nonsense.
Recall what occurred before the Jets-Chargers Monday Night game this season, when Chris Berman declared that Brett Favre, two games in, had made Jerricho Cotchery his “favorite receiver.” Although Jets’ fans knew that to be a bad guess, expert analyst Cris Carter seconded Berman’s baloney.
That’s why last week it took a Falcons fan, Chris Shortell, a reader from Wallingford, Conn., to catch another ESPN expert making like Oscar Mayer. In a Vikes-Saints pregame segment, Ron Jaworski got pumped about the Saints’ improved “red zone” offense in 2008. To illustrate this, Jaworski did a show-and-tell of the Saints scoring against the Falcons.
But as Shortell noted, the Saints, this season and in the preseason, had not yet played the Falcons. The footage used to illustrate the Saints’ 2008 offense wasn’t from 2008.
And when the games begin, ESPN, eager to show how much it knows about football, will do more to confuse than to enlighten.
Last week, Jaworski emphasized QB ratings. Fine. Now the former Eagles quarterback of note can explain why Jeff George, Aaron Brooks, Ken O’Brien, Elvis Grbac, Jeff Blake, Tony Eason and Bobby Herbert are among those QBs who are way ahead of him in career ratings. All were better passers than Jaworski? And by a lot?
No stat is so meaningless that ESPN won’t present it as gold. During Vikes-Saints, a graphic, accompanied by commentary, showed that of Reggie Bush’s 194 career catches, 96 were made “at or behind the line of scrimmage” and only two were made at least 10 yards downfield. Although the stats stood to self-evident reason – Bush almost exclusively catches the short, easy stuff – they were useful.
But after Bush caught his next pass, ESPN stopped the music to tell us that he’d just broken a record, that he’d made “NFL history,” having passed Cards receiver Anquan Boldin for the most catches after 33 NFL games!
Not only was this a “record” that had no standing, but also it was based on a stat that no intelligent fan would regard as legit because it attached the same significance to dump-off passes as to those caught downfield – which was exactly what ESPN had earlier stressed were very different realities!
Bunt singles and home runs, they’re all the same! But that’s what ESPN, the nation’s all-sports network, does to sports, game after game after game after game.
As devalued assets go, the World Series has been way ahead of the economy. This year neither team that finished with its league’s best regular season record – the Angels and Cubs – made it past the first round. They were a combined 1-6. The last time a World Series included teams with their league’s best record was last century: Yanks-Braves in 1999.
Oh, and Bud Selig last week said that owners might want to start going easier on ticket price hikes. The Yanks next year will charge $850 per game for seats that three years ago cost $85. And Selig’s warning owners to go easy. Funny guy.
Good Fox: After Phillies pitcher Brett Myers‘ third hit against the Dodgers on Friday, FOX presented a terrific reel of his reaction to each. The last, footage of Myers explaining in the dugout by swinging an imaginary bat with one hand while covering his eyes with the other, was a howl.
Bad Fox: In the same game, Ryan Howard was at bat when a graphic appeared: “Career with bases loaded, .263, five grand slams.” All his bases loaded homers were grand slams? What a coincidence.
Oh, and that graphic appeared with only two on.
Sweet 4 p.m. stuff from FOX and CBS yesterday, getting us to NFL buzzer-beaters in three out-of-market games. It looked like the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag: C.J. Papa, longtime WLNY TV (L.I.) sports anchor, is the new studio host of MSG’s Islanders telecasts. Papa replaces Deb Placey (Deb Kaufman now goes by her married name), the new host of “MSG, NY.”
Reader Ted McNabb of Raleigh, N.C., asks if winning the ALDS or NLDS is really worthy of clubhouse champagne celebrations. Ted, any victory that doesn’t trigger looting is unworthy.