Uh-oh. Bengals-Steelers is the early game today on CBS. As bad as the Bengals are — even with those superstar wide receivers who have a habit of making their teams worse — you never know. If the game runs close and a little long, the end will be lost to the scene-setter of Dolphins-Jets.
“Due to contractual obligations. . .”
Of course, had the NFL not sold its scheduling authority to TV, Dolphins-Jets would have made a lot more common, civil sense beginning at 1 p.m. instead of 4:15. Judging by the disappearance of the sun, scheduled for 4:30 — free for PSL holders — today’s will be yet another Jets’ night game.
If, as Roger Goodell claims, “it’s all about the fans,” the Giants-Vikings game, an indoor game originally scheduled for today at 1 p.m., would have been the later start.
But, day or night, the patrons will recognize new PSL Stadium as the windiest acres in New Jersey. As we were warned months ago by an insider with a background in industrial architecture, as windy as old Giants Stadium was — if 33 is old — this $1.8 billion is the world’s largest wind tunnel.
As reader Bob Demcsak put it after attending last week’s Redskins-Giants 1 p.m. game, “It’s one thing not to have a roof on your house, but to leave all the windows open in the winter is just plain dumb. If the Super Bowl site committee had not already declared [the 2014 Supe for the Meadowlands], and were at Sunday’s game, there is no way they would have approved this stadium.”
Fox’s Tony Siragusa puts it even more succinctly: “Hey, fellas, it’s windy, down here. Very windy, fellas.” The only windier place would be in Fox’s booth, with Moose Johnston in the house.
Ignoring game-changers the real personal fouls
For as much all-week news and video that TV delivers about the NFL, there’s a huge story that’s rarely addressed: Games determined as much by macho, me-first personal fouls as by football.
A hot story is that the Falcons, 10-2, are unbeatable at home, where they’re 6-0. Fine. But the Bucs, now 7-5, had a great shot to beat them last Sunday, except . . .
Late in the second quarter, at 7-7, the whistle blew to end a play when Bucs’ DT Gerald McCoy, nowhere near the play, clobbered an opponent. It wasn’t a late hit; it was a very late hit. Fifteen yards, first down. Two plays later, the Falcons score a TD.
Final score: 28-24, Atlanta.
On the semi-blind, I’ll claim that nowhere, throughout the last week on national TV, was that game-changing incident addressed. Today, the outcomes of games will similarly be changed. If an ESPN video crew were assigned to log such incidents it would come away with a stack.
But throughout this week, and for all the game “break-downs” we’re shown and told, game-changing personal fouls will be ignored.
* When did, “They need to make a play [on offense or defense]” begin to pass as football analysis?
And when did gambling officially become known as “gaming.” You think crime families want to fight it out for control of Parcheesi parlors?
* Division II West Liberty (W.Va) is now 7-0 by an average score of 131-74. The closest any opponent has come is 37 points, thus needlessly running it up is the norm.
* Sure, but can Cliff Lee throw a shaving cream pie?
* Fox’s “Speed Channel” has added a show titled, “Slam.” It’s not much more than home video of teens and young men wiping out while trying to maim themselves doing stunts; it’s ESPN’s “He Got Jacked Up” on wheels. It’s also very easy programming to produce – especially if you have no conscience.
* Carl Pavano is a free agent? Again?
* How good would the NCAA look if there were a rule that during TV’s taped, individual, self-introductions of NFL game starters, players could only give the name of the last school from which they graduated?
* WikiLeaks this week will release classified documents showing the State Dept., the CIA, the FBI, and the Ramapo, N.J., Police Dept. all provided Class A Security Clearance to Mike Francesa.
Theismann chatter no laughing matter
If dogs and cats were the target audience, the NFL Network would be cited for animal cruelty. Joe Theismann added to Matt Millen on Thursday nighters is the cruelest TV joke since Giuseppe Franco promised hair.
From the start of Thursday’s Colts-Titans game, even the most self-evident plays — a short out, anything — were slathered with Theismann’s needless talk and takes.
And, as he did all those years with ESPN, he’d still have us ignore what we see to instead believe what he tells us we saw. After a first-quarter interference call against Titans’ DB Michael Griffin, while defending WR Pierre Garcon, a replay aired.
“You’ll see him grab the back of him, pulls him down,” Theismann said.
But we saw no such thing. There was a brush between the two, but the flag appeared to be the result of a trip, nothing to do with grabbing or pulling.
Even Millen recognized that Theismann was full of it. He saw what we saw, not what Theismann told us we saw. “Hmmm,” Millen said, “I don’t know about that.”
Still, Theismann stuck with his story. “Hard to miss,” he said.
Hard to miss? It was impossible to see! This is TV; the only audience that would have believed Theismann was a radio audience.
While the NFL wants folks to lobby their cable systems to add NFLN, those who already have it may demand its elimination.
* Mike Cohen was the unofficial Mayor of NYC Sports — and a character among characters — when he died of a heart attack in 1988, at, good God, 44.
As a publicist for Yonkers Raceway, NBC Sports and later on his own, two schools he stayed particularly close with were Fordham and Manhattan. The MVP of their annual basketball game wins the Mike Cohen Award.
Wednesday, with Cohen’s widow, Linda, watching, Mike’s three sons, Jason, Todd and Ross, presented the Mike Cohen Award to Fordham’s Brenton Butler. Brenton, just know this: You’d have loved Mike Cohen.