BEST Seat In The House Blues: So it’s the third quarter, a one-point game for the national title when ABC’s Dan Fouts alertly hollers, “Texas has gone to a no-huddle to keep USC from substituting.”
Thus, after the next whistle, ABC’s truck was left with only two sensible options:
Option 1, the safe sensible option – stay on the field in a wide shot to allow the audience to see whether the no-huddle was continuing and, if it were, whether USC could substitute before Texas returned to the line of scrimmage.
Option 2, the risky sensible option – give us a quick peek at the USC sideline, to see if Pete Carroll is trying, perhaps frantically, to run players in and out.
ABC mindlessly cut to an extended close-up of Texas coach Mack Brown, who was saying nothing and doing nothing other than keeping an eye on the field. Heck, even the Texas coach chose Option 1.
Why do big games now regularly feature bad-to-awful TV?
Option 1: Producers and/ or directors may know TV, but not the sport; they only think they know the sport.
Option 2: Even those who know TV and the sport are forced to sacrifice focus on the bigger games to meet their network’s orders to roll out everything, from six more cameras to the co-stars of “Desperate Apprentice Survivor.”
Another option call: With 3:55 left in a championship game headed for the wire, ABC wanted viewers to know that sibling ESPN would carry a post-game show. Fine.
Option 1: ABC could quickly mention that (again) from the booth, even flashing a billboard (again).
Option 2: ABC could drop everything and cut to the on-site sight of John Saunders, Craig James and Aaron Taylor, who would then give their takes on the game with the added reminder that we can hear even more from them on ESPN, after the game.
Was there even one viewer, at that point, who would have chosen Option 2? Would there be even a single soul left impressed by ABC/ESPN’s presentation of an infomercial at that point in time?
ABC chose Option 2, thus chose to go out of its way to disgust viewers, to leave them feeling had. And that makes sense, no?
A lot about the Rose Bowl defied logic. The temperature was in the low 50s and there were commercial stoppages every few plays. Yet, we kept hearing that players – six, seven of them – were cramping up. Some, at halftime, had been intravenously administered fluids. They were being stuck with needles, for crying out loud.
Or was there no other option?
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The bigger the game, the more eager Brent Musburger is to put his personal stamp on it, a foolish game plan in that he invariably turns himself into an even bigger self-important blowhard.
Calling the Ohio State-Notre Dame Fiesta Bowl on ABC, Musburger broke his own bowl record for use of “I” and “me.” Early on, he latched on to an “I told Charlie Weis before the game” theme that Weis had never seen a defense as good as OSU’s.
By the fourth quarter, Musburger was still at it: “I am firmly convinced that Charlie Weis didn’t have any idea as to how good the Buckeyes were defensively.”
Musburger then dismissed whatever knowledge Weis had gained from coaching in the NFL, because pro teams play many teams twice a season.
“As you go along,” His Majesty haughtily concluded, “I’m sure you learn.”
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Happy 80th birthday, Ralph Branca. We often wonder whether one pitch might have been more blessing than curse, as so many folks over so many years have been drawn to Branca because of that pitch – and come away knowing they’ve just met a special person, a sportsman, a gentleman, a mensch.