We all remember last year’s failed strategy with the NFL NETWORK. When Roger Goodell had a game with an unbeaten Patriots squad and the eventual Super Bowl champion Giants playing in Week 17 on the Network, he had to have the worst of both worlds and allow CBS and NBC to simulcast the game under threat from Senators Arlen Specter and John Kerry.
The fans got a classic game on broadcast television (which wound up being a Super Bowl preview), but it wasn’t the business coup that Goodell & Co. had imagined (and did not come off well following Packers-Cowboys a few weeks earlier) since most of the games on the schedule (like Colts-Falcons) were forgettable and fans were carping about the good ones being on a channel very few could get.
Now, the L.A. TIMES relays news from the WALL STREET JOURNAL that the league is talking to ESPN about broadcasting that package of games that its own network was claiming all for itself.
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Mike Florio of PRO FOOTBALL TALK reports that Bryant Gumbel is bidding adieu to the NFL Network.
The lead play-by-play announcer during the network’s first two years of existence is apparently hanging up the mike. In a released statement, Gumbel explains that he “thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity” to call games on NFLN, but added that he & the network “agreed that we’d all be better served going in different directions.”
Creative differences? Or a cute way to say you were canned? Either way, Bryant is bidding adieu. But it might have been his earlier comments about Gene Upshaw that could have paved the way for his eventual exit.
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Did prized pro prospect Glenn Dorsey have knee surgery? A writer for Jaguars.com says yes, while an NFL Network scribe says no.
Mike Florio of PRO FOOTBALL TALK points out the perplexing opinions of Vic Ketchman and Adam Schefter on the leg strength of the purported top-5 pick of the NFL Draft. Read more…
ESPN’s HASHMARKS points out an interesting stat about this weekend’s Pro Bowl: About 20% of the original choices aren’t going.
17 selected all-stars - including the likes of Tom Brady & Brett Favre - decided not to fly out to Hawaii. Most have bowed out claiming injury, but it’s more likely that a lot of players are ho-hum about the Honolulu trip.
NFL commish Roger Goodell has been working to inject some life into a game that’s become an afterthought to both fans & players. Suggestions have included rotating the game among other cities, or moving up the game to the weekend before the Super Bowl.
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BLIMP SHOWS NFL NET GAMES OVER BLACKED-OUT BURGS: USA TODAY reports that DirecTV will show NFL Network games “on the giant video screen on its blimp as it flies above towns whose cable operators don’t carry” the channel.
The blimp will tantalize Tampa and Orlando NFL fans this week with live video overhead on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.Undeterred, NFL Network PR guy Seth Palansky said there is “zero chance” the NFL will clear the December 29 Patriots-Giants game on other broadcast outlets.
We’re just hoping no one calls in an air strike if the blimp is planning a maiden voyage over The Bean on Dec. 29.
Oh, the humanity!
RICH EISEN NOT THE POOPY PANTS WE THOUGHT HE WAS: Ryan Hudson of REAL CLEAR SPORTS has a funny from Rich Eisen of NFL Network (and Perfect 10 boxing fame!).
Eisen’s on-air highlighting of a Ben Roethlisberger TD pass to Najeh Davenport during Pats-Steelers: “and then Roethlisberger dumps one to Davenport for the score.”
Hudson: “Seemingly innocent…until you remember that Davenport once defecated in a women’s hamper: ‘A woman sleeping in the room, Mary McCarthy, told police she was startled by a strange sound and saw Davenport squatting in her closet. Davenport then allegedly defecated in a laundry basket, McCarthy told detectives.’“
GROSSMAN WRECKS KNEE, LEAVES THURSDAY NIGHT GAME: AOL FANHOUSE reports that Bears QB Rex Grossman left in the first quarter of Thursday night’s contest against the Redskins with a knee injury.
Since the game was broadcast on the inaccessible NFL Network, we await confirmation via Pony Express next week.
DALLAS’ NEWMAN READY TO ROLL LIONS QB AT ANY COST: It’s one thing to guarantee victory over a 12-0 opponent. It’s quite another to guarantee a trip to the hospital for your opponents’ QB:
THE WORLD OF ISAAC throws over word from the DALLAS MORNING NEWS about Cowboys cornerback Terence Newman predicting bad things for Detroit’s Jon Kitna.The Lions QB made some remarks a few days after last season’s 39-31 win in Big D that rubbed the Cowboys’ D the wrong way. Kitna had said that he wasn’t “scared to throw” at Newman, and that he didn’t feel Dallas LB Bradie James “knew where he was at.”
A year later, Newman still remembers, telling a satellite radio audience on Wednesday, “Basically, what it boils down to is you’ve got to watch what you say.”
And in Terence’s case, he’s not afraid to pay the piper
