LAWRENCE, Kan. – I’m back at KU for the spring semester, introducing a new look to the site, to me and to Jayhawk Sports Talk. While specifics of the coming season at KUJH are still pending, I will share my recommendations for the weekend programs you shouldn’t miss:
ROSWELL, Ga. – I wrapped up the last weekend of my winter break in exciting fashion, on the road in Chicago for last weekend’s NFC Divisional Playoff between the Carolina Panthers and Chicago Bears. Splitting time at the new Soldier Field between national television and radio coverage on Fox and Westwood One/CBS Radio Sports, respectively, I now feel confident that I have seen two of the three best NFL TV crews in action, both of which were working last Sunday.
With additional equipment and personnel on hand, producer Richie Zyontz and director Artie Kempner told the compelling story of the Bears’ comeback in the midst of an uncharacteristically poor defensive effort on its home field. While Carolina dominated early and often, Fox’s top production duo never counted the Bears out, following the game’s story to its unfortunate end. The game was surprisingly high scoring, with the Chicago defense giving up around three touchdowns more than its per game average at home, but the Bears were within striking distance until just before the two-minute warning when Chicago’s Rex Grossman threw a game-ending interception. It was a very exciting finish to say the least. Fox, however, had a hard act to follow.
ROSWELL, Ga. – Chalk one up for the BCS. This was the last year of the Bowl Championship Series’ TV contract with ABC, and without a last minute deal with Fox, we might have witnessed a change in the bowl system. Needless to say, the BCS is here for at least another four years. For all the criticism that the system has endured since its inception in 1998, however, this year it appears to have worked – more or less.
While the rankings may still need some work as a majority of top ten BCS-ranked teams lost their respective bowl games, the elite bowl games certainly lived up to expectations. As my trusty stat man pointed out to me after last night’s National Championship, all but the Fiesta Bowl were decided by three points, each with its own set of quirks. The Sugar Bowl had a huge lead and a subsequent comeback; the Orange Bowl was slow developing and mistake prone; and the Rose Bowl was an exhilarating neck-and-neck race of two tremendous football teams. Blowouts are no fun to watch, and this year’s games were infused with endless storylines and matchups that endured well into the final minutes of each game.
ROSWELL, Ga. – Just as I spent Christmas hopping from one football game to another, I rang in 2006 in similar fashion. I attended the Georgia Dome trifecta and survived to tell the tale of going to three football games – the Peach Bowl, Falcons-Panthers, and the Sugar Bowl – in about 72 hours.
For those of us who are football fans, it can be easy to forget just how long a football game can be, but they’re long – very long. In addition to more traditional stoppages of play for incompletions, penalties, injuries, team timeouts, official timeouts and (in college) first downs, the length of a modern football game now includes TV timeouts, replay reviews and challenges, and extra long halftimes. The result has been that games last at least three hours and often longer. Don’t get me wrong, I still love football; and I’ll put up with a long game when I’m watching exciting football like last night’s Sugar Bowl, which didn’t end until about 12:45 a.m. I was, however, a little concerned going into the game because both the Peach Bowl and Falcons-Panthers game were blowouts in which the winning teams outscored their opponents by a combined score of 74-14. Of course, just because it isn’t a close game doesn’t mean it’s that much shorter. In fact, games that are runaways can easily drag on more than those far more competitive.