COOL YOUR JETS
Tebow-sanchez coverage complete madness
This just in: Jets players residing in swing states will soon be endorsing
Tim Tebow for star ting
quarterback. Seriously, though, while the Tebow- Mark Sanchez “competition” merits attention, it’s already bordering on absurd, mind-numbing overkill. Gang Green’s recent Organized Team Activities (OTAS) were covered more like a political convention than a glorified workout. Thank goodness for Darrelle
Revis. Along with his tepid endorsement of Sanchez, he illuminated friend and foe alike on his contractual issues. That was legitimate news. The QB stuff, well, already the Jets have their script down and filled with drivel.
Anyone who heard offensive coordinator Tony Sparano answering questions about the two QBS witnessed a masterful performance by a guy schooled in moving his mouth and saying nothing. And that’s the point. What is Sparano or any of the players supposed to say?
It’s only June. By the time training camp opens in late July, all their rehearsed lines will be exhausted. That’s when we are going to feel sorry for those delivering the news out of Cortland. Even
Rex Ryan won’t be able to bail them out.
If this is going to turn into a search for a player — or two — to say something different, provide some news concerning Sanchez-tebow, things are going to get dull quickly. Baseball (remember that?) actually might take precedence over coverage of this pre - fabricated, alleged quar terback competition.
Although we sure are looking forward to more of those fascinating passby-pass breakdowns on how Sanchez and Tebow perform during pressure-packed drills. Bet you are too.
Too bad the Jets opted out of HBO’S “Hard Knocks.” This would’ve been another avenue of information. Then again, all involved parties would’ve probably stuck to their script titled “For Hard Knocks Only.”
When Woody Johnson decided to bring Tebow here he thought the acquisition would add more glitz to his already mouthy club. Instead, it just might turn the players (Ryan too) into zombies who clam up for fear of fueling any QB controversy.
And that would make the Jets very boring. Kinda like the Giants.
HOW TWEET IT ISN’T
Tuesday morning, after Game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals, ESPN’s “SportsCenter” highlighted tweets from players ripping the officials.
This wasn’t fair. Especially considering the Faculty at Bristol Clown Community College will never highlight tweets ripping their announcers. Many of them are worse than those officials.
David Stern should look into this — immediately.
ZIP IT
Kevin Burkhardt, on SportsNet New York, is the king of sideline, dugout and roaming reporters.
He’s not the Pierre McGuire type. Burkhardt does not have an itchy mute-button finger. That said, there’s such a thing as overkill.
For reasons known only to SNY’s Mets crew, Burkhardt was jamming in interviews Tuesday ( Rob Johnson, Bob Geren, Bud
Harrelson) to a point where it became distracting to what the Mets and Phillies were doing on the field.
So much so, viewers almost missed pitcher Jeremy Hefner’s fourth inning homer.
TROUT FISHING
When George Steinbrenner was around he never liked his Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network paying much attention to opposing players.
Times have changed. Last week, YES aired TV ads during the Yankees-Angels series touting Angels “young star” Mike Trout. When you’re playing late West Coast games you must pull out all the stops to try to get a decent TV rating.
It’s no different for the Yankees.
RADIO WAVES
It’s too early to make any definitive judgments, but “Inside Radio” reported that ESPN-1050/ ESPN-98.7, during its second week of simulcasting, had a cumulative audience one third larger (905,700 listeners) than WFAN (677,300) among men and women 25-54. Not shabby. Yet i n the key demographic (men 25-54) FAN won out with a 3.0 share (14th in market). The ESPN AM/FM simulcast notched a 2.6 share (15th in the market).
Since ESPN made the move to FM we’ve heard some subtle differences on FAN, like Mike ( Sports
Pope) Francesa spending more time hyping upcoming guests. This is an an attempt to undercut the procession of high-profile mouths regularly appearing on “The Michael Kay Show.”
HIT AND RUN
In case Keith Hernandez, Gary
Cohen and Ron Darling need to be reminded, the Mets have not exactly been packing ’em in at Citi. So it’s probably not a good idea to make fun of the paying customers. Tuesday, the SNY camera was on a gent with white hair wearing a Hernandez jersey. Cohen: “Keith, you really let yourself go.” Then came the laugh track. Lame. ... We get all the gaga over Doc Em
rick. He deserves it. Just don’t forget the magnificence of Marv
Albert working the Western Conference finals on TNT. Marveloso takes a back seat to no one. And he once was darn good calling Rangers hockey on the radio. ... If Jef f Van Gundy is missing a pair of his Naughty Librarian glasses, he might want
to call Steve Cangialosi who has taken to wearing JVG-like spectacles on MSG+ Devils Stanley Cup Final show. The glasses look better on JVG. ... ESPN’s Jon Barry did nothing but fan the flames for those who believe the NBA draft lottery is rigged. Prior to the event, Barry suggested Chris
Broussard “may already” have inside knowledge on where the No. 1 pick was going. Investigation, anyone?