MISSING IN ANTHEM

NFL policy now puts onus on TV to call out player no-shows

If the NFL players’ anthem protests were so bad for the league’s business, what’s going to happen when the weekly results of Roger Goodell’s new policy become as common place as injury reports?

This is the box Goodell and the owners have put their network partners in. Now, Fox, NBC, CBS, ESPN and NFLN will be forced to report the names of players who remain in the locker room during the playing of our national anthem before each game. If a network decides to ignore those who stayed behind, it risks being accused of hiding information and having its overall credibility called into question.

And some detractors will say that by compiling the lists, the networks are acting as nothing more than the NFL’s in-house spy.

What a mess! Yet, it’s not a reach to suggest Goodell & Co. weren’t thinking about their TV partners’ credibility when they elected to shove the new anthem policy down the player’s collective throats. Before, especially when this controversy had died down last season, it had all been so easy. Since the anthem was rarely televised, the voices calling the game, if they elected to, could report who took a knee. And on the rare occasions the anthem was televised, viewers could see who took a knee.

Since there now is a rule in place, the networks, if they are doing their job, will be forced to report who didn’t come out for the anthem before the game. This won’t be as cut and dry as it seems. What if a player stayed in the locker room to get treatment for a nagging injury. Doesn’t that reason for remaining “inside,” which has nothing to do with an anthem protest, have to be reported, too?

So we likely will see NFL reporters like ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio on the network’s pregame show standing outside the Eagles locker room, reporting who he heard will not be coming out for the anthem. To prevent this from turning into a guessing game, will teams be required by the league to provide the media with a list of players who did not take part in the anthem ceremony?

And don’t be surprised if someone tries to gauge the on-field impact of this situation. Do players who don’t come out for the anthem perform better than players who do? Put that one in your fantasy pipe and smoke it.

Get it? The owners took a situation that had been fading and reignited it. The only reasonable explanation (wink, wink) for the NFL announcing the new policy now is it wanted to get back in the news. Nah, that was just an unintended consequence. Yet Goodell & Co. can look forward to “enjoying” a season’s worth of media opportunities the policy has created.

Maybe the networks can even make money off the controversy.

Anyone interested in sponsoring the NFL’s weekly “anthem absence” report?

NICE SHOOTIN’, TEX

After an uneventful year-plus as ESPN’s featured baseball studio analyst, Mark Teixeira finally created some buzz, and elevated his profile, by saying he wasn’t surprised his former teammate, Robinson Cano, got suspended after testing positive for a banned substance.

Tex accomplished a few things. He showed he has more onions than ESPN’s star baseball voice Alex Rodriguez, who pity-partied his way through the Cano situation, basically saying he felt bad for his pal. Teixeira also showed he is willing to take a hit and not back down from other Gasbags like ESPN-98.7’s Chris Canty and Rick DiPietro Jr. who ripped him for taking info he had gleaned during his playing days and using it to betray Cano, in order to advance his own career.

Tex, in a Thursday interview with ESPN-98.7’s Michael Kay, claimed that when he was interviewed for his ESPN gig he was asked if he could “talk (negatively) about a teammate.”

He said “ESPN would fire me tomorrow” if he withheld information.

Guess Canty and DiPietro were

CMB TCB

When WFAN hired CMB (Chris Carlin, Maggie Gray, Bart Scott), it played the diversity card, explaining how the team had a unique opportunity to tackle issues from multiple perspectives.

Yet Entercom put “diversity” on the back burner when it dumped CMB from afternoon drive to bring back Mike (Sports Pope) Francesa, a singularly pompous jackass. That’s when you knew Entercom/FAN’s commitment to diversity was nothing more than a publicity grab, a lie.

That said, we must give credit to the suits for giving CMB a measly two hours to yakk. For their conversations about the NFL’s new anthem policy were riveting. While no CMBer favored the policy, they came at it from different angles. Carlin, sarcastic but substantive. Gray, full of fresh insight, and Scott, fearless and passionate.

Their conversations were fascinating. Wonder if anyone they work for was actually listening. Or were they too busy properly chilling Francesa’s Diet Coke supply?

MASS HOLE

Could have sworn the Sports Pope was reprising his “retirement” tour farce Tuesday, on the 20th anniversary of the Mets trading for Mike Piazza, when he launched into a soliloquy that was more about himself than the Hall of Fame catcher…. Got to believe WABC’s Bernard McGuirk and Sididiot Rosenberg are making ratings in-roads with their morning show. Yes, they do talk sports…The Mets bashing in the Valley of the Stupid is becoming so predictable it’s making once must-listen-to shows into total tuneouts…. YES will really have no need to replace Ken Singleton when he retires following the season. John Flaherty has turned himself into a competent play-by-play voice, one with an attitude and something to say, who could handle Singleton’s play-by-play sked…. Keith Olbermann is getting added duties at ESPN. Well, whoop de damn doo.