HARD KNOCKS FOR SAM
Kay and crew are latest to pile on struggling Jet QB
Cenough? Apparently not. A couple of weeks ago, in this hallowed (some might call it hollow) space, we told the Free World the saddest 10 minutes on sports talk radio is the Jets quarterback’s regular Monday spot on ESPN-98.7’s “The Michael Kay Show.”
The panel of Gasbags asks pointed questions. Darnold reacts predictably. All his answers are of the take-one-forthe-team variety.
The result for listeners, at least this one, is sadness. Sadness in thinking about how Darnold got shafted by a dysfunctional Jets organization who send him into each gunfight wielding a green paper plane.
When each of these interviews are completed there is also a sense of relief knowing Darnold is one week closer to the end of these painful, albeit paid, sessions. Or so we thought. After the latest interview, Kay and Don La Greca, who always profess their love for Darnold, found a way to extend the misery.
It wasn’t enough to hear Darnold sing the blues. Once the telephone line was disconnected, they needed a post-game show. For reasons known only to them, DLG and Kay decided it was a swell idea to critique Darnold’s interview performance.
“You (Darnold) sound like a programmed mannequin,” La Greca said.
So, Darnold soldiers through the interview, then gets hammered for sounding “programmed?” Unless you are saying it to his face, is that really necessary?
And Kay said: “He (Darnold) has got to find a better way to come up with the answers (to our questions).” Why? Darnold has sounded this way on most all the 98.7 interviews he’s done and the suits are still paying him, right?
Sounds like DLG and Kay want some sizzle and candor out of Darnold.
Considering how Kay’s crew, that also features Peter Rosenberg, likes to crow — ad nauseam — about their ratings prowess, they must want the Darnold sessions to be appointment radio. Sorry, Elvis has left that building.
So, why even bother with the post-interview critiques of Darnold’s verbal stylings — unless you want to see him suffer more.
PLAYING NICE WITH THE COMMISH
Roger Goodell popped out of his bunker long enough Wednesday to tell the unwashed masses — and Mike Tirico — he’s not inclined to put the season on hold no matter how COVID-19 impacts NFL teams.
Now, in order to play games any day of the week, Goodell needs to have his network partners on a short leash so he can move games around on a moment’s notice. The TV suits are going along with the chaos, and the possibility of airing an inferior NFL product (Wednesday’s RavensSteelers COVID-shifted tilt was a fiasco), because they want the NFL to be in their future.
With negotiations for a new TV deal percolating, cooperation is in style. This is no time for the TV brainiacs to question Goodell’s decisionmaking ability. It’s definitely not a good time to mess with the commissioner.
Naturally the players get shafted here. Playing a game, with little recovery time before the next one, is hazardous to a player’s health. Former NFL players, who now serve as TV analysts, don’t seem to be concerned with this. Especially the ones who work for a network in bed with the NFL.
FOLLOWING THE NETS
With the Nets getting closer to the regular season rollout of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and the rest of the crew, the Yankees Sports & Entertainment Network is preparing to get as close as it can to Brooklyn’s star-studded cast.
While it appears that the NBA’s network partners will likely have their announcers broadcast from remote locations (For example: TNT’s voices will either call the games off monitors from the network’s Atlanta headquarters or another studio), YES broadcasters will likely work from game sites on the road and home.
NBA sources said YES is looking into the possibility of being on the scene and not working remotely. If Ian Eagle & Co., do work on site, they will not be operating from their usual courtside location. They will set up a predetermined distance away from the court, likely in the middle or upper bowls of an arena.
TALKING DIVERSITY
While the recent focus of ESPN Radio has been on Dan Le Batard parting company with the Bristol Faculty, it’s worth noting how the company’s national radio division has quietly, with no fanfare or public pats on the back, brought a diverse cast of voices to its microphones.
Sports talk radio has traditionally been a white man’s world. Yet now, at ESPN Radio, there are full-time Gasbags of color heard throughout the day like:
MeShawn Johnson, Jay Williams, Bart Scott, Chiney Ogwumike Steady Fred
and the veteran
die Coleman.
All of these gabbers come to the microphone with different styles and opinions. No doubt this is a cast for ESPN Radio to build on and continue to move forward with.