A little get-to-know-you goes long way
AMONG local TV’s steadiest failings is that it doesn’t allow us a feel for those we root for or against. And sometimes that “feel” is enough for viewers to confirm or change their feeling about players.
While with Ch. 5, sports anchor Russ Salzberg, during the NFL season, weekly took us inside the Giants’ or Jets’ locker rooms to play “Know Your Foe” with players, a Beat The Clock With Jocks. It was a fun, often goofy segment with Salzberg asking historical or hysterical questions about the teams’ next opponent in anticipation of correct or zany answers.
But it had the residual quality of showing us local players of varying renown without their helmets and shoulder pads on, allowing us a glimpse of what they actually look and sound like, thus we could take away a sense of their human senses, especially their senses of humor.
It has long struck me that we need more of that. Regardless of stats, it would be nice to know those on our local teams who are easiest to root for. Those are questions I often ask beat writers and team broadcasters: Who are the rain or shine good guys? And who, well, not so much?
The answers can be surprising while leaving an impression.
Tuesday, after the second period of Devils-Penguins, MSG+ presented a taped chat with Jersey captain Andy Greene. Though knowing that Greene has been a Devils’ defenseman since the 2006-07 season, that he’s not particularly big — he’s generously listed as 5-foot-11 — and that he blocks a lot of shots, I knew nothing else. I’d neither heard nor seen him at any off-ice length.
Greene, now 35 and a Michigan native, appeared in a casual-clothes chat. Hey, he’s nearly bald. And clearly intelli- gent — he even adheres to good grammar — and speaks with a pleasant and polite modesty.
He was asked to recall his first NHL shift: “We were playing in the old Continental Airlines Arena. ... Jumping over the boards, the first thing I was thinking — especially with those old boards and with those lower benches that made them tough for a little guy to get over — was, ‘Just make sure you don’t fall.’”
Asked about his first NFL goal, Greene smiled. “It was against Pittsburgh, just a little wrist shot.”
As he spoke, MSG+ showed the tape. It was a long wrist shot from the right blue line, called by Doc Emrick. “Greene with the shot ... score!!!” on March 8, 2007.
Nothing ground-shaking, yet, in a matter of just two minutes and at minimal expense, local TV had turned Andy Greene from just an earnest veteran hockey player who wears No. 6 while skating beneath a helmet, into a fellow we now kinda, sorta know, a guy we suspect is worth our rooting interest.
That’s all it took and often all it takes to produce good TV and good vibes. And it was a good use of time often filled and killed as dead time.