Struggling to talk a good game
COMMON sense work from FOX, Sunday, first anticipating a big crowd response to Eli Manning taking the field in Cowboys-Giants, then from play-by-player Kevin Burkhardt, who allowed the applause to be heard, no explanation needed.
But the self-evident soon came attached to speeches. After Dallas WR Dez Bryant dropped a first-quarter pass, then Manning missed an open receiver, analyst Charles Davis, trying too hard to please, began to deliver dissertations on how such happenstances are not in their teams’ best interests.
And how did the first half conclude without any focus — by FOX and the Cowboys — on Dallas’s normally irrepressible TE Jason Witten? First time he was mentioned was with 7:01 left in the third, when called for holding.
But these are times when the unneeded is addressed, the needed ignored. And little seen is so self-evident that it shouldn’t be escorted by silly words.
In the first quarter of Thursday night’s NBC/NFLN Saints-Falcons, Atlanta WR Julio Jones caught a pass then began to run toward the goal line, angling toward the left sideline to avoid defenders — as Mike Tirico hollered that Jones is “running with purpose!”
Then again, with Cris Collinsworth making a speech after every play, perhaps this was the only time Tirico figured he’d be heard.
Sunday’s column about NFL ticket and PSL-holders being treated as takenfor-granted, money-burning saps — bad teams get good starting times, good teams get the most onerous, worseningweather, sunless, late and later starts — led reader David Schor to note the Steelers’ TV money-centric schedule, all outdoor games except the first, since late October: Oct. 29, at Detroit, 8:30 p.m. Nov. 16, home vs. Tennessee, 8:30 p.m. Nov. 26, home vs. Green Bay, 8:30 p.m. Dec. 4, at Cincinnati, 8:30 p.m. Last night, home vs. Baltimore, 8:30 p.m. Dec. 17, home vs. New England, 4:30 p.m. Dec. 25, at Houston, 4:30 p.m. Nov. 12’s Steelers at 3-7 Colts began at 1 p.m. and their regular season will conclude with a patrons-friendly 1 p.m. game in Pittsburgh — against the now 0-13 Browns.
Oh, the Steelers are another PSL team.