And So it Begins...
Charliy Nash
Friday February 7, 2003
Many of us long-time Arena Football fans took a wait-and-see approach to NBC’s involvement. There were the guys who tried to merge football and “rassling” with the XFL. These were the guys who took our beloved spring/summer Friday nights and moved them to Sunday afternoons in the dead of winter. We remembered how poorly ABC and ESPN handled the playoff broadcasts, with uninformed announcers obsessing on minute points of the game while missing the obvious. I can’t speak for the rest of the loyal fans, but I was pleasantly surprised.
There were some pleasant surprises in the ratings department as well. The 2.2 rating not only exceeded NBC’s projection of 2, but it was higher than the rating for last year’s Arena Bowl. In Colorado the AFL broadcast scored a respectable 11.8, and it outperformed the NHL All-Star game in five NHL cities. And after the game was over, the good things continued. Arena Football has started showing up on major media websites. Highlights turned up on ESPN, and Commissioner David Baker was a guest on Pardon the Interruption. Not bad for a game that some critics were ready to dismiss.
On the whole I’d give NBC’s premier broadcast a B-minus (the minus mostly because an “asleep at the switch” sound technician caused us to miss much of the interview with Bill Parcells). The announcing team of Tom Hammond and Pat Hayden showed a little bit of inexperience, but a lot of potential. Much of Hayden’s exposure to the sport came from watching the Los Angeles Avengers practice. He seemed surprised when Dallas ran the ball (note to other teams’ defensive coordinators: apparently the Avengers never run), and seemed shocked when the defenses made plays. Get used to it Pat, you’re going to the Southern Division next week. There really are teams with strong defenses and balanced offenses. (These are the teams that go far in the playoffs.)
The new vertical format game clock was very good. It stayed out of the way and told us what we needed to know (I’m a “down and distance” freak) without being a distraction. The pop-ups at the bottom of the screen explaining the rules were used sparingly. In short NBC didn’t fall into the “graphics for the sake of graphics” trap. They had cameras where they needed them to show us the reverse angles when the walls got in the way of the play. There was one other very subtle thing they did – or more accurately – that they didn’t do. I saw people in the area behind the end zone. This is normal in an Arena Football game, but whenever ABC came to town for a playoff game they banned everyone from the end zones and the tunnel so they could get a nice unobstructed shot of their advertising banners. Reporters and photographers behind the cheerleaders are part of the unique character of the AFL. NBC did it right by not sterilizing the game.
The studio show was a good addition to the coverage. A pre-game package, with all the different announce teams checking in and previewing their games would have been nice, but perhaps the additional news coverage of the shuttle accident made that impossible.
Overall, the studio team gets a mixed review. Al Trautwig (who I remember well from the glory days of the MISL) did a good job of keeping things on track. Michael Irvin’s enthusiasm for the game was genuine and evident. As he learns more teams and players around the league his observations should become more specific and less generalized. (Problem is, it will be tough for him to do that spending his Sundays in the studio.) Then there was the bald guy (Glenn Parker); he added absolutely nothing. The middle seat would be much better if occupied by someone who actually knows something about Arena Football. Here are a few nominees: Mike Pawlawski (whose stellar AFL playing career was cut short by playing in the XFL), Eddie Khayat (the former NFL player and coach, former AFL coach and GM), and, of course, Jill Arrington (the Queen of the Arena).
It took us 17 years to get to this point. It may take a little while for them to completely get the hang of it, but our friends at NBC are off to a very promising start.
Charliy Nash has covered both incarnations of the Nashville Kats, and now has make the 2 hour drive to Huntsville for an Arena Football fix. He also covers the Tennessee Titans as a blogger for nfl.com and still hopes this will eventually lead to a paying gig.
