ESPN on ABC Coverage Better Than Expected, Despite My Troubles
Josh Fisher
Monday March 5, 2007
Now I have to back up just a little. I spent my Saturday night at the Utah Blaze home opener and didn’t get home until well after midnight. Because of this I set the TiVo to record the game in case I missed the beginning of the 10:30 a.m. local time kickoff. That didn’t matter. When I turned on the game all the local station, KTVX 4, had on was an infomercial for some workout videos. After searching for about twenty minutes I found the game being broadcast on The CW. I found out later that KTVX actually owns The CW.
Once I found the game, I found the coverage to be surprisingly good. Mike Greenberg was easy to listen to as a play-by-play man and Mike Golic was a knowledgeable analyst. It was definitely apparent the two had a history of working together. They both had an excitement in their voice, something I feel is important when doing that job at an AFL game.
The guys in the booth spent a lot of time educating the viewers about the Arena Football League. There were graphics explaining the rules, field, league in general, etc. It almost got to the point of driving me crazy. I understand they are trying to sell the game, but it started to feel like they forgot that the AFL is in its 21st year and has a rather large fan base.
Graphically it was just like any other ESPN broadcast. The score panel was the same one they use for NBA coverage, just remove the shot clock and insert down-and-distance. They frequently had score updates on the BottomLine, even AFL scores. Occasionally player stats would pop-up from the score panel to keep you up-to-date with how that guy was doing.
There were several interviews with players during the game from the team bench. The player would put on a headset and chat with Greenberg and Golic from the booth about how the game was progressing. Several players and both coaches wore microphones so viewers could hear play calls and speeches in replays called ESPN Wired.
When the game reached halftime Stan Verrett took over from Bristol. It was called SportsCenter Halftime Report and featured highlights from the Chicago at Kansas City game that was also being shown by ESPN on ABC. (It looked like a pretty good game, but I had no interest in seeing the any of it.) They also had highlights from Saturday night’s games and some brief news from the NFL. After a break a taped segment with Chris Berman aired with Berman showing highlights of the 10 greatest moments in AFL history.
As I settled back in to watch the second half I was really interested to see where Greenberg and Golic took this game. I mean it was 33-0 for Dallas at the half and they had to keep people watching somehow. They started the second half with some jokes about Greenberg being cut from his high school chess team and not being very athletic (same jokes they use on their radio show). It was at this point that I realized there was a lot of that going on all game. Yes they were doing a good job talking about the game, but they were mixing in a lot of stuff from their show.
The highlight of the day for me came when New York player Will holder went tumbling over the wall and into the front row of seats trying to break-up a pass. Golic responded with, “Whoa! I love Arena Football.” Greenberg’s response was the low for me. “Fans, in the AFL you can keep footballs that come into the stands, but you have to throw the player back.” ENOUGH ALREADY!
A few plays later Dallas quarterback Clint Dolezel connected with Will Pettis to put the Desperados ahead 40-0. Following the commercial break my biggest nightmare came true. Verrett appeared on my screen informing me that Dallas had this game in control and that I was being sent to the Chicago-Kansas City game. What? This is not what I wanted. This is the Arena Football League and anything can happen. I know Dallas is one of the favorites to win ArenaBowl XXI, but the Dragons could make it interesting. (Dallas ended up winning 60-7.)
So now I was stuck with Ron Jaworski and Merril Hoge. That was a train wreck for another time. This was a rather exciting game as I watched it play out. I had a hard time listening to Jaworski as a play-by-play announcer so I skipped through most of it.
Just as I started to think things were going well for the first ESPN on ABC (on The CW) broadcast in Sat Lake City, they got worse. With just over a minute to play a message comes scrolling across my screen letting me know that the game was going back to KTVX for the conclusion. That meant I didn’t even get to see my favorite part of any AFL game, the final minute, because I had stopped recording on that channel.
The more I thought about that decision the angrier I got. Once I realized the game had been moved to a different channel I figured it was because the basketball fan population in Utah wouldn’t want to miss the opening of the coverage of this week’s game. Then when the game got switched back to KTVX that meant they were cutting into that coverage anyway. So basically they showed two-and-a-half hours of infomercials to avoid that situation and ended up with it anyway. At least I know where to find ESPN and ESPN2 for the rest of the games this season.
Josh Fisher has been a fan of the AFL for as long as he can remember. He followed the Arizona Rattlers since they began playing. Josh works for the University of Utah
as their head statistician. He is also the media contact for Klub Boom
Volleyball Club and the head volleyball coach at Park City High School.
