Jay Gruden Makes $#%& Great TV
Dan Ryan
Thursday June 21, 2001
The Preds produce their road games for the local UPN affiliate, desperate for fresh stuff until Buffy: The Vampire Slayer starts this fall. Orlando has signed Marc Daniels, the "Curt Gowdy" of Arena Football from the radio crew of PBP, and yanked the legendary Herkie Walls and PR Person Nicole Fogus out of the front office to fill the booth. They also decided to slap a field mike on head couch Jay Gruden.
Football coaches will be football coaches. There wasn`t a seven-second delay. Yep. You know what happens next.
The unofficial tally, because I flick a lot: six or seven f-words, one m-f-, a blasphemy here or there and one I`m still trying to decipher and determine if it`s physically possible. Give or take.
In other words, a Dennis Miller rant, or five minutes of dialogue between Tony, Paulie and the guy from Bruce Springsteen's band at the Bada Bing. However, the UPN affiliate isn't on a premium service or even basic cable, so there's the issue of policing the seven words George Carlin says you can't say on TV.
One of the local scribes here even likened Gruden to Howard Stern. Nothing could be further from the truth: not one single mention of lesbians, undersized male genitalia or flatulence whatsoever.
This isn`t the soapbox. It`s happen before, even on a TNN broadcast last year when even a racial epitaph got by the guys in the truck and ol` Eli squashed it with a simple "Play The Game," and it`ll happen again if the production crew doesn`t employ the @#$% delay. Coaches and players shouldn`t have to alter their game day cracks one iota for the sake of television.
 The man (Orlando Coach Jay Gruden) with the mike makes the game day. Image courtesy of Drew Kennedy |
If anything, miking Gruden showed why he`s one of the best coaches of the game. The rapport he has with his players and the officials, making jokes even when the Preds were down 2 TDs and couldn`t even begin to stop the Dragons, made the decision worth it.
Then there was the sheer enthusiasm he showed as Orlando mounted a 33-7 fourth quarter rally keyed by a pair of Kenny McEntyre picks and the four-yard interception rumble of lineman Angelo Rubil for a TD.
"I`m dying to get into this [five letters, starts with B-], fellas, I`m dying to get into this
[refer to the first bracket],” Gruden smiles as Orlando goes up 67-56.
Cut to a few minutes later. Preds up four. Third and goal. TD clinches. Craig Whelihan goes over to Gruden for the war council.
"What do you want to run?" Gruden asks. Biggest play of the game and Gruden is asking for input? That`s cool.
Whelihan says something the mike doesn`t pick up. Gruden contemplates. "No, not when we`re in this close. Run [insert football terminology].
Whelihan makes a three-step drop. Plants. Lamont Moore`s wide open for six. We`re outta’ here.
"That`s why you run that play,`` Gruden tells Whelihan with the authority of a theoretical physicist teaching algebra to an accountant.
The Preds have a few more games to air, and TNN has Preds-Storm II next weekend [Wire Gruden and Tim Marcum and tell Ms. Arrington to take the day off]. Keep the mikes on. Put on the delay. And get us some #$&% ziti.
QUICK SHOTS. In all, it was a good weekend for AF game broadcasts. The Tampa Bay-Arizona OT shootout was a great game thanks to the effort of Calvin Schexnayder (13 passes for 163 yards and five touchdowns) while the Storm tried to play their way back from a bad start. TNN`s Carolina-Buffalo meeting was enjoyable simply to see Fred McNair finally playing for a contender. Credit where credit is due: The best piece of Arena Football you`ll probably never see is a comprehensive history of the Storm-Preds series prepared by Storm PR guy Andy Lopusnak. Not only does it have a recap of every game, all the games were punched in for a cumulative stat package. D&%$, I wish I was that good when I was his age, If Marcum can`t keep him and the league doesn`t move him to Chicago, this kid’s on his way to a league with the word National in the title or a major D-1...
Dan Ryan has been involved with all forms of arena football since 1988, including writing for ArenaFan when Joe Kauffman and Tim Capper aren’t killing his columns because they don’t get his jokes or perspective. His day job is at Bethune-Cookman University, which has produced both an NFL Hall of Famer (Larry Little) and an Arena Football Hall of Famer (Stevie Thomas) and his hobby is tracking how many f-bombs Adam Markowitz drops in the chat room on game nights.
