NFL food for thought

Sporting News, The, Nov 25, 2002 by Fritz Quindt

The NFL sells the same quality ingredients to all of its "broadcasting partners" (although, batting .900 for Monday-night blowouts this season, ABC disputes that axiom). The difference is how the ingredients are sauteed and simmered.

All four networks agree it's a good idea to have commercial breaks before and after kickoffs; all thought it bad manners to air a clip of Donovan McNabb vomiting on the field; each revels in displaying virtual first-down lines and squirms over participating in instant-replay adjudication.

But not all sausage is the same. Three networks (ESPN, CBS, Fox) show halftime highlights. Three (ABC, ESPN, Fox) have first-string female sideline reporters. Two (ESPN, Fox) put three announcers in the booth. ESPN has SkyCam and ABC has Ref-Cam--delicacies that aren't proprietary, yet no other broadcaster uses them. A secret to preparing live football properly, preaches Fox A-team director Artie Kempner, "is good decision-making and good timing" Amen.

Ahem. Let us open our cookbooks to Doubleheader Dilemma, a recipe for disaster between 1 p.m. ET games and the later kickoffs. With the advent of 4:15 games, the league OK'd "bonus coverage" of concluding early games. Alas, networks usually are required to show the start of the second game, leading to fantastic-finish interruptus: CBS viewers get to sample the last two minutes of Patriots-Bears--only to be jerked away to affiliate commercials, then another game?

Never mind that 90-second local breaks are technically necessary (networks literally are pulling switches to feed the right game to 200 stations), this steams my clams. Bonus coverage = a crapshoot. Thoughtfully, Fox has been less likely to roll the dice.

Now turn to the starting lineups--easy as pie for NBA or baseball, but presenting 44 gladiators, preferably during teams' first possessions, can boil over.

Fox uses time-tested mugshots with names, numbers and positions; ESPN has gone minimalist (bottom-of-the-screen display, flashed whenever); CBS and ABC employ full graphics and animation! Cool. Except, ABC's audio-visual lineups are formatted to run immediately after the opening kickoff. What if there's a 22-yard gain, demanding John Madden's breakdown or a replay? God forbid a coach tries to challenge the first play on Monday Night Football.

It's mostly a matter of taste, and ABC's prime-time football is slathered in frosting. Giants-Eagles opened with an ISpy skit, followed by another skit starring the NYPD Blue cast, THEN Hank Williams singing. As a budding diabetic, I prefer other networks' NFL cooking. "You know you'll do 2 1/2 hours of show, and `window dressing'--the opens, lineups, bumpers--constitutes maybe 55 seconds" says Fox's Kempner. "Some people in the business worry about the 55 seconds instead of the 2 1/2 hours."