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Shooting from the lip: Fox and Daytona; Miracle on Ice; Mariota and Winston

 
Team USA celebrates its win over the then-Soviet Union at the Olympics
Team USA celebrates its win over the then-Soviet Union at the Olympics
Published Feb. 23, 2015

Tampa Bay Times columnist Tom Jones looks back at the best and worst from a weekend of televised sports.

Best acknowledgment

I tuned in intently to Fox's prerace coverage of the Daytona 500 and was fairly convinced the network was going to barely mention or completely gloss over the Kurt Busch suspension for his role in an alleged domestic violence incident.

I was wrong, and pleasantly so. After the usual grand opening celebrating Daytona and the start of the NASCAR season, as well as focusing on pole-sitter and soon-to-be-retired Jeff Gordon, Fox went straight to two controversial stories. Only five minutes into the broadcast, it addressed both Kurt and Kyle Busch.

Kyle was knocked out of the Daytona 500 after breaking his leg and foot in a crash Saturday in the Xfinity series race. Fox talked about Daytona's efforts to ensure more protection on every inch of the track for Sunday and beyond.

But it was a straight-forward approach that served the network especially well when it came to the Kurt Busch story. Two appeals by Busch to race were denied Saturday, and analyst Darrell Waltrip pulled no punches, saying NASCAR did the right thing by having a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to domestic violence. He also was critical of Busch's history and said it would take a lot of work on Busch's part if he ever hoped to race at this level again.

Nice job, Fox.

Also, nice job on the broadcast despite the anticlimatic ending under caution, although Fox doing a good job on NASCAR coverage is never surprising, especially with the superb work from the pits and garages.

Most overlooked coverage

Fox's Daytona 500 coverage dominated sports television on Sunday, but NBC did a heck of a job covering "Hockey Day in America." Sunday's coverage was based out of Lake Placid, N.Y., site of the 1980 Olympics and the famed "Miracle on Ice" U.S. gold-medal winning hockey team. Sunday was the 35th anniversary of the Americans' incredible upset of the then-Soviet Union.

NBC's remembrance of that event was sentimental but not sappy. The network interviewed several players from that team, including goalie Jim Craig. It did a touching, sad and yet inspirational story of Mark Wells, a defenseman on that team who has struggled with injuries that eventually forced him to sell off his gold medal to pay for medical expenses.

Jeremy Roenick, an American star influenced to play the game after watching the '80 Olympics as a kid, took viewers into the Americans' locker room at the little rink in Lake Placid. The room has not been changed in 35 years.

NBC also had several solid features focusing on various aspects of American hockey, especially stories about former military members who have used hockey to overcome severe injuries suffered while fighting overseas.

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In between it all, NBC had its usual excellent game coverage of three games — two on NBC and one on NBCSN.

A gold-medal effort all around by NBC.

Most underrated coverage

Who in the heck must be so bored that they would watch a glorified training session for former college football players otherwise known as the NFL combine? Seriously, raise your hand if you find this at all compelling?

Okay, my hand is up. And if you're a football fan, so is yours.

Maybe it's because there is a heavy local interest in what the Bucs are going to do with the first pick in the draft, but Saturday's NFL Network combine coverage of quarterbacks throwing footballs was mesmerizing. Every time Florida State's Jameis Winston and Oregon's Marcus Mariota grabbed a football, you couldn't help but move to the edge of your chair and, in your head, determine whether or not they were making NFL throws. And if you couldn't determine, the NFL Network had a bunch of commentators giving expert analysis.

I used to think televising the combine was the dumbest thing in the world, but my tune sure changed watching Winston and Mariota. Hey, think we can televised their pro days, too?

Best reaction

There were a few exceptions, but mostly, the reaction of ESPN not having Dick Vitale calling last week's Duke-North Carolina game was pro-Vitale and anti-ESPN. It was the first time since Vitale joined ESPN in 1979 that he did not call a Duke-UNC game carried by ESPN.

New York Daily News sports media critic Bob Raissman put it well when he wrote, "He's our guy for a very simple reason: We want to be entertained and not feel like someone is giving us a Popular Mechanics view of college basketball — or any sport, for that matter.''

Vitale's absence did not impact the ratings. ESPN drew 4.1 million viewers, the most for a college basketball game on the network this season and the best audience for a Duke-Carolina game since March 3, 2012.

Biggest numbers

For all those NASCAR fans and drivers griping about the group qualifying for the Daytona 500, here's some more food for thought: Fox drew 3.4 million viewers for last Sunday's qualifying. That was a 17 percent increase over last year's audience of single-driver qualifying, and it was the most-watched qualifying in six years.

Biggest negotiations

There has been plenty of speculation over the past year that Bill Simmons might leave ESPN, but Sports Illustrated is reporting that ESPN has high interest in re-signing the multi­talented and multiplatform star. While the two occasionally act like an old married couple tired of one another, hopefully they realize that they are better off with one another.

Biggest Winston endorsements

The topic of Jameis Winston and whether the former Florida State standout can stay out of trouble to become a dependable and good NFL quarterback was a topic on ESPN's Sports Reporters on Sunday. Here are two interesting thoughts:

ESPN's Jemele Hill: "One thing about Jameis Winston that I've always really liked — he wants to be great. It's easy for me to give the benefit of the doubt to athletes who are like that.''

Boston Globe's Bob Ryan: "Jameis Winston? He's not going to blow this. I think he is smart enough to figure out all of the dumb things he did — and I'm not remotely downplaying whatever happened with the young lady — but I don't think he is going to blow this by messing around off the field.''

Three things that popped into my head

1. I'm a little excited that Manny Pacquiao (top right) and Floyd Mayweather (bottom right) are going to fight. I would be more excited if this was 2009. Maybe they can get Robert DeNiro and Sylvester Stallone to fight on the undercard.

2. After what we saw on the five-game road trip, the Lightning is giving us every reason to think it can go deep into the playoffs.

3. College basketball would be even more interesting if Kentucky enters the NCAA Tournament with no losses.

tom jones' two cents