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Tom Jones' Shooting from the Lip

 
Published Jan. 18, 2016

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

Best coverage

Our luck that the NFL's best broadcast team — NBC's Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth — had the best playoff game of the weekend — Saturday night's wild Cardinals overtime victory against the Packers.

"I've never seen anything like this,'' Collinsworth said.

At first, it felt as if Collinsworth and Michaels were over-hyping the ending, that they got carried away with hyperbole. But when you think about the final few minutes with the deflected pass for a touchdown, two Hail Marys on the Packers final drive, the botched coin flip to start overtime and Arizona's Larry Fitzgerald going crazy in overtime, it really was something.

The point is you don't want anyone else but Michaels and Collinsworth on the microphone for such a dramatic game.

Having said that, CBS's duo of Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts on the Patriots-Chiefs game was outstanding. Eagle is so good that it's wrong to say he is underrated. He deserves to have his name up there with anyone in the business.

Best predictions

Two sensational moments from Fox's Joe Buck and Troy Aikman during their call of Sunday's Panthers-Seahawks game.

First, Aikman. The Panthers had a third and inches from the Seattle 20 and Aikman said, "I wouldn't be surprised if (Carolina offensive coordinator) Mike Shula dials up some type of play-action pass here.''

Sure enough, that's exactly what happened and the Panthers picked up 16 yards.

Next, Buck. The Seahawks lined up to punt on fourth down when Buck said, "Not saying it's going to happen, not saying that it even makes sense here, but (Seattle coach) Pete Carroll, in the playoffs, sometimes you can expect the unexpected.''

Just as Buck finished his thought, Seattle ran a fake punt and picked up the first down.

Two instances of broadcasters who know their stuff and offer the best analysis: telling viewers what might happen before it happens instead of just reacting to things that already did.

Best wishes

Let us join all those in the media wishing for a speedy and full recovery to ESPN NFL insider Chris Mortensen, who has been diagnosed with Stage IV throat cancer

All the networks covering playoff games over the weekend sent out good thoughts.

In a nice touch on ESPN2's Sports Reporters on Sunday, ESPN NFL reporter Adam Schefter introduced himself as "Chris Mortensen's colleague."

Meantime, during a postgame interview on the field after he won Saturday night's overtime game against the Packers, classy Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald said, "Mort, I wanna tell you, we're thinking about you and fight, baby. Love you, Mort."

Best (and saddest) point

In an interview during Westwood One's radio coverage of the NFL playoffs, analyst Kurt Warner talked about the Rams' move from St. Louis to Los Angeles. Warner was the quarterback of the Rams best days in St. Louis, including the franchise's only Super Bowl victory. He brought up an interesting point. What is now the legacy and role of those who spent the bulk of their careers in St. Louis, players such as Warner, Isaac Bruce and Orlando Pace?

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Just as old great Los Angeles Rams such as Merlin Olsen, Deacon Jones and Jack Youngblood were afterthoughts with the St. Louis Rams, you wonder if Warner and his fellow St. Louis Rams are going to be forgotten in a city (Los Angeles) where they never played.

Meantime, on Fox NFL Sunday, analyst Michael Strahan said, "This is great news for football fans in Los Angeles. I mean, they're going to run out of water soon, but at least they have a home team."

Media tidbits

Excellent move by ESPN to name Jessica Mendoza a permanent member of the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast team. She filled in when Curt Schilling was sat down for being careless with his personal views on social media. She joins analyst Aaron Boone and play-by-play voice Dan Shulman. Meantime, Schilling moves to Monday night games and longtime Sunday night analyst John Kruk moves back to Baseball Tonight.

Sports Illustrated NBA writer Chris Mannix will join the NBA site being started up Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski. The site, kind of like basketball version's of Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback, is expected to launch this month.

Michelle Beadle has reached a contract extension with ESPN. She will remain co-host of SportsNation and join Ramona Shelburne on hosting a weekend show on ESPN Radio.

Look for the NFL to award its Thursday night broadcast rights before the Super Bowl. CBS has had the rights for the past two seasons and it is in the running again along with Fox. It's believed ESPN is content with having Monday Night Football and did not bid for Thursdays. The bidding could end up being about $400 million for eight games. Incredible.

Worst dropoff

Viewership for this year's college football national championship game was down significantly from a year ago. This year's game between Alabama and Clemson drew about 25.68 million viewers compared to the 33.4 million that watched last year's title game between Ohio State and Oregon.

There are plenty of theories why numbers were down, the biggest being that the game featured two southern-based teams.

My theory: The semifinal games were played on New Year's Eve (a terrible decision) and interest was down already. Then there was an 11-day delay until the title game. College football needs to tinker with the schedule, but please, leave the playoff at four teams.

Worst conflict of interest

ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski, a former quarterback with the Eagles, was part of the committee in charge of hiring a new Eagles' coach. He was even in on some of the interviews and, apparently, he recommended the man who will get the job — Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson.

Jaworski told the Philadelphia Daily News: "I want the best coach for the Philadelphia Eagles. … I think we got the best guy for the Philadelphia Eagles in Doug Pederson."

So now we're supposed to trust anything Jaworski says about the Eagles and, specifically, how Pederson is doing as head coach?

Many network analysts still appear to have emotional ties to their former teams, some deeper than others. I'm talking about CBS's Bill Cowher (Steelers), ESPN's Tedy Bruschi and Fox's Michael Strahan (Giants). But in the case of Jaworski, it's more than an emotional stake. He is helping a team makes decisions and then critiquing such decisions on the air.

Not sure how ESPN is okay with this.

Three things that popped into my head

1 You have to feel bad that the Packers have been knocked out of the playoffs two consecutive seasons in overtime without ever getting the ball in OT. The NFL needs to change the rules again to make sure both teams have an equal chance to win.

2 They're not going to, but it would be cool if the new Los Angeles Rams went back to the old blue-and-white emblems and uniforms, like the old Fearsome Foursome days.

3 Favorite thing I learned this week thanks to Pardon the Interruption: Elaine from Seinfeld has a son playing Division I college basketball. Charlie Hall, the son of actors Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall, is 6-foot-5 freshman walk-on guard for his parents' alma mater, Northwestern. He has appeared in just one game this season.