Let’s do a few thoughts today in this last day of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
First, some thoughts and prayers to the victims and families who were in the Metro North train derailment in the Bronx in New York. Four people lost their lives and scores more were injured. This holiday weekend won’t be the same for the people involved.
Now some sports media thoughts in bullet form.
- We had some great college football action this weekend. Friday’s Oregon State-Oregon game which went down to the wire gave us a taste of what was to come on Saturday. Then yesterday’s early window featuring Ohio State-Michigan and North Carolina-Duke which gave the Blue Devils their first 10-win season and a birth in the ACC Championship. And the Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn gave us one of the craziest Buffalo Wild Wings finish of the season. Texas A&M and Missouri gave us a nice ending to the day.
A tremendous job by Fox Sports 1’s production crew for the Civil War in Oregon on Friday covering all angles and Justin Kutcher, Joel Klatt and Molly McGrath covered all of the bases at Autzen Stadium in Eugene. Klatt has made a very good debut on the national stage this season and showed he can do both the games and the studio for Fox. In fact, Klatt gets an old-school Rudy Martzke Hustle Award for calling Oregon State-State on Friday night and getting to the Fox Sports 1 studios in Los Angeles to take part in the Fox College Saturday shows on Saturday.
Kudos also to the ESPN on ABC crew in Ann Arbor, MI for the Ohio State-Michigan game. Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe form one of the best on-air crews in college football. Blackledge was on top of the trends in the game and the production crew gave us some nice shots of the game.
- The best production of the day came in the Iron Bowl in Auburn, AL and Jordan Hare Stadium. The SEC on CBS production crew led by producer Craig Silver and director Steve Milton did a tremendous job in the final moments and during postgame coverage of the game which saw Auburn pull off their second Prayer at Jordan Hare in as many weeks. First, CBS found synchronized replays showing that 1 second needed to be put back on the clock that led to a long Alabama field goal attempt. And that field goal became a game-winning Auburn score.
CBS’ postgame coverage included interviews with Auburn coach Gus Malzahn and safety Chris Davis who scored the winning touchdown. CBS also had the radio calls of Auburn’s Rod Bramlett and Alabama’s Eli Gold of the last play. And Verne Lundquist let the pictures tell the story, Gary Danielson correctly pointed out that Alabama didn’t have the right defenders on the play and Tracy Wolfson got the interviews. Overall, CBS did a tremendous job on the Iron Bowl.
- While the NHL-Rogers deal is being discussed in hockey circles throughout the week, don’t be surprised to hear about a loud minority voicing disappointment over the deal. The Montreal Canadiens are aligned with Rogers’ main rival, Bell, may try to pull a power play when the deal comes up for a vote with the NHL Board of Governors next week. The Canadiens have their regional and French language rights with Bell’s TSN and RDS respectively. Their radio rights are also held by Bell. The Canadiens may try to block the move. We’ll see.
- Pitchers and catchers report in just over two months.
Enjoy your Sunday.
