Whitlock unloads on NBC's "Sunday Night Football" show

[Deberg_1990]

Great read. Pretty much agree with all of it.

Im tired of networks trying to "broaden the demographics" at the expense of the hardcore fans.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/8331492


Everyone I mention in today's column — except Jay Mariotti — is someone I like personally, respect professionally and hope will understand I have a job to do. My job is to tell you what I honestly think, not to play kissy-face with my peers in the media.

What in the hell is NBC doing adding another person to its NFL studio show who doesn't really care or know anything about the NFL?

The last thing "Football Night in America" needed was Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann trying to out-cute each other while highlights play in the back-back-background. The return of The Big Show is going to look, sound and feel like The Big Show-offs, another overdone football distraction.

NBC executives must have missed the memo: The Big Show era is dead. ESPN killed it. Every Tom, Dick and Stu Scott wannabe beat the other side of the pillow, cold and Pooh season and en fuego to death.

It ain't coming back.

What's worse is that Football Night was already hamstrung by an overcrowded set featuring talking heads with limited insight about, connection to and passion for the NFL.


Bob Costas, a brilliant broadcaster, is a baseball man. He named a son after Kirby Puckett. No shame in that. But a baseball man is out of place hosting the highest-profile football studio show.

Olbermann, a brilliant broadcaster, is a left-wing political pundit. You don't think football when you see Olbermann. You think Bill O'Reilly. Olbermann's work on Football Night comes off like he spends an hour each week thinking about the NFL. His disjointed and confusing commentary last season about Michael Vick exposed how out of place he is talking football on a big stage.

Tiki Barber quit football in his prime because the entire concept of the game utterly bored him, and that's just how he comes across during the brief, off-the-main-set segments he is allowed to speak. I'm glad Tiki is embracing life outside the locker room and wants to evolve well beyond being a football player. I just don't want to witness it during a prime-time football show. I can monitor Tiki's evolution five days a week on the "Today Show."

Jerome Bettis, terrific fullback, should be hosting a pro bowlers studio show. As a broadcaster, he's not ready for the main stage. He's not Emmitt Smiff, but Jerome hasn't mastered the art of speaking in provocative, insightful sound bites.

On paper, Peter King is qualified to star on Football Night as an information man. No one follows the game more thoroughly than King, the Sports Illustrated scribe. He's a true insider who can get on the phone with damn near any coach or executive in the league. Unfortunately for King, the guys breaking the most news these days are the journalists with the best access to agents and players.

Nope, Football Night has just one star — Cris Collinsworth. He loves the game. He immerses himself in the game. He's willing to be outspoken about the game. He's just not on camera enough because the show has to make room for all the guys moonlighting as football experts. Collinsworth has no one to talk to on his level. I'd bet he's the only person on the show who actually watches game film.


Dan Patrick, a brilliant broadcaster, won't help. He's a clever radio host, but he's not a football guy. Patrick will be one more person on the show who has little real interest in the game.

I'm sure all these guys are football fans. Hell, they probably operate great fantasy teams. But they'll all contribute to one big, sloppy mess on Sunday nights. In terms of relevance and chemistry, the NBC show will lose more ground to Terry, Howie, Jimmy and Curt Menefee.

I'm not pimping Fox's studio show because I work for FOXSports.com. I don't roll like that. Just about everyone in the industry agrees that Fox's studio show is the best in football. The reason it's the best is because the main guys are all still football men first. They still love the game and follow it with tremendous passion. Or at least that's how they appear on Sunday afternoons. They act like they'd rather watch football on Sundays than grill George W. Bush about his Iraq policy.

Tiki, Olbermann and Costas are too intelligent and sophisticated to care about football the way Terry, Howie and Jimmy do. Bettis, King and Patrick just aren't good fits considering all the other dynamics in play.

NBC's show will be so bad that about the only thing that could be worse would be if ESPN decided to team Stu Scott, Jay Mariotti and Emmitt Smiff in the Monday Night Football booth.

[KcMizzou]

Originally Posted by Subterranean Alien

Does anybody anywhere like Whitlock?

I don't always agree with him, but yeah, I'd say so.

I never miss his column, anyway.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by KcMizzou

I don't always agree with him, but yeah, I'd say so.

I never miss his column, anyway.

Love him or hate him, ya gotta read him. Everyone does.

[teedubya]

I like jwhit. I just wouldn't want him sitting on me.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Subterranean Alien

Does anybody anywhere like Whitlock?

I like him a lot. KC sports radio hasn't been the same since he left and, while I don't always agree with his columns, I usually enjoy reading them.

[little jacob]

i liked whitlock on his morning show on 810 years ago. his columns are usually decent, occasionally very good.

[WilliamTheIrish]

The guy's a quitter. Quit 810 when he demanded a better time slot. Went to 610 and quit there too. On the air.