EITHER we’re supposed to be too stupid to notice the difference, or there is no difference between hard work and a handout.
That TNT was moved to promotional self-congratulations because TNT’s John Thompson was able to land Alonzo Mourning for an “exclusive interview” last week was both an absurdity and an assault on the better senses.
Mourning has remained tight with Thompson since high school, when then-Coach Thompson recruited him to play at Georgetown. The last time a network pulled off such a noteworthy journalistic “get” was the last time Ahmad Rashad was able to land NBC an interview with his good buddy and occasional business partner, Michael Jordan.
That TNT would exploit Mourning’s life-threatening renal failure to pat itself on the back for a coup – a coup based in a pre-existing friendship as opposed to, say, journalistic doggedness – is slightly disgusting.
TNT, Thursday night during its Nets-Clippers telecast, was able to present a sit-down between Thompson and Mourning. Fine. That TNT alerted the public to it was fine, too. At such a moment in Mourning’s young life, TNT could not be faulted for taking advantage of Thompson’s relationship with him. After all, we wanted to hear from Mourning. And it was good to hear from Mourning.
But for TNT to have banged the “Exclusive Interview!” drums for this session, as if it was a reflection of how TNT and Thompson are more savvy and more determined than everyone else in the business – than everyone else who covers basketball but failed to land an interview with Mourning – was a sick joke.
On Wall Street, what TNT did is known as “insider trading” – only they don’t advertise it.
* Frank Caliendo‘s comedy bits on Fox’s NFL pregame show are, when clean and not too mean-spirited, more hit than miss. The guy can be an absolute howl, especially when he does his wickedly excellent John Madden impersonation, replete with Madden’s stylized bent on saying a whole lot of nothing. On Fox’s Thanksgiving Day show, in addition to Madden, Caliendo lampooned Lisa Guerrero.
But if Madden and Guerrero make worthy targets of Caliendo’s ridicule, then Fox is worthy of even more. After all, both Madden and Guerrero went to ABC’s “Monday Night Football” directly from Fox Sports.
* Fox Sports Net is in the formative stage of producing a talk show with John McEnroe as host. That would return McEnroe to the payrolls of four networks. He already does tennis analysis for CBS, NBC and USA Network. “The Chair,” an ABC quiz show McEnroe hosted last year, was a stinker and was pulled after two months.
CBS part-timer Jerry Glanville, on being assigned to next Sunday’s Chargers-Lions game: “I’ve got the Skim Milk Game: It goes to 2 percent of the country.”
Had 14-year-old U.S. soccer savant Freddy Adu decided to play in college instead of turning pro, and had he decided to attend Virginia’s Old Dominion University (not far from his home in Maryland), his e-mail address might have been adu@odu.edu.
* Louisville 43, Cincinnati 40, Friday on ESPN2. Great game, if you could stand it:
1) In the second quarter, Louisville QB Stefan LeFors ran 69 yards for a TD. Later in that quarter ESPN posted a graphic about LeFors that read: “Rushes: four for 77 yards.” Well, duh. In other words, outside of his TD run, he was three rushes for 8 yards. And, of course, they weren’t rushing yards at all, they were scrambling yards.
2) Analyst Chris Spielman, the former Ohio State and Detroit Lions linebacker, gets it. After LeFors’ 69-yard run, he lamented tackling as a lost art, saying that tie-em-up, bring-em-down tackling now finishes second to trying to force a fumble, which more times than not costs additional yardage. Give us more Spielman.
3) The game ran 3 hours, 46 minutes. Sure, 83 points was a big reason. But college football games now regularly run well past 3½ hours. Not long ago college games rarely approached 3 hours. With the bowl season coming – meaning additional TV commercial time and extended halftime shows – we’re entering the four-hour football game season.
