Monday, September 13, 1999
Week 1 on TV: CBS improved, Kozerski good
BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Notes from around the dial on the first day of the NFL season:
The CBS lineup for the NFL Today is vastly better than last year's wooden panel on the show. Craig James is outstanding. Randy Cross is solid. And Jerry Glanville is Jerry Glanville (that's either good or bad depending on your opinion of Jerry Glanville).
Credit Glanville for asking Denver coach Mike Shanahan hard questions about his quarterback situation.
CBS is trying to get more give-and-take among the three analysts. The segment where they pick games is a good way to do it.
The problem for CBS is NFL Today was so far behind Fox's NFL Sunday that vast improvement still leaves CBS vastly behind Fox.
Cris Collinsworth, Howie Long and Terry Bradshaw are all better than any of CBS' three analysts.
When you put Collinsworth, Long and Bradshaw on the same panel and add some good chemistry, you've got the best pregame show by far.
My favorite line of the day came after comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who does a new pre diction segment (which was fairly funny), picked the Bengals.
“Drug test that guy,” Long said.
NEW FROM FOX: Fox Sports Net joined the pregame lineup with NFL This Morning. The show, hosted by Chris Myers, made a decent debut.
Former Bills coach Marv Levy fired in some strong opinions. He called New Orleans coach Mike Ditka “nuts” for trading away all his draft choices for Ricky Williams. Levy also called the Jets “overrated” and said they'd finish third in the NFC East.
Chris Spielman, who was a special guest analyst this week, was good, although he stumbled on his words a couple of times.
Fox uses the show to promote NFL Sunday and its games. John Madden and the NFL Sunday panel made appearances.
Based on Week 1, ESPN's NFL Countdown is still the superior show — although Chris Berman and Stuart Scott on the same show is a bit of sensory overload — but Fox Sports Net showed potential.
STALE GAGS: Note to all announcers: Gags about who buys dinner are old, tired and never funny. And all play-by-play men are not required to talk about what great players their partners were.
SAY IT RIGHT: Don Criqui, who called the Bengals for CBS Sunday, might take a look at page 115 of the Bengals media guide where it says Ki-Jana Carter's first name is pronounced KEE-john-uh. Not KIGH-jan-uh, like he said all day.
Criqui also had Corey Dillon running when it was actually Carter, and said “It looks like No.8 (on the Bengals) is the injured player.” That would be Jeff Blake.
PEOPLE'S KOZ: Bruce Kozerski was excellent in his debut as the analyst on the Bengals' radio network.
Kozerski has a great eye for what's going on, and he makes his point concisely.
REFUNDS COMING: If you bought the Miami-West Virginia game from ESPN Game Plan for $11.95 Saturday, are you entitled to a refund because the network completely missed the shot of the game's key play?
ESPN Regional, which produced the game, never showed Mike Bath throwing the pass in the fourth quarter that was intercepted and returned for a touchdown.
John Fay covers radio/TV sports for The Enquirer. He can be reached at 768-8445.
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