Here’s what the new NFL broadcast agreements mean to me:
– My trigger finger that rests on the remote control will have to be reprogrammed. I’ll spend the summer practicing. I’d hate to flip to the second game and instead come up with figure skating.
– There will be another flurry of announcer defections. Four years ago, it was from CBS to Fox. This time, it will be from NBC to CBS. To complete the cycle, we need an exodus from Fox to NBC, but this will have to wait until the next agreement.
– Some announcers won’t make the switch. This means that we’ll have to put up with play callers and color analysts who should be viewers. How many more Jerry Glanvilles do the networks and NFL think we can take?
– Advertisement time will increase from 56 to 59 minutes. The NFL thinks that this is per game. The networks think that it’s 59 minutes per hour.
A typical series now: Field goal, TV timeout, kickoff, TV timeout.
A typical series under new agreement: Field goal, mandatory timeout to scoring team, TV timeout, kickoff, mandatory timeout to receiving team, TV timeout.
– Fox will approach Richard Seed and attempt to clone John Madden. All games will be color analyzed by “John Madden.”
– In moving up its telecast of “Monday Night Football” by one hour, ABC has finally conceded that perhaps the fourth quarter on the East Coast is more important than the first quarter on the West Coast. But not that much more important!
– For players who become announcers, CBS will team up with the St Louis Rams and will offer a coaching school.
