Note: This is this week's Sports Media Column for Score Atlanta. Enjoy and be sure and pick up your copy of Score Atlanta at one of more than 1300 locations. For more info, visit www.scoreatl.com
This time of year is often referred to as “the dogs days of summer,” and while not a lot is going on in the sports world, the sports world is prepping itself for a busy fall. Football is right around the corner and several local media outlets are preparing themselves for pigskin season.
Two former Georgia Bulldog players have been added to the radio broadcast of the games this season. David Greene and Kevin Butler will both be involved with the broadcast team and will team with Jeff Dantzler for the pregame and postgame programming. Greene, the former QB under coach Mark Richt will join Dantzler on roadtrips and co-host the first hour of the pregame as well as the two-hour postgame call-in show. The former All-America kicker Butler will serve as Dantzler’s co-host for home games, as well as the Sunday morning “Bulldog Brunch” radio program. Butler has experience, having done some radio and TV work. Dantzler and his weekly partner will broadcast from the Hotel Indigo in downtown Athens. Having former players on the broadcast team should bring some insight into the program, but that should come with a caveat. The American viewing audience has been subjected to too many athlete-turned analysts that are not ready for primetime. With Butler’s experience, he should be ready to fully contribute but Greene will have to learn on the fly as he has been on NFL practice squads the last few seasons and hasn’t done much on-air work. Just because an athlete has played does not mean he or she is immediately ready to step into a broadcasting job. Many athletes today are majoring in communications or journalism and some are going to broadcasting schools or programs before getting behind the mic. Learning on the fly is certainly difficult, and unfortunately not all athletes can successfully make the switch. Georgia fans can only hope that Greene can handle the broadcast as well as he handled the play-action fake.
From one left-handed quarterback to another…Michael Vick was in Atlanta recently, visiting the New Life Community Center where he urged youth of the dangers of dogfighting. Vick is teaming with the Humane Society of the United States to travel around the country to speak to youth. A three-person CBS 60 Minutes crew followed Vick around and the news magazine will reportedly get the first major interview the former Falcon has conducted since his 23-month prison sentence ended. The date of the piece has not yet been released.
Fans of the ESPN and 680 The Fans “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” will get more Colin weekdays. Colin Cowherd will co-host SportsNation weekdays at 4 p.m. on ESPN2 after a successful debut several weeks ago. On the show, Cowherd and a co-host discuss various topics for a specific length of time before a national vote on the subject is revealed. Cowherd’s show can be heard weekdays on 680 The Fan from 10 a.m.-12 with the remainder of the program airing after the Buck and Kincade show at 7 p.m.
Speaking of ESPN, College Gameday will once again open up the college football season in Atlanta at the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic. Lee, Chris and Kirk will set up shop in Centennial Olympic Park and will base the show on the Virginia Tech-Alabama game, a match-up of two preseason top ten teams. If ESPN wanted to, the show could go with a state-of-Georgia theme as Georgia Tech opens up the year with great expectations and Georgia opens up in Stillwater, Oklahoma against the Cowboys. Georgia State also will be practicing at that point with former ESPN analyst Bill Curry serving as its coach. Let’s hope ESPN gives the Peach State a big nod considering it is setting up camp in the state’s borders but not at one of the campus sites.
The Brookwood Bronco football program has always seemed to be ahead of the curve in terms on implementing new technology and fans of the football program can now get updates via Twitter. To follow the Broncos, visit the school’s football website www.brookwoodbroncos.org or search for Brookwood Sports on Twitter. Coach Mark Crews and his staff know what interests kids and how to get them involved; that’s probably why Brookwood always has a strong following.
Finally, the SEC rules college football, but perhaps the power the conference holds is getting out of hand. According to an Alabama news outlet, the SEC has handed down its new media policy and access to video is really being limited to local television stations. The new rule, if enacted would limit highlight clips to three minutes and would only be shown 72 hours after the conclusion of a game. In essence, a preview of this Saturday’s game which would air Friday night would not be able to have highlights from last Saturday’s game since it would be past the 72 hours time limit. The SEC would rather force stations or fans to log on to an SEC website or an SEC affiliate to get highlights. While I can see the conference deciding to strike (for cash) while the iron is hot, it will cost some of the smaller stations local money. Big business wins and the Mom & Pop businesses once again get the shaft.
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