Just because we love you here at SportsbyFletch and we give you Around The Dial-unedited, that doesn't mean you shouldn't still stop by any metro-area Kroger or QuikTrip (especially in the Gwinnett Area!) and pick up a copy of Score Atlanta. Come on folks. Help me out. I'm helping you guys! Or visit www.scoreatl.com
With the success Georgia Tech has achieved this season, the powers that be at ABC have decided that the Yellow Jackets should be on display for the nation just two days after Thanksgiving. ABC announced earlier this week that Georgia Tech’s final regular season game against in-state rival Georgia will be aired in prime time the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The Yellow Jackets, following the team’s 49-10 victory over Duke, clinched the ACC Coastal division and will play the ACC Atlantic winner in Tampa one week later also on ABC. With the appearance on ABC, Tech can now claim that it has played on ESPN, ESPN2, ABC-regional, ABC-national, ESPNU and locally on CSS and CW. For the Georgia Bulldogs, the ABC-national broadcast will have given the Dawgs appearances on ABC-Regional (Oklahoma State), ABC-National (Georgia Tech), ESPN (Arkansas), ESPN2 (South Carolina, Auburn, Kentucky), ESPNU (Arizona State), Peachtree-TV (Vanderbilt and Tennessee) and CBS (LSU, Florida). Georgia’s game against Tennessee Tech was a pay-per-view contest only.
ESPN announced earlier this week that Jon Gruden and the network have agreed to a multi-year extension that will keep the former Super Bowl championship coach in the Monday Night Football booth for the next few years. Gruden’s deal will also expand the coach’s role on the Sports Leader’s football coverage. Gruden will call the 2010 Pro Bowl and will appear on ESPN’s Super Bowl Coverage as well as the NFL Draft coverage. The contract also allows Gruden to grow his brand to include college games as he will pair with current MNF play-by-play co-host Mike Tirico to call the 2010 Rose Bowl as well as the BCS Championship game, both for ESPN Radio. This is Gruden’s first season in the booth along side Tirico and former QB Ron Jaworski. This move is really a coup for ESPN as Gruden, with a Super Bowl championship on his resume, was likely a leading candidate for several head coaching jobs not just on the NFL level (Washington is one team that seemingly had his number on speed dial if you believe Washington DC sports radio rumors) but also at the college level. Gruden’s name was floated last season as a possibility for the Tennessee job and his name always seems to pop up when Notre Dame has an opening. Pat Forde also noted in his weekly column Forde Yard Dash that Louisville boosters had planned to make a big run at Gruden. Several players even were led to believe that Gruden was “a lock” to take over the program after this season. Gruden’s decision to stay with ESPN means that Monday Night Football will keep its biggest asset, an insider that has a sense of appropriate humor mixed with NFL street cred. He isn’t shy in sharing his opinion and personally I take what he says seriously, since he was a very successful coach, just two years removed from the playoffs.
Bud Adams should really know better. The NFL has sold its rights not just to NBC, CBS, FOX, the NFL Network and ESPN, but also to DirecTV so all of the games are now televised. Factor in that each network tries to outwork each other in terms of coverage and you get more and more and more cameras at every game. Considering Adams is the owner of a team and his mediocre team is playing another mediocre team, you know the networks are going to position a camera at the owners box, especially considering how vocal he was about wanting Vince Young inserted into the starting lineup a few weeks back. So should Adams be surprised that the camera caught him repeatedly giving the Buffalo Bills sideline and fans the middle finger? Adams should have known that he would get caught flipping the bird to an entire team. The clips are all over YouTube if you really want to see an 86-year-old man getting cranky and giving the peace sign one half at a time. Come on Bud, you’ve got to tone it down. I hope the loss of $250,000 will calm you down. PS, just remember Bud, you are richer than all of those Buffalo fans you were “saluting.”
Finally, ESPN is starting to give the Atlanta Hawks a little bit of love. Marc Stein of ESPN.com ranked the Hawks No.1 in his latest weekly power rankings. The Hawks moved up from No.6 to No.1 on the strength of a big road win over Boston, the previous No.1 team. As of last Tuesday, the Hawks were an NBA-best 9-2 and had won five straight. Stein said of the Hawks, “How much more must the Hawks do before we all start saying that the East elite runs four teams deep?” High praise for a team that Sports Illustrated had pegged as the No.5 seed out of the East, getting passed by Washington, a team that missed the playoffs last year.
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