Sneak peek of Around the Dial from Score Atlanta

Be sure to pick up a copy of Score Atlanta. Turn to the back page for Around the Dial. I'm like Rick Reilly!

If you thought ESPN’s coverage of Tim Tebow’s concussion was bad, then hopefully the turkey let you sleep through the Thanksgiving Holiday. The self-proclaimed Sports Leader was all over the Tiger Woods auto accident that happened in the early hours of Friday morning. ESPN made sure everyone knew about how Woods allegedly crashed his car into a fire hydrant and then a tree around 2:30 A.M. Friday morning and then was rescued by his wife, who freed Woods from the car with a golf club to the back windshield. During Friday’s football coverage and all day Saturday, the ticker at the bottom of the screen crawled with more and more updates on Tiger and how he had delayed a police interview for three straight days. The circus continued Sunday when Woods released a statement via his website and you had people breaking down the statement on the network.
I guess the intense football rivalries and NFL teams playing for their playoff lives was not drama enough, ESPN has to ratchet up the holiday drama by pounding into our heads all weekend long that Tiger Woods was in an automobile accident and he hasn’t talked yet to police. And the scary part: all of this happened before the boys at Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption could get a hold of it. Just imagine the overkill when Jim Rome breaks it down on Rome is Burning. If we thought the Tebow concussion was bad, I fear we haven’t seen anything yet. And when Tiger does finally talk, ESPN’s talking heads will just beat that into the ground as well. Guys, this isn’t sports. I’ll give you Tebow’s concussion. The drama there was if he would come back to play against the No.4 team in the country. But as for Tiger, the US Open isn’t next week. This is just a money-grab time for PGA players right now. Do we really need to have helicopters hovering over his house, finding shots of the tree and the hydrant? And PS, I wept when ESPN started using the National Enquirer as a source for its sports news.

If you were asleep Thursday night after the turkey was finished or if you don’t get the NFL Network, you missed the Broncos/Giants game and Denver head coach Josh McDaniels’ colorful words of motivation for his team. McDaniels was caught on camera using a profanity in an attempt to motivate his team. Several of the Denver-area newspapers acted as though this was the end of the world, seeking comment from several people at the NFL Network. All were apologetic and none threw McDaniels under the bus. The Pueblo Chieftain though was not as understanding. A columnist from the paper apparently didn’t like McDaniels’ choice of words and blamed him for the NFLN putting the profanity on the air. Coaches say whatever they believe will work and if the NFL Network wants to air the comments, perhaps they shouldn’t do it live. Use a delay or tape it and then edit it out later. But if the network wants live shots, it should be prepared. The network though wasn’t the one that seemed outraged, just the columnist. He might need to get over it. This is the NFL. Sometimes bad words are said. He shouldn’t look at what happens in a huddle…

As much as it pains me to say this, I enjoyed the University of Georgia/Georgia Tech broadcast coverage (and not just because I am a UGA alum and the Dawgs took home the win, 8th in the last nine years). I have several friends from the Detroit area who tell me horror stories about Matt Millen and how he ruined the Lions. I was at Super Bowl XL in Detroit when, in the middle of the game between the Steelers and the Seahawks, a “Fire Millen” chant broke out. I was sitting down to watch the game dreading what Millen would say, but I was surprised. The guy was insightful and pretty funny. He added enough humor that I wanted to keep hearing what he had to say. Millen came off as a guy that I want to invite over to my house on New Years so we can have a beer and watch the football games. I will still curse him in front of my Detroit friends, but underneath it all, I really like the guy as an announcer.