Month: September 1989
99 Replays Later: Riggs’s Fumble Stands
Gerald Riggs fumbled a bit past 4:15 EDT Sunday. Through the magic of television, he fumbled again on CBS at 4:17, twice at 4:18 and at 4:19. Later that evening, he kept fumbling, nearly two dozen times on Channels 4, 5, 7 and 9. He fumbled on all of the Baltimore news stations, …
Baseball Broadcasters Seek to End Restrictions
Major League Baseball broadcast rights holders, meeting here yesterday to discuss the movement of games from free to cable TV, will seek the elimination of broadcasting restrictions on Wednesday and Sunday nights in ESPN’s four-year contract with baseball to begin in 1990. John Serrao, chairman of the board for the Association …
NBC Practices ABCs: Analysis and Banal Commentary
What does it take to join the new NBC Sports? Its NFL coverage now includes O.J. Simpson (the running back of the ‘70s), Bobby Beathard (the executive of the ‘80s) and Bill Walsh (the coach of the ‘80s). Not exactly broadcast journalists by trade, but Executive Producer Terry O’Neil figures they’re the fresh …
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Monday Became 1st Night of Football Era
When Roone Arledge seized the day—or, to be more precise, seized the night—in 1970, Mondays were transformed forever in America. More than just a successful television series, “Monday Night Football” shifted a nation’s habits, altered its cultural landscape and cemented the burgeoning National Football League as the sport of preference from Washington, D.C., …
Beathard Places NFL Work on Hold, Will Hold On to Job With Network
Bobby Beathard is happy in self-exile from pro football management at the moment. From his home in San Diego, the Redskins’ former general manager said yesterday he will honor his one-year contract with NBC Sports regardless of interest in him among NFL clubs and “wait to the end of the season” to determine …
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Goodbye Umbilical Cord, Hello Full Tube
Baseball’s storied “Game of the Week” is dead after Saturday. It will not be missed. Baseball’s “Game of the Night” begins in 1990 on ESPN. It will be a can’t-miss hit. For the past 33 years, the “Game of the Week” has been a Saturday afternoon fixture on network …
Thanks to Cable, Window of Opportunity Is Open Wide for the NF
In the National Football League, the TV apple cart is about to be turned over. Whoever picks up the apples—and they are quite expensive—could determine how viewers get the NFL for years to come. In an increasingly complex and dizzying sports television universe, the NFL has been an oasis of stability …
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