NFL Week 1: Frankenstein's, er, Peyton's Return

Hoody's not wearing handcuffs.

 

Any reserve or former center would have been a better option than the one they chose.
That said I don't dispute the difficulty of the job.
It's harder than it looks.
Line up a coffee cup on a tree stump sometime and see if you could hit it.
Those three errors cost Oakland at least a hundred yards in field position.

 

Every NFL coach I ever covered was borderline obsessive about their long snapper.

 

Aren't NFL coaches borderline obsessive about everything?

 

I won't compare Berman and Cosell on legacy of content. Yet each were pioneers at one point. We all know what Cosell did. Berman, until the late 80's was a truly entertaining sports anchor. Not goofy but sharp and energetic. His SportsCenters were a treat to watch.

Berman has been able to ride that out since.

Next time you're at a major sporting event that ESPN airs. When Tirico is walking the field, no one yells from the stands. I would murmur, "hey, he once hosted a talk radio show and did not utter a single opinion in his years of hosting it."

But when Berman shows up, he is almost as big and recognizable as the players. That kind or juice is rare in 2012. He's a caricature but a visible one.

I will say that he has a rep for being difficult to work with. I've had six interactions with him, of varying depth, and found him to be gracious and accommodating every time. He is no Peter King (a person who, for all the shots he takes here, once gave me his cell and encouraged me to call him anytime during the NFL season for a 5-minute hit on my rinky dink radio show. King said: "you're a sharp kid and I remember starting out. I like to give a few newcomers a hand up to get them their start". He came on ten straight weeks during 2001 and was high energy.)

 

Wait, people here are comparing Cosell and Berman. Really?

Cosell gives us a great hard news read (followed by the classic follow up of Gifford with nothing to say) here...

What would Berman have said? Shot twice in the back, back, back, back, back?

Cosell loved the attention, but he was not a ham and egger.

 

Berman is to Cosell what the Monkeys were to the Beatles

 

I saw Berman blow off a little kid's autograph request once at an event.
A few big-breasted young women came along a little while later to ask the same and he was practically giving them the full-court press.

 

Cosell played it up plenty. And like Berman, he was not easy to work with off screen. The major difference was Cosell was actually good.

 

Howard Cosell may have been faking his seriousness, but at least it appeared to be a serious approach to what he was reporting.

Berman is just over the top for the sake of calling attention to himself. That said, I fondly recall him when ESPN was a fringe network and he made ESPN worth watching.

 

Times hosted Battle of the Network Stars:

Cosell 17

Berman 0


At least Berman has that going for him.

 

Rich Eisen wants to be the next Berman.
He already has more power at NFL Network than Berman had at ESPN at Eisen's age.