Backchannelmedia

Deseret News (Salt Lake City)

By Amy Donaldson and Chuck Gates Deseret Morning News

CHUCK: Holy John Madden! With all the off-season shake-ups of network and cable coverage for the NFL, it's difficult tuning in Sundays and not feeling like Alice in Chains gone down the rabbit hole.

There's former Fox ringmaster James Brown taking free-agent money for a similar gig at CBS. NBC getting back in the game after wandering for nearly a decade in the XFL and Arena League wilderness. ESPN play-by-play Mikes -- Patrick and Tirico -- tradin' places between the pros and college. And we're still awaiting the NFL's Thanksgiving weekend launch of an eight-game broadcast schedule on its in-house network.

AMY: Holy Get-a-life, Couchboy! While you lament that you might blister your finger searching for the right studio crew to bore you with their gridiron war stories, hundreds of Mountain West Conference fans can't watch their teams play because the conference took the money and ran -- in the other direction.

I understand the MWC wanting to cut its own deal after a rocky relationship with ESPN. When the latter wanted to give the MWC less money for lousy game times, they wisely cut their own deal with CSTV for about double what they were pulling in from ESPN. Their sin was in cutting out many of their fans when creating The mtn., which is 50 percent owned by Comcast.

Now if you have Comcast, you're flush. If you have DirecTV or Dish, you're forgotten.

CHUCK: Comcast saw and conquered. MWC fans are collateral damage. For years the cleat has been on the other foot for Comcast subscribers unable to get the NFL's Sunday Ticket package of games because it's a DirecTV exclusive. It really comes down to whose running back is getting speared whether these TV deals upset you or not.

As our colleague Scott Pierce pointed out recently, the free TV gravy train was due to derail sometime. At least the new TV deal provides for more games down the road on premium channels for fans willing to pay.

Besides, BYU's grid season -- last Saturday's Utah State game notwithstanding -- is shaping up as one best not watched. Think how much more of a vent-fest Bronco's call-in show might turn into if more of BYU Nation had access to the Cougs via free, over-the-air broadcasts.

As far as Ute fans go, they don't deserve anything until they consistently fill Rice-Eccles in the post-Alex Smith era. Averaging a paltry 40,000 fans per over the last three home games dating back to last season is disgraceful. Maybe not having as many games on free TV will get a few more out of their La-Z-Boys and into the stadium.

AMY: The MWC isn't even trying to take care of the fans they left out in the cold while counting their money. They're telling BYU and Utah fans to call their satellite TV companies and ask that the games be carried. The MWC owes it to its fans to work something out with the satellite companies -- yesterday!

After all, we put up with their sub-standard brand of football.

CHUCK: So you're suggesting they owe the fans out of loyalty? Sorry, but the loyalty quotient for CEOs of media companies and college presidents falls somewhere between Fletcher Christian and Benedict Arnold.

Look at what happened to ABC's longtime Monday Night Football voice, Al Michaels, who is one of the game's better play-by-play guys. Once the network decided MNF was going the way of "Movie of the Week," Michaels became surplus property before finally being traded to Peacocks for a 79-year-old cartoon rabbit name Oswald. NO JOKE!!! At least he landed upright and is teaming again with Madden on NBC's Sunday primetime NFL telecast.

AMY: MADDEN! He and his has-been compadres are out of touch with reality, not to mention the viewing audience. Only an extreme insider can begin to understand the connections he and some of the other good, ol' boys make. I'd rather watch with the sound off.

CHUCK: Where's your (HANDS THROWN UP IN DISGUST) respect for the history of the game? Knowing Howie Long was an all-pro defensive lineman for the LA Raiders provides a point of reference. Or that Jimmy Johnson's hair hasn't moved since he coached the Fish.

But I'm with you on Madden. America's Pitchman is overexposed. If you get a chance, watch that Frank Caliendo guy who parodies Madden over at Fox. Funny stuff.

AMY: College or pros, I'd just like to tune into a game and hear a decent sideline interview for once that didn't include one, or all of the following: "We're taking it one game at a time," "These guys have a lot of heart" or "We had to step it up, and we did because our backs were against the wall."

Or my favorite recent discussion is on how BYU just needs to "get over that hump" to start winning. Apparently once they clear this sinister hump, they will know how to win.

The best commentary I've heard comes from real journalists and very few of those ever ran 40-yard dashes in under five seconds.

CHUCK: Unless they were being chased across the newsroom by their editor.

Soundbite-ese is a societal blight reaching beyond athletes to entertainers, politicians and other talking heads. You must be rooting for Tony Kornheiser -- another journalist turned TV commentator. It'll be interesting to see if he lasts on ESPN's Monday Night Football Reincarnate given how comedian Dennis Miller imploded on MNF a few years back.

Maybe it's as simple as fans like getting their football talk from dumbed-down jocks. Network execs must think so, as evidenced by how brief of a retirement chunky Chunky Soup's Jerome Bettis enjoyed between winning the Super Bowl and joining NBC's Sunday studio team.

AMY: I'm not sure what planet NFL and MWC executives live on but it's not the same one most fans inhabit.

CHUCK: Readers might say that describes us. But we can win them over ... "One column at a time."

E-mail: adonaldson@desnews.com; gates@desnews.com

(c) 2006 Deseret News (Salt Lake City). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.