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SBJ’s Liz Mullen reports: Every year, in what’s been called the “four days of hell” known as NFL Broadcast Boot Camp, the league has a session it calls “American Idol” in which players in the camp audition for real network executives by interviewing other players.
It is one of the toughest assignments in the 14-hour-a-day, four-day camp, because the network executives are brutally honest, says Glenn Adamo, NFL vice president of media operations. One year, he said, a strikingly large offensive lineman was in the camp, and although that player worked his hardest, “He was always perspiring,” Adamo recalls, declining to name the player.
“It is a toughie,” Adamo added. “You are in a new career, and I will never forget [the offensive lineman] turned to us, and he said, ‘It is very obvious: I am a radio guy. I am not a TV host.’”
That offensive lineman did go on to get radio gigs after his NFL career was over. In fact, of the first about 100 NFL players who have been to Broadcast Boot Camp in its first five years, 67 of them are working in television, radio or some kind of broadcasting, Adamo said.
Some of the graduates of boot camp who have gone on to get television or radio jobs include Tim Hasselbeck and Damien Woody, who work for ESPN; Dhani Jones, who has worked for NFL Network, Big Ten Network and Fox; Derrick Brooks, who has worked for SiriusXM NFL Radio; and Orlando Pace, who has a weekly Rams pregame show on the St. Louis Fox affiliate.
Click here to read the full article on NFL Broadcast Boot Camp.
According to a network press release, former New York Giants running back Tiki Barber will join SNY’s playoff coverage beginning this weekend. Barber will join former Giants offensive lineman and current SNY analyst for the network’s Giants coverage — including the network’s Big Blue Live post game show — which will air immediately after Sunday’s NFC Championship game.
“I am looking forward to providing my insights for SNY’s Big Blue Live post game show. Hopefully it will be after a Giants win as they continue on the road to Indianapolis and the Super Bowl,” Barber said in the network release.
John Ourand reports for SBJ, “MLB Advanced Media will be pressured to adopt TV Everywhere principles this year when MLB negotiates its next media-rights deal. That’s because TV Everywhere — the concept that allows cable and satellite TV customers to watch channels on several different platforms — has emerged as the standard in cable circles and is backed by the industry’s biggest companies.
ESPN has been leading the charge. Its long-term carriage deal with Comcast, which allows the cable operator to stream ESPN’s channels via broadband and wireless, is the latest example of the growth of the TV Everywhere strategy.
So far, MLB has been slow to support the movement, preferring to rely on its own stand-alone subscription business. Through its MLBAM subsidiary, MLB brings in more than $500 million in total revenue; a significant portion of that comes from online subscriptions.”
Click here to read more of Ourand’s article on TV Everywhere.
According to a report from Tony Mandfred for Business Insider Sports Page: Adam Rubin, a Mets beat writer for ESPN New York, published a long series of tweets last night alleging that the Mets have consistently misdiagnosed, ignored, and covered up injuries.
Here are the instances he mentioned:
Pete Daugherty reports, “Quarterback Tim Tebow, whose Denver Broncos have been the featured game on CBS for five consecutive weeks, declined an invitation to be a guest analyst in the network’s studio Sunday.
Tebow, who played through rib, lung and chest injuries in the Broncos’ 45-10 playoff loss Saturday night at New England, it was revealed today, has been told to rest by the team.
He confirmed to the Denver Post that he would not be accepting the CBS invitation. The network has enjoyed a ratings surge with the Broncos’ run to the playoffs, to the point that CBS assigned its No. 1 announcing team — Jim Nantz and Phil Simms — to Denver’s final five games (including postseason).”
Liz Mullen writes for SBJ, “Michael Strahan seemed to fit right in with longtime Fox NFL analysts Howie Long, Terry Bradshaw and Jimmy Johnson when he began his broadcast career straight out of retirement following a Super Bowl win in 2008. But for the first few weeks of his new job, the seven-time Pro Bowler was dying inside.
“I don’t want to say from day one I was comfortable, because I wasn’t,” Strahan said recently. “I was scared to death.”
He even thought, back in those first fall weeks of the 2008 season, that if his new broadcast job didn’t work out, he’d simply move on and try to get another job in the NFL.
Four years later, Strahan loves his job — and is a shining example of a former star athlete who has made the transition from the field to TV.
Many former players, as well as coaches, see broadcasting as a relatively easy second career. To hear those who have done it (and their agents) tell the story, though, it’s anything but. Odd and long hours, travel, and the need for a different kind of game-day preparation than they were used to on the field are constants.”
Click here to continue reading Mullen’s interview with Strahan.
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