National Sports Journalism Center

It’s likely the TV equivalent of a victory dance under the uprights.

But tonight’s episode of HBO’s Real Sports – the premium cable TV channel’s sports-focused version of 60 Minutes – kicks off its 16th season at 10 p.m. by revisiting its Emmy-winning 2007 look at the NFL’s stance on concussions.

Along the way, it reaffirms why I’ve always liked this show.

Correspondent Bernard Goldberg, whose commentary on liberal media bias on Fox News Channel has always left me cold, nails the attitude that keeps me coming back to Real Sports in an admittedly ominous voice over.

First, he sets the scene by reminding us of the 2007 report, revisiting Harvard graduate-turned-pro-wrestler-turned concussion advocate Christopher Nowinsky and re-playing pro football’s shameful, initial reluctance to admit that repeated concussions might be a health hazard for players.

Then comes the crucial shot: Footage of a Congressional committee last year grilling NFL commissioner Roger Goodell using Real Sports footage of an NFL doctor shrugging off evidence that disturbing numbers of ex-pro football players have problems with early onset dementia, depression and Alzheimer-like symptoms.

And after showing how pro football was publicly embarrassed into finally dealing with repeated concussions somewhat, Goldberg notes that the story may not be over. That some doctors think any impacts — not just concussion-level events – might add up to major harm for these athletes.

“It just may be that football – a game of what amounts to 100 car crashes an hour — damages the brain over time, with every single hit,” he notes. “The real problem may not be concussions…but football itself.”

Implying that any contact between NFL players (and hockey players and rugby players) might bring long-term health damage?

What kind of sports fans are these?

Turns out, Real Sports brings a healthy dose of skepticism and the taste for an impactful story to the usually conflicted world of sports TV.

Too many sports broadcast arms have too many conflicts. ESPN airs sporting contests as entertainment programming while also trying to report on sports news over a dizzying array of platforms – like every other TV outlet.

The result can be coverage that feels more like cheerleading and pothole avoidance than truth-telling – from NBC’s downplaying of criticisms against the Dallas Cowboys’ billion-dollar stadium, to Bob Costas’ courtly tolerance of Mark McGwire’s evasions during an MLB Network interview exploring his steroid use.

Real Sports stands as a bracing tonic against most sports broadcasters’ understandable tendency to focus on more comfortable battles. Anyone can chew over a thickheaded strategy decision or a bad performance – but asking questions that could cost big companies big money?

That’s where too many broadcasters lose their voice.

Goldberg’s story also reveals that Nowinsky has found about 60 living players who have donated their brains upon death to his “brain bank,” a collection of brains from deceased professional football players that are analyzed to determine the probable effects from long careers. Nowinsky’s research partner said all eight of the brains they currently have in the bank show signs of injury.

It sounds odd, away from the bright lights and glamour of NFL games, that anyone could have resisted the idea that getting hit 1,000 times over the course of a professional football career would produce some kind of long term health problems. But these are the kinds of obvious conclusions that don’t seem so obvious when you’re under the spell of the game.

Which may explain why the TruTv cable channel – once known as CourTV – sunk serious money into a series which might be the antithesis of Real Sports: an unscripted show dubbed NFL Full Contact.

Centered on showing the behinds-the-scenes scramble to present pro football events, the first episode, airing February 8 at 10 p.m., features the 2009 NFL kickoff game with the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers playing the Tennessee Titans and concerts by Tim McGraw and the Black Eyed Peas.

Produced by NFL Films, the first episode feels like a tour of all the Type A guys who work on staging NFL events, from a producer who seems inordinately upset that a McGraw lookalike is walking around the concert area before the performance, to a cameraman who bursts into profanity when his assistant allows him to run out of film.

Removed from the onscene excitement, such squabbles seem melodramatic and overplayed – an unseemly attempt to make high drama out of the typical problems you’d expect in such a massive undertaking.

Hard to believe TruTV ponied up $2-million to buy commercial time promoting this bit of self-congratulatory NFL propaganda during the Super Bowl.

Fortunately, there are still shows like Real Sports around to remind us what truly unscripted sports reporting is supposed to look like.

Eric Deggans is TV and Media Critic for the St. Petersburg Times and a 1990 graduate of the Indiana University School of Journalism. His work has also appeared in the Washington Post, Village Voice, VIBE magazine, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Chicago Sun-Times and many other publications. He also writes a blog on media, The Feed, at blogs.tampabay.com/media.