Three minutes before the Steelers-Broncos playoff game kicked off Sunday in Denver, a smiling Tim Tebow told CBS viewers: “I’m gonna have a lot of fun.”
Such comments obviously were taped long before the Broncos’ first postseason game in six years.
Nearly four hours after the overtime game kicked off, Tebow was having fun — and showing moments of heavy emotion — as live cameras focused on the Broncos quarterback kneeling, seemingly giving a prayer of thanks.
The game — and the CBS telecast — produced one of those rare NFL events when even the coin toss before overtime produced nail-biting drama. The Broncos won the toss.
Did you feel it was Tebow Time?
This was the type of game that could have been broadcast by rookie announcers covering their first NFL game. The cameras told the story.
Fortunately for viewers, CBS stars Jim Nantz and Phil Simms did their jobs.
They are familiar with the Broncos, having worked the team’s game for four consecutive weeks. The duo’s fifth consecutive Broncos telecast is coming Saturday night at New England.
Nantz and Simms didn’t ignore the Steelers during Sunday’s telecast at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, pointing out their problems that included hobbled quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Nantz and Simms agreed that Roethlisberger, a two-time Super Bowl champion, played better in the fourth quarter as his adrenaline began to flow.
One production strong point was the informative replays, narrated by Simms, showing how the defenses were dealing with Tebow and Roethlisberger.
One nit to pick:
Several years ago, CBS dropped reporter sideline coverage during NFL games, feeling that the interviews didn’t strengthen the game coverage. Fox and ESPN continue to utilize sideline coverage, and sometimes wisely.
Tebow time on the sideline would have added to Sunday’s telecast.
Broncomania is back. A safe prediction: The Nielsen audience ratings will tell us that Sunday’s game was by far the most-watched Broncos game of the season on KCNC-Channel 4.
The previous best: The Broncos’ Dec. 18 game against the Patriots, which produced a 73 audience share in the Denver area. That beat the Jan. 1 game against the Chiefs (a 72 audience share).
Those figures mean that nearly two-thirds of television viewers in the Denver area were tuned in to the Denver games.
Will the Nielsen ratings crank out an 80 share for the Steelers-Broncos game?
Tebowmania should ensure huge national audience figures for CBS. I can’t envision fans in the Pittsburgh and New England areas changing channels at halftime.
B Pregame Broncos radio shows usually last about as long as the game. But KOA radio may have set a pregame record Sunday, airing a 5½-hour show of optimistic cheerleading. That’s almost enough time for two games. Talk about a big move. Anyone following Dave Krieger’s media career probably wasn’t surprised to hear that The Denver Post sports columnist is moving to KOA radio to team with Dave Logan on the station’s weekday afternoon talk show. Krieger has been a regular host for several months after occasionally filling in during past football seasons.
Krieger will bring a wide journalistic dimension to sports talk radio. Before moving to the sports beat at the Rocky Mountain News, Krieger covered city government. The unanswered question: Will Krieger be part of the Logan show’s title now that he’s an official regular? It could be called the “Dave and Dave Show.”
Schlereth returning to radio. Former Broncos guard Mark Schlereth, who left The Fan (104.3 FM) at the end of 2011, begins a national three-hour weeknight ESPN talk show with Mike Hill on Tuesday. The Ticket (102.3 FM) will air two hours (6-8 p.m.) of the show.
The Fan is not replacing Schlereth, instead going with the duo of Alfred Williams and Darren McKee.
Longtime Denver journalist Dusty Saunders writes about sports media each Monday in The Denver Post. Reach him at firstname.lastname@example.org.
ESPN’s Brent Musburger has been known to play his chips right
Near the end of last year’s Bowl Championship Series title game between Auburn and Oregon in Glendale, Ariz., Brent Musburger told the telecast’s 27.4 million viewers (a cable TV record) the game was “for all the Tostitos.”
CNBC noted that Musburger’s comment was equal to a $2 million advertisement for the game’s primary sponsor.
If the LSU-Alabama battle in New Orleans tonight is close down the stretch, perhaps ESPN’s Musburger, 72, will revert to his playground days and note that the game is “for all the marbles.”
Musburger, who seems to have gained a second wind at the start of his fifth decade of sports broadcasting, will work the BCS title game at the Superdome with analyst Kirk Herbstreit.
Herbstreit, a former Ohio State quarterback, has been Musburger’s play-by-play partner the last three college seasons on ABC-ESPN. Herbstreit is the best in the business.
ESPN’s primary pregame personality is Chris Fowler, a University of Colorado graduate who interned at Denver’s KCNC-Channel 4 and KMGH-Channel 7 in the mid-1980s.
Musburger and Fowler have predicted the obvious: More than 15 points will be scored tonight. LSU beat Alabama 9-6 in overtime on Nov. 5.