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Press Coverage: Michaels, Irvin, Belichickian Memes and Why Newspapers Hate Blogs

Aug 31, 2009, 4:35 PM UTC

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Press Coverage is a new feature on TSB that will run every Monday covering what you missed in the world of sports media over the weekend.â†µâ†µSunday’s much anticipated preseason game between the Broncos and Bears just happened to be slated for NBC’s Sunday night football, and with the Offseason of Jay, the game quickly morphed into Cutler vs. The City of Denver. Thankfully, there is no one better than Al Michaels to cover the scrimmage turned ‘playoff atmosphere event.’ â†µ

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â†µâ†µWhen Cutler first stepped onto the field, Michaels let the crowd do the talking, before explaining, “the reason your picture is jumping is because the crowd is stomping, and the stands are shaking,” adding, “so there is what Jay thought would be a mixed reaction. That ain’t mixed.”â†µ

â†µâ†µMichaels juxtaposed using the occasional ain’t with his typical profusion of 10-cent words to describe even the most mundane plays, somehow adding an air of import to an otherwise meaningless game that somehow never bordered on highfalutin. Yet he still managed to remember the audience is a bunch of football-drunk mouth breathers, offering, “a quick three-and-out. Jay gets saluted when he goes to the sideline. Chicago to punt.” (Hint: he was talking about the middle finger.)â†µ

â†µâ†µThe best Michaels moment of the first half came during a quick timeout with a few minutes to go before halftime when NBC managed to smack three live-read promos into 30 seconds, the last of which came for EA Sports Madden NFL 10, which was a perfect introduction for this story from Michaels:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥“Speaking of John Madden, I’m reminded of a story, Cris. Last year we’re doing Denver-San Diego at the end of the year, and we’re meeting with the Broncos. Cutler comes in -- he leaves. Mike Shanahan then comes in and John and I say to Shanahan, ‘we’ve never met a guy more forthright, candid, open, honest, no-B.S. Never have we interviewed anybody like that.’ And Mike laughed and said, ‘we’re working on that.’ â†µâ†µIt was a perfect segue from an ad to content relating to the game at hand. Cris Collinsworth, clearly holding his own in the SNF booth, quipped back, “You don’t have to worry about it now,” which worked on two levels, with both Cutler and Shanahan gone from Denver. If teams in the NFL still look to be in scrimmage mode, it’s good to know that Michaels is already in mid-season form.â†µ

â†µOMG, LOL, He said 'Threesome'â†µ

â†µâ†µDuring a break in the action while reviewing a catch made by Bears tight end Greg Olsen, Collinsworth tried to illustrate how close Olsen and Cutler have become, making the 12-year-old inside all of us giggle a little. â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥“And these two guys are buddies. They go out together. Greg Olsen just recently married, and it’s a threesome. They go out -- he and his wife and Jay Cutler -- hang out together and have a good time and you can see that chemistry building on the field here as well.”â†µâ†µâ†µSaying the word threesome on national television is like putting up the Bat Signal for some sports blogs. Too bad Olsen’s number isn’t 9 -- catching passes from Cutler, the internet might implode. â†µ

â†µâ†µIrvin, Dales to NFLNâ†µ

â†µâ†µMichael Irvin won’t just be starring in reality show after reality show anymore. The NFL Network has hired Irvin to be a studio analyst. Expect lots of brash statements followed by copious amounts of giggling. Irvin is an opinionated fellow, so it will be interesting to see how his brand of punditry jibes with the rest of the Network. We do know this, the only thing wider than his tie knot will be his effusive grin.â†µ

â†µâ†µJoining Irvin at NFLN will be former ESPN coworker Stacey Dales who, per Variety, will be the new co-host of NFL GameDay Morning with Spero Dedes. There’s a joke about her being a studio host, which will help NFLN in first-class plane fare each week, but I’m not sure I want to make it.â†µ

â†µâ†µBelichickian Meme Is Old Alreadyâ†µ

â†µâ†µIt is just me, or are people going to the Belichickian joke too often? Yes, we get it, Bill Belichick doesn’t like to talk about things. We understand he plays things very close to the hoodie. But that doesn’t mean he’s the only coach to ever do that. We’re now getting everything from ‘The Belichickian parlance’ to a Belichickian response to, my favorite, Belichickian molding.â†µ

â†µâ†µFrom SI mailbags to random references in a story about Michael Crabtree to Eric Mangini, to stories about Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano’s reluctance to formally name a starting quarterback, writers all over the country have replaced secretive or cryptic with Belichickian. Frankly, it’s ... who’s the laziest coach in the game? Because it’s that guy.â†µ

â†µâ†µWhy Newspapers Hate Blogsâ†µ

â†µâ†µGawker had a story today about Roger Federer’s logo. Well, it wasn’t a Gawker story, actually, it was a Gawker pull-out from a New York Times story. Aggregator Andrew Belonsky even made sure to tell readers that the Times piece was “astonishingly long,” without actually linking to the story. â†µ

â†µâ†µThis is why newspapers hate blogs. There’s an excerpt from the piece, and a link to another story at Gawker, but at the time of this publication (things can be added on the internet rather easily) there was no actual link to the NYT story. So here’s that link. â†µ

â†µâ†µAnd if you think 1,600 words on the best tennis player in the world from a New York publication the week of the U.S. Open is ‘astonishing,’ that’s a pretty sad statement on our attention spans. Not linking a story you rip, while pilfering the pertinent information for your readers ... that’s astonishing. â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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