Nfl Pregame Offers Triple Option
It’s Sunday morning.
Time to grab the newspaper, a cup of coffee and, most importantly, the remote.
The 10 o’clock games kickoff in a little while, and you want your football fix now.
But there are so many pregame shows, so many different formats and characters. Which one will you watch?
It used to be easy. Even though NBC had Bryant Gumbel preceding Seahawks games, you probably opted for CBS and “The NFL Today.” Brent Musburger would tell us “you are looking live” at some stadium somewhere, Phyllis George would tell us nothing much and Jimmy the Greek would tell us to take the Vikings and 4-1/2.
Now there are three solid options. If you’re the quarterback, you can’t decide whether to keep the ball and go with NBC, hand off to ESPN or pitch out to Fox.
Here’s a handy guide to help you decide:
- ESPN: “NFL Gameday” enters its 10th season. Chris Berman, who has been rumblin’, stumblin’, bumblin’ for a decade, can’t be stopped. He breaks tackles and tradition with his nicknames and sense of timing and humor.
This show is considered the best, winning the NFL pregame Sports Emmy last year. If that doesn’t convince you, Rudy Martzke, USA Today’s sports TV columnist, also rates it No. 1, and he watches 80 hours of sports on his big screen a week.
Besides Berman, we get the latest tips from Chris Mortensen and insight from Tom Jackson, who should be ESPN’s insider, because then we could call him Scoop Jackson. This year ESPN has added Sterling Sharpe, who wasn’t talking with the media when he was with the Green Bay Packers. Now he’s in the media and talking again. Early reviews indicate that he’s sterling in name only. ESPN has also added 15 minutes to “NFL Gameday.” The show starts at 8:45 a.m. and lasts 75 minutes.
- Fox: Caution: if you had too much to drink and thought the ceiling was spinning Saturday night, don’t flip to Channel 3. “NFL Sunday” comes at you like a Tim Wakefield knuckleball. They’ve got wild camera angles and dart in and out of subjects, but usually hit the bull’s-eye.
This was the highest-rated pregame show last year, in its first season.
Fox has an “info-tainment” philosophy, combining information and entertainment in its hour-long show that zips crisply along. The emphasis is on entertainment, and the approach is offbeat. “NFL Sunday” has a modernistic, computerized set complete with artificial turf where Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long and Jimmy Johnson explain plays to us. It’s fun.
- NBC: The most conventional show features a capable host, Greg Gumbel, Bryant’s brother, and outspoken viewpoints from Mike Ditka. This year they’ll have a couple of average Joes - Gibbs and Montana, standouts on the field but rookies on the set. Gibbs was OK last year. With Montana, we’ll have to wait and see. He never was overly quotable during his career, but said that was because he didn’t want to supply opposing teams with bulletin-board material. Maybe he will go from dull to riotous as an analyst.
NBC hopes so.