Two-a-days? How about five-a-weeks?
I’ve pulled a hamstring, and it’s only the third week of the National Football League preseason. This week, a pro-football junkie, which is not me, could pick from the following:
Sunday – Seahawks-Colts.
Monday – Cowboys-Saints.
Thursday – Dolphins-Panthers.
Friday – Steelers-Eagles.
Saturday – Bucs-Jaguars.
Plus a re-run of the Broncos-Titans game from last Saturday.
ABC, NBC, Fox, NFL Network and the ESPNs will carry NFL games this season. Has anyone considered the dangers of overkill? Think back to the days when there were two NFL games on Sundays, one in the morning, one in the afternoon.
On the other hand, it is television, particularly “Monday Night Football” with Howard Cosell, that raised the game to its present level in the public eye.
Now we have “Sunday Night Football,” “Monday Night Football” and “Saturday Night Football” and college games and even high school games. Check it out: Beginning Sept. 7, there will be 62 NFL regular-season games on national TV, plus regional and local broadcasts. There are three TV games on Thanksgiving.
If the NFL/ESPN teleconference call I tuned in to this week is any indication, football talk is endless. Ron Jaworski, Sean Salisbury, Mark Schlereth and Trey Wingo, ESPN analysts all, warmed up for their on-TV assignments by dissecting quarterbacks and the awful mental burdens they bear and the nuances of the player draft before I grew fatigued and tuned out. And we hadn’t even talked about fantasy picks yet.
Talking about it, apparently, is the only thing better than watching it. Speaking of which, Wingo predicted that Broncos rookie Mike Bell will gain 1,200 yards and score 20 touchdowns. The other three analysts scoffed. See? Even I got caught up in it.
And it’s only August.
Broncos everywhere
NFL Network gets all the publicity but if you don’t have it on your cable or satellite system, you still can catch the Broncos’ pre-season game against Houston on Sunday.
KDVR-Channel 31 carries the 6 p.m. game too, starting with a pre-game show at 5:30, hosted by sportscaster Eric Goodman.
Around the dial
“Buffalo Stampede,” all about CU football, returns for a fourth season on FSN Rocky Mountain but the schedule’s scrambled until the Rockies’ season ends (if it hasn’t already). The first “Stampede” is on at 6:30 p.m. today, then will move around through September. By October, it’ll air regularly on Thursdays. Ex-CU quarterback Charles Johnson replaces Dave Benz as host … NASCAR runs an unusual Friday night Busch race at Bristol, Tenn. (5:45 p.m., TNT) … Quotable: “The (NFL) draft is about belief, not about knowing things.” Trey Wingo.
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-954-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
