Baseball may be America’s pastime but it’s football that we pass our time watching on TV.
When I was a kid – and footballs were made from real pigs – there were four bowl games. My dad and I sat on the couch from first kickoff until the Orange Bowl ended sometime after dinner.
This year, there are 32 bowl games, starting with the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego on Dec. 19. Among the others are the PapaJohns.com Bowl (really!), Meineke Car Care Bowl and the Chick-fil-A Bowl. TV will be there, ending with the BCS Championship on Jan. 8 on Fox.
Pro football? ESPN this week announced that ratings for its “Monday Night Football,” which it inherited from sister network ABC, are up 38 percent over last year.
Last Sunday’s game between Dallas and the New York Giants on Fox was the most-watched NFL game since 1999, with 27.6 million viewers. The Broncos’ loss against Seattle drew a 55 share, meaning more than half those watching at the time were tuned into the game.
This week, “Sunday Night Football,” which has been extraordinarily popular since NBC has been able to pick which game it wants to air, gives us New Orleans-Dallas (6:15 p.m., KUSA-Channel 9).
Whither Tim and Jim?
KLZ 560-AM switches its sports talk from ESPN to Sporting News Radio on Jan. 1. I’m unfamiliar with any of SNR’s hosts but unless they can whistle “Dixie” and talk at the same time they can’t hold a candle to Tim Neverett and the Post’s Jim Armstrong, the best-informed and literate sports duo on local radio.
Rumors afoot that Tim&Jim will turn up elsewhere shortly.
Waltrip tells all
Driver Michael Waltrip, the best spokesman NASCAR has, tells how it all works in an 11-week documentary, “Michael Waltrip Racing: The New Era,” (8 and 9 p.m. Sunday, ESPN2).”New Era” chronicles his formation of the team with NASCAR newcomer Toyota, finding sponsors and drivers and building cars.
Around the dial
CU women’s basketball coach Kathy McConnell-Miller guests on “Buffalo Stampede” with Charles Johnson (7 p.m. Friday, FSNRM). … Virginia’s Oak Hill, featuring everybody’s number-one senior O.J. Mayo, and Georgia’s Norcross, the nation’s two top-ranked high school basketball teams, meet at Georgia Tech (7 p.m. today, ESPN2) … It’s awards season: It’ll be a bigger upset than UCLA over USC if Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith isn’t handed the Heisman Trophy (6 p.m. Saturday, ESPN). Adam Schefter hosts the 49th annual College Football Hall of Fame ceremonies from New York City (4 p.m., NFL Network) … Quotable: “If a man watches three football games in a row, he should be declared legally dead.” Erma Bombeck
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303- 954-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
