Joel Klatt quickly recalls his first appearance on national television. On Sept. 1, 2003, in his debut as the starting quarterback for the University of Colorado, Klatt threw four touchdown passes against Colorado State, including the winner in the final moments when the Buffaloes, on ESPN, beat the Rams 42-35.
Klatt returns to the national scene — and the CU-CSU rivalry — Sunday night in a different venue.
The broadcasting booth has replaced the football field. Klatt will make his national network debut, working with Joel Meyers and Dave Lapham on FSN Rocky Mountain’s telecast from Folsom Field.
Scenarios about athletes moving from college QB stardom to national broadcasting duties often are laced with “a dream come true” comment. But Klatt never had visions about sports TV work while growing up in Arvada or playing at CU. In 2006, Klatt, happy with a budding career in real estate, agreed to fill in for Dave Plati, CU’s sports information director, on an Altitude panel dealing with college football.
“I really enjoyed myself,” Klatt said. “When hearing from many that I handled myself well, I began to think about broadcasting as a partial career.”
FSN Rocky Mountain, sensing Klatt’s potential, signed him to a contract that initially included sideline reporting and analysis during the network’s Colorado high school football coverage. He made his local FSN college debut in 2007 when CU played Kansas State.
Klatt has been a regular contributor to Rockies coverage as an analyst and reporter and has worked in a Dallas studio during Fox Sports Net’s coverage of Big 12 games.
A three-sport star at Pomona High School, Klatt has never backed away from sports-oriented challenges. Following graduation, he signed a baseball contract with the San Diego Padres, playing two years in the minor leagues.
“When I realized I would never make it in the majors, I decided to take a different path,” he said.
That path took Klatt to Boulder in 2002, when he was a walk-on quarterback as a CU freshman. He became the starter in 2003, setting several CU passing records during his three seasons. Undrafted by the NFL, he tried out with the Detroit Lions and New Orleans Saints but never received a contract.
“At least I gave it a shot,” Klatt said.
Klatt was at CU during the latter part of the Gary Barnett era, when the football program was under fire because of numerous off-the-field problems. “It was an education, learning how the media operates — good and bad,” Klatt said. “Not everything that appears in print and broadcasting is the truth. So I’m very careful when presenting facts, figures and commentary.”
Klatt doesn’t worry about critics who say he will show a CU bias during Sunday’s telecast.
“I’ll be prepared to articulate what’s happening on the field,” he said. “The fact my alma mater is playing at Folsom Field won’t impact my coverage. I’ve become media savvy.”
Unexpected spotlight.
Little did NBC know during the spring that Sunday’s Broncos-Bears game would have national attention.
“For a preseason contest, this should be as good as it gets,” NBC’s Al Michaels said last week.
His pregame comment: “Shakespeare never wrote a drama about a preseason football game. Had he, it would have been this game.”
• I was disappointed Saturday night in KCNC-4’s “special” about 50 seasons of the Broncos.
The half hour, loaded with commercials, was really a four-year history, centering on the team’s first season (1960), the first Super Bowl season (1977), the 1996 season when the heavily favored Broncos lost their playoff opener and the first Super Bowl-winning season (1997). Much of this familiar material had been featured previously on the station’s sports reports.
“The Broncos station” should have spent more time, energy and money chronicling all the years — including the fascinating Floyd Little era, the team’s Super Bowl blowout losses and much more.
The way they were.
Before their five-game losing streak, the Rockies set an audience record on FSN Rocky Mountain on Tuesday. The team’s 5-4 victory over the Dodgers in 10 innings was viewed in 150,000 area households on average. The audience peak: 195,000 homes between 9:45 p.m. and 10 p.m.
The 14-inning victory over the Giants last Monday produced the fifth-largest Rockies audience for FSN Rocky Mountain.
Longtime Denver journalist Dusty Saunders writes about sports media each Monday in The Denver Post. Reach him at tvtime@comcast.net.
