As a noted sports couch potato with an agile thumb, I got involved in an interesting but failed experiment Sunday.
The Broncos were playing on CBS-4, the Nuggets on Altitude cable. Both games started at 11 a.m.
I was watching Channel 4 at 11:25 a.m. when Rams quarterback Shaun Hill tossed the 63-yard touchdown pass that began the Broncos’ surprising demise.
I was watching Altitude only 30 seconds later when Knicks star Carmelo Anthony hit a jumper that tied the score 31-31 late in the first quarter.
Great timing. My experiment was working.
But it ended a few moments later when I switched from Broncos coverage to the Nuggets, who by then were trailing by 20 points. End of an agile thumb-switching experiment. I missed the most important stretch of the Nuggets’ latest loss.
From a broadcasting perspective the highlight of the Broncos-Rams game was the coverage provided by Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts, the No. 2 NFL team on CBS. They should be listed as 1A.
This was the duo’s second positive coverage of a Denver game, following the Broncos’ victory over the Jets on Oct. 12.
They were in complete focus Sunday, reporting and analyzing Denver’s mediocre offensive and defense performances while not ignoring the Rams’ positive play.
Also give credit to the CBS production crew, which frequently focused on Peyton Manning’s sideline reactions. They ranged from anger to frustration to resignation.
Hoopla has started. ESPN’s coverage of the men’s college basketball season premiered Friday night. The scene was not a huge college arena filled with 20,000 fans and comfortable air conditioning but rather a hot, makeshift arena holding about 1,000 fans at a U.S. Coast Guard station in Puerto Rico.
The game, ESPN’s annual salute to the U.S. military, was memorable because Louisville, coached by Rick Pitino, beat Minnesota, coached by his son, Richard. The offbeat setting was the kickoff of ESPN’s season-long journey of televising more than 1,600 games on five network platforms.
Jay Bilas and Dan Shulman are ESPN’s No. 1 team of announcers for men’s college basketball. They were on hand to provide the color for Louisville vs. Minnesota.
Bilas, a former Duke star, recently signed a contract that will keep him at ESPN through 2023.
Back in business. Dave Krieger is back in the newspaper world.
Bounced in mid-June from his co-hosting job with Dave Logan on KOA radio’s afternoon sports talk show, Krieger has joined Boulder’s Daily Camera as editor of the editorial page.
Longtime Denver journalist Dusty Saunders writes about sports media each Monday in The Denver Post. Contact him at tvime@comcast.net.
Sandy will be flying solo soon
The noon-3 p.m. weekday three-man sports talk radio show on 104.3 FM The Fan will end Nov. 28, according to two local radio sources.
Sandy Clough will be the solo host beginning Dec. 1. Scott Hastings will move to the morning show (6-9 a.m.), and Drew Goodman will leave the station.
This talk troika premiered in early March when Clough was moved from the 9 a.m.-noon period and replaced by Dan Patrick’s nationally syndicated talk show. Station general manager Bob Call and station program manager Nate Lundy couldn’t be reached for comment.
