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Diehl Ready For NFL Sunday Gig

Jason Barrett

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It will come as no solace to Eli Manning, but his measly 49 passing yards in four quarters of exhibition games has provided plenty of fresh meat in the Valley of the Stupid and other media precincts.

The butchers are engaging in panic-speak, which is always entertaining.

David Diehl, preparing for his first season on the other side, has heard the noise. His suggestion for the tizzed-out is close your eyes, take a deep breath, then point your toes toward the Meadowlands.

“Listen, there’s not a ball Eli doesn’t throw 100 times in practice, there’s not a route he doesn’t go over even more times with wide receivers,” Diehl, who played in front of Manning on the Giants’ offensive line for 10 seasons.

“Yeah, you want to do some things and show some stuff in the preseason but, at the same time, you are not really game planning,” Diehl told me during a phone conversation. “You want to get your base stuff down. You want to get into the flow of the offense and most importantly you want to get guys comfortable playing next to each other.”

Diehl said doubting Manning’s determination to make rookie coordinator Ben McAdoo’s West Coast offense a success would be a mistake.

“The fact Eli had ankle surgery in the offseason and them telling him to be patient and them having to drag Eli off the field and take away reps from him shows you just how determined he is going into this season.”

Manning doesn’t have an exclusive in that department. Diehl is just as determined to make the huge leap from the playing field directly into the broadcast booth. He retired last January.

A few months later, Fox hired him as a game analyst, placing him on the hot seat. Along side veteran play-by-play voice Thom Brennaman, Diehl will be working on the fly, three hours of live television every Sunday. This ain’t the controlled, often scripted, studio environment.

“I wouldn’t have auditioned if I didn’t think I can do this,” Diehl said. “Yeah, this is something that’s going to be different. This is something you are not used to seeing guys do (especially an offensive lineman), but I’ve done everything to get ready.”

This has been a long-term transition for Diehl. It started before he turned pro earning undergraduate and master’s degrees in communications and human resources at Illinois. Diehl signed a long-term contract extension with the Giants after they defeated New England in Super Bowl XLII. That’s when he re-focused on an off-field future. He attended the NFL’s broadcast boot camp and subsequently did internships for ESPN, NFL Films, NFL Network, NBC Sports and CBS Sports.

The foundation is fine. All players-turned-analysts know the X’s and O’s. What separates them is not only their personality and delivery but the ability to bring a critical eye to the booth. Diehl will be talking about guys he’s played with and against, even some friends.

“You don’t think playing for coach (Tom) Coughlin for 10 years I haven’t heard critical evaluations of myself?” Diehl, incredulously, asked. “I’m going to call people out if they are loafing, if people are lazy, if people are not working hard. But am I going to sit there and degrade anybody, talk down to them? Absolutely not.”

Throughout the conversation, Diehl’s tone of voice suggested a man obsessed with succeeding. His actions speak even louder than any words he delivered. Diehl has gone as far as being so persistent (emails or texts every week) with the legendary John Madden, that he flew to the Big Man’s home in Northern California five weeks ago for two days of a personal television tutorial.

They went over X’s and O’s and Diehl drew stuff up in the notebook he carries. They went over things to do while watching a game and studying for an upcoming tilt. “To be the best you have to learn from the best. John Madden has been in every single situation as an announcer,” Diehl said. “It was very important to me that he went over technical things (position players Diehl did not often study) that are outside my comfort zone.”

And after the Madden experience it’s no surprise Diehl came away thinking: “I want to have fun. The whole point of doing the broadcast is to entertain, but it’s also to teach stuff. I want to bring a different perspective.”

For the rest of the article visit the NY Daily News where it was originally published

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Jason Puckett Launches PuckSports.com

“I am super motivated right now and I can’t wait. I have probably been busier now than I’ve ever been in the last 48 hours.”

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Logo for PuckSports.com

Jason Puckett, who decided to walk away from a contract offer from iHeartMedia’s KJR in Seattle after finding out his partner Jim Moore had been laid off, has launched a new venture – PuckSports.com. ‘Puck’ has a baseball opening day show posted on the Puck Sports YouTube page and also posted an introductory message about his new venture and what led to creating it.

“I wanted to talk to you guys, the listeners out there, the viewers out there, sorry for all of this,” an emotional Puckett said. “Sorry for what has happened and what has taken place. Thank you for all of the comments and the well-wishes and what you have said about myself and Jim.

“It has been a whirlwind of a last few days, for sure and I do want to say that I feel for the people that we used to work with. “I know it’s not easy to go through that, I have been on that side of it many, many times in this industry when someone is let go and you have to sit there and answer all the questions about them and for them…It’s unfortunate and it shouldn’t be that way, but the reality of this business is it’s like that.”

Puckett then told his fans that PuckSports.com and YouTube are where you will be finding his content along with Moore. “I am going to take what I have learned over the years and apply it to a new age of media,” he said and noted this was a direction he had been thinking about for a while.

As for what took place that led to his decision to not sign his contract and talk away, he said, “I just want to take you briefly back to last week. I don’t want to get too much in the weeds, I’m not here to lay any blame or point any fingers at anybody…there’s too many good people that I have worked with that I don’t want to drag into this. It was a process that was at times handled fine, handled perfectly, and at other times it got to a point where it just went on too long. But that’s corporate media and that’s what happens.”

Continuing on Puckett said, “…I had been without a contract since about January…when I was away from the station that was something that we and the station agreed upon…to see if we could get something done and we were all hopeful that we would…I was only supposed to be gone a couple of days…unfortunately as these things sometimes happen, it just went a little bit longer…We received the deal and it was what we wanted, but unfortunately with that news a few hours later came the news from corporate that Jim had lost his job. Obviously there was a mix of emotions with that from me.

“I wrestled with that and the decision and what I would do. It was hard for me to move forward…I couldn’t fight the perception more than anything that I had received a new deal while at the same time, my partner and good friend, guy I love to death, who I grew up reading…it was a hard reality…The loyalty I have, I couldn’t live with myself even though Jim knew what the truth was.”

Puckett said he was aware Moore was planning to step away from the radio show at the end of the year and was looking forward to the nine months they would have left to work with one another. Then, when iHeartMedia made the decision to make Moore a casualty of their latest round of layoffs, Puckett knew he needed to revisit the idea of starting his own venture.

He said, “It has kind of changed my timeline as far as what I wanted to do and where I felt I was at…I am super motivated right now and I can’t wait. I have probably been busier now than I’ve ever been in the last 48 hours.”

Puckett said several of the show’s regular guests would stay with the show and he thanked several sponsors who he said would remain supporters of the show with the new venture. ‘Puck’ noted that starting next week, “…We get underway in full force…I’m going to continue to try and make people laugh and entertain you and talk about sports…and all of the other things you have become accustomed to with this show.”

As he started to wrap up, Puckett said, “I’m jumping into the deep end of the pool and I am going to see if I can swim or sink.”

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Kirk Minihane: WEEI is “Going to be Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb in Afternoons”

“It’s going to be Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb in the afternoons, which is going to be so awful.”

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Photos of Kirk Minihane and Rich Shertenlieb

As the speculation continues on where Boston sports talker Rich Shertenlieb will end up, one former WEEI host said he has the scoop on what is going to happen. Kirk Minihane, now with Barstool Sports, said, “What I heard was, initially, was they were moving Rich Keefe from nights to middays, moving Adam Jones from afternoons to middays and keeping Fauria there, and moving Andy Gresh to afternoons…But now it appears Rich Shertenlieb is going to do afternoons with Andy Gresh.”

On Wednesday, Boston Globe sports and sports media columnist Chad Finn put out a post on X, saying, “Didn’t think Rich Shertenlieb would end up at WEEI after leaving Sports Hub. I do now, most likely in afternoon drive. Audacy management has been telling people to expect changes.”

Minihane continued commenting on the matter, saying, “It’s going to be Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb in the afternoons, which is going to be so awful. Maybe the two most sensitive c***s in the history of radio. That’s a show we are going to ruin…we haven’t done that in a while, we are going to take that show down…Once that show starts, we are just going to blitz them with phone calls because Gresh can’t handle that.

“What they don’t understand, because they are so dumb, is that…Rich Shertenlieb has no fan base…no fan of [Toucher and Hardy] in the morning is going to be like ‘I’m not going to listen to Felger in the afternoons, I’ll now listen to Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb.’ It’s going to be dreadful.”

Recapping what he has heard the rest of the WEEI lineup will be, Minihane said, “…And then in middays you have Adam Jones, failed afternoons. Rich Keefe who has now failed middays, drivetime, nights and is now going to fail again in middays… and Christian Fauria who has never drawn a rating in his life.”

WEEI has not commented on any of the speculation. BSM will have more as the story unfolds.

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Former 670 The Score Host Tommy Williams Has Died

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Photo of Tommy Williams
Courtesy: Lakeshore Public Media

Tommy Williams, who was heard for a decade on 670 The Score, died on Wednesday at the age of 66.

Williams began his broadcasting career in his hometown of Gary, Indiana in 1982 at WLTH before moving on to The Score. In 2003, Williams became the PA Announcer for the Gary Southshore RailCats of the American Association where he had his signature call to get the attention of the fans, “People, People, People.”

A story in The Times of Northwest Indiana said, “The longtime RailCats public address announcer and Lakeshore Public Media sports journalist was known for broadcasting countless games, interviewing countless athletes and covering Region sports at all levels. The Gary native and co-host of “Prep Sports Report,” “Prep Football Report,” and “Lakeshore PBS Scoreboard” often signed off shows saying, “Gary, Indiana, you know I love you.”

“The cadence he had in his voice echoed across the Region in a way we may never see again. He was widely known and widely loved,” Tom Maloney, vice president of radio operations at Lakeshore Public Media told the paper.

“He’d want to be remembered as the voice of Lakeshore sports,” his Regionally Speaking co-host and producer Dee Dotson told The Times. “Most people will remember him for covering prep sports all the way up to semi-pros. He’ll be remembered for treating each of his subjects like they were world champions. His depth of knowledge of sports at all levels is commendable. He was a walking encyclopedia of stats.” 

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