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Chris Myers: There’s Nothing Like the “Rush” of an NFL Game

“The rush of an NFL game, I’ve got to tell you,” Myers said, “I’ve always loved events and interviewing athletes and coaches and people in and around sports, but there’s really nothing like the NFL.

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Chris Myers

Chris Myers is in his 15th season as a full-time play-by-play broadcaster with FOX and he has seen his share of large sports moments with the network, but one sport outshines them all.

Myers spoke to Awful Announcing and talked about his time with FOX in which he has called or hosted events including the the Daytona 500, sidelining BCS bowl games and the National Championship and interviewing players moments before the Super Bowl.

“I have a corny saying when I started in broadcasting,” Myers began, “I’d always say ‘Every night’s the Super Bowl.’ They’d always teach me about that.”

Myers told the story of the one time the Super Bowl stage caused him to freeze on camera, in 2005 before Super Bowl XXXIX between the Patriots and Eagles.

“So I’m interviewing Troy Brown live right before kickoff, ” Myers said, “and (FOX Producer Richard) Zyontz said ‘Hey, just be quick and be brief and get a comment from him,’ and as they’re counting down, I tell Troy Brown ‘Hey, I know you’ve got a game to play,’ and I could feel his energy, he was a key player for the Patriots. And I say ‘No need to be nervous, I’m just going to ask you a couple of questions real quick, even though there are millions watching.’”

“And I’m telling him ‘This is the most-watched event,’ and as I’m telling him, I’m starting to get nervous. And they threw down to me, ‘Okay, Chris, go,’ and I froze, and they’re in my ear like ‘Chris! Chris!’ And Troy Brown had to like, smack me with his shoe to be like ‘Chris, let’s go!’ And then I went like, ‘Oh, yeah, hey, this is a big game!’ I don’t even remember what I asked him.”

That moment and countless others in Myers career are what he recalls when thinking about the most exciting events he’s been a part of in his career.

“The rush of an NFL game, I’ve got to tell you,” Myers said, “I’ve always loved events and interviewing athletes and coaches and people in and around sports, but there’s really nothing like the NFL. I guess it’s my first love, growing up around football and the NFL. The rush of calling a NFL game, I felt this even before it became America’s most popular sport, there’s really nothing like it. You prepare, but there’s such unpredictability and such star power. And the size of the audience, and the fan reaction, to me, that’s one of the great things.”

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ESPN Sees Larger Than Average Audience For Big City Greens Classic

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ESPN aired Tuesday night’s New York Rangers and Washington Capitals game. DisneyXD and Disney Channel aired an alternate broadcast that included players being 3D animated to resemble the cast of Disney Channel’s popular cartoon Big City Greens. It turned into a ratings win for the networks.

The alternate broadcast featured players animated in real time to mimic what was happening on the Madison Square Garden ice. Players were equipped with special chips in the padding to aid the animation, and special pucks were used to ensure a smooth transition from video to computer-animated graphics.

An average of 589,000 viewers tuned into the game on ESPN. Meanwhile, nearly 175,000 watched the broadcast between Disney Channel and DisneyXD.

The figure for ESPN represents its largest NHL broadcast since a November 1st broadcast featuring the Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins.

The combined total for the broadcast — 765,000 — outdrew the World Baseball Classic broadcasts but did not top the NCAA Tournament’s First Four round that was broadcast on truTV.

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Sports TV News

Greg Gumbel: I’m Lucky That I’ve Never Been Fired

“I worked for some people who didn’t like me, I’ve worked for some people I didn’t like. It’s a strange business, there’s no doubt.”

Ricky Keeler

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Greg Gumbel

This week, it was announced that Greg Gumbel will no longer be a play-by-play announcer for the NFL on CBS after working on CBS’s NFL coverage every year since 1998. Gumbel has had an illustrious career and he takes pride in the fact that one thing has never happened to him.

Gumbel was a guest on the Tell Me A Story I Don’t Know podcast with George Ofman (Part 2 from an interview back in September) and he told Ofman that while he has never been fired before, but he doesn’t think broadcasters should be embarrassed when they get fired because of what the business is.

“It’s the nature of the business. I honestly think I’ve been extremely fortunate in that I’ve never been fired in a business that is known for firings. Being fired in this business is no shame, no embarrassment because it’s a subjective business. Because this guy at this network likes my work, it doesn’t mean that this guy at that network does. It’s extremely subjective and if you can buy that and understand it the way it is, then it shouldn’t bother you at all.

“It’s never happened to me. If it had, it would not have surprised me. I worked for some people who didn’t like me, I’ve worked for some people I didn’t like. It’s a strange business, there’s no doubt.”

Gumbel has been the host of CBS’s NCAA Tournament coverage for the last 25 years and he knows it’s a job that he is very grateful to have.

“I know there are people who would give their right arm to be sitting there next to Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis on Selection Sunday or sitting next to Kellogg, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley when the tournament begins to talk about what we’ve just seen or what we are going to see. I am never, ever going to take for granted the fact that I have been very fortunate to be able to do that.”

One thing Gumbel tries to avoid whenever he is on air is the mispronunciation of someone’s name because he knows how it feels to have his name distorted accidentally by some people.

“Pronunciations are important to me. There’s been a lifetime of people who may not completely mispronounce my name, but distorting it a little bit from time to time. I never want to do that to an athlete. If I ever mispronounce an athlete’s name, I hear it from his family, I hear it from the school or the team and I apologize for it as soon as I can. I don’t think that is something light or should be taken for granted.”

Toward the end of the interview, Gumbel was asked by Ofman when he will know it will be time to end his career.

“Other people have given it more thought than I have. I think when that time comes around, it will hit me over the head more than I will think about it. There are people who ask me why I still do what I do. The very bottom line is I love it, I enjoy it.”

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Sports TV News

Diamond Sports Group Misses Arizona Diamondbacks Rights Payment

It is believed that the missed rights payment by Bally Sports Arizona triggers a clause in the contract that reverts the television rights back to the Diamondbacks and Major League Baseball.

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Last week, Diamond Sports Group — operator of the Bally Sports-branded regional sports networks — claimed it had paid every rights fee it was contractually obligated, except for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

At the time, the company said it had a grace period until it needed to make a payment. That payment was due by Thursday, March 16th at 11:59 PM. That time has come and gone, and the company failed to deliver its fee.

It is believed that the missed rights payment by Bally Sports Arizona triggers a clause in the contract that reverts the television rights back to the Diamondbacks and Major League Baseball.

The Diamondbacks are not the only team affected by the situation. Bally Sports — which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this week — has also reportedly entered a grace period with the San Diego Padres. According to a report from Sports Business Journal, that grace period ends on March 30th, baseball’s Opening Day.

Previous reporting claims that contract is one the network hopes to get out from under. The company loses a reported $20 million per season on its television deal with the Padres. The Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Guardians are the other two baseball franchises the network holds the rights to that it hopes to terminate deals for.

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