The big story last week was Alex Rodriguez admitted to using steroids from 2001 to 2003. This DOES not surprise me at all. Baseball and the fans are at fault for the steroid era. Baseball turned a blind eye to performing-enhancing drug users, because the Home Run became the attraction of the game. By 1998 ESPN had started live coverage of the Home Run Derby at the All-Star week. Also at this time there was a famous advertisement campaign with the slogan “Chicks Dig the Long Ball.” All this contributed to the pressure to perform. I think it’s better for A-Rod to admit to using steroids and finally come clean now than to continue denying it like others such as Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. History will look at A-Rod more kindly for admitting and I think he might still have a chance to get into the Hall of Fame.
Tuesday February 17, 2009 A-Rod held his first Press Conference since an interview he did with ESPN last week. He said a cousin injected him with an over-the-counter drug designed to give an "energy boost." He also said that it was a mistake that his cousin obtained these banned drugs from the Dominican Republic I understand this was before testing and the culture was different back in the early 90’s but if I were a pro baseball player I would look at what I was putting in my body before I used it.
A side story to this is that Miguel Tejeda was charged with lying to Congress about performance enhancing drug useage the same week. For lying, he faces up to one year in federal prison and deportation as he was born in the Domican Republic.
The other major story last week was the second retirement of Brett Favre. I say second because he retired last year but came back to play. We wll see if this retirement holds before I talk about it.
This Weekend
This weekend’s big event is the final stop of the Winter Dew Tour from Lake Tahoe, CA. Saturday is the Freesking Slopestyle final from 2:30 to 4 P.M. on NBC. Sunday is the Snowboarding Superpipe final from 3 to 6 P.M. again on NBC Sports. Like I said this is the final stop of the Tour, so the season-long champions will be crowned. Should be fun.
The next big event is an Ultimate Fighting Championship card on free TV; UFC 95 live from London, England at 9 P.M. on Spike TV.
The main event of the card is the first winner of the Ultimate Fighter Reality TV show, Diego “Nightmare” Sanchez who will move up from welterweight to lightweight to challenge former world title contender Joe “Daddy” Stevenson. UFC is always a good time.
In other news, the UFC is about to get some competition on National TV from Showtime and CBS. I think the frist Showtime live event will be April 11, no word on the first CBS show, I think it will be in May. When I know I will let you all know.
Also this weekend is the Oscars. Usually I don’t like or have an intrest in seeing any of the movies up for the awards, but this year I wil watch because of the two movies“The Wrestler” and “Frost/Nixon”. I hope Mickey Rourke wins for best actor. Yes I’M a wresting fan. I also would like to see “Frost/Nixon” win Best Picture. Frost/Nixon is a true story about a series of interviews by Robert Frost /Richard Nixon after Watergate. I think the BBC just released the real interviews. .
Enjoy the games.
Talk to you next week if not before.
Jamie Lazaroff
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Recapeing the Super Bowl 2009
Well last Sunday night was another classic “Super Bowl”, as the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals 27-23, in a game that was not decided until the end. The first half Pittsburgh jumped out to a ten-point lead, and it looked like a blowout. But, Arizona came back with a touchdown to make it a ballgame. To end the first half James Harrison intercepted a Kurt Warner pass and ran it back 100 yards for a touchdown. This was the longest play in Super Bowl history. The third quarter saw a defense battle with only a Pittsburgh field goal to give them a 20 to 7 lead and it looked like it was over. But, Arizona can back in the fourth quarter with a 1-yard touchdown to make it 20 to 14. Then we had a rare safety 2 pointer, this made it 20 to 16 Pittsburgh. This is when it gets crazy; Arizona scored a touchdown with a picture perfect 64-yard pass from Warner to Larry Fitzgerald right up the middle of the field to make it 23 to 20, Arizona led for the first time. Then Pittsburgh drove down the field for the game-wining touchdown: Ben Roethlisberger 6-yard pass to Santonio Holmes in the corner of the endzone. My keys to the game was the play of Pittsburgh’s defense, and the fact that Arizona had 106 yards in penalties, the most in Super Bowl history. What a game!!
Lets me give my grades for the NBC broadcast of the event. Lets start with the pre game show, like I said last time it was a cast of thousands or about 25. I liked how they had Keith Olbermann and Jerome Bettis in the Pittsburgh locker room and Dan Patrick and Tiki Barber in the Arizona locker room before the teams got there. This was when Jerome and Tiki were at their best telling us what their experiences were like playing in the Super Bowl. I liked how they had Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth, with Tony Dungy, Mike Holmgrem, and Matt Millen on the main set inside Raymond James Stadium and Keith, Dan and the rest, round and about on other sets outside the stadium. Cris Collinsworth proved that he is the best analyst in the business; his knowledge and passion for the game really shine through. Tony was ok; Mike was much better because he gave us great insight about the game and every thing that goes in the Super Bowl. Matt Millen was very good; he can be very useful to NBC next year. They need to get rid of Tiki and hire Matt! Rodney Harrison has a future in TV after his playing days are over. The two segments that I did not like were the “Super Suite” hosted by Al Roker; this was the celebrity part of the show. It was just a way to promote NBC Universal TV shows and movies, and was just awful and took away for the game. The other segment that was no good was the “Cook-off” It just had too many cooks in the kitchen. The game telecast was great; John Madden and Al Michaels are the best team. Al can print picture with words and John has a great passion for football. Alex Flanagan was the big surprise of the show. This was her first big assignment for NBC Sports and you could tell she was very nevious at the start of the day, but as the day went on you could see potential in her. It does help that she’s easy on the eyes, if you know what I mean. The Boss was the Boss at halftime. The best part was Bruce doing the knee slide right into the camera, classic stuff. Post game was ok: nice to see Dan Patrick getting the Trophy presentation, it’s a hard job but he handed it with grace.
Overall I give NBC an A-. The “Super Suite” and the “Cook-off” segments brought them down a bit but overall great show. I think NBC has set the “blueprint” of how to do Super Bowl Sunday programming, lets see what CBS can do next year.
See you next week, if not before.
Jamie Lazaroff
Lets me give my grades for the NBC broadcast of the event. Lets start with the pre game show, like I said last time it was a cast of thousands or about 25. I liked how they had Keith Olbermann and Jerome Bettis in the Pittsburgh locker room and Dan Patrick and Tiki Barber in the Arizona locker room before the teams got there. This was when Jerome and Tiki were at their best telling us what their experiences were like playing in the Super Bowl. I liked how they had Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth, with Tony Dungy, Mike Holmgrem, and Matt Millen on the main set inside Raymond James Stadium and Keith, Dan and the rest, round and about on other sets outside the stadium. Cris Collinsworth proved that he is the best analyst in the business; his knowledge and passion for the game really shine through. Tony was ok; Mike was much better because he gave us great insight about the game and every thing that goes in the Super Bowl. Matt Millen was very good; he can be very useful to NBC next year. They need to get rid of Tiki and hire Matt! Rodney Harrison has a future in TV after his playing days are over. The two segments that I did not like were the “Super Suite” hosted by Al Roker; this was the celebrity part of the show. It was just a way to promote NBC Universal TV shows and movies, and was just awful and took away for the game. The other segment that was no good was the “Cook-off” It just had too many cooks in the kitchen. The game telecast was great; John Madden and Al Michaels are the best team. Al can print picture with words and John has a great passion for football. Alex Flanagan was the big surprise of the show. This was her first big assignment for NBC Sports and you could tell she was very nevious at the start of the day, but as the day went on you could see potential in her. It does help that she’s easy on the eyes, if you know what I mean. The Boss was the Boss at halftime. The best part was Bruce doing the knee slide right into the camera, classic stuff. Post game was ok: nice to see Dan Patrick getting the Trophy presentation, it’s a hard job but he handed it with grace.
Overall I give NBC an A-. The “Super Suite” and the “Cook-off” segments brought them down a bit but overall great show. I think NBC has set the “blueprint” of how to do Super Bowl Sunday programming, lets see what CBS can do next year.
See you next week, if not before.
Jamie Lazaroff
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