Chargers-Dolphins Saved Weekend

TV sports

Once again, the AFC rescued the weekend. Now, if somebody could just rescue the AFC.

The Miami Dolphins and San Diego Chargers gave TV viewers some excitement Sunday after a series of weekend playoff blowouts, but at what expense? Another 3 hours of Bob Trumpy.

Life is too short.

The guy has an opinion on everything, even the rain.

“It was waist deep out here earlier in the week, wasn’t it?” Trumpy asked his NBC sidekick Dick Enberg.

It was pretty deep in the broadcast booth then, too.

That’s probably why NBC hasn’t adopted use of Fox’s on-screen clock. They’re afraid viewers will be watching it like impatient schoolboys, riggling in their seats until the relentless ticking finally makes him stop.

After an emotional start, Enberg at least got control of himself, and when he’s under control, he’s good. He didn’t shout his first “Oh my!” until Ronnie Harmon made a one-handed catch of a Stan Humphries pass for San Diego, sometime in the second quarter.

I couldn’t tell exactly when it was because NBC doesn’t use the Fox clock. Eventually, when Miami scored a touchdown to go ahead 14-3, they showed us there was 7:21 left in the half, so it was before then.

During halftime (you could tell it was halftime because the teams hadn’t returned to the field), NBC had a nice interview with Rod Woodson of the Pittsburgh Steelers … I think. I was distracted during part of it while his two kids made faces at each other. Cute, but a bad idea.

In the cute-but-nonetheless-good-idea category, NBC made wonderful use of some new, cartoon-style graphics - a cannon to illustrate San Diego’s propensity for big plays and a seesaw with quarterback sacks on it.

Then, all heck broke loose. At some point between the start of the second half and the end of the game, Keith Jackson caught a pass for Miami and tried to lateral it ahead to Irving Fryar, setting off more confusion in the booth than he did on the field.

San Diego recovered, but officials ruled it an illegal forward pass. Possession was returned to Miami, and all the Dolphins lost was 5 yards and a down.

“How can that not be ruled a fumble?” Trumpy asked.

“Oh my!” Enberg said. “… It’s got to be a fumble.”

“… This can’t be right,” Trumpy said.

Turns out the officials were right. It might be a dumb rule, but Enberg and Trumpy were wrong anyway.

Replays show Enberg eventually said there was 8:43 to play, but by then I’d quit listening. Because NBC doesn’t use the clock, I couldn’t tell exactly when this happened.

Out takes

Best bit of the weekend goes to Fox. Its theatrical graveyard opening for the Green Packers-Dallas Cowboys game was a flop, may it rest in peace, but the bit on the All-Madden Team’s Hall of Fame was famous.

It seems that after years of searching, the Fox analyst has found a spot for his down-and-dirty rogues gallery, which he will announce Jan. 22. It’s at a truck stop in Greenville, Ill.

“They got laundry rooms, rest rooms, hotel rooms for $12.95, the whole deal,” Madden said as the camera panned across the greasy spoon interior of vinyl booths and sugar dispensers. “And I thought, it’s the 75th anniversary of the NFL, kind of a throwback year. I thought maybe we should go to a throwback truck stop.”

Madden also gets the nod for best off-hand remark during the final minutes of a blowout when the Fox cameras found two Green Bay fans in the seats, wearing silly cheesehats.

“How do you know when you’ve got one of those things on straight?” Madden asked.

In the credit-where-credit-is-due department, Trumpy did, without hesitation, pin the blame for Miami’s missed field goal on the snapper, and that’s where it belonged. Unfortunately, he never told us who the snapper was.