Nbc, Fox Interaction An Eye-Opener

Imagine Matt Dillon, his feet up on his desk in the marshal’s office at Dodge City, and Barney Fife bursts in, frantically waving an empty six-shooter.

That’s what it was like watching the Fox pregame crew at halftime of NBC’s telecast of the AFC title game promo the NFC championship game. Mike Ditka was Marshal Dillon, Terry Bradshaw was deputy Fife, and let’s just hope nobody gives Bradshaw a bullet for his gun.

“Next thing you know, the Hatfields will be having dinner with the McCoys,” said NBC’s Greg Gumbel.

The idea to put Fox’s pregame crew on at halftime of an NBC game came from NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol. When he called Fox Sports president David Hill on Friday to advance the idea, Hill roared with laughter.

“He was laughing hysterically at the idea of what this would do to a lot of people around the country who think we’re in an all-out war with guns and knives and brass knuckles,” Ebersol said Monday.

Ebersol said he did it for three reasons.

One, he thought it was be great programming.

Two, on a day that, in some ways, is bigger for football than the Super Bowl, “it would show we can be about just the game and not hyping and marketing and carping and sniping.”

Three, and perhaps most importantly, Ebersol said, “I just thought it would be a lot of fun.”

“When the idea came into my head, I literally did not wait 90 seconds before I called Hilly, and the fun of it was hearing his reaction,” Ebersol said.

It’s the first time in TV history two major networks talked to each other over the air.

Since Fox and NBC also share baseball, Hill suggested the networks might continue their on-air chat during the major league season. If it works out, Ebersol says, sure.

“They’ve got a season-long commitment to baseball, and we’re only there for postseason, but I can’t envision this would be the end of it,” Ebersol said. “I would think that somewhere along the line, we’ll do it again.”

Super crew

NBC will have its No. 1 NFL broadcast team of play-by-play man Dick Enberg with analysts Paul Maguire and Phil Simms handling the Super Bowl, as it did Sunday.

There never should have been any concern that a three-man booth would be too noisy. Only once did Simms have to apologize for stepping on Enberg. Although a rookie on games, Simms has studio experience and seems like a natural. If he gets left out for too long, Maguire brings him in with a question.

Maguire keeps Simms in the flow, Simms brings out the best in Maguire, and they actually get into some interesting conversations. Simms’ only drawback is that when he gets excited, he tends to become too technical, but that can be fixed with experience.