Peter King seems a little touchy about his beloved HBO NFL show:
Quote of the Week IV
"I would hope to God that it would be [better] because [the show] on HBO it just got bland. It got bland, it got boring, and it just sat there that it was a foregone conclusion that somebody was supposed to tune in because it was what it was. You have to entertain the people.''
--New Inside the NFL panelist Warren Sapp, in the Boston Globe, opining that the Showtime version of the long-running pro football show will be better than the HBO version.
Fairness in Journalism Department: I worked on HBO's Inside the NFL for the past six years. Not that I'm sensitive about the quality of the show or anything like that, but this boring, bland show must have really put a lot of people to sleep. Three times in the past six years, this show that just sat there won the Emmy for Best Sports Studio Show. Not best football show. But best studio show in all of sports television. Three times, more than any other sports show in the past six years. Better than all the ESPN shows, better than the FOX shows, better than the shows on Showtime parent CBS.
Emmys are often awarded to shows that put voters to sleep, particularly shows the voters are comparing to the two-hour ESPN pregame spectacular and the bells-and-whistles, grab-the-headlines Fox show ... and, well, to all the other shows on the burgeoning sports TV landscape that outspent the HBO show and used more people in front of and behind the camera.
It'll be interesting to see the first production meeting at Showtime, when someone reads that quote to that boring co-host of the HBO show, Cris Collinsworth, who is only the best studio analyst in recent sports TV history. He never "entertained the people.'' No, not Cris. Remember last year, Warren, when every other sports TV analyst was covering his rear end on Bill Belichick and Spygate -- and I mean every one -- and Collinsworth ripped him a new one for dishonoring the game? There's a case of the totally bland Collinsworth just showing up for the paycheck every week. I can hear Sapp in that production meeting next week: "Cris, I didn't mean you. You're the greatest! It was all those other guys who put me to sleep!''
And Dan Marino, excoriating Andy Reid for not putting Donovan McNabb in the shotgun more, and Cris Carter, laying the wood to more than a few NFL types. And that Bob Costas. There's a bland guy, Warren, a guy viewers tune into for no good reason. Ask your good friend Barry Bonds and Belichick how bland Costas is.
Final note, Warren: The man who produced the HBO show, the proactive and imaginative (and not bland, I can tell you that) Brian Hyland, has moved to the NFL Network for the season, to run the pre-game show, the Sunday morning show you'll be working on. I look forward to you two meeting -- if you haven't already. I especially look forward to the disgusted look Hyland will have on his face when he shakes your hand.
Big talk, big fella. Good luck backing it up.
Hey, I like Sapp. He's always been a good quote, and good to me. But saying what he said would be like Mike Brown hiring me to be his GM, and on the first day on the job, someone asks me about the nearby Indianapolis Colts and I say, "That Bill Polian's a know-nothing. We'll out-scout him and out-draft him
Quote of the Week IV
"I would hope to God that it would be [better] because [the show] on HBO it just got bland. It got bland, it got boring, and it just sat there that it was a foregone conclusion that somebody was supposed to tune in because it was what it was. You have to entertain the people.''
--New Inside the NFL panelist Warren Sapp, in the Boston Globe, opining that the Showtime version of the long-running pro football show will be better than the HBO version.
Fairness in Journalism Department: I worked on HBO's Inside the NFL for the past six years. Not that I'm sensitive about the quality of the show or anything like that, but this boring, bland show must have really put a lot of people to sleep. Three times in the past six years, this show that just sat there won the Emmy for Best Sports Studio Show. Not best football show. But best studio show in all of sports television. Three times, more than any other sports show in the past six years. Better than all the ESPN shows, better than the FOX shows, better than the shows on Showtime parent CBS.
Emmys are often awarded to shows that put voters to sleep, particularly shows the voters are comparing to the two-hour ESPN pregame spectacular and the bells-and-whistles, grab-the-headlines Fox show ... and, well, to all the other shows on the burgeoning sports TV landscape that outspent the HBO show and used more people in front of and behind the camera.
It'll be interesting to see the first production meeting at Showtime, when someone reads that quote to that boring co-host of the HBO show, Cris Collinsworth, who is only the best studio analyst in recent sports TV history. He never "entertained the people.'' No, not Cris. Remember last year, Warren, when every other sports TV analyst was covering his rear end on Bill Belichick and Spygate -- and I mean every one -- and Collinsworth ripped him a new one for dishonoring the game? There's a case of the totally bland Collinsworth just showing up for the paycheck every week. I can hear Sapp in that production meeting next week: "Cris, I didn't mean you. You're the greatest! It was all those other guys who put me to sleep!''
And Dan Marino, excoriating Andy Reid for not putting Donovan McNabb in the shotgun more, and Cris Carter, laying the wood to more than a few NFL types. And that Bob Costas. There's a bland guy, Warren, a guy viewers tune into for no good reason. Ask your good friend Barry Bonds and Belichick how bland Costas is.
Final note, Warren: The man who produced the HBO show, the proactive and imaginative (and not bland, I can tell you that) Brian Hyland, has moved to the NFL Network for the season, to run the pre-game show, the Sunday morning show you'll be working on. I look forward to you two meeting -- if you haven't already. I especially look forward to the disgusted look Hyland will have on his face when he shakes your hand.
Big talk, big fella. Good luck backing it up.
Hey, I like Sapp. He's always been a good quote, and good to me. But saying what he said would be like Mike Brown hiring me to be his GM, and on the first day on the job, someone asks me about the nearby Indianapolis Colts and I say, "That Bill Polian's a know-nothing. We'll out-scout him and out-draft him
