Posted in The Soapbox
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09/7 2010

What Were They Thinking: Joe Theismann, Dan Hampton Edition

Posted by Ken Fang.

Who says sports media news never happens on a weekend? Whomever said news doesn’t break on weekends has never worked a weekend. And on the Labor Day holiday, we received two pieces of sports media news that will take us through the week.

First, NFL Network announced that it was bringing former ESPN NFL analyst Joe Theismann into its Thursday Night Football booth, teaming up with Bob Papa and Matt Millen. This is a very strange move. To begin with, there was no clamoring for anyone to join Papa and Millen. While Papa is a very competent play-by-play man, Matt Millen’s analysis was less than stellar, however, there were some sports media critics who praised his work. I felt his stints last season on college football on ESPN/ABC and Thursday Night Football were not up to par with his work with Fox and Westwood One Radio, prior to his disastrous stint as Detroit Lions General Manager.

For three years, Theismann was a man without a microphone. Removed from Monday Night Football by ESPN after the 2006 season, Theismann was pretty much in exile until this year. He did work on Washington Redskins preseason games and had a weekly call-in gig with Chris Russo’s Mad Dog Radio on Sirius XM. Last season, Theismann worked on NFL Network’s Playbook show. Then there was his one game stint on NBC teamed with Tom Hammond and Joe Gibbs on the New York Jets-Cincinnati Bengals AFC Wild Card playoff game which was roundly criticized.

Based on this performance, it would not have surprised anyone if Theismann never found his way back into the booth again. However, that all changed on Labor Day.

Looking back on his work for ESPN on Sunday and Monday Night Football, the nicest thing I can say about Theismann is that he was verbose. In August, I watched a Redskins preseason game on NFL Network and Theismann was talking incessantly, at times doing play-by-play while his former ESPN partner, Mike Patrick was silent. To say he can take over a broadcast is like saying a kleptomaniac can steal.

The reaction to the move was swift both on Twitter and on the sports blogosphere. Theismann has made himself a target for being bitter about his firing. Now that he’s back in the broadcast booth, perhaps his bitterness will go away, but we can rest assured his verbosity will remain.

The whole idea of hiring Theismann to make Thursday Night Football a three man booth has me asking, “What was NFL Network thinking?” This doesn’t make sense.

———

Now to our other story which broke late Monday and that was the half-hearted apology by former Chicago Bears defensive tackle Dan Hampton who has become a panelist on Pro Football Weekly’s TV show. On last weekend’s program, Hampton made his pick for the season opening Minnesota Vikings-New Orleans Saints game. In attempt to be witty, edgy or funny, I’m not sure which, Hampton said the Vikings would hit the Saints “like Katrina”. The video has been all over YouTube and the sports blogosphere.

Up until now, I’ve ignored Pro Football Weekly, but if Dan Hampton is going to make wild analogies, I’m going to sit and watch. Perhaps Hampton can make light of 9/11 for the Giants or Jets or he can make a reference to the 1989 Bay Area earthquake for the 49ers or Raiders.

After getting his share of criticism during the weekend, Hampton wrote an apology. This statement blames you for even thinking he was making light of Hurricane Katrina, but isn’t that what Hampton was doing in the first place? He also said it never occurred to him that anyone could read anything more into his comment. But two weekends ago was the 5th anniversary of Katrina, so how could anyone read anything less?

I understand that in this day and age of 500 TV channels, the internet, MP3 players, YouTube, etc., you want to stand out, but this is not the way to do it. Hampton’s comments and subsequent weak apology make me ask, “What was Dan Hampton thinking?” In this case, he probably wasn’t thinking at all.

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Posted on September 7, 2010 at 11:22AM

 

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  1. Back To Work Tuesday Links
    09/7 2010

    [...] written a post for Press Coverage on two sports media stories that broke over the holiday [...]