FSN Southwest expands Dallas Cowboys coverage
FSN Southwest (Cox 37) is going Cowboys crazy this summer by expanding its coverage of “
America’s Team.” The network also has been designated the regional cable and satellite television home for Dallas Cowboys programming.
The extensive coverage kicks off with training camp updates from
San Antonio on nights following the network’s baseball postgame shows for the Rangers and Astros. Throughout the season, viewers will be treated to game night wrapup shows, a Cowboys Insider player’s show, updates from Valley Ranch headquarters and coverage of coach Wade Phillips’ weekly press conference.
“This is a milestone agreement for us,” said Jon Heidtke, FSN Southwest general manager. “We’re aligned with one of the most powerful and popular brands in all of professional sports. The Cowboys resonate with football fans not only in our region but across the globe.”
FSN Southwest anchors, former Cowboys players, Cowboys radio voice Brad Sham, Cowboys insider Mickey Spagnola and veteran Dallas sportscaster Bill Jones host the programs. Shows from Valley Ranch originate from a special FSN Southwest studio set located inside the Cowboys’ facility.
The network’s lineup:
— “Cowboys Roundup: Pre-Season Edition,” 10 p.m. Sundays: The 30-minute program hosted by Ric Renner with analysis from former Cowboys Rocket Ismail and Nate Newton, and reports from Sham, Spagnola and Jones is the final word on the team every Sunday night.
— “Cowboys Game Night” (Sundays or game days, 10 p.m. Premieres Sept 9): A 30-minute recap show breaking down the day’s game with highlights, analysis, interviews and stats. Hosted by Renner with analysis from Ismail and
Newton and reports from Sham, Spagnola and Jones.
— “FSN Live: Cowboys Training Camp” (nightly following baseball postgame shows): Jones and Spagnola check in from
San Antonio for 15-minute updates with the day’s training camp news.
— “Cowboys Update” (nightly during regular season): A special segment within the night’s FSN Live featured event postgame show provides the latest Cowboys news and insider reports from Spagnola and Jones from Valley Ranch.
— “Cowboys Insider” (6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Premieres Sept. 12): Hosted by former Cowboys Larry Brown and Darren Woodson, the 30-minute show features in-depth and behind-the-scenes access to a selected Cowboys player each week. Players are wired for sound on Sundays and revisit their comments from the heat of the battle in studio on Wednesdays.
— “Wade Phillips Press Conference” (Mondays live, replayed that evening): Live coverage of the head coach’s Monday afternoon press conference with analysis afterward by Sham, Spagnola and Jones.
— “Cowboys Legends” (Monthly specials): Sham spotlights legendary Cowboys, showcasing the mythic figures from the team’s unmatched winning tradition. Segments focus on favorite players from the past and what they’re doing now. Player interviews, classic highlights and personal insights from Sham highlight the monthly specials.
OSU freshman in reality series: OSU freshman defensive end Richetti Jones is featured in “ESPNU’s Summer House,” which returns for a second season at 8 p.m. Tuesday on ESPNU (Cox 253). The network brought together six of the nation’s top incoming college football freshmen to share a house for one week. “I’m really looking forward to it,” Jones, a former Dallas Lincoln star, said in June. “It’s sort of a competition thing, and I plan to win.”
This season, the players shared a house in Jersey City, N.J., outside of
New York City. The eight, 30-minute episodes followed the athletes as they interacted and engaged in competitive challenges, vying for the title “King of the House.” The series will air at 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Sept. 18, with re-airs generally scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesdays (starting Aug. 15) on ESPN2 (Cox 28).
Chris Spielman, a college football analyst and an 11-year NFL veteran, served as the “House Dad.” Besides Jones, the competitors were Danny Collins (Towson), Chris Gallipo (USC), Greg Little (North Carolina), Brian Maddox (South Carolina) and Taylor Skaufel (Stanford).
Ryder Cup captains to broadcast British Open for ABC
With 2008 Ryder Cup captains Paul Azinger and Nick Faldo serving as analysts, look for some Ryder Cup talk to sprout up on ABC’s coverage of the British Open this week.
Azinger will captain the American team, while Faldo will head up the defending champion Europeans.
“I’m going to try to avoid it, but I’m sure Faldo, riding in on the high horse, will try to pummel me a little bit,” Azinger said on a conference call. “That’ll be all right.”
Faldo has been part of ABC’s British Open coverage the past two seasons. Even after replacing Lanny Wadkins as CBS’ top golf analyst, he’ll still cover the British Open because of a clause he negotiated in his CBS contract.
“Obviosuly, we had a very good run with Nick with his two years at ABC and we told him we’d love to have him back for the Open,” said Bob Toms, ESPN vice president.
This will be ABC’s 46th year of covering the tournament. They have come a long way since their first broadcast, highlight segments on “Wide World of Sports,” to this year, 18-hole coverage of the final two rounds from Carnoustie Golf Links in Carnoustie, Scotland. Coverage will air 8 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Sunday. A one-hour highlight show also will air at 4 p.m. Sunday. Coverage also will air on TNT 6 a.m.-6 p.m. today, 6-8 a.m. Saturday and 5-7 a.m. Sunday.
Mike Tirico will host the broadcast. Terry Gannon and Peter Alliss will serve as hole announcers with on-course reporters Andy North, Judy Rankin and Bill Kratzert. Tom Rinaldi will provide interviews and essays. Among Rinaldi’s essays will be a look at Jean Van de Velde’s 72nd-hole collapse in the 1999 Open at Carnoustie. The Frenchman made a triple bogey to fall into a three-way playoff with Justin Leonard. and eventual champion Paul Lawrie of Scotland.
North said the changing weather conditions and the unique links courses make it difficult for
U.S. golfers, although Tiger Woods will be seeking his third consecutive British Open title.
“You can literally see all four seasons in a four- or five-hour round of golf over there,” he said. “It’s a totally different golf than that is played in America.”
ABC plans to use several technological innovations, including:
– Golf Trak providing 3D real-time virtual animation of every hole.
– Trackman Technology tracking ball speed, distance and trajectory of the ball within Golf Trak’s 3D modules for tee shots at the par-four No. 6 par-three No. 16.
– “X Mo,” ESPN’s high-speed, super-slow-motion camera.
Fox broadcasters like All-Star format
I like the new All-Star game format in which the winning league gets home-field advantage in the World Series. I think it adds some suspense to what had been a meaningless exhibition game. Fox Sports broadcasters Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, who will broadcast the game from AT&T Park in San Francisco at 7 p.m. Tuesday on KOKH-25, also like the rule. They discussed the broadcast in a conference call last week.
Buck: “Before this was the format, it was more of a TV show. It really contained no strategy. Now, it makes it a lot more fun and interesting because there is strategy involved. It’s something that has added to our conversation during the course of the game and it’s been debated for years now. I think the format has enhanced the game. …What we have noticed in the past couple of years is that the starters will play longer and the better players are in the game longer.”
McCarver: “I think it affects the managers more than it does the players. It’s a little far-fetched to think that when (Tampa Bay outfielder) Carl Crawford is batting in the top of the ninth with two outs, the winning run on second base that he’ll say to himself, ‘Lets win this for David Ortiz so the Red Sox can have home-field advantage in the World Series.’ Obviously that’s not the case. But I think Jim Leyland and Tony LaRussa will be playing this game to win and prior to this format I don’t think the managers really played the game to win. I think their first and foremost thoughts were to get everybody in the game.”
Steroid king Barry Bonds, who is closing in Hank Aaron’s career home run record, likely will get plenty of attention on the broadcast of the game in his home ballpark.
McCarver: “I think we’re going to do more than touch on it. I think it’s clear he still has a bastion of support in his hometown. Because the game is being held in
San Francisco, it somehow seems right to me that he’s starting the game. Would we spend more time on Barry Bonds than we would normally? Of course. Would he dominate the broadcast? Of course not.”
Buck: “There are 15 different angles you can come at it from. I think Tim and I have always been upfront, tried to tackle the tough issues and have the conversations that are taking place in living rooms and not just on television screens across the country. As opposed to a regular-season game, you don’t have time later to go back and revisit it. If we get the chance we will. But I can’t imagine there being enough time to really do it justice, so the question then becomes how much do you want to get into it when you can’t really give the full story. I’m sure we’ll be wrestling with it right up until game time and right up until his first at-bat. How long will his at-bat last? There are a lot of factors.”
If you can’t get enough of the All-Star game, FOXSports.com and MLB.com will give fans the opportunity to watch batting practice live on the Web as part of a special pregame Webcast. Co-hosted by FOX Sports’ Chris Rose and Harold Reynolds of MLB.com, the two-hour Webcast begins at 4 p.m. The presentation also includes exclusive on-field interviews with All-Star players and coaches, analysis of the season’s first half and live coverage of the official All-Star team photo shoot.
FSN’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period” will air the “MLB All-Star Game Red Carpet Special” at 6 p.m. Chris Rose, two-time All-Star Rob Dibble and FSN reporter Charissa Thompson follow the 2007 All-Stars as they arrive in front of AT&T Park for interviews conducted near the Willie Mays statue. The special also features contributions from Hall of Famers Ozzie Smith and Harmon Killebrew.
Profile of Dallas sports owner Tom Hicks
If you missed the Tom Hicks’ episode of “In My Own Words” on FSN Southwest, it’s worth catching a replay. The network plans to show the half-hour show at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and 1:30 a.m. Sunday.
Tom Hicks, owner and chairman of the board of the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers and new owner of the Liverpool FC soccer club, discusses what’s right and what’s wrong with his sports franchises. And until lately, there’s been a lot wrong with the Rangers, who bring up the rear in the AL West. Hicks expresses his frustration with the Rangers, and explains how he plans to turn the team into a winning franchise like he did with the Stars. He admits his intention when purchasing the Stars in 1995 was purely financial, hoping to turn around a lousy franchise, increase its value and sell it for profit.
Hicks also discusses his relationship with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, how an early investment in Cuban’s internet venture led to a multimillion dollar return and and how he’s helped his alma mater, the University of
Texas, succeed as an athletic powerhouse.
Here are a few excerpts from the episode:
On the Rangers: “I’m so disappointed and I’m so surprised because spring training was a love fest. We really thought we were going to get a fast start out of the gate and play well. I’m not sure I understand what’s happened yet. … It’s like we caught the flu and we can’t get rid of it, and now we just don’t play good baseball.”
On purchasing the Rangers and Stars: “When the previous (Rangers ownership) group built the ballpark, they took what had been a lousy franchise and all of a sudden made it a great franchise worth a lot more money, which I later paid for. That was really my attraction to the Stars. I knew they were a lousy franchise. They had very weak backing at the time and they were playing in a crummy arena.
Reunion had great memories, but it was obsolete, but in a great market. So I figured I could kind of help change all of that and put them in a great arena, and it would be worth a lot more money, and I’d sell it and make money. I’m a businessman, but what I didn’t count on is I fell in love with hockey. I don’t want to sell. I fell in love with sports. I now own three teams and have year-round sports.”
On his relationship with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban:“I know Jerry a lot better than Mark. We’re very good friends. Jerry’s a great businessman. He loves the Cowboys with all of his heart, and he’s much more involved with the day-to-day operations of the Cowboys than I would ever be with any of my teams. … Mark was very successful during the dotcom surge. I was fortunate enough to be one of his investors. I invested a couple of million bucks and made 20 times my money. It was one of the greatest things that ever happened to me. … We’ve got totally different backgrounds, but we get along just fine. The challenge is always making sure the people who work for us get along. We’ve gotten to where we do that pretty well.”
On purchasing Liverpool FC: “Liverpool is a great economic model. People are worried that I might take money away from the Rangers to go to
Liverpool. It’s just the reverse.
Liverpool is going to pull off lots of extra money that if I choose I can use for the Rangers or the Stars.”
On dealing with criticism: “In the newspaper, I’m a brilliant hockey owner and a really stupid baseball owner. It’s all about winning. If the team isn’t winning, everyone is fair game. I’ve had my share of that. The way you get to used to it is you just try to ignore it. I don’t listen to talk radio, but I do read the paper.”
