Football on TV
The TV numbers for the wildcard round of the playoffs were down. Only the Saints-Panthers last weekend out drew Monday's national championship, which was up 10 percent from the previous year and delivered a 15.6 ratings and more than 28 million viewers.
Side note: Here are a couple of interesting TV tidbits from Monday night's Alabama win over Georgia. It was the third-most watched cable program ever, behind the Oregon-THE Ohio State title game in 2015 and the Alabama-THE Ohio State Sugar Bowl. Side note to the side note: For all those folks claiming conspiracy theories that the college football committee picked Alabama over THE Ohio State for the ratings, well, it's clear that if they were looking for the most eyeballs, the conspiracy would have been to pick THE Ohio State.
In a year in which sports across almost all cable platforms dropped, the impressive numbers of the college football playoff as a whole was pretty impressive. The three games averaged 26.3 million viewers, which is an increase of 18 percent from last year and almost 30 percent from January 2016.
And while the numbers for the forgettable bowls with mockable names dropped, the complete New Year's Six bowl package averaged 17 million viewers, which was up 6 percent from last year, according to sportsmediawatch.com
As for the NFL, well, the Rams-Falcons game last Saturday night was the lowest-rated prime time Wildcard playoff game ever. And it was not even close: Atlanta-Los Angeles, two of the top 10 media markets in the country, mind you, had a 12.8 ratings and 22.8 million viewers. The previous low in the 17 prime time Wildcard games since 2002 was the Jets Raiders (2002) and the Jags-Pats (2006), which had 13.9 ratings.
Side note: If there is any doubt what drives the bus in the A-T-L, well, the rating for the Rams-Falcons in Atlanta was 29 and the rating share of the TVs tuned into Georgia-Alabama on Monday was 47.8.
Still, some perspective is needed. The Saints-Panthers on Sunday pulled almost three million more viewers than the Alabama-Georgia game and the Saints-Panthers was the most show on TV since the Academy Awards.
Bouncing Ball
LaVar Ball is one of the rare celebrities who has become famous primarily because he's famous.
That was originally said about George Hamilton, and it was pretty astute.
It has become the main hallmark of the Kardashian clan. (Well that and adult movies.)
Ball, however, has become the ring-leader of a media circus that swirls around him, equally mocking him and promoting him while he smiles and waves and says whatever he wants to keep the spin cycle spinning.
The latest incident, though, has some interesting tentacles that must be closely inspected.
Forget the Lithuania stuff. Dude can do what he wants in terms of his kids. And as any parent will tell you, judging another man's parenting decisions is pointless and almost assuredly means difficulty will find your family sooner rather than later.
This is deeper and more involved, and really has very little to do with any of the Ball family.
LaVar dropped verbal bombs on Luke Walton, saying the young Lakers coach has lost the locker room and none of the young players want to play for him.
For those of us who have coached youth sports, parents being unhappy about playing time is as common as blue jeans.
On the NBA level, it is certainly different, especially considering no NBA dad has had this type of platform ever.
But the spoiled and child-like reactions of some of the NBA head coaches is at best juvenile and at worst a serious threat to the way a lot of folks make a living.
Stan Van Gundy, the Pistons coach, is saying he will restrict access to anyone who covers anything involving LaVar Ball, including ESPN, which he a) used to work for and b) employs his brother who is certainly not a shrinking violet in terms of saying what he thinks.
Here's Van Gundy's rant from the Detroit Free Press: "I thought it was a cheap shot and I thought ESPN showed total disrespect. "I don't have a problem with LaVar Ball. He's a grown man. He can voice whatever opinion he wants. I got a problem with ESPN deciding that's a story."
Stan also said he's not going to give ESPN "extra access" during a national TV game later this month, including skipping the in-game interview. (Oh sweet buckets how are we going to be able to watch a game without some NBA coach telling us "ball movement" and "patience" are the key to turning it around.)
Steve Kerr and Rick Carlisle have also chimed in and come out condemning the media for doing stories on Ball. And truth be told, it's not like Luke Walton is doing that great of a job gang. The Lakers are 13-27 for Pete Maravich's sake.
The real threat here, though, is the real threat of holding back news and access because the coaches do not agree with what is being printed and reported. That's scary.
And to do it against ESPN, which has paid the league billions for those broadcast rights, also has to grab the attention of the commish and the owners.
As for coaches bellyaching about it, what a bunch of babies.
College hoops
Hey, college basketball started last night.
Cool. (In truth, it started in November and we are almost exactly halfway through the season, if you can believe that. Tennessee for example, opened the season on Nov. 10, exactly two months ago today; Selection Sunday is March 11, two months and a day from today.)
On Tuesday night there was a lot to notice. Nice win for UT. Nice run for Auburn. Continued struggles for Texas A&M, which lost by a point at Kentucky.
Let's take an SEC deep 3, shall we?
Yes, we know they have had injuries, but in an SEC season that has been filled with so much promise and praise, the Aggies' struggles have been head-scratching. Know this: That team is way better than they are playing and way too talented to be bagel-and-4 and DFL in the league. Yes, a one-pointer at Rupp Arena is hardly an embarrassment, but man.
Second, Grant Williams is a man. Dude is thick and strong and has a ton of touch around the rim. That's so rare and so valuable. As TFP ace sports columnist Mark Wiedmer shared from UT's win over Vandy on Tuesday - and gang, we have a few rules in life, Never play cards with someone nicknamed after a city, never date a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body, and if Weeds is writing on college hoops, we're in are three big ones - Williams is a boss.
That Auburn has won 13 in a row, and so amazingly deep, without their two best players is such a credit to the things Bruce Pearl does in-game and within the frame work of building a program. Auburn's two best players before the season are still awaiting NCAA clearance after the FBI investigation revealed former assistant Chuck Person was funneling shoe-company money. Person was fired; Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy have not played this year as Auburn waits to certify their eligibility. And without those cats, Auburn had nine dudes play more than 11 minutes last night and routed Ole Miss in the second half.
Let's add one more that dawned on us. What an awful year for the SEC to have its tournament in St. Louis, right? Missouri, the host school, lost Michael Porter, the nation's No. 1 recruit, about three minutes into the season. (Although, if Porter does go one-and-done and leaves without ever getting back on the floor, he will tie the all-time NCAA record for field-goal percentage. Dude was 1-for-1 before hurting his back.) Anyhoo, UK will still make the event well attended, but with UT and Auburn having eye-poppingly special starts to the season, a tournament in Nashville or Hot-lanta this year would have been a monster ticket.
Thoughts?
This and that
- Speaking of college hoops, ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg will join us on Press Row today. We may ask him how thinks have been since he and Golic quit doing the radio show. Oh, scratch that, that's MIKE Greenberg, isn't it?
- Jon Gruden was introduced as the Oakland Raiders head coach. It will be interesting to see how that turns out, right? There's no way for Chuckie - not unlike Herm Edwards at Arizona State - to be a four-year, 34-30 run with say one playoff trip. It's either going to be extremely good or extremely not good. (And yes, we think there's no doubt Gruden has a better chance to succeed than Herm, in this view.)
- Kevin Durant is supposed to return to action tonight. He's 25 points away from topping 20,000. He would be the second-youngest to reach that milestone. The youngest? LeBron. Durant is 29 and he would be the fifth to get to 20K before turning 30. The others? Wilt, MJ, Kobe and LeBron. That's a strong list.
- Bruce Arians got the interwebs rolling by telling Colin Cowherd on Tuesday that he would not be surprised if Nick Saban left Alabama for one particular NFL job. Arians said Saban would be interested in the New York Giants, who are currently looking for a head coach. Side note: There's no way Alabama would let money ever be a factor in Saban's mind. He made more than $11 million in 2017 and you could argue he still was underpaid. But let's say the Giants offered him $15 million - a stunning figure since reports have Bill Belichick's salary between $7-8 million - at a lunch meeting today. Alabama would top that before dessert was served.
Today's question
It was 36 years ago today that Montana found Clark for The Catch.
Rod Stewart is 73 today. Georgia Foreman is 69.
Jim Croce would have been 76 today.
David Bowie died on this day two years ago.
We are going a little of the reservation on today's question. Simply put, everyone in the birthday category is as forgettable as that English Lit class you took in college because of ol WhoseherPants.
Let's try this: Today is January 10. Or 1/10. Or also designated as 1-10.
If we were going to go across the four major professional sports in North America, and we tried to rank the all-time jersey wearer of the numbers 1-10, who do you nominate? Like we know Ruth has 3, right?
Go, and enjoy the day.