It’s the team’s fans that are seeing the plug pulled. From the St. Petersburg Times-
By now, most folks know it’s possible that Fox channels will not be seen on Bright House Networks if a new contract is not reached before midnight Thursday.
While fans worry about missing NFL playoff and BCS bowl games on Fox (locally, Ch. 13), there are other local fans who could be affected. If a deal between Fox and Time Warner Cable, which oversees content for Bright House, is not reached, Lightning and Magic games will disappear as well. Those games are on Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida, which are owned by Fox.
“Obviously, we are keenly interested observers on this one, and we hope that Fox and Time Warner can get something done to prevent any programming from being lost in viewers’ homes,” said Bill Wickett, Lightning executive VP/communications. “We are concerned for Lightning fans and will continue to monitor the situation closely but have confidence that the companies will work hard to reach a deal before the deadline.”
The first Lightning game that could be affected is Jan. 2 against the Penguins. Fox isn’t hopeful a deal will be reached in time.
Lightning fans better not hold their breaths. It was four months ago that the dispute between Directv and Versus ratcheted up with the satellite service no longer airing the channel that broadcasts weekly NHL games, WAC football, and other sports. The dispute still hasn’t been settled and who knows if Fox-Time Warner fight will drag on just as long.
My first advice to him. Check pro golf schedules before making suggestions how to improve a LPGA schedule. Andrews wrote-
It’s hard to believe, even in the current economic downturn, that there are no LPGA events scheduled between the end of February and the last week in March here in the U.S. Ideally, those weeks would be filled with tournaments in Florida and other warm-weather states.
The LPGA would not come to Florida during the dates Dave is suggesting. You know why? Because the PGA Tour is dominating the Sunshine State golf scene at that time. Tournaments known as Doral, Honda, Bay Hill, and the Tampa tournament or the The Players Championship are or were played in usually 4 consecutive weeks. If Dave used that Harvard educated brain of his instead of being lazy or careless in not putting to use Golfobserver.com’s stat section, he would have noticed the LPGA avoids the Sunshine State when the men are playing here. Traditionally late February and March have been months for LPGA events in Arizona, California, and Hawaii. NOT FLORIDA and I checked back to 1980. No LPGA event has been played in Florida from the last weekend in February through all of March from 1980-2009. The latest a LPGA pre April Florida based tournament has ended in any of those years is February 21st.
He would also have known that the LPGA not starting its US based tournaments till mid March is new either. The LPGA Tour in 2003 didn’t finish its first event till March 16th.
If Dave answers my page, I’d tell him to do some research in the future.
The incident occurred a little over 24 hours before his team was supposed to play in the Hawaii Bowl. From AP-
A Nevada linebacker who did not play in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl after he was dismissed by the team had been arrested days earlier on suspicion of shoplifting.
Honolulu police say Andre Davis was detained this week by security at a Waikiki store before he was turned over to authorities.
Nevada coach Chris Ault said Wednesday that Davis had been dismissed from the program for violating team and athletic department policy although he did not disclose the exact violation.
Davis apologized to his team and family in an interview with Hawaii’s KGMB-KHNL news station Wednesday after posting bail.
Whomever the AP hack writer who did this article, gives the distinct impression that the reason for Davis arrest wasn’t known at least to the wire service till Christmas day. That is when this article was originated.
Unless AP’s Honolulu office had no one working since December 23rd, I’m not buying they didn’t know of the arrest of Andre Davis. As the article above states, the player appeared on television on December 24th. During ESPN’s broadcast of the Hawaii Bowl, announcers made at least one mention of Davis’ arrest. That’s how I knew about it. Also the Honolulu Advertiser, one of Oahu’s two major newspapers, had the news no later than Wednesday afternoon.
I’ll also point out that AP regularly copies(or someone less critical would rewrites) the work of local reporters and then puts it out as the work of the wire service. Here’s just one example of AP doing just that, and getting the facts wrong in the process. Based on that Associated Press had to know the real reason for Davis’ dismissal by Nevada.
Tonight’s meeting with the ‘Broad Street Bullies’ resembled a night at fights almost as much as it did a hockey game. There were four separate instances of fisticuffs between the Flyers and Panthers.Three of which took place in the first period.
When the teams weren’t trading punches, Florida’s first line was excelling at target practice. Michael Frolik, Stephen Weiss got one goal each and Nathan Horton put two pucks in the net on the way to a 4-1 Panther victory.
These players, Horton and Weiss in particular, have been on fire. Here are there point totals through 38 games.
Horton- 13 goals, 24 assists or 37 points
Weiss- 18 goals, 19 assists or 37 points
Frolik- 11 goals, 12 assists or 23 points
This line has scored 13 goals and had 21 assists over the last 6 Florida games.
Weiss had a career high 4 points tonight.
He is also only 2 goals off matching his previous season high(20). At this point Weiss and Horton(both former Florida first round draft picks) on their way to 80 point seasons.
Horton, who most NHL knowledgeable has been a underacheiver, has shown flashes throughout his career that he could reach that point plateau. Weiss is a whole other story. His highest points total for a season is 61 scored in the 2008-09 season. Are these guys just hot or having a breakthrough in their careers?
Florida was 5th in the Eastern Conference in goal scoring going into last weekend. That has occurred while two of the team’s biggest scoring weapons have been out for a month or more. 30-goal scorer David Booth hasn’t played since October and veteran Cory Stillman has been out for a month.
Florida continues to do well on the road. They are 10-9-2 versus 6-6-5 at home. Have the Panthers made a believer of me or do I still think they won’t make the playoffs? I still need more convincing that Florida is really this good.
A couple of closing notes
*- I got to start writing down some of the inane things Panther Billy Lindsay says during a game. Last month he invoked Ross Perot, last Friday he said the Panthers would win if Vokoun shuts out Carolina. Tonight he said the Florida 1st line ‘was hotter than donut grease’. Boy do I miss Denis Potvin.
*- Either Lindsay or Steve Goldstein noted how poorly Flyer Goalie Michael Leighton has played this year. No doubt Leighton has been terrible. He had a .848 save percentage entering tonight and let two of 17 Florida shots get by him tonight. When will Lindsay or Goldstein be just as honest about the performance of Panther Goalie Clemmensen? Clemmensen’s save pct. is .884 and he’s giving up 3.7 goals a game to boot. If Leighton has been terrible for this NHL season, Clemmensen has been very bad.
The 2009 Dolphin season is over. There are two games to be played. What I’m talking about is any chance the team had of making the playoffs.
Miami has never looked like a legitimate playoff team to me this season. Even after they won an exciting game against the Jets early in the season, my view of the fins was tempered. They make just too many mistakes and their defense is too prone to giving up big plays.
Like today when Miami fell behind 24-6 early in the 3rd period. I didn’t blame Miami’s two turnovers at the time(The Dolphins made a total of 4 for the game. More on that later.) for the deficit. They were certainly bad and couldn’t have come at worse times. Each taking place while Miami had the ball in the Tennessee half of the field.
What was killing the Dolphins inability to stop Tennessee anytime it mattered. As seen in the 364 yards they ran up against Miami. Vince Young was hardly brilliant, but he got the job done.
With 5:33 left in the third quarter, Miami narrowed Tennessee’s lead to 15 after Dan Carpenter sucessfully made a field goal. The score was now 24-9.
Both CBS announcers, Dan Fouts and Dick Enberg, were critical of Dolphin Coach Tony Sparano’s decision to go for the field goal. I differed, partly because I was ignoring the inane announcers(How many ways can the name Sparano be pronounced? I think Fouts and Enberg were going for a record today. Those were minor broadcast blunders compared to Fouts calling a pass incomplete when it was clearly caught and the player tackled and other bungled pronouncements from the booth. I really should have turned off the sound today but that was happening naturally without any help from me. The screen went blank six plus times during the game. First with audio, then without. The telecast would then re-appear after 10-15 seconds)and partly because I knew how to add. The score was now 24-9 and the game was now a two-touchdown affair.
Then in the waning seconds of the 3rd qtr, Chad Henne threw a INT from the Tennessee 14 yard line. For a few moments I gave up hope and started looking for other programming. Doctor Zhivago, playing on Turner Movie Classics, looked more appealing than 15 minutes of tortuous football.
Miami rallied in the 4th quarter. Mostly thanks to Henne, who played those fifteen minutes like a Hall of Famer. Henne threw 11 of 16 passes for 150 yards, two touchdowns, and with a passer rating of 119.3. A Ricky Williams run for the two-point conversion with less than two minutes to go made the score 24-24.
For overtime, the Dolphins won the toss. On a 3rd and 6 from the Miami 27, Henne three INT#3. Which would have given the Titans the ball on the 43 yard line or so. Except a official threw a unnecessary roughness penalty on Miami WR Greg Camarillo. A personal foul for making sure the play was dead? This was a bad call.
Given the ball inside the Miami 30 yard line, I knew Tennessee wasn’t about to blow their second chance to win. Three running plays came and went before Rob Bironas booted a 46-yard field goal to give the Titans a 27-24 win.
In theory Miami remains in the playoff picture. They will need LOTS of help to play this post season.
Next up for Miami- Games against Houston(a team they have lost to in each of 4 prior meetings) and Pittsburgh. Both games are played in Miami. I predict the fins to finish the 2009 season at 8-8.
The Dolphins won the second NFL battle of Florida today. Like the score indicates, it was a close run thing.
Both Miami and Jacksonville are 7-6 now and in the playoff hunt. I’m just not convinced either team is playoff worthy.
Miami jumped out to an early 14-0 lead and then went about finding any way possible to let the Jaguars back into the game. Jacksonville had 4 first half possessions, three of which were 3 and out. The other was a touchdown drive and Miami led at halftime 14-7.
Statistically, Miami dominated the first half. Two Dolphin turnovers, fumbles by Ricky Williams and Davone Bess, kept them from widening their lead. In all Miami turned over the ball three times today, two fumbles and one interception. In all Williams made three fumbles and he had made only one such miscue for the first 12 games of this season. I’ll get back to that later.
The play in the second half was much closer in its over all quality. That’s to say both teams played mediocre football. Chad Henne made 17 straight completions at one point, but then spent the last 20 minutes of the game doing almost nothing right.
A Josh Scobee field goal with 4:55 left in the third period made the score 14-10. The 4th period saw both teams spin their wheels most of the time. A sack of Jaguar QB David Garrard as he attempted a Quarterback draw on a 4th and 2 with less than two minutes in the game basically wrapped up the win for Miami.
Miami is 7-6 now and have three games remaining to be played. At Tennesee, then Houston and Pittsburgh in Miami. All 3 of these teams have losing record but the Titans have bounced back from a 0-6 start, Miami has never beaten Houston the four teams the two teams have played, and the Steelers still have Ben Rothlisberger. That makes no pushover. Notwithstanding how the playoff picture stands now, I still have little confidence in the Dolphins making the playoffs.
Jacksonville doesn’t impress me either. Their QB Garrard should probably be an NFL backup. Yes he has a 86 passer rating but today Garrard was 11 for 26 for 139 yards against Miami’s inexperienced defense. 63 of those passing yards came on one completion.
A couple of notes on today’s game
*- A superstitious NFL fan may have concluded from today’s broadcast that the CBS announce crew were doing their darndest to put the hex on Miami. For instance-
Early in the game they noted how Rickey Williams had only one or two fumbles all year long before today.
That Placekicker Dan Carpenter had made 17 consecutive field goal attempts.
Williams promptly laid the football on the field twice in the game and Carpenter missed a FG attempt about half way through the 3rd period.
The announcers said something else during the game that went the other way. I just can’t recall it at this time.
*- Today’s game was played in Jacksonville and there were many empty seats in the stands. The Jaguars were 7-5 coming into today’s game and coming off five straight home wins, but fans don’t want to watch the games in person. Yes I know the present economy is bad, but I still think NFL football may not have a long future in Northern Florida.
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OTB Sports linked with 14-0= Indianapolis beats Jacksonville 35-31...
He was also a long-time NFL assistant with five different teams. Most recently he was a Pitt radio analyst. RIP.
Foge Fazio, who succeeded Jackie Sherrill as the football coach at alma mater Pittsburgh and later was a defensive coordinator for the NFL’s Vikings and Browns, died Wednesday night following a lengthy battle with leukemia. He was 71.
Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson confirmed Fazio’s death while attending the Pitt-Duquesne basketball game on Wednesday night.
Fazio, who grew up in Coraopolis, Pa., in suburban Pittsburgh, was a former Pitt linebacker and center and was chosen as the team MVP in 1959. He was drafted by the AFL’s Boston Patriots in 1960 but soon after moved into coaching. He spent nine seasons as a Pitt assistant, the final three as defensive coordinator, before being promoted to head coach in 1982, following three successive 11-1 seasons under Sherrill.
Fazio’s first Pitt team, quarterbacked by Dan Marino, began the season ranked No. 1 and started 7-0, but lost three of its final five as the Panthers’ offense struggled. His 1983 team went 8-3-1, but he was fired with two years left on his contract following a 31-0 loss to Penn State in 1985.
Fazio was 25-18-3 at Pitt, including a 3-7-1 record in 1984.
“I don’t know that anyone embodied the Pitt spirit better than Foge Fazio,” Pederson said. “It was obvious from the first time that I met him how passionate he was about this university and its football program. Foge had the unique ability to make everyone he came in contact with feel special. In so many ways he represented all the great things associated with the University of Pittsburgh.”
After leaving Pitt, Fazio was hired as coach Lou Holtz’s defensive coordinator at Notre Dame. He also was an assistant coach with the Falcons, Jets and Redskins and was the defensive coordinator of the Vikings (1996-98) and Browns (2001-02). He retired with Cleveland in 2003 but returned two years later as a Vikings defensive consultant under coach Mike Tice.
Fazio spent the last two seasons as a radio analyst on Pitt football broadcasts, but hadn’t worked this season since the South Florida game on Oct. 24. He recently told broadcast partner Bill Hillgrove he hoped to return for the No. 14 Panthers game Saturday against No. 5 Cincinnati.
“Foge was a true ‘Pitt Man,’ ” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “He loved this university and everyone at Pitt loved Foge.
To the same state, but different bowl game, than the Mustangs last appearance. From ESPN-
SMU celebrated its first bowl bid in 25 years in style Monday, accepting an invitation to play in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl on Dec. 24.
President Gerald Turner, athletic director Steve Orsini and coach June Jones, wearing leis, officially accepted an invitation at a festive, Hawaiian-themed event inside the student center. The announcement caused the crowd of a few hundred — fans, boosters, administrators, players, cheerleaders and band members — to break into wild applause.
“We’ve proven there’s life after death,” Orsini said.
It is SMU’s first bowl invitation since beating Notre Dame in the 1984 Aloha Bowl. In 1985, the program was placed on three years’ probation. In 1987, the SMU football program was given the Death Penalty by the NCAA and was shut down for two seasons — the harshest penalty ever given to any major collegiate program.
If Hawaii beats Wisconsin, the Golden Warriors will be SMU’s opponent. If not, then another WAC school.
I find it interesting that ESPN’s Richard Durrett makes no mention of the fact that June Jones left Hawaii for SMU two years ago and the acrimony that resulted because of it. The crowd’s reaction to Jones return could be very interesting.
Dan Le Batard of the Miami Herald sums up the last 36 hours of Tiger Woods news.
The news-gathering landscape has mutated so quickly and so absolutely, at once enhanced and contaminated by the immediacy of everything from texts to Twitter to TMZ, that America’s most famous athlete this weekend went from suffering a serious injury in a car accident . . . to suffering a minor injury in a car accident . . . to being “fine,” according to his agent . . . to reportedly being unfaithful to his wife . . . to maybe having his face scratched by his angry wife . . . to being rescued by his helpful wife from his crashed car with a golf club . . . to having his car smashed up by his betrayed wife and her golf club . . . to not being any kind of “fine” at all.
Not all of that can be true, obviously, but who cares?
Truth is one of the many things that gets trampled today when boring facts can’t keep up with the media’s need to feed instantly and the public’s appetite to be fed faster than that.
Actually sports celebrity news bores me. I blogged about the news of Woods accident but refrained on speculating about its cause. That kind of restraint is not normal in either the news business or blogging now. I rather not make a fool out of myself by talking about 2nd or 3rd hand error prone news.
If someone wants to make the case I’m a fool, there’s over 4 years of blog posts out on the internet ready and waiting for them.
They broadcast 71 of the 82 games the Florida Panthers play in the 2009-10.
Right now the Florida Panthers are playing the Pittsburgh Penguins. Florida, who is coming off a 3 game road winning streak, leads the game 2-0. The puck is on ice now with just a few minutes left in the 2nd period. So what am I watching?
Commercials. A few minutes ago the broadcast broke up and a screen came on saying there were technical difficulties.
Bullshit! FSN has technical difficulties every Panther broadcast they do. Their obtrusive in game promotions for other programming, annoy the hell out of me every time I see them. I don’t give a @#$#$%! about the next broadcast, or some other FSN show. I want to watch the hockey on ice like any other NHL fan. How the hell am I supposed to do that when a good size portion of the screen is covered with garbage?
Obviosuly FSN doesn’t give a damn about its viewers. Rather than entertain us, they can’t stop from promoting itself and haven’t a clue how much they piss off viewers when they do. That’s why I hate FSN Florida.
Update- The broadcast is back on. I think the technical difficulties were really an excuse for FSN to flood viewers with more commercials. Florida still leads 2-0. Go Panthers!
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