CBS and Tony Romo can use the “Kirk Herbstreit” distance model for their late afternoon wildcard game between the Saints and the Bears this Sunday, The Post has learned.
Romo had to miss last Sunday’s game due to COVID protocols. He may not be allowed to travel from his home in Dallas to New Orleans on Sunday.
Last week, after arriving in Los Angeles to name the Rams-Cardinals game, Romo was banned due to COVID protocols, resulting in Boomer Esiason flying across the country to join Jim Nantz on the No. 1 team. to work.
A spokeswoman for CBS said it will announce its coverage plans later this week.
For the National Championship semifinals, ESPN built on Herbstreit’s home studio so he could call the Ohio State-Clemson game. Herbstreit announced he had COVID in the days before.
While no final decision has been made on Romo, CBS would have a similar setup at his home or at a local studio. Just as ESPN play-by-player Chris Fowler was on the scene for the semifinals, Nantz would be in New Orleans for Bears-Saints.
The other possibility would be for Romo to travel to New Orleans for the game, or to be absent.
Romo signed a 10-year, $ 180 million contract this low season. He missed a Sunday earlier in the season when Nantz called the Masters.
He’s called 15 games this year and, if he does all the playoffs, he’ll play a total of 19 games, ending with the Super Bowl in February from Tampa.
Boog’s move
ESPN’s Jon (Boog) Sciambi who becomes the Cubs’ new protagonist shows a few things. The first is that, as The Post previously reported, ESPN will cut back significantly on its weekday games with its new MLB extension launching in the 2022 season.
While a top job like the Cubs will grab everyone’s attention, the idea of combining ESPN with a local gig is one way to maximize revenue.
People have been doing the local / national thing for a long time (Mike Breen, Ian Eagle, Brian Anderson), but this could become a new trend with the changing dynamics of traditional media companies, like ESPN. Sciambi is calling 130 games, give or take, for the Cubs network, Marquee. He will still do baseball and college hoops for ESPN. With a raised raise, Sciambi can “Fly the W.”
One app, too many taps
ESPN has a ubiquitous promo that emphasizes “One App, One Tap”. It’s a catchy tune, but it takes way too many taps to find the radio shows.
You go to the app, then you have to click on the bottom right where it says “More”. After that, you have to scroll down a bit to find ‘Live Radio’. After you click on that, there are a ton of shows to choose from.
In any case, for radio it feels more like ‘One app, one card needed’.
SportsCenter cartoons
On Tuesday morning in his show’s new timeslot on 98.7 FM, Rick DiPietro said that if he led ESPN, he would attract younger viewers with a cartoon version of “SportsCenter.” The idea earns 4.53 / 5 clickers. We don’t usually like forced synergy, but this Mickey Mouse idea isn’t bad.
Clicker books
“Dalko: The Untold Story of Baseball’s Fastest Pitcher,” by Bill Dembski, Alex Thomas, and Brian Vikander, describes the exploits of 1950s pitcher Steve Dalkowski, who was reportedly the hardest pitcher of all time with pre-radar weather estimates over 100 MPH, but was unable to make it to Major Leagues due to control and other issues. The character Nuke LaLoosh from “Bull Durham” was inspired by Dalkowski. Dalko gets a 4.3 out of 5 from Papa Clicker.