Boston Sports Media Watch

A couple of notes from the NFL Pregame shows today involving the Patriots.

From the NFL Network NFL Gameday Morning:

Adam Schefter had the following report:

Based on the hard-line stance the league is taking on cheap shot and Vince Wilfork’s prior record of controversial hits, the New England defensive tackle is staring straight at the possibility of being suspended for next Sunday night’s game at Indianapolis for a hit he delivered Monday night vs. Denver. During the first quarter of Monday night’s win over the Broncos, Wilfork threw a blatant elbow at Jay Cutler after Patriots S Rodney Harrison knocked down the Denver quarterback. As Cutler attempted to get up, Wilfork drilled the quarterback in the head with an elbow that caught the attention of the Broncos and the NFL. Ironically, the only penalty called on the play came against Broncos OT Ryan Harris – who defended Cutler, knocked down Harrison and drew a 15-yard penalty for unnecessary roughness. ESPN cameras failed to capture Wilfork’s hit. But the coaches’ tape caught it and the league noticed it. Disciplinary action against Wilfork could come as early as this week for a player who has another controversial hit on his resume. Last September, the NFL fined Wilfork $12,500 for landing his right elbow on Bills QB J.P. Losman’s left knee. The elbow drew a penalty and knocked Losman out of the lineup, paving the way for Bills QB Trent Edwards to take over and the league to be monitoring Wilfork. This time Wilfork could be facing a fine and or a suspension.

On CBS’ The NFL Today, Charlie Casserly had the following to say on reports this week that Tom Brady’s knee surgeries weren’t going well:

I talked to someone who is very familiar with the specifics of the surgery. They told me first of all, he had his ACL repaired using his own patellar tendon. An open repair on the MCL, just like Carson Palmer had. Five days after the surgery, there was swelling around the MCL incision. A few days later the whole knee swelled up. They then went in and flushed out both incisions. The second flushing out was just precautionary. Right now everything looks like it’s a go for next season for him to be able to play. Now if the graft doesn’t take and they have to redo the surgery, that would happen in January. We had a player with the Texans, exactly the same time frame. October surgery, graft doesn’t take. January surgery, he played that year. All is not lost if Brady has to have another surgery. I believe he will play next year.

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Poor Dick Enberg. Though his voice is still strong, and I enjoy his enthusiasm calling the game, the 73-year-old Enberg struggled mightily at times yesterday, calling the wrong players, and getting numerous facts incorrect. I’ve always liked Enberg, but he’s clearly on the way down.

We never really got an explanation of why Dan Fouts was also there, forming a three man booth with Enberg and Randy Cross. They mentioned several times that Fouts would be with them for the next few weeks, but didn’t really mention why.

During the direct-snap Faulk TD run, it was also curious to hear the crew (Cross especially) wonder if the Patriots coaching staff cribbed that play from the Dolphins “wildcat” formations. Haven’t they seen the direct-snap to Faulk any of the numerous times the Patriots have done it since 2001?

On a local note the SOX & Dawgs blog says that it is time to replace Gil and Gino in the Patriots radio broadcast booth.

Shade of Bob Hohler moving from news side to the sports side at the Globe: Ian Donnis reports that the ProJo is moving City Hall reporter Dan Barbarisi to the Red Sox beat.

During CBS’ The NFL Today broadcast, there wasn’t too much Patriots talk, but Dan Marino did say of the team:

This team was built to win games with Tom Brady and play with a lead. I don’t think Matt Cassel is going to put them in a position to play with a lead.

On NFL GameDay Morning yesterday, Adam Schefter had the following to say about the tampering allegations that Al Davis made against the Patriots:

During his news conference, Al Davis also took some shots at the New England Patriots saying that they tampered with the former Raiders WR Randy Moss. Last June, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sent out a memo that said teams should not be criticizing other teams or questioning them in public. The same thing happened after the ‘Spygate’ scenario last year. A memo went out saying teams should not be criticizing other teams and the New England Patriots are more sensitive about this than any other team in the league. The NFL is expected to take a look at this and either Davis has direct evidence that the Patriots tampered with Randy Moss, and in this case Davis gave them permission the day before the trade was made to speak with Moss directly, or the Oakland Raiders are going to face discipline from the NFL in the form of a fine or some sort of discipline. Al Davis opened up an entirely different can of worms when he went after the Patriots. That is an issue that is not going to go away anytime soon. That is something the league is now looking at.

On ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown”, the question was raised: Patriots or Colts: Who’s in more trouble?

Mike Ditka: “The Colts are. They are 32nd in trying to stop the run and 31st running the football. I don’t care, all the bye weeks I the world can’t change that. The other thing is the timing right now between Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison, its not just what it seemed to be. Marvin Harrison is a heck of a football player, they are just not in sync right now. I think they have problems.”

Tom Jackson: “Both teams are in a little bit of trouble. One team lost the best player in the league. That’s going to be the most trouble anybody is going to have all year. When we saw them two weeks ago, to put it bluntly, ‘we can’t run the ball, we can’t stop the run, we can’t pass the ball, we can’t stop the pass.’ All of that is not Matt Cassel’s fault. I don’t know how much of that you can fix in two weeks. But the ongoing question – who’s in the most trouble, the team that lost Tom Brady.”

Cris Carter: “Both teams that we’re trying to discuss are built for their quarterbacks. One has their quarterback, one doesn’t have their quarterback … I’m not going to say I don’t think they can throw, they think they can’t throw. If you look at their playbook, four pass attempts over 20 yards in three games. Now, this is a team that’s built for (Tom) Brady, operated by Brady, and can’t be operated by anyone else. So, forget my opinion, their play calling dictates to me that Cassel is not a great reader of coverages and they don’t have confidence in him.”

Keyshawn Johnson: “I wouldn’t panic right now. You are in the first quarter of a four-quarter season. In the first quarter, the Buffalo Bills are leading this division in the AFC right now – New England wins today, Buffalo loses, they pretty much are even … You’ve got two veteran coaches here who know how to make changes. When things are tough, these two coaches, coach (Tony) Dungy and coach (Bill) Belichick, have been in these situations before. I wouldn’t just say they’re in trouble.”

FOX NFL Sunday also discussed the Raiders situation at length.

NBC promoted next week’s Patriots/Chargers matchup with a montage of highlights and clips between the two teams, with Brady’s injury, Tomlinson’s “no class” comments about Bill Belichick and featuring the tagline “No Love, No Brady, No Mercy.”

During TBS MLB on Deck on Saturday, the network offered up a Dennis Eckersley lexicon. We here in New England are of course familar with these terms from Eck’s work on NESN:

Ecktionary

Cheese = Fastball
Salad = Bad Pitch
Paint = Good Control
Johnson = Home Run
Moss = Hair
Boiling = Fat
Iron = Money
Filet = Ugly Person

Eckersley has been outstanding in the TBS role, easily the best part of the studio shows. As on NESN, he speaks his mind, and isn’t afraid to disagree with Cal Ripken Jr.

Site Sponsor: DailyTravelDeal.com has a great Italy On Your Own trip as their deal of the day.

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The ever-expanding empire of WEEI is on the move again, this time to Maine. From the Portland Press Herald:

The owners of WJJB, a Portland sports talk radio station known as the Big Jab, will begin simulcasting Boston sports talk station WEEI in southern Maine on Sept. 1.

WJJB’s owner, Atlantic Coast Radio, has finalized a contract to simulcast WEEI through 2013, said Jon Van Hoogenstyn, general manager of WJJB. Jim Rushton, vice president of sales for Entercom New England, confirmed that the contract had been finalized. Entercom owns WEEI.

Rushton said the announcement of the contract is very different than the announcement made last summer, when Nassau Broadcasting declared its intent to simulcast WEEI in Portland.

At that time, Entercom and Nassau had signed a letter of intent, said Rushton, but the contract was not finalized and the simulcasting never happened. But Entercom and WJJB have a signed contract.

WEEI will be heard in southern Maine at two dial positions, said Van Hoogenstyn. One is 95.5 FM, currently the FM home of WJJB. The other is 95.9 FM, currently a hip hop station owned by Atlantic Coast Radio, WRED. Van Hoogenstyn said the hip hop station will go off the air.

Mad Dog To SIRIUS XM Radio

Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, the former star of the Mike and the Mad Dog show on WFAN in New York has signed a five year deal with SIRIUS XM radio to headline his own branded sports talk channel.

SIRIUS channel 123 and XM channel 144 will relaunch as Mad Dog Radio. Russo will host the channel’s anchor program, “The Mad Dog Sports Show,” live from SIRIUS’ New York studios every weekday afternoon from 2:00 to 7:00pm ET. The exclusive show will begin airing daily on SIRIUS channel 123 and XM channel 144 on Monday, September 15.

NFL Network to Give Sharpe a Shot

If you loved Shannon Sterling Sharpe’s insightful commentary during Sunday night’s Patriots/Bucs preseason game, you’re going to love his expanded role during this Sunday’s Bills/Colts game on NFLN, as Sharpe will step into the play-by-play role. He will be joined in the booth by the equally brilliant Marshall Faulk and Deion Sanders, who will be counted on to bring some sanity to the booth.

Fouts Returns to CBS

Dan Fouts, NFL Hall of Famer and former All-Pro quarterback with the San Diego Chargers, will be returning to CBS Sports as an analyst for THE NFL ON CBS. The announcement was made today by Sean McManus, President, CBS News and Sports.

Fouts will call selected games throughout the 2008 NFL ON CBS schedule, as well as selected games for CBS Sports’ SEC ON CBS broadcasts and CBS College Sports Network’s college football coverage.

Fouts returns to the network he called home from 1988 to 1993. From 1997 to 2008 he was at ABC working on College football broadcasts and spending two years on Monday Night Football.

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