“Showcasing the sounds and images of the game, from the smallest detail to the big picture has been our strength for nearly 50 years,” said NFL Films President Steve Sabol. “We are thrilled to get an opportunity to produce that type of show with a new partner in Versus.”

“NFL Turning Point is symbolic of the high-quality, relevant programming viewers will see more of on our national, all-sports cable platform,” said Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBC Sports Group. “It unites two of sports’ premier storytellers in NBC Sports and NFL Films to bring viewers a new perspective on the game.”

It’ll also serve as NBC’s own form of self-promotion, as the show will often include games featuring teams that are playing against each other during the upcoming Sunday night game on NBC.

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“We need [intense] marketing to boost interest among casual fans,” McEnroe said. “We need a Hard Knocks for tennis. We need people to see inside [the sport]. to really see what players say and do.”

No doubt this template could be extremely popular — if the tennis players being covered were Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic or Caroline Wozniacki. But watching men hit hundreds of balls in practice, or traveling solo around the world with occasional interactions with their coaches and families? Hard to see how that’d be compelling theater. If the subject were McEnroe back his hey day, screaming at umpires and winning titles, it’d be a different story. But no men’s player nowadays holds that kind of personal interest for casual fans. Well, maybe Andy Rodddick, but a Hard Knocks production would probably need to include large doses of supermodel Brooklyn Decker, his wife, to keep people’s attention.

(H/T Big Lead Sports)

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It’s not that the ABC-ESPN quartet (Stuart Scott , Michael Wilbon , Jon Barry and Magic Johnson ) were lacking.

They produced solid food for thought, pointing out the pluses and minuses of the two teams.

It’s just that the Barkley Bite would have added even more drama to the telecasts because of his season-long anti-Miami attitude.

You may recall that Barkley’s derisive comments about the Heat produced so much heat from Miami fans that when TNT was covering a game in Miami in the playoffs, the network’s outside studio show was moved inside because fans were yelling at Barkley.

Barkley in many ways did become the media vessel for fans’ overwhelming resentment of the Heat. He poked fun at bandwagon Miami fans who materialized after the Heatles came together last summer. And he called the players themselves a “whiny bunch” whom he wouldn’t even pick to beat the Washington Generals. In those regards Barkley would have lent a subjective voice to an ostensibly objective presentation. On the other hand, did we really need a commentator holding the whammy bar on our own inner voices?

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Why is that unusual?

Well, the former game was shown on cable (ESPN), while the latter took place on network television (ABC). Normally, network broadcasts far outstrip their cable counterparts. Combine that with Sunday night’s Oscars, and it’s surprising that so many people watched the Knicks-Heat.

Both overnights were well ahead of last season, however. Everyone wins.

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It’s an extension of the precedent set in 2010 when “the Masters became the first major sporting event produced and broadcast in 3D live internationally on television and the Internet.”

ESPN, which is pulling out all the stops for the broadcast, will also produce “a special 43-hour Masters tribute on ESPN Classic.” Man, that’s a lot of Tiger Woods.

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Earlier this week, Chris Jones of Son of a Bold Venture offered up 15 tips of advice for young reporters in the press box.

Well, here’s tip #16: Don’t drink on the job.

I had the opportunity to cover the NBA All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles. Based on my media affiliation, I was placed in a section with other bloggers. On Saturday and Sunday night (This photo is from Sunday), I witnessed two credentialed reporters drinking on the job.

What’s the big deal you might ask? Aside from the fact that you probably can’t drink at your place of employment, it makes bloggers in general look bad.

We all know the stigma against bloggers. As someone who falls into the blogger category, I’m offended when I see other bloggers who are credentialed and they don’t behave professionally.

Not counting the NHL (which I haven’t covered), the NBA is by far the league that credentials the most bloggers for their marquee events. It would be a shame if other aspiring writers missed out on an opportunity to cover the NBA All-Star Game or the NBA Finals because these two couldn’t wait until after the buzzer sounded in order to drink.

While we aren’t going to identify the two guys in the photo, please let this be a lesson to other young journalists – especially bloggers.

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Compared to last year’s All-Star Game, TNT saw an increase of 33 percent in total viewers (9,093,000 vs. 6,846,000), 36 percent in households (5,975,000 vs. 4,399,000) and 37 percent in U.S. HH rating (5.2 vs. 3.8 U.S. HH rating).

Overall, the 2011 NBA All-Star Game was the second most-watched NBA game during the 2010-11 and the most-watched NBA telecast on cable. continued…

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Aikman’s bogus rationale for his nothing-to-see-here approach was exposed recently by Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who noticed that Aikman, during Fox’s Dec. 26 broadcast of the Packers-Giants game, was quiet on the subject of Aaron Rodgers playing in his first game after concussion No. 2 of the season. Aikman told Wolfley that he shouldn’t be “the poster boy for head injury” because, at age 44, he hasn’t experienced any short-term memory loss. He added that he doesn’t want to talk about concussions on the air because he doesn’t know what a specific player is actually feeling. (Um, Troy, your on-field experience is the only reason you get to “analyze” games.)

Fatsis correctly notes that Aikman, ridiculously, ignores the obvious despite having at least 10 concussions to call his own. Head injuries forced him to retire, yet he won’t discuss them in the broadcast booth.

Which is interesting, because Aikman was one of the cooler heads in the whole Jay Cutler narrative. continued…

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