(Jean Louis Costes really doesn’t need this kind of traffic)
While mildly criticizing “Fox NFL Sunday” (“Studio shows should be in a studio. Frankly, the only thing that should ever be done outdoors is camping, and even that is suspect. It is loud, windswept and unruly outdoors ” eventually, Buck will shout himself out before he has to call a game and, one day, Jimmy Johnson™s hair might end up in the Gulf of Mexico,”) and refraining from comment on ESPN’s “NFL Countdown” (“Dear ESPN, I™m on the payroll ” you guys are great!!!”), in Sunday’s Charleston Gazette, Norman Chad reserves his best material for NBC’s “Football Night In America”, and favored target Bob Costas.
You go nine years without the NFL and all you can come up with is œFootball Night in America, in which you just bring over most of the on-air talent from HBO™s œInside the NFL? Wouldn™t that be like introducing a new drama, œMafia Night in America, and just hiring the cast of œThe Sopranos?
Actually, it™s hard to believe that Bob Costas now hosts two NFL studio shows. When NBC lost pro football in 1998, I could™ve sworn Costas talked about how much he disdained the NFL. Ah, that was then, this is œCostas Now.
œFootball Night in America is high voltage and low wattage, all stars and no show. It feels tired before the first commercial break. Which is quite a feat, because when you start with Costas, Cris Collinsworth and Sterling Sharpe, you have the makings of compelling sports TV.
The show, naturally, is highlights-driven, and, well, ESPN did this better ” a lot better ” for years. Plus you insist on foisting upon us œinsider Peter King, who hasn™t had a big scoop since he was at Baskin Robbins.