Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 11, 1992 TAG: 9201110116
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
PARCELLS MAY HAVE GIANT PROBLEM WITH ANALYSIS
Bill Walsh's three seasons as the No. 1 NFL analyst for NBC Sports will end Sunday with the AFC championship game at Buffalo's Rich Stadium. Walsh will be replaced at Dick Enberg's side next season by Bill Parcells.At least, that was the notion Friday. However, as long as NFL coaching vacancies remain, no move by Parcells would be surprising.
Walsh, the former San Francisco coach, is expected to return to the 49ers - his employer before NBC - as a consultant.
Parcells, who coached the New York Giants to a pair of Super Bowl victories in the past five years, rejected coaching overtures from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Green Bay Packers in recent weeks, then was snubbed when he tried to charm Tampa Bay owner Hugh Culverhouse on the rebound. The word from New York was that as late as Thursday night, he was trying to get into the Minnesota Vikings' coaching picture.
The Vikings hired Stanford coach Dennis Green, so it seems Parcells will stay at NBC, where he has three years remaining on a contract at an average annual salary of more than $400,000. Parcells' credibility has dropped during his fling with Bucs, thanks to his less-than-candid evasiveness on NBC's studio show.
Parcells may be a good x-and-o analyst - he showed promise during a three-week stint subbing for Paul Maguire early in the season - but if he continues to hedge on subjects such as personnel, coaching decisions and personalities, viewers will wonder how matter-of-fact he is.
One of those subjects is the Giants. Given opportunities by host Bob Costas to discuss his former club's fall from Super status this season, Parcells either avoided or talked around the controversy. On the rare occasions when Walsh worked a 49ers game, he occasionally would lapse into the plural first-person pronoun when discussing his former club.
A network broadcaster using "we" to describe a club can be an unconscious slip. Avoiding a subject all together isn't. If Parcells can't remove himself from his coaching ties, he could have a Giant problem in the booth.
\ John Madden, who will work Sunday's NFC championship game telecast with Pat Summerall for CBS, figures it will be a stretch for Detroit's "Silver Stretch" to beat Washington, a 13 1/2-point favorite.
"The Lions got a lot of confidence out of what they did last week [crush Dallas], but they don't have their crowd to feed off now," Madden said in a conference call this week. "And, the farther you go in the playoffs, the more advantageous it is for a home team.
"I don't see [Detroit quarterback Erik] Kramer coming close to what he did last week. The factors? Dirt. No dome. Harder to hear at RFK Stadium. All that will prove more difficult than the Redskins' defense, which is not that dominant a defense.
"Both home teams [Washington and the Buffalo Bills] have to be favored. They had the best records during the year. They're playing with their crowds, on their fields. For the visiting teams [Detroit and the Denver Broncos] to win, they have to get turnovers and capitalize on those turnovers."
\ Don't expect to hear Sonny, Sam and Frank on the NFC championship radio broadcast. Because of NFL contractual obligations, only WMAL, the Redskins' flagship station, carries the club's broadcast. In other Redskins network markets, CBS Radio owns conference championship radio rights.
WFIR (960 AM) is an affiliate of the Redskins' network and CBS. Area listeners Sunday will hear Jack Buck and Hank Stram instead of Frank Herzog, Sonny Jurgensen and Sam Huff on the 3:45 p.m. Washington-Detroit broadcast.
\ ABC's new golf team, headed by anchor Brent Musburger, makes its debut Sunday at the final round of the Infiniti Tournament of Champions (3 p.m., WSET, Channel 13).
Gone are Jim McKay, Roger Twibell and Dave Marr. Jack Whitaker, Bob Rosburg and Judy Rankin return, joined by ex-NBCer Mark Rolfing and former CBS analyst Steve Melnyk. Musburger and Melnyk will be in the No. 18 tower.
Roanoke native Ed Sneed also returns to ABC telecasts, but he is not working the Tournament of Champions. Sneed said Friday that he will work 11 tournaments this year, starting with the PGA Senior Chrysler Cup next month in Sarasota, Fla.
\ There may be disagreement about the No. 1 ranking in college football, but there's no doubt the Washington Huskies helped the Rose Bowl become top dog among the Jan. 1 bowls.
Washington's victory over Michigan in the Rose on ABC attracted a 15.4 Nielsen rating (percentage of U.S. TV homes), 40 percent higher than the runner-up Orange on NBC, with an 11.0. Third was the Sugar (10.8, ABC), followed by the Cotton (10.3, CBS), Hall of Fame (7.5, NBC), Fiesta (7.0, NBC) and Florida Citrus (5.8, ABC).
The Peach Bowl was the day's best game, but East Carolina's comeback victory over North Carolina State had the lowest rating. It was a 4.0 among ESPN's 58 million homes, which is equal to a 2.6 on a comparative scale to ABC, CBS and NBC. Still, a 4.0 is a solid rating considering the limited regional attraction of the Peach pairing.
\ AROUND THE DIAL: Virginia Tech makes its first of four appearances on Raycom's Metro Conference TV schedule today against Virginia Commonwealth (3 p.m., WJPR, Channels 21/27). Only seven Metro regular-season games will be aired locally this year, the lowest number since the Hokies joined the league in 1978-79. Fred White and Terry Gannon are back as the Metro's primary play-by-play voices today at Cassell Coliseum. . . . Virginia's NCAA men's soccer championship victory of last month, an overtime shootout over Santa Clara, will be shown by CBS Sports on Sunday (1:30 p.m., WDBJ, Channel 7) in a boiled-down, one-hour taped show.