Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 4, 1993 TAG: 9312040042
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"I was wondering the same thing," said Millen, whose improving and cutting analysis in the ON THE AIR JACK BOGACZYK booth should be evident on the Washington-Tampa Bay telecast (1 p.m., WDBJ). "It's really different from when I was there. Well, some of the same guys are there, but it's all turned pretty bad."
Millen spent the final year of a 12-season NFL career with the Redskins - his fourth NFL team - in their 1991 Super Bowl championship season. He had watched tapes and bits and pieces of Redskins' games until he returned to RFK Stadium for Washington's loss to Philadelphia.
He couldn't believe some of what he saw.
"The people I feel bad for are [head coach] Richie Petitbon and the other coaches," Millen said. "What I see is Richie and those other guys coaching their rear ends off. Like I've always said, if you don't have the players, it doesn't matter.
"It was the same when people asked what San Francisco would be when Bill Walsh left. It didn't matter, because the players were still there. No matter how good a coach Walsh was or is, if he had rotten players, he wouldn't have been known as a good coach. And I think Richie is an excellent coach. I should know. I played for him."
Millen said it's time for the Redskins to play for the future. Asked about the decision to start Rich Gannon at quarterback, Millen said, "Why not? You have to find out if he can be your backup quarterback, and that's the best he can be, because I know he's not a starting quarterback.
"As for the draft choices, Sterling Palmer can really play at defensive end. Reggie Brooks will be even better if he quits trying that spin move every time he gets hit. Tom Carter is going to be a good corner. Lamont Hollinquest? He can play linebacker. He has that Millen mean streak you need. And I really like Frank Wycheck [at H-back]. I'd like him even more if he grew a mustache.
"I saw his picture and said, `Who is this little kid?' Then, I found out who he is. He's a guy who can catch and block."
And who can't?
"Desmond Howard; I don't think he has it," Millen said of the 1992 first-round draft pick with a four-year, $5.9 million contract. "He has problems running away from people. If Desmond Howard were a fourth-round pick, they wouldn't be wasting their time on him.
"You looked up last Sunday and saw No. 81 [veteran Art Monk, now Howard's backup] in the game, catching a touchdown pass. You ask, now why is he in the game? He's in there because you know he can make the play. That whole situation, that's silly."
Millen, 35, has prospered on the tube, because while he can't exactly be himself in a suit and still admits he's uncomfortable on camera, he isn't afraid to be critical, and he can be blunt in the few seconds an analyst has to make a point.
Television work isn't as natural to Millen as antiquing, parenting and farming, which he does on a 10-acre spread in Hokendauqua, Pa., just north of Allentown.
"It's starting to make sense to me, what I can and can't do, but I still fall into things now and then," Millen said. "I do know after a year-and-a-half of doing this that in this business you either sink or swim, because you don't get any coaching. If you can do it, you can. If you can't, then the network will find someone else.
"All you can be is yourself, and hope they like it."
\ NO TURKEY: ABC has asked conferences to consider moving a few football games to the day after Thanksgiving next season for 11 a.m. kickoffs, repeating a ratings success of last weekend when the network aired regional telecasts, including Duke-North Carolina.
The proposed ACC move is North Carolina State at Virginia, which is scheduled Nov. 12. It would figure the Cavaliers would accept a switch to Nov. 25. Besides the exposure, UVa coach George Welsh has stated in the past that he'd always prefer to finish the season with a conference game.
That move, if approved by ABC and the ACC, would put UVa-State six days after the Cavaliers' game at Virginia Tech.
\ IRISH STEW: NBC and the Pacific 10 Conference will wait until major bowl pairings are announced Sunday (11 a.m., CNN cable) to decide whether to flip-flop the Cotton and Fiesta bowl kickoffs Jan. 1 on the network.
Pac-10 guidelines state that no conference school should play a bowl at the same time a league school is playing the Rose Bowl. Arizona's Fiesta date against Miami on NBC is scheduled to start only 15 minutes before the Rose Bowl on ABC. However, the Pac-10 also doesn't want to go up against Notre Dame's big audience if the Fighting Irish wind up in the Cotton Bowl.
So, if the Cotton has Notre Dame, the Pac-10 is likely to allow Arizona-Miami to stay at 4:30, keeping the Cotton at 1 p.m. on NBC, in a different time period from the Rose. If the Irish go to the Sugar Bowl and West Virginia to the Cotton, then the Fiesta-Cotton switch is more likely.
\ AROUND THE DIAL: The NFL, which should have agreements on its new TV contracts by year's end, plans to ask networks to scramble signals to thwart the multiple options available to satellite-dish owners and sports bars. The next step, within a few years, will be pay-per-view telecasts of NFL games not being aired to a particular market. . . . Cable's Home Team Sports will air Sunday's NCAA Division I soccer championship game between Virginia and South Carolina live (1:30 p.m.). . . . WFXR's Dave Ross recently talked with local organizers for the Dec. 11 Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl at Salem Stadium, and Channels 21/27 will air a half-hour preview of the event at 8:30 a.m. Sunday. . . . ESPN will air another of its "Outside The Lines" specials with host Bob Ley at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The subject: winning and losing, and coping with both.
by CNB