Getting the scoop on a blockbuster trade

  When Darren Dreger does a good reporting job, you will hear in the sports TV business the occasional “yes, but.”

   The “yes, but” qualifier has to do with Dreger’s connection to Dave Nonis, the senior vice-president of hockey operations for the Toronto Maple Leafs. They’re second cousins. Therefore, the perception by some will always be that Nonis is helping out cuz over at TSN with information.

  I have no idea who Dreger’s sources are or now much, if at all, Nonis contributes. I don’t know how close they are. But none of it lessens the good work that Dreger along with Bob McKenzie and Gord Miller did  by breaking blockbuster Leafs-Calgary Flames trade, the biggest NHL deal to come down the pike in years.

   At about 8:45 a.m. ET on Sunday, Dreger tweeted that a major change on the Leafs would be announced that day. By 11:24 a.m., well before Burke stood before the podium at the Air Canada Centre, Miller had learned that Dion Phaneuf was the key to the deal,  and the trade was reported: Nik Hagman, Matt Stajan, Jamal Mayers and Ian White to Calgary for Phaneuf, Fredrik Sjostrom and Keith Aulie. Miller

    Regarding Nonis, Dreger said in an email, “Up until a few years ago, Dave and I didn’t even know we were related. For anyone to suggest I’m the benefactor of ‘family favors’ is insulting to me and I suspect, insulting to Nonis as well.”

  It’s worth adding that in journalism you get your information where you can, for the most part. And if it checks out, which is to say confirmed, you report it.

   In terms of full disclosure, I’d suggest the only time Dreger would need to disclose his familial connection to Nonis would be before or after he has praised the work of Nonis or defended him against something. I’ve never heard him do either.

  Rogers Sportsnet, the Leafs TV rights holder, was slow to the Calgary-Toronto trade story. The Score, for example, had the speculated deal on his main webpage before Sportsnet did.

   As for Leafs TV, it could have attempted to make the case that it’s a for-real sports channel rather than a club marketing arm by breaking into its NCAA hockey game before noon to report the trade buzz and speculate on what Burke would be announcing. It didn’t bother.

   The reaction in Toronto was, of course, predictable. The radio guys went gaga. If Roger Lajoie at Fan590 said once that he was head-over-heels for the trade, he said it a couple of dozen times. But let’s be fair: On the face of it, this looks like a very good deal for the Leafs. Phaneuf is young (24), a top defenseman, a former all-star and clearly the player with the most upside among the seven. That old saw about the team getting the best player winning the trade holds up pretty well.

  The only cautionary note I would make is this: No NHL general manager knows Phaneuf better than Calgary’s Darryl Sutter. He drafted him and has watched him play over four and half seasons, and suddenly gave up on him after one lousy half season. Why? Is it because Phaneuf is sour, a bit surly and not a good dressing room presence? Is it because Sutter’s brother, Brent, the coach, dislikes Phaneuf intensely, and the feeling is mutual? I don’t know.

  But, at his point, chalk up one for Burke.

 Tennis fans stiffed again

  Here’s what TSN did very wrong this weekend.  For years, tennis fans have complained, justifiably, about the short shrift TSN gave tennis.  That was supposed to change when TSN2 launched. And the coverage certainly has improved because of TSN2’s ability to carry tennis programming that TSN would not.

   But consider the Australian Open men’s final (Roger Federer and Andy Murray). Neither channel carried the match at a reasonable time. TSN had it live at 3:30 a.m. ET Sunday morning, which was good. And TSN2 repeated the telecast, but it aired at 6:30 a.m., and, unless you set you PVR or VCR, or got up awfully early, you missed the live and repeat telecast of a pretty important Grand Slam final. The point is this: TSN2 carried SportsCentre from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Sunday when it could have given tennis fans a break and aired a repeat of the tennis match.

Funny thing happened on way to Hockey Day

  What could Hockey Day In Canada do to illustrate its visit to Stratford, Ont., home of Canada’s Shakespearean festival?

    Don Cherry could dress up as Falstaff. Better still, he could wear a toga and play off Stratford’s hit musical A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to Forum?

   The Forum, after all, has a special meaning to Don. The arena — in Montreal, not Rome — was an important, though not very funny, venue for Cherry during his career as coach of the Boston Bruins.

   That seems to be the direction the CBC is going with a spot involving Cherry for the 10^th Hockey Day broadcast on Saturday at noon ET.

   Despite the Stratford setting, there’s little that connects Hockey Day to the Bard. The show is neither tragic nor comedic, and the only drama that’s likely to arise will come from a close hockey game.

   Hockey Day exists to celebrate Canada’s game at the amateur level. And the CBC does it well. With Tim Hortons as the title sponsor, the 13-hour telecast will, as it always has, present a lineup of feel-good features, human interest stories and live remotes from communities across the country scheduled around three games involving Canada’s six NHL teams.

   Over 11 years, the CBC has built the show into an impressive franchise that transcends the network’s sports department to produce programming at several levels. CBC News will air The National with Peter Mansbridge from Stratford on Thursday and Friday night. The CBC News Network and CBC Radio are filing reports from the city. And on Friday, Hockey Night’s Sirius radio show will air a hockey discussion, involving several NHL figures including NHL vice-president Colin Campbell and Toronto Maple Leaf general manager Brian Burke, from the Tom Patterson Theatre.

   The Sirius hockey roundtable is a good idea that leads to my only real complaint about Hockey Day. Over the years, too little has been done to produce issues-oriented journalism and perhaps too much programming has been smothered with maple syrup.

   There are certainly some good Canadian hockey issues worth examining. Why not a piece that takes an in-depth look at the ability of Quebec, Winnipeg, or even Saskatoon, to support an NHL team, coupled with the NHL’s long term plans for the southern Ontario market?

  Why not a discussion on the quality of Canada’s six NHL teams? Why is it consistently the case that the best NHL teams are based in the United States and the Canadian teams, for the most part, are no better than mediocre? Right now, the six Canadian teams rank 6^th, 11^th, 13^th, 21^st, 28^th and 29^th in the NHL standing. A Canadian based team hasn’t won a Stanley Cup in 17 years.

  Host Ron MacLean will anchor the show from the William Allman Arena, but will be outdoors as much as possible in weather expected to be a chilly minus 10 C. Cherry will make his grand entrance sometime in the afternoon. The Stratford fire department has shoveled off a rink about 35 meters by 70 meters on the Avon River. The features I’ve seen are well done. They include:

• Dick Irvin on Howie Morenz, the NHL superstar of the 1920s and 1930s, whose demise truly was Shakespearean.
• Abby Constant Bernier, a 13-year-old aboriginal hockey player in The Pas, Man., with ambitious plans.
• Colorado Avalanche Wojtek Wolski returns to Toronto for Christmas and helps out kids league run by Toronto police.
• Irene Bryson, an 81 year old Torontonian who’s still playing hockey.

How not to react to the media

  When the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame sent out a media advisory setting a time for the announcement of new inductees, it also scolded the Toronto Sun’s Steve Simmons for reporting that Roberto Alomar would be among those elected to the Hall.

   The release reads like a parody or a silly lecture that inadvertently confirmed Alomar’s election and clearly confirms the Hall’s need for help in media relations.

  It reads: “Even though Steve Simmons claimed in his Sunday column that Roberto Alomar has been selected for enshrinement here in 2010, we are neither confirming or denying its validity.

  “Simmons has absolutely no way of corroborating his claim. At this time, there are only three people with absolute knowledge of who has been inducted, and none of those three has communicated in any way with Simmons. Because our 16-member Selection Committee shares their thoughts in a pre-vote conference call, one of them may have inadvertently and unfortunately indicated to Simmons that they were expecting/hoping that Robbie was selected, but even the committee members themselves have NOT been given the final, official results yet.

 “Yesterday, when called on his gaffe, Simmons replied to the Hall saying, “If you wish to say it’s inaccurate for the record I will gladly run a correction with your name on it.” We chose to lay low. The Ball Hall feels it was irresponsible reporting, and that it was unfair to Robbie Alomar and the Toronto Blue Jays, regardless of whether or not it is true, to publish that claim at that time. It was also unfair and disrespectful to the 2010 inductees who were ignored in Simmons’ article, to have chosen to run that article on Sunday without contacting us first.”

  Alomar was announced today as an inductee.

Sports Rage is back

  Sports shock jock Gabriel Morency, formerly with the Score TV Network and its Hard Core Radio show, reports that his new website, where he does a 4:30-6 p.m. ET show as well as his Sports Rage starting at 11 p.m., is getting attention. He wrote Wednesday, “Last night’s Sports Rage had 14,000 viewers live! Higher numbers than we had at Score at times! Show now on iTunes. Within 2 days of being on iTunes, morencysports.com was the #1 downloaded sports pod in Canada.”

Jim Nantz in a conflict of interest

 Jim Nantz, who called last Sunday’s AFC championship game and will announce the Super Bowl, is taking heat for appearing in a Sony Television commercial with Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning.

   Tom Jones, a sports media critic for the St. Petersburg Times, wrote: “How in the world can CBS let NFL announcer Jim Nantz do a television commercial with Colts quarterback Peyton Manning?  . . .

  “Why should we trust anything Nantz has to say about Manning ever again? Even if Nantz has every right to defend Manning after a play, why should we believe him after assuming the two hung out together and socialized during a commercial shoot? It’s a blatant conflict that CBS shouldn’t have allowed and Nantz shouldn’t have agreed to do.”

  Nantz subsequently appeared on Don Imus’s radio show and blew off Jones’ complaint, saying “I could care less.”

  Imus, at his slavering best, did a predictable Nantz suck-up calling the criticism “stupid.”

   So, who’s right, Jones or Nantz? Let’s get Imus out of the way first by pointing out that he’s a pathetic burnout, 20 years past his shelf life.

   Nantz is a bit of a surprise. He’s not an idiot, but he clearly has no understanding of the journalistic element of live sports TV, as meager as it may be. Yes, it’s a conflict of interest. And, no, he should never have done the commercial.

  It leaves the perception of a cozy relationship, a pseudo-partnership in a business deal with Manning (a commercial) that could appear to slant his commentary. The biggest surprise, however, is CBS, a network that supposedly cares about journalism, allowing Nantz to do the commercial.

 Cormier’s PR disaster

  Didn’t you love Patrice Cormier’s reaction to his season-long suspension by the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League?

   Cormier, of course, is the Rouyn Noranda Huskies forward (and captain of Canada’s junior team) who attacked Mikael Tam of the Quebec Remparts, elbowing to the head and sending him to the hospital with brain trauma. No word on Tam returning this season.

  By telephone this week, Cormier read a statement in which he said he regretted his attack, wished Tam speedy recovery, but judged the suspension “too severe.” He refused to answer questions and ended his statement to the media with, “Thanks for your attention.”

  Oh, yes, I’m sure he’s very thankful for the attention given him over the past week and a half. Talk about a phony statement.

  This guy is as dumb as a bag full of pucks, has no understanding of the outrage he incited and hasn’t learned a thing, and/or he received absolutely horrendous advice from the Huskies, which also complained about the length of the suspension.

  The Huskies should have accepted the QMJH ruling, while wishing Tam well. Instead, they’ve lodged an appeal. Cormier should have called a news conference during which he would have said he accepted the suspension, admitted he has some issues to work out, and showed an appropriate level of contrition.

CBS under fire for accepting advocacy ad

  CBS is sticking to its decision to air an antiabortion  commercial during the Super Bowl despite complaints from several women’s groups in the United States.

  The ad, bought by the advocacy group Focus On The Family, will feature Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow along with his mother who apparently says in the commercial she gave birth to her son after rejecting doctors’ advice to have an abortion.

   More than two dozen U.S. women’s groups including the National Organization For Women are pressuring CBS to drop the ad.

  CBS in the past has refused commercials from PETA, the political action group MoveOn.org and the United Church of Christ.

   A network spokesman told Broadcasting & Cable that CBS does not as policy reject advocacy ads, and will “consider responsibly produced ads from all groups.”

   CBS’s accepting the antiabortion ad was sharply criticized by the U.S. media.

   On the St. Petersburg Times website, Eric Deggans described the decision as “odd,” adding that it “might be construed as anti-choice from an organization known for controversial views opposing abortion rights and homosexuality.” He wondered if a Super Bowl ad is an “appropriate place to spark a discussion about abortion?”

    Bob Garfield, an Ad Age columnist, wrote, “I’m stunned that any of the networks would risk one of the few, last great franchises of broadcast television for an ad that could polarize viewers. . . .  This is a multi-hundred-million-dollar franchise that networks have historically protected by avoiding controversy, especially in the ads. I’m surprised that anybody’s going to take a risk by accepting an ad with an explicit religious message”

  Meg James of the Los Angeles Times noted that CBS “finds itself in a difficult position,” given that it has in the past rejected ads from “left-leaning organizations.”

   During a conference call Tuesday, Sean McManus, the president of CBS News and Sports, refused comment, but acknowledged that commercials are perceived by the viewer as part of Super Bowl content.

  “It’s part of the experience for the viewer,” he said. “It’s part of the talk on Monday morning. It’s part of the talk during the game, absolutely. It is one of the phenomena that make the Super Bowl what it is.”

   That was as close as McManus would come to commenting on a controversy that was sparked by CBS appearing to cherry pick which group gets time during the Super Bowl to promote an agenda.

  In terms of the potential Super Bowl TV audience, McManus says a close game between Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints will produce “an extraordinary rating.”

   A rating is the percentage of potential U.S. households tuned in. The record is 49.1 set in 1982 (San Francisco 49ers-Cincinnati Bengals).

  Surpassing that record is unlikely because of today’s fragmented TV market, but, in pure numbers, a viewership record is entirely possible, because of the continuously increasing U.S. population. The 2009 Super Bowl (Pittsburgh Steelers-Arizona Cardinals) drew the largest audience ever, 98.7 million U.S. viewers.

  McManus rejected the theory that this year’s game would have more appeal if Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings were representing the NFC instead of the Saints.

  McManus feels the story of New Orleans and its fight back from the Katrina devastation will resonate with the casual Super Bowl viewer.

  He added, “I would like to make the point that the most important factor in any rating for any Super Bowl is not really the match-up, but the quality of the game.”

  McManus was asked about the value and power of the NFL, which has enjoyed steadily increasing audiences during the season, as a TV property.

  “I will simply point out that only two networks have given up NFL football voluntarily,” he said. “CBS gave up NFL football in the early 1990s. And as soon as it was available they (CBS) did whatever they could in their power to get it back and successfully did so.

 “The other network to give it up was NBC in 1997 and the minute they had the opportunity to get back in the game they did also.

 “So, I would say it’s possible to have a sports division without NFL football. It’s not a lot of fun. You’re not going to be a major sports division and I’d also say it’s increasingly more difficult to be a broadcast network without NFL football.

  “When we lost NFL football, our prime time ratings weren’t as good as they could have been and when we got NFL football back, (CBS president) Leslie Moonves and the CBS network used the promotional power of NFL football to launch shows like King of Queens, and CSI and NCIS and all the shows that are still so popular on CBS.”

CBS could be looking at a Super Bowl record

  The NFL and CBS will be eyeing a potential record audience for the Super Bowl after the two NFL conference championships drew huge audiences.

   Fox and CBS had the best viewership for the two conference finals in 28 and 24 years respectively, with Fox’s NFC championship (Minnesota Vikings-New Orleans Saints) in prime time drawing the larger of the two – 57.9 million viewers.   CBS’s telecast of the AFC final (New York Jets-Indianapolis Colts) was watched by 46.9 million.

 In Canada, Vikings-Saints on CTV was watched by the largest TV audience ever for an NFL playoff game, 2.6 million viewers, peaking at 3.6 million when the Saints kicked a field goal to win it in overtime. CTV’s earlier  Jets-Colts game drew 2.3 million.

   The Fox U.S. audience was the largest for the NFC championship  since the Dallas Cowboys-San Francisco 49ers game in 1982 (CBS , 68.7 million). The Jets-Colts AFC championship audience was tops in the United States going back to New England Patriots-Miami Dolphins in 1986 (NBC, 47.5 million).

   The Super Bowl sets up the top quarterback in the game, Peyton Manning, leading the Colts against QB Drew Brees’s powerhouse Saints offence (which sputtered in the second half of the NFC game).

   Fox won the audience fight, but CBS had the better telecast. Fox used to be known for cutting edge sports innovation, but CBS continues to do a better job with visuals and graphics. How a network, which is to say Fox, can choose not to post the time clock on the screen in today’s game of no-huddle offenses with quarterbacks calling  plays from the line, is hard to figure out.

   Watching Manning use the clock while making his calls at the line was the most intriguing element of the AFC game and the CBS telecast.  It was Manning at his most focused and brilliant. And CBS told the story well.

  CBS’s Jim Nantz will never win an award for being the most dynamic guy in the world, but he delivers a solid, unobtrusive game description which is exactly what a football play by play voice should do, as opposed to the incessant babbling that CFL fans in this country are forced to listen to.

    The chemistry between Nantz and Phil Simms is good, although I’d rate Simms no more than an above-average game analyst. It certainly helped Simms and CBS that they had the better football game, unless you enjoyed watching an NFC championship highlighted by blunders, stupidity, bad calls and of course Brett Favre’s inevitable exercise in self-destruction, the result of which was best team slouching back to Minnesota to watch the big show in south Florida from the sidelines.

  This is the reaction on the Vikings radio broadcast to Favre’s late game interception:

Favre interception 

Weekend audiences

 Football

 New York Jets-Indianapolis Colts, CTV, 2.3 million.

 Minnesota Vikings-New Orleans Saints, CTV, 2.6 million, a record for an NFL playoff telecast in Canada.

 Hockey

 Hockey Night In Canada pre-game, 498,000.

 Game 1: Toronto Maple Leafs-Florida Panthers/New York Rangers-Montreal Canadiens, 1,451 million.

 Game 2: Chicago Blackhawks-Vancouver Canucks, 1.139 million.

 Hockey regionals: Friday, Rogers Sportsnet, Dallas Stars-Edmonton Oilers, 160,000; Saturday, Sportsnet, Ottawa Senators-Boston Bruins, 168,000.

 Curling

  Saturday, CBC, BDO Canadian Open quarterfinal, 388,000; Sunday, final, 600,000 .

 Skiing

 GMC Alpine Ski Series, CBC, Saturday, women’s downhill, 97,000; men’s downhill, 121,000.

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