MEDIA BLITZ
By John Molori
Taylor’s tale getting boring and stale
The recent ”60 Minutes” interview with ex-Giant linebacker Lawrence Taylor spurred much unnecessary controversy. Did LT really tell us anything that we didn’t already know?
Regarding bounties in the NFL, Taylor offered, “That’s just part of being the [expletive deleted] rough and tough football player. You get no pay for doing a cheap shot. But if I hit you straight up, yeah we’re going to get paid for that.”
The bounty issue is an old one. Current Fox analyst and ex-Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson used to go toe-to-toe with former Eagles coach Buddy Ryan on bounty accusations.
Regarding Taylor’s bounty comments, CBS analyst Deion Sanders stated, “We passed the hat around. Guys put in $100 here, $100 there. You knocked the guy out, but it was not initiated from the team or the coaches.”
Added Sanders’ CBS colleague Dan Marino, “We did that with touchdown passes too. Big play, big touchdown passes, players would put it in a pool.”
Taylor also discussed prostitution in the NFL, stating that teams would send women to their opponents’ hotel rooms to tire them out before games. He also reiterated that he and many NFL players spent as much as $1000 a day on drugs.
Is this news? Face it folks. CEO’s at business conventions send women to other guys’ rooms. The NFL is not the only bastion of bad behavior. As for Taylor’s drug use, it is about as surprising as Monday coming after Sunday.
Sanders admitted that much of what Taylor said about the NFL is true. Recently, Sanders similarly defended the controversial ESPN series “Playmakers,” citing the program’s true to life portrayal of pro football.
Boomer Esiason disagreed with Sanders and Taylor stating, “This is not the NFL that I played in. (Taylor) talks about how he circumvented the NFL’s drug testing policy by using other players’ urine. That is an affront.”
Sanders’ response to Esiason’s naiveté was direct. “You don’t know that guys get high,” asked the former All-Pro defensive back. “20 year-old or 30-year-old guys with millions of dollars, that equals destruction.
“You can’t sit up here and tell me that you (were) immune to that stuff. My father used crack. My father used alcohol. I understood those things. I’ve never smoked or drank in my life because I knew about those things.”
Esiason may be trying to defend his league, but he is avoiding reality. Not every NFL player engages in such activity, but to deny it exists is silly.
This past weekend on CBS’ NFL Today, host Jim Nantz stated that Taylor declined an invitation to come on the show because he did not want to appear with Esiason.
Sanders estimated that 30% of NFL players engage in the activities described by Taylor. Marino said that his estimate was a bit high. Sanders suggested that quarterbacks like Marino and Esiason perhaps separated themselves from the rest of their teammates.
All of this is, to quote William Shakespeare, much ado about nothing.
The bottom line is that Lawrence Taylor is trying to trigger sales for his new book. Let’s hope that the viewing public sees through these stale “revelations” and realizes that what we saw on “60 Minutes” was the same tired old rant of a gifted athlete hell-bent on self-destruction.
Oakland opus
Chalk up another winner for HBO in the sports documentary category with “Rebels of Oakland: The A’s, The Raiders, The 70’s” (Wednesday, 9:00 p.m., HBO).
With great quotes from current and former Oakland residents, including actor Tom Hanks, the documentary displays how these rugged and tough teams were mirror images of the city and the times in which they played.
The documentary reinforces the Raiders’ reputation as a halfway house for the NFL’s wretched refuse. It also showcases Raiders’ owner Al Davis at the height of his domination and John Madden as a coach, not as the broadcaster that a generation of people have come to know.
The Raider portion of the documentary is predictable but enjoyable. We hear of the vicious reputations of players like Jack Tatum, George Atkinson and John Matuszak.
We also get a glimpse of the passion and brotherhood inherent in those teams. Ex-Raider Phil Villapiano stated that Oakland’s Super Bowl XI win was the biggest event in his life, including his marriage and the birth of his kids.
The more interesting side of the program focuses on the Oakland A’s of the mid-1970’s. This overlooked dynasty was defined by interesting characters, Hall of Fame ballplayers and those dynamic green and gold uniforms.
A’s owner Charlie Finley made George Steinbrenner look like Captain Kangaroo. Finley belittled his players at arbitration hearings and grossly underpaid them. All-star reliever Rollie Fingers made $30,000 at the height of his A’s career.
Sadly, we see that Finley’s avarice led to the breakup of a true baseball dynasty, World Series winners in 1972, ’73 and ’74.
Players like Reggie Jackson, Joe Rudi, Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue and Sal Bando came up through the A’s system together. It was a homegrown juggernaut never to be seen again.
With the onset of free agency in 1975, the A’s were splintered all over baseball. Joe Rudi contends that if Finley had offered the players even the smallest of raises, they would have stayed in the blue-collar confines of Oakland.
Says Jackson of the A’s, “If there hadn’t been free agency, we’d have won every year. We’d have won till 1980, won till we retired. Nobody would have beat us.”
Zoning in
Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck will join AM 1510’s “Diehards” show (weekdays 3:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.) every Wednesday at 5:20 p.m. during the Celtics’ season.
The Diehards a.k.a. Anthony Pepe, Ryen Russillo and Mike Winn celebrated their 100th show this past Thursday.
In other Zone news, Eddie Andelman will broadcast live from Atlantic City on Friday and Saturday in anticipation of the Saturday fight card featuring John Ruiz.
Andelman is turning listeners into legends. Two show callers now have regular gigs on Andelman’s midday show. Dan DiPaolo and Jack Reardon appear on Mondays and Tuesdays respectively.
I have nothing against DiPaolo or Reardon, but when a station stoops to turning callers into broadcasters, there is something wrong. AM 1510 is on the block, just waiting to be sold.
Rumored suitors have included everyone from religious broadcasters to Spanish radio to the New England Patriots.
The “Diehards” show is a fun listen, but the only true on-air pro is Russillo. Pepe is one of the sharpest knives in the Boston sports media drawer, but he is a promotions man by trade. Winn is a salesman.
The off-shoot of AM 1510’s July house cleaning is clear. If you can sell a show, you can host a show. Worse, if you can string more than two coherent sentences together and have a phone, you, too, can be a Boston radio star.
Butch’s barrage
Sunday’s edition of Fox 25’s “Sports Sunday” gave a good glimpse as to what is wrong with the Boston media. In an interview with Marc Fein, a Fox sportscaster in Texas, host Butch Stearns went looking for negatives about Alex Rodriguez.
In teasing the segment earlier in the show, Stearns asked viewers if A-Rod is the kind of guy we want here in Boston. What exactly does that mean? During the interview, Stearns continued to plunge the depths.
He asked Fein if A-Rod was a “team guy” or if he was a “table for one” guy. He then asked, “What is the bad side of A-Rod?” Fein had nothing but positives to say about Rodriguez.
In 2001, Steve Buckley slammed Manny Ramirez just days after Ramirez’s arrival in Boston. Such is life in Beantown. Stearns’ scavenger hunt came up empty, but A-Rod should be warned. The vultures are already circling.
Chunky charity
Campbell’s “Chunky Soup” is putting their website to worthwhile use. Log onto www.chunky.com and click on the “Tackling Hunger” icon, then the “Click for Cans” icon.
Simply select the helmet of your favorite NFL team helmet. For each selection, Campbell’s donates a can of soup to those in need.
“Click for Cans” donations are made over the course of the year to a variety of hunger relief charities in NFL cities and other communities.
In case you are wondering, the most-selected team is currently the Packers. New England ranks fifth trailing Green Bay, Kansas City, Minnesota and Dallas.
John Molori’s Media Blitz column is published in The Boston Metro, The Providence Journal, The Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, The Lowell Sun, Patriots Football Weekly, BostonSportsMedia.com and MethuenOnline.com. John can be reached via E-mail at JOMOL3@aol.com.
