Broadcast crews get the chills for conference title games

By: JOHN MAFFEI - Staff Writer | Thursday, January 17, 2008 10:52 PM PST ∞

Living in perhaps the best climate in the world, it's hard for people in Southern California to realize it actually is winter in other parts of the world.

That fact should be dramatically driven home Sunday as the Chargers travel to Foxborough, Mass., for the AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots while the New York Giants visit northern Wisconsin to play the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship Game.

Sunday's weather forecast in Foxborough calls for highs in the low 20s and lows in the single digits. There is only a 10 percent chance of snow, but the forecast calls for winds above 20 mph.

And while the players will be uncomfortable, the announcers, cameramen and technicians who bring us the telecasts will be equally uncomfortable, perhaps even more so.

"Our crews are experienced in cold weather," said Lance Barrow, the game producer for CBS' coverage of Sunday's Chargers-Patriots game. "They will be bundled up. And our cameras are OK in extreme heat and cold.

"Honestly, rain effects a telecast much more than cold."

Jim Nantz and Phil Simms will call Sunday's AFC Championship Game. Simms, a former Super Bowl-winning quarterback with the New York Giants, remembers his coldest game.

"It was in January of '86 in Chicago, and it was about minus-40 ---- very cold with very high winds," Simms said. "If it's not windy, I don't expect the cold to have an effect on Sunday's game. But quarterbacks have problems with wind.

"Don't be fooled. The Chargers are talking about the cold.

"But I don't think the cold will hurt them. The Chargers aren't a finesse team. They're a big, strong, powerful team. Their style is conducive to playing in the Northeast.

"I think they'll handle it well."

Nantz, who will be calling his eighth Patriots game this season, said the coldest game he has broadcast was three years ago when the Steelers played the Patriots in Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship Game on a day when the temperature was minus-8.

"We have an open booth in Foxborough, and it will be cold," said Nantz, who was named the 2007 national sportscaster of the year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, the third time he has won the award. "But calling this game is a privilege and an honor.

"I don't know how the camera people cope with the cold with their hands half frozen.

"Those people are the real heroes of a telecast."

In Green Bay, the weather forecast is for a high of 4 degrees with a low of 2. There is a 30 percent chance of snow flurries with winds at 12 mph.

"There wasn't supposed to be snow last week in Green Bay, but we got a lot of it," said Ed Goren, the president of Fox Sports, the network that has Sunday's 3:30 p.m. NFC Championship Game. "Snow games give you phenomenal pictures.

"Snow games affect the ratings. We always root for snow."

Goren said cameras for Sunday's game in Green Bay will be warmed electronically.

"We'll warm up the cameramen with heaters and run hot drinks to them," Goren said. "But the fact is they'll be in the elements for 3 1/2 hours."

Joe Buck and former Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman will call the Giants-Packers game. Aikman has plenty of experience with the cold.

"My rookie season, we were 1-13 and played a game in New York, and it was minus-1," Aikman said. "We were getting beaten up pretty good, and late in the game we got in the huddle and I told the guys 'Let's run three plays and get back to the sidelines'

"I'm not proud of that, but it happened."

In championship games, Aikman said the weather will be a factor for all the teams.

"Eli Manning has acknowledged the cold bothers him," Aikman said of the Giants quarterback. ""And (Packers quarterback) Brett Favre isn't fond of it, although he plays well in it.

"The Chargers are out of Southern California and don't play in the cold much. But the Chargers can run the ball. The cold affects mostly plays in the passing games.

"And while the Eastern teams live in the cold, they don't practice in it."

As for the broadcasters Sunday, Aikman had this to say: "As Joe Buck always says, no one cares if the broadcasters are cold. But my wife sure does."

More Chargers

- Coverage of the Chargers game starts at 9 a.m. Sunday on Channel 8 with a one-hour special. Kyle Kraska, John Howard and Larry Himmel host the show.

- The CBS pregame show "The NFL Today" starts at 11 a.m. Shannon Sharpe interviews Patriots defenders Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel, Junior Seau and Rodney Harrison. Lesley Visser interviews Chargers players LaDainian Tomlinson, Philip Rivers, Antonio Cromartie and Antonio Gates as well as coach Norv Turner.

- The NFL Network has live coverage today of the AFC and NFC championship press conferences. The Giants ---- with coach Tom Coughlin and players Manning, Michael Strahan, Antonio Pierce and Plaxico Burress ---- go at 10 a.m. The Patriots ---- with coach Bill Belichick and players Tom Brady, Bruschi, Kevin Faulk and Vrabel ---- appear at 11 a.m. The Chargers ---- with Turner, Rivers, Tomlinson and Shawne Merriman ---- address the media at noon. The Packers ---- with coach  Mike McCarthy and players Favre, Donald Driver, Al Harris and Aaron Kampman ---- take the podium at 1 p.m.

- The Chargers are a 14-point underdog to the Patriots, but CBS' Aikman isn't writing off the Chargers. "They go into the game with a fighter's chance," he said. "Remember Buster Douglas (who knocked out the heavily favored Mike Tyson in 1990 to win boxing's heavyweight championship)? This is a monumental task for the Chargers, but that's why they play the game."

More NFL playoffs

- Last Sunday's Chargers-Colts game on CBS drew a 40.9 rating in San Diego with a 77 share of the audience. Nationally, the game averaged 31.6 million viewers.

- Last Saturday's Jaguars-Patriots game on CBS drew a 20.2 rating, a 33 share, averaging 30.9 million viewers.

- Again proving the Sunday afternoon late slot is the best for NFL games, last Sunday's Giants-Cowboys playoff game on Fox drew a 23.6 rating, a 40 share of the audience nationally, averaging 40 million viewers.

- Last Saturday's Seahawks-Packers game in the snow on Fox got a 17.0 rating, a 34 share and averaged 28.2 million viewers.

- Sean McManus, president of CBS Sports, said of the Chargers' victory over the Colts last week that denied the network a Colts-Patriots AFC Championship Game: "We'll potentially take a little bit of a ratings hit. That was the match people wanted to see. I guess we're a little disappointed, but not as much as if the Patriots had lost. But if the Chargers and Patriots is a competitive game, we'll still have a strong rating."

- As the Patriots' shot for an unbeaten season, CBS' Nantz thinks the game will get a great rating because "it's tough to turn off history."

Want to star with Phil?

National golf commentator David Feherty will host a casting call for Phil Mickelson look-a-likes from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Jan. 25 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in San Diego.

Feherty is hosting casting calls in San Diego, Los Angeles and New York to find someone to star with Mickelson in a national TV ad campaign for Crowne Plaza.

Golfers can also submit stories and videos by visiting www.ameetingwithphil.com.

The ads are scheduled to air April through September.

Quarterbacks on display

Kevin O'Connell of San Diego State and Josh Johnson of USD are two of the three quarterbacks for the West team in Saturday's East-West Shrine all-star game in Houston.

Sam Keller of Nebraska is the third West quarterback.

San Diego State offensive lineman Will Robinson is also on the West roster.

Kickoff is 4 p.m. on ESPN2.

MLK Day highlights

- ESPN will have a series of vignettes to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday. The vignettes will air throughout the day and will include commentary by Michael Strahan, Meadowlark Lemon, Bill Walton, Brian Dawkins and Mike Ditka.

- ESPNU will have a boys prep basketball triple-header Monday with five nationally ranked teams. Action from the Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Mass., starts at 8 a.m. with Holy Cross (N.Y.) vs. San Jose Archbishop Mitty, followed by St. Raymond (N.Y.) vs. Los Angeles Taft at 11 a.m. and St. Anthony (N.J.) vs. Scott County (Ky.) at 3 p.m. 

- The No. 3 North Carolina women play top-ranked Connecticut at 4 p.m. Monday on ESPN2.

NHL returns

The NHL game of the week returns to NBC with Sunday's Bruins-Rangers game at 9:30 a.m.

This is the first of nine Sunday NHL games on NBC.

Mike Emerick, Eddie Olczyk and Pierre McGuire are the announcers.

Around the dial

- CSTV has a pair of college hockey games this weekend, highlighted by a 5 p.m. match today pitting No. 8 Notre Dame at No. 1 Michigan. Saturday's 5 p.m. games is Northern Michigan at Ferris State.

- For soccer nuts, ESPN2 will have coverage of the first hour of the 2008 Major League Soccer SuperDraft at 11 a.m. today.

- Bob Costas and Dick Button will serve as hosts for next weekend's coverage of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on NBC. Tom Hammond, Scott Hamilton, Sandra Bezic, Tracy Wilson, Andrea Joyce, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier will also work the event as NBC plans eight hours of coverage.

- Vince Cellini has rejoined the Golf Channel, resuming his role as a studio host.

Staff writer John Maffei's TV/Radio Column appears every Friday. He can be reached at (760) 740-3547 or jmaffei@nctimes.com.

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