It's the TIME...of the SEASON...
...WHEN SPORTS RUNS HIGH...

First of all, you've gotta believe I'm really cool for using the title of an old '60s song in this here blog title. (Who did the song? When did it come out? Answer at bottom of this post.)

And right now, I'm gettin' ready for SEATTLE SEAHAWKS football, on the Sunday Evening NBC football program. And the program is being introduced by some blonde female country singer who I've never seen before as she warbles forth her little football song. Sorry, no one should sing before a football game except Hank Williams Jr. As a matter of fact, Hank Jr. should sing the national anthem every time any televised sports program is presented. Anyway, I'm trying a sort of sports cross-fade this year...easing out of baseball and easing into football. Quitting sports cold-turkey can be painful, after all.

However, whilst cross-fading into football, I underwent a case of mild shock. I watched the last quarter of the New England game, and when that was over, I heard the familiar voice of Bob Costas as he prepared to wrap up the game...Bob Costas is obviously who Rick Rizzs (a Seattle Mariners sportscaster) wants to be...like Costas, Rizzs will immerse you in all kinds of trivialities, factoids, useless information, and informative little trinkets that you'll immediately forget as soon as he says something else. And then, all of a sudden, I heard another voice come over the TV, and it's a voice that I've pretty-much tuned out over the last half a year...only, that voice is BACK...on a FOOTBALL show...and so I must ask you, dear reader, what's wrong with this picture?



...I'll tell you what's wrong with this picture...this is an MSNBC news-well-sorta-news guy, KEITH OLBERMANN, who is now lathering and smothering the sports-broadcast audience in multitudinous layers of smarminess, and he's on a football show with Bob Costas!!!!! (And, you all thot that Dennis Miller on Monday Nite Football was a bad idea!) So, even moreso, now, the separation between information and entertainment becomes blurred, as one entity cross-fades into another realm. So what's next? Tucker Carlson adding commentary to a pro wrestling show? Chris Mathews providing political analysis on the home shopping network? Tim Russert asking probing questions on a late-night Tupperware info-mercial? Dan Abrams providing us with sparkling legal analysis during a figure-skating program?

I know what's going on. NBC, the National Broadcasting Corporation, wants to Take Over The Entire World. NBC has its own satellite network, MSNBC, and if you work for MSNBC, you can expect to also do time on other shows which HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH WHY MSNBC HIRED YOU in the first place. Soon, I fully expect NBC newscasters to co-anchor the CBS Evening News (Katie needs all the help she can get), while MSNBC guys, such as whom I've referred to above, fill-in for ABC's "CHARLIE" Gibson, so he can get a little rest, since he also has to do show-prep and pseudo-broadcast for "Good Morning America". Obviously ABC is saving money here by having Gibson do both a MORNING show and an EVENING news broadcast. And they might just be riding a good horse to death in the process.

Actually, MSNBC is probably doing what it has to do. Have you ever tried to watch MSNBC for an entire evening? Chris Mathews runs right into Dan Abrams, who hands you off to Keith Olbermann, who then kicks you over to Tucker "the chipmunk" Carlson, who has lost any individuality he had by deciding not to wear a bow tie anymore. And during that evening on MSNBC, there are issues! Questions! Inferences! Analyzation! More Questions! Answers to those questions! Guests arguing with each other! Program hosts yelling over the guests! So MSNBC is having to farm out its on-air talent to OTHER programs, because WE, THE VIEWING AUDIENCE, ARE GETTING SICK OF THESE NEWS SHOWS!!! Well, seeing Keith Olbermann on a Sunday Football post-game show sure ain't gonna make me want to watch MORE of him, or for that matter, any of the MSNBC talking heads who cause me to switch the channel every time I see one of their ugly mugs. Honestly, being chained to a FOGHORN for 24 hours a day wouldn't be half as deafening as listening to Chris Mathews for half an hour. That guy has a voice that can Peel Paint!

In closing, the weekend is a time to not have to endure pundits, commentary, provocation, issues, concerns, legal and political crap and most of all, talking heads who sound like they know what they're talking about 'cos they have the best script-writers in the business. Except that now, on the weekends, we STILL have to endure Keith Olbermann between NBC Sunday football games. And that may just be the tip of the iceberg. Although, if I ever see Katie Couric providing football commentary for CBS, well, that's when I'm gonna drop-kick my TV.
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...and now, I'll go listen to John Madden and Al Michaels do the Sunday Night NFL game. And I don't think Madden or Michaels plan on hosting "Meet The Press" anytime soon. Oh, by the way, "Time Of The Season", by The Zombies, was recorded in 1968, but didn't become a hit until after the group broke up.