New reporter could be Lenny’s successor
By JEFFREY FLANAGAN
Channel 9 has its replacement for Andy Fales, who left abruptly because of personal reasons just six months after the station hired him.
The new hire, Nick Griffith from Topeka’s ABC affiliate KTKA, might just be Channel 9’s long-term solution whenever sports director and Hall of Famer Len Dawson decides to step down.
But Channel 9 isn’t gazing into any crystal balls about Dawson’s eventual successor.
“No, not going to go there,” said Channel 9 assistant news director Gerry Roberts. “I’ll just say we’re very happy to have hired Nick. He’s got a lot of energy, and the phrase I kept hearing over and over about him is that he works hard.”
Roberts said Griffith will start at Channel 9 on Jan. 14. Griffith is now in Miami covering the Orange Bowl for KTKA.
“The other good thing is that Nick is familiar with all the local teams, whether it’s the Chiefs or Royals or the Big 12,” Roberts said. “He’ll be able to hit the ground running.”
Griffith is from Madison, Ind., and was a three-sport athlete in high school. He went to college at Miami University in Ohio.
Bowl thoughts
Have you seen a team recently more exposed than Hawaii was by Georgia? That was painful to watch.
What we’ve learned is that Hawaii is a bit of a fun story, and indeed a cute program. But please, don’t confuse the Warriors with big-time college football.
And Colt Brennan, sorry to say, won’t be playing on Sundays. He was so frustrated that he actually seemed to be pouting by the end of the first quarter.
Bowl thoughts, II
I’ve made this suggestion before to ESPN: But can our favorite sports network just concentrate on covering the game?
Seriously, we’re football fans. We turn on football games to watch football. We want analysis and reporting about the football game we’re watching. We want replays, lots of them.
We don’t need 100 interviews with past coaches, retired athletic directors, parents in the stands, or VIPs on the sideline. We especially don’t want to hear phone interviews in the middle of the game (usually during a pivotal point) that distract from the game coverage.
Some marketing genius at ESPN apparently decided a few years ago that football telecasts should be geared toward entertaining and/or luring the nonfootball fan. But guess what? The nonfootball fan isn’t watching 99.9 percent of the bowls, or any other football game for that matter.
Nonfootball fans watch other things. About the only game the nonfootball fan pays any attention to is the Super Bowl, so even we hard-core football fans have come to accept all the silly broadcasting sideshows for that game.
But hey, ESPN, show some love for the hard-core football fan, and cover a football game the way you used to.
To reach Jeffrey Flanagan call 816-234-4492 and leave a message or email at jflanagan@kcstar.com
