A Hard Day’s Night of Football

Yes, there can be too much football.

There was some good football on New Year’s Day--particularly for USC, Notre Dame and Miami fans--but seven games in one day is about four too many.

The NFL presents a nice, neat postseason tournament, culminating with Super Bowl Sunday. What the colleges present is a mess.

Watching seven games within an 11-hour span is enough to make your head spin more than a New Year’s Day hangover.

The first game Monday was the Hall of Fame Bowl, which began shortly after 10 a.m. The last one, the Sugar Bowl, didn’t end until 9:15 p.m.

ABC made the most of its late sign-off and asked viewers to call in their votes for the No. 1 team in the nation.

At last count, Notre Dame had a pretty healthy lead over Miami, 55% to 26%, after 50,000 calls.

NBC and ABC each televised three games and CBS one.

NBC got a head start on ABC with the Hall of Fame Bowl starting a half-hour earlier than the Citrus Bowl.

NBC had to cut away from its coverage of the Rose Parade a little early, but at least it didn’t run into the overlapping problems later in the day that ABC did.

NBC’s Hall of Fame Bowl ended at 1:27 p.m. and the network wasted little time switching to the Fiesta Bowl.

It was a far better switch than ABC’s from the Citrus Bowl to the Rose Bowl.

ABC planned to be on the air from Pasadena at 1:45 p.m., and the kickoff was scheduled for shortly after 2.

But, as things turned out, the kickoff was delayed until 2:21.

The main reason for the delay was that the Citrus Bowl didn’t end until 2:03. Then, making matters worse, ABC took its time making the switch, to say the least.

After the Citrus Bowl was over, ABC showed a promotional spot for the upcoming Rose Bowl. Thanks, but we knew it was coming.

Then came a promo for ABC Sports, then a “thank you” promotional spot to an airline that provides free air travel.

There were two promos for ABC shows, followed by a news brief.

It was almost 2:10.

What next? Three consecutive commercials and a Channel 7 promo for Todd Donoho’s “New Year’s Live” postgame show.

Actually, Donoho’s show wasn’t bad. He played it pretty straight, and his look-a-likes segment was interesting. John Robinson and Duke Snider was one of his best.

Anyway, ABC was still a long way from the Rose Bowl kickoff.

After some ABC Sports graphics, there was a Big Ten promo, then more graphics and finally a glimpse of the Rose Bowl, where the crowd was completing the national anthem.

Then came an intro from announcer Keith Jackson and another taped piece on Schembechler, this one showing a 1971 pep talk.

Next was another commercial, then a Pacific 10 promo followed by one more commercial.

At 2:16, the teams took the field, and Jackson and commentator Bob Griese offered a little pregame analysis.

The Rose Bowl kickoff came 18 minutes after the end of the Citrus Bowl.

ABC had met with Rose Bowl officials at about 1 p.m. and asked for a later kickoff, so the teams knew what was coming.

But it was unnerving to viewers at home and fans at the game, making them wait and wait.

The 18-minute break wouldn’t have been so bad had ABC not crammed in all those commercials and promos.

There were 20 minutes between the Fiesta Bowl and Orange Bowl on NBC, but that network used the time mostly for analysis and features.

It used the time for only a few commercials and promos.

ABC producer Bob Goodrich, who was in charge of the Rose Bowl coverage, had plenty of material planned for his pregame show, but someone higher up at ABC decided against using it.

Actually, Goodrich, director Larry Kamm, announcers Jackson and Griese and the rest of the ABC crew put out an excellent Rose Bowl telecast--once it got going.

ABC got some definitive shots the holding call on Michigan’s fake punt in the fourth quarter, but the most conclusive shot wasn’t shown until halftime of the Sugar Bowl.

It showed that Michigan’s Bobby Abrams held, but it was far away from the play and the flag was late.

Usually sideline reporters offer little, but NBC’s O.J. Simpson came up with some good information during the Orange Bowl.

Simpson, working the Colorado sideline while Ralph Wiley handled the Notre Dame bench, explained why the entire teams of both schools went on the field before the kickoff.

Simpson said when the Colorado players saw the whole Notre Dame team coming out, they did the same thing.

Simpson also explained what went wrong on Colorado’s fake field goal try early in the game, pointing out that the key receiver forgot to run a pattern.

In the Orange Bowl booth, Dick Enberg and Bill Walsh had one of their best games. It was refreshing to hear how excited Walsh was.

He even apologized for a profanity. Actually, all he said was ‘that was a helluva play.”

Viewers of the Hall of Fame Bowl saw one of the all-time hits when Ohio State’s Zack Dumas leveled Auburn’s Stacy Danley.

Announcer Don Criqui first said: “That’s got to be the hardest hit of the ‘89-90 bowl season.”

Then, after viewing a replay, Criqui said: “It’s the hardest hit I’ve seen in football in years.”

Criqui at one point forgot he was at the Hall of Fame Bowl. Talking about Auburn’s Shayne Wasden’s punt returns of 30 and 34 yards, he said they broke the Orange Bowl record.

Well, maybe you can’t blame Criqui for being confused. He worked the last eight Orange Bowl games.

Speaking of flubs, Simpson, during halftime of the Hall of Fame Bowl, referred to Notre Dame’s George Gipp as George Kemp. However, Simpson did catch the mistake and corrected it.

In referring to Gipp’s death, comparing it to the death of Colorado quarterback Sal Aunese, Simpson said it occurred a few years ago.

Colleague Bob Costas, fearing Simpson’s attempt at sarcasm was probably lost on most viewers, added: “It was more than a few years ago. It was so long ago that a young Ronald Reagan could play Gipp (in the 1940 movie, ‘Knute Rockne--All American’).”

During halftime of the Fiesta Bowl, Gayle Gardner--yes, she still works for NBC--had an excellent feature on the once-troubled Colorado football program and the death of Aunese last September.

CBS deserves kudos for the halftime piece it showed during the Cotton Bowl. It chronicled the highlights of college football during the 1980s, including California’s 1982 kickoff against Stanford.

NBC broke a story Monday afternoon that Notre Dame defensive coordinator Barry Alvarez would be leaving the school to become head coach at Wisconsin.

The network had Wiley interview Alvarez later in the day, but because of technical problems, had to cut away from it earlier than planned.

On this day and night of football, the coverage and the announcing, overall, was fine.

It’s just that something needs to be done about the logjam. The way things are now, it’s impossible to see everything.

And that’s depriving viewers. You don’t see the NFL scheduling seven games on Super Bowl Sunday.