He’s Not a Genius, but His Grades Are Up

Bill Walsh may have a future in broadcasting after all. At least he’s improving.

Walsh, who will team with Dick Enberg on NBC’s coverage of Sunday’s AFC championship game between Cleveland and Denver, admits his first season has been tough.

“Early in the season I was having quite a few bad games,” he said. “I’d have a good game, then a bad game.

“But I think I’ve reduced the number of those games and been more effective the last five games.”

That’s a pretty accurate evaluation.

Walsh had his best game last Sunday, when he was particularly candid and opinionated during Denver’s one-point win over Pittsburgh.

About Walsh’s troubles, partner Dick Enberg said: “He’s had a heavy load to carry. Commentators have to do a lot more than just provide commentary.

“It used to be story-telling was the responsibility of the play-by-play man, but now it’s a role for the commentator.

“He’s also had to learn to work the telestrator, and I think he’s now doing it as well as anybody.”

Said Walsh: “I think I’ve learned that you’d better just be yourself in this role. There’s only one John Madden, and only one Dan Dierdorf.

“I have to be myself and let the viewers decide whether I have a sense of humor and if I can be interesting.”

As for his attempts at humor, Walsh said: “Sometimes Dick forces me to rehearse. But what I hope comes across is that Dick and I really enjoy each other’s company.”

It seemed at times during last Sunday’s Ram-Giant game that CBS announcers Pat Summerall and John Madden were Giant announcers.

It was not that they openly rooted for New York, but too often they were telling viewers what the Giants were doing right or what the Giants were doing wrong.

They may have been affected by CBS executives, most of whom live in New York and cheer for the Giants, although Bob Stenner, the producer of the telecast, is from Los Angeles.

Madden, in particular, irked Ram fans by saying the pass interference call in overtime that set up the winning touchdown shouldn’t have been called.

“What I’m against is such a marginal call being made at that point of the game,” Madden said this week after arriving back at his home in the Bay Area. “It doesn’t matter who it’s on.”

Summerall and Madden remain the best announcing team in pro football, and besides working Sunday’s NFC title game between the Rams and San Francisco, they will also work the Super Bowl on Jan. 28.

A reminder: With both conference championship games being played in the West, the AFC game doesn’t start until 10:30 a.m., PST, and the NFC game starts at 2 p.m.

The Super Bowl in New Orleans will also start at 2 p.m., PST.

Madden, who travels from game to game by bus, said he still enjoys it.

“If I was always on the bus, it might get to me,” he said. “But I can make it across the country in two days. We left the Meadowlands at 5 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, and I was home by 5 p.m. our time Tuesday.”

Greyhound not only provides Madden with his bus but also with two drivers who alternate shifts. So the bus is going almost the whole time.

Going in, Monday night’s pay-per-view fight between George Foreman and Gerry Cooney seems to be the most-ridiculed bout in recent memory.

But CBS boxing commentator Gil Clancy, who, in his younger days, trained world champions Emile Griffith and Ken Buchanan, thinks the criticism is unfair.

Clancy, who took some time off from CBS to train Cooney, said: “I know Gerry is taking this fight seriously. He’s in the best shape of his life.”

Clancy, 67, who once trained Foreman, said he agreed to handle Cooney after a meeting with the 33-year-old fighter who has had only two bouts since 1984 and none in 2 1/2 years.

“I went to see him work out and could tell he was dead serious,” Clancy said from Atlantic City, N.J., the site of the fight. “I liked what I saw and I liked what he said.

“I liked his potential when he was a 17-year-old kid, but he was never handled by the right people.”

Clancy, who was a commentator on the pay-per-view telecast of the recent Sugar Ray Leonard-Roberto Duran fight, goes back to work for CBS on Jan. 27, when Lindell Holmes and Frank Tate square off in New Orleans as a part of Super Bowl week.

Monday night’s undercard begins at 6 p.m., the main event about 7:30. Highlighting the undercard is a scheduled 12-round middleweight bout between Doug DeWitt and Matthew Hilton, a substitute for injured Iran Barkley but a hard puncher.

The main event is scheduled for 10 rounds but doesn’t figure to go that long.

Most cable companies are charging $20 for the telecast.

Awards show: The Ace Awards, cable television’s Emmy Awards, will be presented Sunday night, during a show televised from 5 to 7:30 p.m., at the Wiltern Theater.

A dozen cable networks, including TBS, TNT and SportsChannel America, will televise the show.

Individual nominees in sports categories include Chris Berman, Mike Patrick and Dick Vitale of ESPN, Roy Firestone for “Sportslook,” Jim Lampley for HBO boxing and Marv Albert for Knicks basketball on the Madison Square Garden network.

Joe Namath and Dinah Shore are among the hosts. Mike Tyson and Don King are among the presenters.

TV-Radio Notes

ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” begins its 30th year Saturday, spotlighting the Harlem Globetrotters. Mike Adamle reports from Paradise Island in the Bahamas. The segment is dedicated to the people of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, the game’s original site, which was devasted by Hurricane Hugo. . . . ABC’s Pro Bowlers Tour begins its 29th season Saturday with the AC-Delco tournament in Torrance. Chris Schenkel, who has been with the series since its inception, returns.

Channel 9, KCAL, has hired Gary Cruz, who has been a sports anchorman in Denver. Cruz begins Jan. 22. . . . Robin Roberts, 29, a former Southeastern Louisiana women’s basketball star who most recently was working as a sports anchor in Atlanta, has been hired by ESPN as a late-night anchor for “SportsCenter.” She begins Monday.

KFI’s Joe McDonnell says he will break a new twist to how the Raiders may be kept in Los Angeles on his talk show Sunday night. McDonnell said he will have guests on during the 9 o’clock hour who have a plan for keeping the Raiders in Los Angeles County but not necessarily at the Coliseum. . . . KMPC has gotten a jump on the Angel season. The radio station is already carrying “Angel Update,” a weekly call-in show on Wednesday nights, with Al Conin and Ken Brett.

Channel 13’s Vic (the Brick) Jacobs was among the guests on HBO’s “First and Ten” Wednesday night. He played himself. Other guests included Lawrence Taylor, Jim Everett, Roger Craig and Herschel Walker. Guess what. They played football players. . . . Program note: Channel 2’s “John Robinson Show” this weekend will be shown Sunday at 9:30 a.m.

Todd Christensen has replaced Joe Theismann as one of the hosts of the syndicated program, “American Gladiators.” The new shows, being taped this week at Universal Studios, will air beginning Feb. 17 at 10 p.m. on Channel 9. Marcus Allen of the Raiders was a visitor on the set the other night.

George Allen, Cal State Long Beach’s new football coach, will be the halftime guest during SportsChannel America’s coverage of tonight’s Artesia-Mater Dei high school basketball game. . . . ABC’s Al Michaels returns as a fill-in host of “Good Morning America” next week. . . . Prime Ticket will air a cute piece on locker-room pranks after the first period of the Kings’ home game against Hartford Saturday. . . . Hall of Fame newcomer Jim Palmer will be Pat Sajak’s guest next Thursday night.

ESPN’s Top Rank boxing shows have moved to Sunday nights. The series will switch to Thursday night during the baseball season. . . . Joe Garagiola, besides being SportsChannel’s new Angel announcer, will be the host of a new syndicated show, “Baseball Sunday With Joe Garagiola,” beginning April 1. . . . Channel 7’s Jim Hill will receive the Westwood Shrine Club’s Sports Achievement Award at a dinner at the Beverly Hilton Hotel Jan. 17. Stu Nahan will be the master of ceremonies. . . . The way Channel 4’s Fred Roggin treated the story about a possible one-on-one game between Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan, you would have thought it had just broken. It was reported in The Times four days earlier.