From Saudi Arabia to the Sidelines, NBC Turns On the Juice

Football came easy to O.J. Simpson. Broadcasting did not.

He struggled, but never gave up, even when things looked bleak. One critic wrote that Simpson sounded as if he had a brick wall between his brain and his mouth.

The critics aren’t picking on Simpson now. In fact, NBC executives are raving about him, calling him both a team player and a star.

He’s been to Saudi Arabia to visit the troops; he’s been on the sidelines digging up information on injured quarterbacks; he’s been hustling and going after stories and he’s showing, by gosh, he is a good broadcaster after all.

Simpson concedes that he’s having his best year.

“I’m more relaxed because I understand my responsibilities better than ever before,” he said.

Last season, on NBC’s “NFL Live,” the emphasis was on Bob Costas and “insiders” Bobby Beathard and Ralph Wiley.

“Sometimes there’d be eight seconds left, and they’d say, ‘Go to O.J.,’ ” Simpson said.

“This year, the second segment is all mine. They tell me what they want, then leave it up to me and my producer, Kevin Smollon.”

Simpson spent this week working on a Bo Jackson piece that will be seen on “NFL Live” Saturday at 12:30, before the Raiders’ game at Minnesota.

“We like it that people, whether it’s Bo Jackson or the troops in Saudi Arabia, feel at ease with O.J.,” said Terry O’Neil, NBC Sports’ executive producer. “We also think that viewers who have grown up with O.J. feel comfortable with him.

“I think a big difference for O.J. on ‘NFL Live’ this year is the addition of Will McDonough. They play off each other very well.”

Simpson also gives a lot of credit to McDonough.

“It’s not just what we do on the air,” he said. “We watch games together and exchange ideas.”

Last weekend, Simpson was assigned to work the sideline at Giants Stadium, where Buffalo played New York. Usually, sideline reporters get about 30 seconds to offer little more than a few cliches.

But after both quarterbacks, Buffalo’s Jim Kelly and New York’s Phil Simms, went down with injuries, Simpson became a major player.

“I wasn’t even supposed to be down on the sideline,” he said. “I kept having to change umbrellas so the league officials upstairs couldn’t spot me. I got thrown off the field once.”

Still, Simpson was able to get information on the injuries, and he even had a beer with Kelly in the trainer’s room.

The next day, he made about a dozen calls tracking down Kelly and persuaded him to do a phone interview on “NFL Live.”

“I told him I’d play in his golf tournament if he’d come on the air,” Simpson said. “So I guess I’ll be in Buffalo in June.”

Simpson’s work last weekend has drawn him sideline assignments this weekend--Saturday at the Metrodome and Sunday at Rich Stadium in Buffalo, where the Bills play Miami.

“The Metrodome is OK, but do you know how cold it will be on the field at Rich Stadium?” Simpson said.

He’s not really complaining, though.

“I groaned and moaned when they said they were sending me to Saudi Arabia, and I groaned and moaned when they said I was going to be on the sideline last Saturday,” Simpson said. “But to tell you the truth I’ve gotten a kick out of being out where the action is.”

There is a certain kinship between Simpson and Bill Walsh, and not just because Walsh coached Simpson briefly with the San Francisco 49ers. Walsh, like Simpson, went from a field where he excelled to one where he is struggling.

Simpson, however, says he believes Walsh will stay in broadcasting and not return to coaching.

“I think Bill would prefer to succeed on TV and not have to go back to coaching,” he said.

NBC’s O’Neil said a decision about Walsh’s status with the network will be made after the season.

“We won’t talk until then because we don’t want to distract him during the season,” O’Neil said.

A new coaching rumor about Walsh is that he will end up in San Diego. Charger officials are saying Coach Dan Henning, who has three years left on his contract, is on solid ground, but an NBC source said Walsh and Beathard, now the Chargers’ general manager, have talked.

Angel announcers: Now that Channel 5 has hired an Angel play-by-play announcer, Ken Wilson, the next step is to find a commentator. Johnny Bench is the leading candidate, with Jay Johnstone and Bob Gibson high on the list. And there still is a possibility that Reggie Jackson will be back.

Joe Quasarano, Channel 5’s executive sports producer, said he hopes to decide by the end of the month.

Wilson, who has done baseball in St. Louis, Cincinnati and Seattle, got his first baseball announcing job in 1970 with the Hawaii Islanders. Al Michaels hired him.

“I was headed into my third year with the Islanders when Ken, a disc jockey in Honolulu, applied for a job,” Michaels said. “I asked him if he knew who Mike Fiore was? He knew that Fiore was a Kansas City utility man, so I hired him.”

Hard to figure: USC quarterback Todd Marinovich is among the personalities profiled on “First Person with Maria Shriver” on NBC Sunday night at 8.

In doing the piece, an NBC crew had more than a few problems trying to track down Marinovich. Once, it went to a math class to film him, only Marinovich wasn’t there.

Said Marinovich: “What math class? I have a math class? I can’t stand math.”

TV-Radio Notes

With the Raiders playing at Minnesota on Saturday and the Rams at Atlanta on Sunday, Los Angeles gets an extra NFL telecast Sunday--New Orleans at San Francisco on Channel 2 at 1 p.m. Newcomer Brad Nessler and Dan Jiggetts will announce the Ram-Falcon game, Verne Lundquist and John Madden the Saint-49er game. Lundquist is filling in for Pat Summerall, who is still hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer. Jack Buck has taken over Lundquist’s assignments. Summerall is expected to be home for Christmas, but his work status is undetermined.

The CBS game on Saturday is Detroit at Green Bay, with James Brown and Randy Cross reporting. And don’t forget, because of Christmas Eve, “Monday Night Football” falls on Saturday this weekend, with Washington at Indianapolis at 5 p.m. . . . The big game on Sunday is Miami at Buffalo on NBC at 10 a.m., with Marv Albert and Paul Maguire. The ESPN game Sunday evening is Denver at Seattle.

With all the college basketball on television, it’s amazing that UCLA at Iowa Saturday at 5 p.m. isn’t on somewhere. . . . The highlight of the Christmas Day lineup is the Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls on NBC at noon, with Albert and Mike Fratello reporting. Fratello said, “It’s been a long time since we did the Lakers and Spurs the first weekend of the season, so being able to do the Clippers (for Channel 5) has really worked out well.” . . . KLAC offers the NBA radio network’s coverage of the Pistons and Bulls, with Joe McConnell and Frank Layden announcing.

Prime Ticket kicks off a USC-UCLA football marathon at 4 p.m. Christmas Day with a full replay of this year’s game. Following are six hours of highlights from other games during the last decade. Prime Ticket will send tapes of the football marathon to troops in Saudi Arabia. . . . Other Christmas Day highlights include an ABC football doubleheader--the Blue-Gray game at 9 a.m. followed at 12:30 by Syracuse and Arizona in the Aloha Bowl--and a two-hour special, “The Best of SportsCenter ‘90,” on ESPN at 5 p.m. . . .

Fred Roggin has completed taping the first six half-hour segments of “Roggin’s Heroes,” an MCA-distributed series being syndicated to 145 markets for Saturday night showing, beginning Jan. 12. The shows are similar to Roggin’s year-end specials. But instead of getting one a year, Roggin fans will be getting one every week. . . . Chris Marlowe, drawing his first Prime Ticket boxing assignment, did nice work on Wednesday night’s stunner at the Forum, in which Rolando Pascua knocked out Humberto Gonzalez. . . . Beginning Jan. 1, Prime Ticket will replay “Press Box” nightly at 1:30 or 2.

ESPN boxing commentator Al Bernstein has joined the KVEG lineup that includes Fred Wallin, Rick Talley and Peter Vent. Bernstein’s show, which began this week on the 50,000-watt Las Vegas radio station, is on weekdays, 3 to 4 p.m. . . . Ed (Superfan) Bieler has talked with KTMS in Santa Barbara about employment. The station’s talk-show host, Jim Rome, left to join XTRA in San Diego, and Randy Rosenbloom is filling in. . . . CBS has announced that it will again televise only 16 regular-season baseball games, beginning April 20.