War in Persian Gulf Casts a Shadow Over Championship Games

Jack Buck, who will announce Sunday’s NFC championship game and the following Sunday’s Super Bowl for CBS Radio, was talking with a group of reporters on a conference call Wednesday morning when the prospect of war was brought up.

“If there is no war, the outcome of these games is 100% important,” Buck said. “But if we go to war, that goes down to about 2%.”

When war came later in the day, Buck’s words spoke volumes.

There will be a cloud hanging over the NFL’s two championship games, but the league’s second-biggest day of the season, topped only by Super Bowl Sunday, will go on as scheduled.

After World War II broke out, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote to Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the commissioner of baseball, urging him not to suspend the season, citing the recreational benefits sports provide.

Now, a lot of people are saying the same thing.

“I think by Sunday, football will be a welcomed distraction,” O.J. Simpson said Thursday just before heading to LAX.

Simpson, who will be in Buffalo for NBC’s coverage of the Bills and Raiders, said he probably will stay away from talking about the war while conducting live interviews at Rich Stadium.

“We taped an interview with Marcus Allen last night and touched on the subject, but I think the important thing now is to provide entertainment,” said Simpson, whose assignment Sunday will be Raider players.

Former Raider Todd Christensen will be assigned to the Bills.

“I think we can be cognizant of what is going on without dwelling on it,” Christensen said.

CBS will have Pat O’Brien ask members of the San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants about the war in taped interviews for “NFL Today,” but otherwise it should be business as usual.

Both NBC and CBS said their news divisions will have top priority, however, and may cut in at any time.

“There’s no debate, no discussion, they don’t have to ask for permission,” said Terry O’Neil, executive producer of NBC Sports. “No one resists it. The news division and war, by a factor of a million, has a higher priority than football.”

Sunday marks this season’s final telecast of the post-Brent Musburger “NFL Today” on CBS, and the report card shows an “A.”

With an all-new cast, Terry Bradshaw emerged as a star, Greg Gumbel as a solid host, and reporters O’Brien, Lesley Visser and Jim Gray added depth.

“Our aim has been to give the viewers something different, something they’ll remember,” said Ted Shaker, the executive producer of CBS Sports.

The emphasis at NBC for “NFL Live” seems to be breaking stories. Some call it gossip.

The emphasis for “NFL Today” seems to be football.

“We cover legitimate stories, but we’re not doing the evening news,” Shaker said. “I’m not criticizing NBC. They do a fine job. It’s just different philosophies.”

Said Gumbel: “We don’t do things just to get a mention in USA Today on Monday morning.”

The animated Bradshaw has become someone you either love or hate.

“That’s exactly right,” he said from his home near Ft. Worth. “People have bad opinions about people who have opinions.

“I’m a fun-loving guy who doesn’t have any grudges or vendettas against anyone. It’s just if I’m going to do my job, I’ve got to be honest.”

A snafu last Sunday led to one of Visser’s finest moments. When there was no audio for a taped piece on Giant linebacker Pepper Johnson, Visser simply told viewers what Johnson had said.

“She could have froze, but she didn’t,” Shaker said. “She grew as a broadcaster with that experience.”

Radio station KABC planned to hold a news conference Thursday to announce that the search was over and that Steve Edwards will become the new host of “Sportstalk.”

The news conference was postponed because of the war, but the station went ahead with the announcement.

Edwards, beginning Monday, will serve as host of a general-talk show weekdays from 3 to 5 p.m., then do “Sportstalk” from 5 to 7.

“With the way things are in the world, we may not talk much sports on Monday,” Edwards said. “You can’t be talking about war, then suddenly start talking about using a box-and-one to defend Don MacLean.”

Edwards will continue as host of Channel 7’s “AM Los Angeles,” which means long workdays.

“I know I’m going to be enjoying this tremendously, so it won’t be so bad,” he said.

When Edwards originally did some fill-in work on “Sportstalk” with Times sports columnist Mike Downey, he had no plans to do the job full time. But he said he enjoyed himself so much he changed his mind.

“Steve’s talents were exhibited beautifully when we gave him a Sunday show,” KABC General Manager George Green said. “He’s a master interviewer, and women find him very appealing.”

Edwards is making one sacrifice. He will discontinue doing his Sunday morning show.

When the baseball season starts, Edwards’ general-talk show will be cut to one hour and “Sportstalk” will run from 4 to 6, followed by “Dodgertalk,” with Ross Porter back as host.

KABC also offered Downey a full-time job, either as a host or co-host with Edwards on “Sportstalk,” but Downey decided not to give up his position with The Times.

However, Downey will be a “Sportstalk” special correspondent, and will continue doing sports on Peter Tilden’s Saturday morning shows.

TV-Radio Notes

The U.S. Army has withdrawn its commercials from Sunday’s NFL championship games. . . . Prime Ticket will devote most of its Press Box show tonight to the Raiders. Glen Walker will report from Buffalo.

KFI essentially will have 11 1/2 hours of Raider coverage Sunday, beginning with pregame coverage at 6:30 a.m. New Cal State Long Beach football Coach Willie Brown, an NFL Hall of Famer, will be among the guests Chris Roberts and Jim Plunkett will have on the show. After the game, Joe McDonnell’s talk show will run from 2:30 to 6 p.m. . . . Raider announcers Bill King and Rich Marotta will be heard only on KFI. Other stations on the Raider network are required to use the CBS Radio feed with Jim Nantz and John Dockery.

The debut of Fred Roggin’s new nationally syndicated show got an 11.1 rating in Los Angeles last Saturday, beating all prime-time programming on CBS and ABC. “Roggin’s Heroes” got 9s and 10s in some other major markets. . . . TBS, which is televising the Hawaiian Open, has a pretty impressive lineup of announcers--Vin Scully, Bob Neal, Pat Haden and Don Sutton.

Leading up to Saturday’s NHL All-Star game, SportsChannel will have three hours of interviews and classic-skills competition today at 4:30 p.m. NBC will televise the game live and SportsChannel will show it tape-delayed Sunday. . . . Chuck Hayes, administrative aide to the late George Allen at Cal State Long Beach last season, has been named public relations director for SportsChannel Los Angeles.