Holtz-Dockery II: Reporter Gets No Worse Than a Tie

Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz tore into sideline reporter John Dockery pretty good. But Dockery stood his ground.

It happened in front of millions of viewers last Saturday, but it wasn’t the first time. It also happened in 1989.

“The other time, it was much more volatile,” Dockery recalled this week.

When USC played at Notre Dame in 1989, a fight broke out among the players before the game. As the Trojans were leaving the playing field after warming up, Notre Dame players, preparing to come onto the field, blocked their way and the fight was on.

Dockery, then working for CBS, witnessed the whole thing. He reported that a Notre Dame player hit a USC player.

Four weeks later, Notre Dame was playing at Penn State, and CBS was televising the game.

When Holtz came to a production meeting in a hotel room to speak with the CBS people, the first person he spotted was Dockery.

Holtz started screaming at Dockery, “How dare you report one of our players hit one of theirs!”

Said Pat Haden, a member of the CBS crew and an eyewitness: “John didn’t back down. He gave it right back to Holtz, saying: ‘Hey, I’m just doing my job. You can’t tell me how to do my job.’ ”

Said Dockery this week: “Yeah, that’s pretty much the way I remember it.”

Dockery, a former defensive back with the New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers who played at Harvard, didn’t back down Saturday, either.

The first thing television viewers wanted to know after the 17-17 tie between Notre Dame and Michigan was: What in the world was Lou Holtz thinking?

Dockery, who works the sidelines for NBC, corralled Holtz as he walked off the field. “What were you thinking late in the game?”

Holtz shot back: “When late in the game?”

Dockery knew right then the battle lines were drawn. He continued.

“The last minute,” he said.

Holtz said he was trying to see what defense Michigan was in.

Said Dockery: “But couldn’t you have done that by passing the ball?”

Holtz, stealing a line from George Bush, barked, “Read my lips,” and tried to explain again that he was simply checking out Michigan’s defense and that he definitely had not been playing for a tie.

What he should have said was, “I blew it.”

Holtz called Dockery on Monday to apologize.

Said Dockery: “That showed a lot of class. He didn’t have to do that.”

No, but considering that Notre Dame makes more than $7 million per year off NBC, it wasn’t a bad idea.

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Maybe the way to get the NFL to lighten up on its ridiculous, antiquated television policies would be for some consumer group to take it to court.

That’s almost a guaranteed victory. The NFL fares worse in court than the Indianapolis Colts on the playing field. At least the Colts win a game every once in a while.

A complaint could be filed that the NFL’s television policies are discriminatory.

Consider last weekend, when Los Angeles viewers were deprived of seeing Buffalo at San Francisco, which lived up to its billing as the day’s best game. It may turn out to be the game of the year.

NBC televised that game because Buffalo, the visiting team, plays in the AFC.

This Sunday, because the Raiders are at home, Los Angeles again doesn’t get the 49ers, who this time will be on CBS because they are on the road, playing the New York Jets.

The problem is that the NFL long ago decided that no network could televise more than one game in a market where a live game was being played.

It was NBC’s turn to have a doubleheader last Sunday, so most of the nation got an early game, followed by Buffalo-San Francisco.

But Los Angeles, which got the Raiders on NBC at 10 a.m., as required by the NFL, couldn’t get a second game because the Rams were at home.

Normally in this case, CBS would have shown a 1 p.m. game. But CBS had the U.S. Open tennis men’s final scheduled for 1 p.m. So CBS showed a 10 a.m. game, Atlanta at Washington, then the tennis.

NBC showed the Raiders, then a movie.

One might wonder if the NFL, by limiting the number of telecasts in NFL cities, is looking ahead to pay-per-view.

The answer is probably no. More than likely, it’s simply a case of the conservative NFL owners unwilling to change anything, even something that would please the fans.

The NFL’s thinking is, one fewer televised game may mean a better gate for the game being played in the area. What silliness.

The NFL’s no-doubleheader policy is discriminatory toward people who live in NFL cities. It’s doubly discriminatory for people who live in two-team NFL cities, such as Los Angeles, where either the Rams or Raiders are at home almost every weekend.

It sure looks like an open-and-shut case, an easy victory for the fans. Particularly when you consider the NFL’s record in court.

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The Rams are playing at Miami on Sunday and CBS will televise that game at 1 p.m., with Tim Ryan and newcomer Matt Millen calling the action. Early indications are that Millen is on his way to stardom.

Someone else getting early rave notices is Bill Parcells, whom Los Angeles will get for the second Sunday in a row. He and partner Marv Albert will work NBC’s 10 a.m. game, Denver at Philadelphia.

Parcells, who worked the Raiders’ game at Cincinnati last weekend, was pretty good, particularly when you consider his lack of experience. He actually made fewer mistakes than Albert, who had an off day.

Parcells spent most of his rookie season with NBC in the studio.

“I like being out at the games, talking to the players and coaches,” Parcells said in a phone interview this week. “That’s what NBC wanted me to do originally, but because of my health I wanted to limit my travel.”

Parcells underwent coronary artery bypass surgery in June and says he is feeling fine.

Asked about the Raiders’ switch in quarterbacks, Parcells said: “After talking with Al Davis and the coaches last week, I had a sense they might make a change if things didn’t go well, but there was nothing definite.”

TV-Radio Notes

With Al Conin and Bob Jamison out as the Angel radio announcers, speculation on their replacements has begun. Bob Starr, now with the Boston Red Sox, is said to be among the leading candidates. Another is NBC’s Joel Meyers. Geoff Witcher is a longshot, as is Channel 2’s Rory Markas, who does Milwaukee Brewer television. Don Drysdale, unhappy about his lack of air time under the Dodgers’ one-announcer-at-a-time format, will probably throw his name into the hat, but it’s unlikely flagship station KMPC could afford him. Longtime KMPC disc jockey Johnny Magnus, a self-proclaimed baseball fanatic, says he will apply. Here’s a likely scenario: Television announcers Ken Wilson and Ken Brett will double up, doing both radio and television. A third announcer would be needed to help out on radio when Wilson and Brett are on television. This would be more economical than hiring two new radio announcers.

XTRA, after drawn-out negotiations, has finally made a deal with KWNK (670) to have the Simi Valley-based station carry its signal, beginning Monday. . . . Chet Forte is close to a deal with Prime Ticket to direct Laker telecasts. He would also continue doing his XTRA morning show with Steve Hartman. . . . Channel 2’s “L.A. Football Company” pre-pregame show, off to a dreadful start, is being completely revamped, with more emphasis on football and less on shtick. “It will be football, football, football--and no shtick,” Channel 2 program director Jay Strong said. Guests on Sunday’s 9 a.m. show will include Al Davis, Eric Dickerson and agent Leigh Steinberg. Cyndy Garvey Truhan is being dropped after Sunday. “Not because we don’t like her, but because she doesn’t have a role in the new format,” Strong said. “We’d still like to use her, but on a different show.”