The New NFL Network Gets Off to a False Start

Less than four minutes into its existence Tuesday night and the NFL Network was already guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct.

“Hey, there, and welcome to the NFL in Los Angeles!” studio host Rich Eisen announced.

That would have been some way to get the network up and running -- a bombshell scoop, right out the chute.

But, alas, it was nothing more than another NFL tease, another hit below the belt, the latest in a never-ending line. A television camera whipped around the set -- the studio is located in L.A., get it? -- catching a glimpse of Ram and Colt logos on overhead monitors but nothing more tangible than that.

“All right,” Eisen added, quickly coming clean, “actually, what we really mean is this 24/7/365 network dedicated entirely to the National Football League. Your dreams have indeed come true.”

Speak for yourself, Rich. In Los Angeles, NFL dreams involve the Raiders losing every game they play, the Chargers staying far away and Georgia Frontiere selling the Rams to Magic Johnson for a U-Haul U-turn back to the Southland.

How are we doing on those fronts?

Well, the Raiders have come close, starting 2-6 and counting. The Chargers are too close for comfort, having sneak-previewed this dog of a season during training camp in Carson. And the Rams aren’t going anywhere, especially if Marshall Faulk doesn’t resurrect the ground game any time soon.

Actually, Eisen’s little joke was closer to the truth than the funny bone. The NFL Network can be seen almost exclusively on DirecTV, which has been the extent of the local NFL experience in recent years. If you live in the L.A. area and you want to watch your favorite NFL team every Sunday, DirecTV’s “Sunday Ticket” package has been the one way to do it, since KCBS is set on shoving the Raiders down our throats every weekend whether we like it or not.

Now DirecTV has partnered with the NFL to bring the league-owned NFL Network into 11-million homes, starting Tuesday evening. With the NFL claiming 120-million television viewers every Sunday, 11 million amounts to a smattering. Network officials, however, note that once upon a time, another sports channel started similarly small and grew to be the four-letter monster known today as ESPN.

Eisen described the NFL Network as “the wave of the future,” but, actually, it’s more of a throwback. Its opening-night rollout reminded of a nearly forgotten time, back in the 1980s, when ESPN wasn’t yet full of itself, wasn’t dead-set on winning demographics at the expense of decency and quality, wasn’t more concerned with sideshow series and circus hires than simple coverage of games and sports news.

ESPN was a better network then, and the NFL Network has assembled a roster of executives and commentators familiar with the history. NFL Network President Steve Bornstein began working at ESPN shortly after the network’s 1979 debut and later became its president and chairman. Other key figures in the NFL Network operation, including NFL Films COO Howard Katz and “NFL Total Access” coordinating producer Eric Weinberger, have ESPN backgrounds.

Likewise, Eisen is a former “SportsCenter” anchor. Solomon Wilcots, host of the Xs-and-O’s “NFL Playbook” show, is a former ESPN sideline reporter. Sterling Sharpe, an analyst on “NFL Playbook,” spent seven years in a similar role at ESPN.

The new channel has old-school sensibilities, largely due to its conservative ownership. This is the NFL’s network, which means you won’t be seeing “Playmakers.” In fact, the NFL Network all but thumbed its nose at Paul Tagliabue’s least-favorite show, trotting out a segment about “playmakers” that was actually about such game-breaking wide receivers as Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, Michael Irvin and Isaac Bruce.

The only objectionable material in the piece was footage of Owens trying to play minor league basketball.

Tagliabue was the first guest on “NFL Total Access,” the hour-long studio show the network sees as its “SportsCenter.” Eisen, who spent much of his time acknowledging the first this and the first that in the history of the NFL Network, served the commissioner the first softball question:

“Now what do you think Pete Rozelle would say about this -- a 24/7/365 TV network on the NFL?”

Tagliabue said he imagined that “Pete would have loved it. He was a guy who started in the NFL with something called the DuMont Network and then went to CBS and NBC and then Super Bowls and Monday Night Football and ESPN. He would have loved the NFL Network.”

Eisen: “We’re a long way from DuMont, huh?

“A long way from DuMont,” Tagliabue agreed.

The first interview was running into some tough tundra. Tags is not a booyah kind of guy. Eisen kept trying.

“I’m out here hosting an NFL show in Los Angeles and sort of noticed, we don’t have an NFL team out here,” Eisen continued. “When do you think we might get one?”

“Well,” Tagliabue replied, “we hope very soon. We’re working real hard on three stadium sites, the Rose Bowl and Carson and the Coliseum. We want to be back there with a team. That’s the goal.

“You know, we’ve had five of the 10 largest crowds in the history of the National Football League for games in Los Angeles. And seven Super Bowls there. And 20 Hall of Famers played for the Raiders and the Rams. So we’ll be back soon, and the sooner the better. We’re working real hard on it.”

Tagliabue pronounced it “Los Angelese,” as if it were a language. Earlier in the day, the channel aired a behind-the-scenes “making of” program that featured this quote from Rozelle, uttered in 1964:

“If the NFL is to prosper, it must succeed on television.”

Los Angeles understands that language. The NFL on television has been a way of life here, and the only way, since 1995. And now, the league has augmented those long-distance Sundays with a round-the-clock channel for those local football fans with the chosen satellite-TV subscription.

It’s a way to pass the time between franchise relocation rumors.