Winslow Sr. Has His Say Too

One of the big stories in college football this week was the tirade by Miami tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. last Saturday and his subsequent benching by Hurricane Coach Larry Coker.

The story will be dealt with by the various college football studio shows this weekend, including the one on Fox Sports Net at 3:30 Saturday afternoon.

What makes the Fox Sports Net show different is that the analysts, with host Mike Goldberg, are Billy Ray Smith ... and Kellen Winslow Sr.

Fox Sports Net had planned to air a feature on Winslow Jr. this weekend anyway, after sending Winslow Sr. to Miami to interview his son last week. It wasn’t known then, though, that Winslow Jr. would be thrown into the national spotlight after Miami’s second consecutive loss.

The senior Winslow was in the locker room when his son went off with coarse remarks directed at officials -- “I hate refs!” -- and then compared himself to a soldier at war.

“It’s war!” Winslow Jr. screamed. “They’re out there to kill you, so I’m out there to kill them. We don’t care about anybody but this U. They’re going after my legs. I’m going right back at them.”

The tirade and all of Winslow Jr.’s venom were picked up by a television camera and shown everywhere.

“I didn’t witness it, but I came over to him right afterward,” Winslow Sr. said by phone. “He said, ‘Dad, I said some things I shouldn’t have.’ He knew it was wrong.

“He told me what happened -- there were some bad questions; I won’t say stupid questions -- [but] I got a watered-down version. I didn’t know how bad it was until I saw it on television.”

The questions were about two unsportsmanlike-conduct penalties in the two losses.

It was pointed out to Winslow Sr. that those who saw the tirade might be left with the perception that his son is spoiled and pampered.

“I am not concerned what people think of my parenting,” Winslow Sr. said. “This is not about me or my parenting. I am comfortable with my ability to parent.

“What this is about is my son understanding what was wrong and learning from it. You admit your mistakes, you make amends and you move on. What anybody says or thinks is pretty irrelevant to me.”

Winslow Sr. said the whole thing could have been avoided if his son had just said, “No comment.”

“You have to learn to say no and just walk away,” he said.

Winslow Sr., who had the same competitive juices and fiery personality through most of his Hall of Fame career, said that was one thing he’d learned.

So he had tirades too in his youth? “Sure, I had blowouts,” he said. “But when I had mine, there weren’t any cameras around.”

Winslow Sr. will have more comments during Saturday’s show, after the showing of the outdated feature on his son, which Fox Sports Net should have redone. There was little updating.

Also, it could be argued that Winslow Sr. is not an objective interviewer in this case.

But he is expected to say on the show that the penalty against his son -- not starting Saturday against Syracuse -- is not tough enough.

“Kellen believes his son should have to sit out the entire first half,” producer Loy Maxon said.

An Encore

This isn’t the first time the Winslows have been featured together on Fox Sports Net. In the spring of 2001, Winslow Jr., a star at Scripps Ranch High in San Diego, announced on a signing day special that he planned to attend Washington. His father objected because Washington didn’t have any African American coaches on its staff.

Winslow Sr. wanted his son to go to Michigan State. A compromise on Miami was reached later. Winslow Sr. said at the time it was a case of “a black father teaching his black son about the ways of the world.”

On the Mark

Some of those in attendance at Wednesday night’s Laker game at Staples Center might have wondered what Al Michaels and Mark Jackson were doing courtside, wearing headsets and calling the action.

It was an audition for Jackson and a rehearsal for Michaels. Jackson, David Robinson and Jack Ramsay are among the finalists to join Michaels on ABC’s NBA telecasts beginning Christmas Day.

“This is the first time I’ve been to an NBA game that I wasn’t playing in since first joining the NBA,” said Jackson, a 16-year veteran whose playing career appears to be over. “This is a great opportunity for me.”

Jackson, who has just bought a house in Santa Monica and will soon be moving there from New York, said he thought the audition went well.

“But then I had a good point guard,” he said, referring to Michaels.

Of Jackson, Michaels said, “He did very well. He sees everything very well and has a good sense of timing. He was very comfortable.”

In contrast, Michaels recalled working with Earl Weaver on the 1982 baseball playoff series between the Angels and Milwaukee Brewers.

“Earl didn’t move throughout the entire telecast,” Michaels said. “I think he thought his headset would fall if he moved.”

Mike Pearl, the executive producer of ABC Sports who flew to Los Angeles from New York for Wednesday night’s session, was also asked about Jackson’s performance.

“I’ve got to review these,” he said, holding up two videotapes.

Pearl said potential dates for other rehearsal-audition sessions are Clipper games Dec. 3, 10 and 11 and another Laker game Dec. 19. The sessions will all be at Staples Center because Michaels lives in Brentwood.

“If there is a session on Dec. 19, it will be a dress rehearsal because we’ll have our team set by then,” Pearl said.

Alcohol-Free TV

Former North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith and U.S. Rep. Tom Osborne (R-Neb.), the former Nebraska football coach, this week helped launch a campaign in Washington to ban beer commercials from college sports telecasts.

A poll released by the Center for Science in the Public Interest showed that seven in 10 people believe beer ads are made to appeal to persons under the legal drinking age.

An ESPN spokesman said the NCAA restricts networks to 60 seconds of beer commercials an hour during college telecasts and that beer companies have spots that encourage responsible drinking. The spokesman also said the median age of college football viewers was 46 and the median age of college basketball viewers was 47.

Short Waves

Although some Bruin fans may be disappointed that UCLA’s home game against Oregon on Saturday isn’t on television, give UCLA credit for not kowtowing to TV for the almighty dollar. The game isn’t on because ABC decided, on six days’ notice, to televise Arizona State-Washington State at 12:30 p.m. UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero didn’t want to change the starting time to accommodate Fox Sports Net.

Howard David, one of the best football play-by-play announcers in the business, has joined Larry Kahn’s Sports USA radio network.

In Closing

Apparently the “Heidi” game, the one between the Oakland Raiders and New York Jets in 1968 that was interrupted by the children’s movie, will never be forgotten. Monday marks the 35th anniversary, and the NFL Network is using the occasion to show the movie and the final 1:05 of the game opposite “Monday Night Football” at 6 p.m.