Oliver Has Just the Right Touch

An interview with Donovan McNabb on Fox’s NFL pregame show last Sunday caught our attention. And it had nothing to do with Rush Limbaugh’s racially tinged comments about McNabb. It had everything to do with the person conducting the interview, Pam Oliver.

It was the questions Oliver asked and how she asked them -- tough and to the point, but not offensive. It was how Oliver listened to what the Philadelphia star was saying and how she responded. It was textbook.

Oliver set up her feature segment by saying that for McNabb it had been “a dreadful beginning to a season where his own play had been awful.” No sugar-coating here.

“Can a quarterback just lose it?” Oliver asked.

McNabb: “You go through some slumps, it’s all how you overcome it. Are you able to fight through it? Do you let it bother you? I never let it bother me.”

What Oliver did next showed she was paying attention.

“Wait a second,” she said, “it never bothers you?”

McNabb: “Well, it bothers me a little.”

McNabb went on to say that the criticism and the boos can get personal if you allow them to, but you have to be given the opportunity to get out of a slump.

“You are disgustingly positive and optimistic,” Oliver said with a laugh.

The interview did not include questions about Limbaugh because it was taped on Monday, before the Limbaugh story exploded.

What the interview provided was a closer look at McNabb. Oliver did what a good sports television journalist is supposed to do, and she did it with class.

Viewers have come to expect that from Oliver. She’s not flashy. She’s professional and competent.

Her Los Angeles-based agent, Rick Ramage, said, “She shies away from publicity. She likes to stay under the radar screen and not draw attention to herself.”

So don’t look for Oliver to be doing any lingerie layouts.

Because an interview request had been made through Fox’s public relations department, Oliver called Thursday from the airport in Charlotte, N.C., where she had just finished filming a feature with the Panthers’ Stephen Davis.

She said she was glad her McNabb interview did not include reaction to Limbaugh’s comments. “By Sunday, I was sick of the story,” she said. “I was very happy with how the interview came out.”

Oliver is no newcomer to sports broadcasting. She is 42 and has been in the business nearly 20 years.

This is her ninth year as a feature reporter and sideline reporter for Fox. She is also an anchor and reporter for the Fox Sports Net regional network based in Atlanta.

She worked in a number of markets before landing a job with ESPN and then moving on to Fox.

A native of Dallas, she is a graduate of Florida A&M;, where she was an All-American 400-meter runner.

*

Bad Memories

The horses who will be running in the Breeders’ Cup Oct. 25 at Santa Anita, along with their workouts, will be examined in “The Works,” a one-hour show that will be televised daily at 5 p.m. on TVG and Fox Sports Net 2 beginning Saturday and continuing through Oct. 24.

Gary Stevens, who will be a guest analyst this weekend, might have a few things to say about his experiences riding Storming Home, the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. Storming Home was the horse that tossed and injured Stevens at the Arlington Million Aug. 26.

*

Learning the Biz

Former UCLA coach Bob Toledo has been doing football commentating for the Football Network, a niche channel that televises lower division games.

Saturday, he and Eddie Doucette will announce Drake at San Diego. Last Saturday Toledo was paired with Barry Tompkins on Sacramento State at UC Davis.

“I play golf Tuesday through Thursday, then head out for a game,” said Toledo, who is a member of North Ranch Country Club in Thousand Oaks. “I’m enjoying the job and learning a lot.”

*

Reality TV, NBA Style

Reality TV is everywhere these days, including on NBA TV. A four-part series that takes viewers inside the training camp of the Denver Nuggets makes its debut today at 3 p.m. Carmelo Anthony, Nugget Coach Jeff Bzdelik, Shawn Kemp and journeyman Jon Barry, in his eighth training camp in 11 seasons, are featured.

*

Short Waves

ESPN has hired George Karl and Dan Majerle as NBA commentators, although their play-by-play partners were not announced.... Isiah Thomas was in Bristol, Conn., for an ESPN audition this week.... Bill Laimbeer, coach of the WNBA champion Detroit Shock, might be considered as a partner for Al Michaels on the ABC telecasts.

Baseball fever: Even with the Cubs’ 12-3 blowout Wednesday night, Fox got a 12.0 rating for its split-national coverage, a 46% increase over a year ago. The two-night average for the league championship series is an 11.0, a 41% increase over last year and the highest since 1995.

The media-friendly Kings will allow Fox Sports Net to tape Coach Andy Murray’s pregame speech for the team’s home opener Wednesday against Ottawa. Luc Robitaille agreed to wear a microphone during the game. Look for more things like this from the Kings throughout the season.... Saturday’s college football is highlighted by the national telecast of Miami-Florida at 9 a.m. on ABC. Fox Sports Net has UCLA-Arizona and Stanford-USC.... With John Jackson scheduled to work Saturday’s UCLA game, Petros Papadakis, normally a sideline reporter, will join Mike Lamb in the booth for Fox Sports Net 2’s high school game of the week tonight, Redlands at Centennial in Corona.

NBC’s NASCAR Winston Cup coverage this weekend will be Saturday at 4:30 p.m. It’s a prime-time race in the East, one of seven on the NASCAR circuit this year. The number goes to eight next year with the addition of the Labor Day race at California Speedway in Fontana.... HBO will replay the “Curse of the Bambino” tonight at 11:30.... Showtime will replay the James Toney-Evander Holyfield and Joel Casamayor-Diego Corrales fights Saturday at 10 p.m. It will be Showtime’s 200th boxing show.... With KFWB (980) now carrying a full schedule of NFL football, including the Monday night games, Bret Lewis begins doing a 9 a.m. Sunday NFL show this weekend from Yankee Doodles in Woodland Hills.

The Samsung World Championship at The Woodlands, Texas, which is being televised by ESPN and NBC, marks the 15th event of Annika Sorenstam’s 10th season on the LPGA Tour. That is the final criteria for her entry into the LPGA Hall of Fame. A ceremony to commemorate that and also celebrate Sorenstam’s 33rd birthday was supposed to be held at the end of Thursday’s first round, but the round was rained out. The ceremony will be shown during today’s coverage on ESPN, which begins at noon.

*

In Closing

The radio business, where outlandish and boorish behavior among on-air talent and off-air executives is almost the norm, is really hard to figure. Occasionally you find a hard-working, well-liked, respected, normal individual. Roger Nadel, general manger of Dodger flagship station KFWB, is such a person. So what happens? After 27 years with the station’s parent company, he’s given his walking papers. Today will be his last official day at the station he has run for the last 7 1/2 years.