Christmas Day is filled up with Lakers-Cavaliers and Chargers-Titans
There was a time when the only sports televised on Christmas Day were a couple of minor football games -- the Blue-Gray All-Star Classic and the Aloha Bowl from Honolulu. Thanksgiving was the big sports holiday, especially for football. But not anymore.
ABC and ESPN will televise five NBA games today, including the feature matchup at 2 p.m. between the Lakers and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Channel 7.
Throw in a pro football game and some college basketball, add in Guitar Hero, wrapping-paper cleanup and the in-laws dropping in for dinner, and isn’t it all a bit too much?
Jeff Van Gundy, who along with Mark Jackson will be the commentators at the Lakers-Cavaliers game, thinks so.
“When you have a full schedule, it takes away the specialness,” Van Gundy said in reference to a headliner game such as the Lakers and Cavaliers, or the Boston Celtics versus the Orlando Magic, which will tip off at 11:30 a.m. on ABC.
In a conference call this week, Jackson agreed and added that it’s “hard on both teams but especially on the road team” to be away on Christmas.
ESPN begins with the 9 a.m. broadcast of the Miami Heat at the New York Knicks. The network also has the Clippers at Phoenix Suns at 5 p.m. and concludes with the Denver Nuggets at the Portland Trail Blazers at 7:30.
The NFL Network, meanwhile, has the San Diego Chargers against the Tennessee Titans today.
The league has had a history of not scheduling any game on Christmas Day, partly because of what happened on Dec. 25, 1971 -- when the Kansas City Chiefs played the Miami Dolphins in a playoff showdown and it became the longest game in NFL history.
The league was deluged with complaints about Christmas dinners being delayed, and it didn’t schedule another game on the holiday for nearly 20 years.
A little fly-fishing
Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw wades into the surf in the Bahamas for a weeklong catch-and-release bone fishing expedition on ESPN2’s outdoors program “Pirates of the Flats,” Sunday at 6 a.m.
Brokaw, who also narrates, is joined by actor Michael Keaton, fly-fishing icon Lefty Kreh and author Thomas McGuane. The show is followed by the season premiere of “Spanish Fly.”
A classic treat
The NFL Network unwraps a holiday treat when it replays the complete 1981 NFC championship game between the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers that was called by Vin Scully.
The game’s dramatic play with 51 seconds left is referred to simply as “The Catch,” Joe Montana’s pass to Dwight Clark gave the 49ers a 28-27 win, paving the way to the team’s first Super Bowl appearance.
The network’s Classic Games presentation of the CBS broadcast will air on Saturday at 11 a.m. featuring Scully and analyst Hank Stram, along with original graphics.
Scully’s call of the winning score is a pro football equivalent of some of his more dramatic Dodgers broadcast moments.
“Montana looking, looking . . . Montana throws into the end zone . . . touchdown Dwight Clark.”
Other worthwhile programs scheduled this weekend:
Good today
Can’t help but mention again the game that should ooze with playoff drama, the Chargers meet the Titans on the NFL Network at 4:30. The Chargers have won nine straight games and the Titans have rebounded after a sluggish start by taking their last seven of eight.
An added attraction will be Tennessee running back Chris Johnson’s continued pursuit of Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record.
The USC basketball team plays in the championship game of the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii against Nevada Las Vegas, at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN2.
Good on Saturday
USC encounters Boston College in the Emerald Bowl, the marquee matchup of three college football games on ESPN. Kickoff is at 5 p.m. at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Earlier, Ohio University is favored against Marshall in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl at 10 a.m., followed by North Carolina against Pittsburgh in the Meineke Car Care Bowl at 1:30 p.m.
Good on Sunday
The Denver Broncos travel to Philadelphia to play the Eagles at 1:15 p.m. on Channel 2.
Later on NBC, the Dallas Cowboys venture outdoors to face their old nemesis the Washington Redskins in a chilly night game in the nation’s capital at 5:15.
And the Clippers play host to the Boston Celtics at 6:30 p.m. on Prime Ticket.
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