Sun-Times sports columnist Jay Mariotti remains dead last in the Around The Horn Rotisserie Football League. He's now 116 points behind Woody and 215 behind the Boxing expert. After 15 weeks, the "ATH" football standings are:
1194 for Max Kellerman (ESPN Boxing)
1132 for Michael Holley (Boston Globe)
1129 for Tim Cowlishaw (Dallas Morning News)
1095 for Woody Paige (Denver Post)
979 for Jay Mariotti (Chicago Sun-Times)

Sunday night I was channel surfing when I stumbled on WFLD's Nine O'Clock newscast anchored by Nancy Pender and Danielle Serino (Mmmmmm, that's the ticket). I liked the chemistry between them and stayed for the entire show. The only time I tuned away was when Harry Volkman did the weather. Harry's a nice guy, but I'm tired of the history and useless trivia he doles out when he does the weather. To be fair, Tom Skilling grates on me as well with the isobars and all. Weather is the #1 reason casual viewers watch the news, so it's not like I can expect short to-the-point weather segments anytime soon. Still, I can't help but fondly remember Jim Disch's TV Studio Class that I had at Columbia College in 1991. The class is really about the technical jobs, but we all took turns being the talent. No one really wanted to do the Weather, generally because it wasn't scripted. It was my turn one week and for the first two hours of the class I prepared a Skillingesque report about major weather happenings. We started taping the show in the final hour of the class--a mock newscast complete with commercials--and the weather segment was scheduled to be 5 minutes long and was slotted at the end of the show, with a kicker story leading out. The show ran long. Very long. Just before they tossed to me, I was told I had 30 seconds. No problem. I went to the map to show weather on each coast and in the South, went to the "satellite" to show an approaching storm and gave my mock 5-day forecast before tossing to the desk. As soon as we were clear, everyone just looked at me, and for a second I thought my quick improvisation sucked or something. Nope, they all loved it. One of the anchors even said it was the best weather segment he ever saw--short, informative & to the point. At that point I realized that the only trick to a Weather segment in a newscast is how skillfully the weatherperson stretches 30 seconds of useful information into a 3-5 minute piece. Volkman adds history tidbits and useless trivia while Skilling embellishes with the science of weather. Meanwhile, most of us watch and think: "Get to the seven-day already!".

During Sunday's Bears game on Fox, the color guy--I'm thinking it was Bill Maas, but I'm not sure--mentioned that Washington Redskins head coach Steve Spurrier won the Heisman Trophy in 1966 when he was QB for the University of Florida Gators. Spurrier also coached at Florida before leading the Redskins into NFL oblivion. Anyway, the color guy mentioned that as a former Heisman winner, Spurrier gets to vote each year for that year's award winner. He also said that Spurrier told him that he puts a Florida player on his ballot every year-a ballot where you are supposed to put down your top 3 choices as the best player in College Football for that year. Spurrier has one of the 922 Heisman votes, and in his mind, the University of Florida consistently has one of the top three players in the nation. Every year.
On the one hand, I found this admission to be distressing--it seemed to violate the ideal of being trusted to vote for the best three players in the nation.
On the other hand, College Football is a scummy business; Heisman trophy winners from the Florida schooled have all sucked as NFL players; and Steve Spurrier seems to think the New York Jets have a great talent pool with which to build his team. I don't suppose any real sports journalists will make a stink about Spurrier making a mockery of the Heisman voting, which is too bad because there is so much wrong with College sports that the good journalists need to keep piling on until things change.

Gosh, don't you feel sorry for George Ryan? Yeah...sorry like a fox! I'm amused at the reactions of some people to G-Ry's indictment, especially the reaction of Richie Daley. Let's make one thing clear: when you hear someone say that they feel sorry for him or his family, you are also saying that you DO NOT feel sorry for the taxpayers who are the victims of his alleged crimes. Consider someone saying about George Ryan: "I feel sorry for him", then consider someone saying about John Wayne Gacy: "I feel sorry for him". In both cases, the pity is misplaced (Oh, and yes smartass, I AM comparing Ryan to Gacy. So there!). Anyway, there was a lot of good insight on Friday's "Chicago Tonight Week in Review"--especially from Channel 7's Andy Shaw. I especially liked the suggestion that the financially strapped Ryan (sure, we all believe that-right?) is basically getting free legal from Dan Webb and Winston & Strawn because of all the "help" Ryan gave to the legal firm while he was in office. Webb is a Partner at W&S while Big Jim Thompson is Chairman. I wonder if Ryan will also be chauffeured to and from the courthouse for free by Ricardo Guzman because of all the "help" he gave him?
Anyway, I'm thinking that Channel 7 has the makings for a quality local public affairs show that would make "190 North" look like...um..."190 North" (I can't think of a worse put-down, sorry). Imagine a round-table / magazine show hybrid with Andy Shaw, Chuck Goudie, Charles Thomas and Paul Meincke focusing on the week's current events. Holy crap, that would be the greatest local TV show on the air! Even if it were just a collection of the packages they produced during the week it would be cool. Channel 7's got all that talent, but I think they're missing a huge opportunity.