Watchdog

I've been meaning to check on the current betting odds for a Giants-Jets Super Bowl, but Glauber beat me to it, citing my old pals at Bodog.

Turns out it's 7-1. I was guessing more like 5-1 or 6-1.

So, what do you think?

If you were a betting man or woman, would you risk the house on a Jets-Giants showdown at 7-1?

Excellent find from loyal reader Gus:

With the Packers not playing Sunday, the highest-rated game of the weekend in Milwaukee was not the one featuring the nearby Bears, but the game on CBS that was on opposite da Bears.

That would be Jets-Titans, starring you-know-who. It attracted 14.6 percent of households in the Milwaukee market, not much behind the 15.0 it drew in New York.

It's all here in the Journal-Sentinel, in an item that appears below criticism of ESPN's Tony Kornheiser for focusing too much Monday night on . . . you-know-who.

My Tuesday newspaper column leads with a look at the Jets' and Giants' growing appeal as TV attractions, both locally and nationally.

The Jets in particular have been a revelation, their local ratings rising by an NFL best versus last season, when they ranked last in that category. (This season, they're all the way up to next-to-last, ahead of the Raiders. But still . . . )

Several readers have wondered why NBC didn't grab Sunday's Broncos-Jets tilt for prime time. Answer: While the network would have loved to show that, the point of flexible scheduling is not to give NBC the best possible game but merely to avoid stinkers.

Thus the league kept Bears-Vikings on Sunday night and moved the Jets to the coveted late-afternoon slot on CBS.

Had the Bears and Vikings lost Sunday, that game would have looked mighty mediocre. But as it is, it pits teams tied for first place and both with winning records. So it's all good.

As for the suddenly much-anticipated, not-unrealistic-at-all notion of a Giants-Jets Super Bowl - complete with Jersey guy Bruce Springsteen performing at halftime! - Glauber wrote about that. So did Barker.

Click below for thoughts from NFL Network/NBC/HBO analyst Cris Collinsworth on which teams he thinks will make it to the big game in Tampa.

Continue reading "Sorry, CC, Jets, Giants fever grips Baseball Town!" »

Jets fans who have to go to work or school on Monday morning, Dec. 1, dodged a bullet late Monday afternoon with the news that the NFL and NBC are sticking with the penciled in Bears-Vikings game for Sunday night, Nov. 30.

Broncos-Jets seemed like an attractive possibility to be "flexed" into prime time, but instead it only will be moved from 1 to 4:15 p.m., a manageable starting time for fans . . . at least compared to the dreaded prime time slot.

(What about Giants-Redskins? Fox protected that one from the flexing gods.)

I began my Sunday newspaper article about the "Heidi Game" by referencing an article in the Newsday of Nov. 18, 1968, by John Van Doorn, in which he quotes one Rose Szolnoki of Beaver Falls, Pa., about her reaction to NBC dumping the Jets-Raiders game in favor of the infamous TV movie.

Initially, I wondered why a Newsday reporter would call a fan in Pennsylvania. Then, after Van Doorn's story revealed Szolnoki was the mother Jets quarterback Joe Namath, I wondered how and why he got her on the phone late that Sunday night.

So I emailed him Friday at the North County Times in southern California, where at age 75 he still is writing three columns a week, continuing a career that included stints at Newsday from 1957 to around 1970, then The New York Times. (He said he has lived in 11 countries and worked in 35.)

He soon called back. Click below for the rest of the story.

Continue reading "Newsday staffers used to call celebs in news for fun" »

OMG! New York is a football town!

As I have written before, I am just old enough to remember the Heidi Game and just young enough so that I was happy NBC dumped the game so I could see "Heidi" on time.

For the 40th anniversary Monday, I invite readers old enough to recall that night to share memories in the comments section or by e-mailing me at nbest@newsday.com, with the understanding if your material is good I might steal it for a newspaper article.

If you are under 45 and don't remember the game, show your parents or grandparents how to post things on the Internet so they can participate.

Gotta go now. Enjoy "Inside Notre Dame Football" with Coach Weis at 1:30 p.m. on SNY.

It turns out I'm not the only one shamelessly trolling for late-month page views.

Our friends at The Final Score are approaching a milestone of their own, fueled by interesting links such as this one to a female Jets reporter who is not a fan of the Flight Crew and this one about Madonna and A-Rod taking separate helicopters to Jerry Seinfeld's place.

Much like the Presidential candidates will wake up Nov. 5 feeling a little guilty about some of the stuff that went down on the campaign trail, many of us in Newsday's blogosphere are going to feel a little guilty about the stuff that went down this month on the page views trail.

I know I will. I hope I turn into a pumpkin at midnight and discover we all were just characters in some sort of journalism professor's nightmare.

Here is my Tuesday newspaper story, in which Jets owner Woody Johnson reviews the Jets' auction of personal seat licenses.

(Full disclosure: Mrs. WatchDog used to work full time for Johnson and Johnson and currently does some consulting for them, plus, I regularly use the company's fine dental floss products.)

In the story I quote Wharton professor Eric Bradlow, with whom the Jets consulted before deciding to drastically cut the number of auctions.

Prof. Bradlow said cutting back on inventory was a no-brainer. In addition to the obvious benefit of protecting against a fall in prices, Bradlow said the Jets' explanation that they were trying to avoid fan confusion also is legitimate.

Bradlow judged the event a net positive for Gang Green.

"They generated a lot of positive equity, and they’ve gotten a lot of attention for this, which is good for their branding,'' he said. "At the end of the day, this is a down economy, a down time, and people understand that."

Johnson said the average price of the 620 PSLs that were auctioned was $26,000. Bradlow said if the number available had not been trimmed, that average might have dropped under $20,000.

Bradlow said the auction followed patterns not unusual and mostly predictable to those who follow such things closely. What will make it an event worth studying for auction experts is the fact it was a first for pro sports.

"The part that was atypical was the product category it was in, and that it had never been done before,'' he said.

ESPN, the unofficial network of Brett Favre, on Tuesday will offer what it is billing as the first national TV interview with Favre's wife, Deanna, since Brett joined the Jets.

The segment will run on the E:60 magazine show. ESPN sent a couple of quotes.

On the retirement news conference: “Something in me felt it wasn’t over. It wasn’t the end. So it was tough, it was emotional, I was drained. But then I just had that little, you know, something is not right about this.”

On the retirement decision: "I’m not going to make that decision for him. I think I read different articles that said I did make the decision for him, but that is not true. It’s false.”