Chip Shots: The NFL Reminds Us: ‘That’s… Entertainment’
Chip Shots: The NFL Reminds Us: ‘That’s… Entertainment’
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Chip Davenport-
Chip Shots: The NFL Reminds Us: ‘That’s… Entertainment’A New Wave (now kids call it Old Wave of First Wave) band, The Jam, penned and recorded a song in 1980, “That’s Entertainment,” in a laconic and ironic tone. Those of us growing up in those times of recession, and the bleak outlook of large cities and life in general then viewed the hit as a sign of the times.
The song is playing in my head in a more positive light because I’m thinking the NFL and its network and cable carriers should rewrite the lyrics extolling their 2021 product except for the reprise, “That’s Entertainment, that’s entertainment, aaaaahhhh….”
Something beyond the return of the cheering crowds on Thursday night’s NFL season opener on NBC had made me very excited about what I saw on TV in this better-than-expected battle between Dallas and Tampa Bay.
I can’t put my finger on it. Wait… yes, I can.
The fuller preseason practice and game schedule of the NFL ideal for regular season preparation was evident in Thursday night’s action.
When I see the Dallas Cowboys on TV, I can still picture in my mind a Gatorade-soaked Jimmy Johnson exclaiming, “How ‘ bout them Cowboys!”
However, Thursday night’s outcome had me saying to myself, “How ‘bout them Tampa… ahem… Tom-pa Bay Buccaneers!”
The Bucs’ game-winning field goal with two seconds left put them atop their guest opponent, the Cowboys, and the two teams provided one of the best opening night NFL games since they’ve moved the inaugural game to Thursday nights.
There were several factors contributing to such a great opening night.
Tom Brady, much hated among area Colts fans, engineered a masterful two-minute drill drive to put his team’s fate in the hands of Bucs’ kicker Ryan Succop, who turned a 29-28 deficit into a 31-29 win to the delight of a full house at Tampa Bay’s Raymond James Stadium.
This home venue was where Tom Terrific – I know many of you folks don’t like him, but he is among the greatest – and mostly his DE-fensive line guided the Bucs to a Super Bowl win just an auto commute from their in-season homes.
They appeared to pick up nicely where they left off thanks to early off-season organized team activities (OTAs), a full season of full-go training camp, and three preseason games. I still recall people giving Brady guff about forgetting what down he was facing when he lost to the Bears, or when his team only ran the ball five times against the 49ers.
Well, they put it all together last year in November, and they are on a roll this year already.
I loved the performance of the Cowboys as well. Quarterback, Dak Prescott, bounced back from a broken ankle, did not look skittish in the pocket as if he were worried about it, and the best part: he was on a pitch-count, so to speak, in the preseason with some shoulder issues. Well, Prescott completed 42 of 58 pass attempts for 403 yards, and he threw 3 TD passes.
The rest did him good.
Each team will look very interesting to watch this year. I’m looking forward to the rest of the games on Sunday and Monday. There’s one more NFL treat I’m looking forward to enjoying: an ESPN alternate broadcast of Monday Night Football (MNF) featuring the Manning brothers, Eli, and Payton, commenting from their football fortresses of solitude on the MNF action like two brothers in a living room, den or a bar would do so.
Peyton and Eli aren’t going to split play-by-play and analysis duties like Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth does. Instead, they’ll spend the time during and between plays role-playing a coach-quarterback talking through the quarterback’s helmet radio.
Peyton also said, while running through the sports talk car wash, “We’re not gonna’ analyze the run on second (down) and one.”
Instead, the roll right past that action and give insight on some great plays and decisions made by people not handling the ball, and things a defense looks for (read the sighting of red meat) in an offense’s vulnerabilities, and, as they say in very old and current infomercials, there’s much, much more.
I haven’t been this excited about MNF since the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Ravens. I don’t particularly care for the ESPN broadcast team even when I enjoy some of the weekly matchups offered to viewers.
This year, however, we get ten weeks of the second funniest retired athlete on TV (Peyton Manning), and his funnier-than-you-think, less-intense brother Eli for the season’s first ten weeks. They’ll have athlete/non-athlete guests in and out of the broadcast, too. Rumor has it the funniest retied athlete (Charles Barkley) will be among the guests on the slate.
Finally, Purdue alum Drew Brees knocked it out of the park in his pregame and halftime roles of Thursday night’s “Boys versus Bucs” clash. His insights were solid, his with was quick, and his presence was very assured. Having him on the “field desk” helped make the brilliant-but-irritating Mike Tirico slightly more bearable. Brees and Tirico will debut as a play-by-play/analyst tandem for the Notre Dame home opener streamed on Peacock this afternoon.
Football-viewing purists might call what I’m enjoying off the field as fluff, but the NFL and the networks carrying the action snagged me with the combination of the product on the field with the offerings in the press box, in the pre/postgame studio, and now in the Manning brothers’ homes has me singing to myself… “That’s entertainment….”
