Orange and Teal

Great Hyde Column

This is why Dave Hyde is one of my favorite columnists in

South Florida

. Perfectly sums up my Dolphin fandom (I’m not a Canes fan).

Network Coverage

Sunday was bittersweet. It sucked knowing there would be no chance of a Dolphins win Sunday or Monday yet I watched just the same. On the menu in our region was the Chiefs/Bengals game and that horrible hit on Trent Green. Also Seahawks/Lions. I watched the Chiefs game. Bears/Packers was later, yawn.

But before the games I checked out the new pre-game set-ups from Fox and CBS. CBS’s graphics and overlays on HD looked awesome. James Brown added an upbeat temp to CBS’s trio of analysts that are often too professional and dry. Yes, that includes Dan. But add in the crisp graphics and seamless transitions I gave CBS an A-.

Fox sucked. I never liked their analysts to begin with and Joe Buck can not wrangle them well. Broadcasting live from game sites, a la ESPN’s College GameDay, was lame as the Jacksonville fans didn’t look like they knew they would be on a national telecast. Then there were the transitions. Buck threw to a telecaster in each city and every time they were not prepared or didn’t start on time. They also offered lame “Fantasy Pick of the Week” selections. Who cares what a B class announcer thinks of fantasy football. And unlike CBS, Fox has not upgraded their graphics and overlays and on HD they looked flat and lifeless. I gave Fox a solid D-.

NBC’s “Football Night in America” was surprisingly good. Costas is such a pro that I don’t even mind Collinsworth and King on the team. Instead of throwing to the announcers they actually had reporters in every city interviewing the biggest stars of each game in quick 30 second snippets. This was terrific. And their graphics and overlays were also topnotch in HD. Sunday Night Football was a bit better than ABC’s old "Monday Night," but boy do I miss Hank Williams’ lead-in. Pink just doesn’t do it for me here (and usually she does). The song seriously downgrades the night. Sorry. I gave NBC a grade of B+.

New Dolphins Website

I keep forgetting to blog about the new official Miami Dolphins website. Has everyone checked it out yet? If not, go now. My favorite feature as a blogger are the nice and large player mugshots that I can “borrow” when waxing philosophic about the lineup.

There’s also a cool interactive depth chart that works pretty well. What do you guys think? I’m impressed the Dolphins spent so much time on it.

If I Were Commissioner For The Day

I never agree with Peter King. OK, maybe occasionally I agree with him, but then with his next sentence I’m loathing him again. Over the weekend he put out his top ten list of what he’d do if he was the NFL commish as part as some silly space filler on the SI site. Actually, I agree with four of his nine comments, the tenth being a joke.

1. Expand the regular season to 18 games: Um…I don’t think so. These guys are barely hanging on by the playoffs and it’s a long season. I think the deletion of the 4th pre-season game and adding a 17th game might be ok. But what will that do to records? My bigger idea is a universal bye week the week prior to Thanksgiving. I don’t think the bye system works well and every other league has the same bye week. So there’s a real suggestion for you.
2. Pass a bylaw prohibiting playoff expansion: I don’t know…I’m pissed when the Dolphins go 9-7 and miss the playoffs. And an 8-8 NFL team can show up on any given playoff Sunday and beat the team with the best record in the league.
3. Make long field goals more valuable: Wow is that monumentally stupid. If you’re down by 4 points the crowd will be chanting “McNabb!” to get a TD. I’d rather see the hail mary than the long kick.
4. Take NFL Sunday Ticket off the dish and put it on digital cable: I AGREE!!! This is the only thing keeping the Dish Network alive, besides their larger HD selection.
5. Stop the love affair with Los Angeles: Totally agree. A second team in Chicago would have more loyal fans than a team in L.A.
6. Put more mikes on players and officials, and put the game on a seven-second delay: Yeah but why would we watch hours of Inside The NFL and NFL Films?
7. Let players wear the numbers of their choice -- with an asterisk: This is dumb. Either give them the numbers or not.
8. Prohibit the moving of the Saints for five years: Sure, but what if in four years the team is losing money and Bush refuses to play for the quarter of the population that has returned?
9. Put two computer chips in the football, and make the goal line, in essence, capable of sending a signal when the football touches the plane of the goal line: Hoorah! I’ve been saying this for years. If my dog has a computer chip in her why can’t the frigging ball! Used only for review purposes though.

Anyone Can Be A Pundit

*Disclaimer: While the below is true and accurate I really don’t care or think it’s that important that I or Orange and Teal is held to any kind of high esteem. It’s just a blog by a Dolphin fanatic for other people that feel the same.

This weekend I was talking with my brother-in-law and father-in-law about the changing face of sports writers. Many of the country’s top columnists are getting into the act even though they have no background in sports and often no writing background. This is where Ozzie Guillen would make a Jay Mariotti comment.

I brought up one example from OAT to them to prove the point that even I could do the job and here it is.

Joe Theismann A Disgrace To Football Announcers

Former Redskins Super Bowl quarterback and current Monday Night football announcer Joe Theismann called out Ricky Williams as a disgrace to the NFL and the Miami Dolphins. First, I’m just gonna get this out of the way: Drugs are bad. If you can’t give up the weed to make millions you’re a moron. Not really a disgrace, but a moron. However, the real players that are disgraces are the ones that drive drunk, beat their wives, and/or shoot at people.

As for Theismann, he’s one of the worst football announcers out there. ESPN should have considered their crew as one of the reasons no one watched Sunday Night Football. It was painful. Now our Mondays are going to be ruined as well. Madden may be a goof and Favre lover, but at least he’s a character you can stomach. Theismann takes himself too seriously. I’d take either ex-Cowboy Aikman or Johnson over him in a second. And they’re not the best out there, but much better player/announcers than Theismann.

Which brings up another point: Why do we need so many players up in the booth? I feel bad for all the professional mic men out there that never get a shot because they spent their entire adulthood in broadcasting and not in pads.

What We Read

You might wonder why as a former Palm Beach Post employee that I usually link to the Sun-Sentinel for Dolphins coverage. While all three major papers are in my bookmarks I prefer the coverage from the Sun-Sentinel. Although it’s interesting how this story in the Sentinel is so similar to this one in the Post. Both give us that warm all over feeling that Chris Chambers could have a huge year if Culpepper is slinging the ball.

The Sentinel also had a short Q&A with Zach Thomas that’s worth reading. Of course the official Dolphins site allows you to view video of all the players’ press conferences.

I’ve also dropped requests to interview all the Dolphins beat writers for this blog but none have responded in the positive. One even saying the newspaper won’t allow him to take part in another website. Sounds like old school thinking from people that don’t understand the power of links.

No Need For Berman: NFL Network Covering the Draft Live

While it may kill a lot of the fun involved with watching ESPN’s coverage of the Draft, the NFL Network is also airing live coverage “gavel to gavel” according to its official website. I’m not a big fan of Chris Berman as of late because of his overly dramatic delivery, at least for a broadcaster, while at the same time I’ve grown addicted to NFL Total Access and Rich Eisen’s understated approach. It’s amazing that there will actually be two stations airing complete coverage of the event. My choice? I'll be tuned in 165 spots up the dial from ESPN. Is anyone going to pick ESPN?

ESPN Starts Interactive Draft

This has got be one of the best ideas I've seen in a long time. ESPN is allowing readers to vote for the draft in a spot by spot basis and against "gurus" like Mel Kiper. Currently (as of 8:24 a.m. EST) they're on Green Bay at #5. The next clock, for San Fran, starts at 9 a.m. and then the Raiders pick at noon. The Dolphins with the #16 pick come up noon Wednesday. While I like the idea they should've done it every hour. Man, is anyone else excited that the Draft is almost here? Two more weeks. I'll be blogging it live.

Why Bloggers Are Just As Smart As The "Experts"

Everyone go read Jeff Chadiha's column yesterday about Daunte Culpepper. There is not one conclusion in it drawn from fact that illuminates anything new to the Culpepper saga. You or I could have written the exact some piece from reading various online stories following Culpepper since the off-season started. In fact we would probably know more. Let's take a few prime cuts from the column:

JC: "The main problem I have with Culpepper is how immature he has suddenly become over the last few months."
OAT: Who cares why you have a problem with Culpepper in the first place. You needed a subject/target for your column this week that's why you have a problem with Culpepper. You don't state you're a Vikings fan with a legitimate reason to write said column.

JC: "He's simply inflicted too much damage on his once sterling reputation for it all to disappear."
OAT: Ummmm…you write about the NFL right? A guy that asked for more money and was absolved of guilt in a sexual harassment case is not the worst case scenario in this league. Not even close. Randy Moss was worse. T.O. was worse. Sean Taylor, MUCH WORSE. Let's not even get into the F-ups that were doing hard drugs etc. shall we? Fans always forgive their stars. I'm not saying it's right, but this guy is far from hustling crack to kids as Chadiha makes him sound.

JC: "The bigger questions surrounding Culpepper involve his ability to return to the elite status he once held in the NFL."
OAT: That's the ONLY question.

JC: "The only prognosis I've heard so far has come from him (he says he'll be ready), and that's just not good enough."
OAT: Dude, read some South Florida newspapers where they've written doctors have his return figured between week 1 and 3. Even though they could be wrong those are the numbers I've heard, but what do I know. I just read three local papers and three national publications every day.

JC: "Culpepper doesn't have a receiver the caliber of Moss to throw to"
OAT: Will people please stop disrespecting Chris Chambers as not as good as Moss? WTF?! So he isn't the top one, two or three WR in the league but he's pretty stellar. Do you think the Vikings would take a Chambers on their team right now? Plus did Culpepper have Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams behind him in Minn? Or Randy McMichael? WTF?!

JC: "I can't think of one legitimate reason Culpepper would want out of Minnesota"
OAT: Let's see, maybe he wanted to return to his home in Florida. Play with other talented guys? Have a secure future with a team that really WANTS him. How is it about money when he restructures his contract for less with the Dolphins?

JC: "The Dolphins will want to move forward and so will he, but I'll remain stuck on his recent past until I hear and see different."
OAT: So, as a "journalist" you're saying you will judge his future production and newsworthiness with a slant based on what he did in the past? That's stunning.