The worst fumbled handoff on Saturday wasn't on the football field, it was in the KSL studios.
Obviously, the folks at Ch. 5 had planned for a smooth transition from interim "SportsBeat Saturday" host Rod Zundel to the new guy, Alema Harrington. But it didn't quite turn out that way.The handoff from Zundel to Harrington was awkward and stilted. Not to mention oddly placed, just minutes before the conclusion of Saturday's edition of the show.
Showing some still photos of Harrington as a BYU football player was an OK idea. But airing a "Hawaii Five-O" clip that featured his father, Al, was a bit too hokey.
And when Zundel said that Harrington had played for BYU "a long time ago," Harrington quickly retorted that 1984-88 "wasn't that long ago."
The best Harrington could do in the way of chit-chat was, "Hey, you have a good one. It's been nice seeing you."
And Zundel came up with one bit of parting advice: "Don't mess up."
It's not fair to judge Harrington based on a 31/2-minute appearance. But it was a tough start - he began by asking which camera to look into and fumbled over five words in his brief appearance.
And viewers are a bit too sophisticated to swallow Harrington talking live to a tape of "Outdoors" host Doug Miller. (Not that KSL is by any means alone in this silly practice.)
You have to feel a bit bad for Harrington, however. He didn't get much help from his new KSL colleagues in his debut. Harrington signed off with: "As we say good night, we leave you with some of the action of the girls' state soccer championships that were decided on the final kick." Then KSL went to video of glowing jack-o-lanterns, with nary a soccer player in sight.
Fumble!
WORLD SERIES SURVIVES FOX: The World Series has been broadcast on Fox, and the world as we know it didn't collapse - proving once again that the game is more important than the television network that broadcasts it.
The biggest difference between seeing the Series on Fox instead of one of the old-line networks was that Fox seems incapable of broadcasting anything without adding bizarre sound effects.
BRADSHAW BABBLES: Speaking of Fox and hype, seemingly lost amidst all the hoopla the fourth network whooped up over Sunday's Dallas-Miami NFL contest was the fact that both teams came in with mediocre 4-3 records.
And as for Fox studio host Terry Bradshaw, his increasing goofiness has now completely overshadowed his ability to think and talk at the same time. This is a verbatim quote from Bradshaw on Sundayi:
"If I had to describe it, I'd go back and say this is David and Goliath. This is Goliath trying to (pause) David's sitting there going, `How can I knock this giant down?' Well, I go look at how does a team that's (pause) Really, they don't parallel well. But if there's one big difference, it's the fact that Miami has created turnovers, and if they win today, I think they'll do it with turnovers. If Miami wins based on a coach's decision between these two head coaches, the edge goes to Jimmy."
PHANTOM REPORT: In both early and late sportscasts on KUTV on Saturday, David James told viewers that BYU receiver K.O. Kealaluhi's knee injury might be "season ending," with more information to come this week.
James was the only local reporter with that information. As reported in local newspapers and on other TV outlets, not only is Kealaluhi expected to play this week, he might have been able to play in the second half against TCU if he'd been needed.