When Pat Boyle was at Michigan State, his first goal was to be a news reporter. But later someone asked him if he wanted to cover fires, shootings and other tragedies or play to his sports fandom. After going back and forth in his mind, he decided to become a sportscaster.
Eventually, he discovered that sport and tragedy can overlap. At WTOG in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Boyle was in the process of anchoring the sports segment when someone told him through his IFB mic that the newscast would be receiving the KTLA feed from a car believed to be transporting OJ Simpson.
“While you’re doing sports, to cover sports, you end up covering stories like this, Larry Nasser, Jerry Sandusky, and you have to have the skills that a news anchor has,” said Boyle, of NBC Sports Chicago -Host for Blackhawks pre and post game shows. “[News anchors] Expects it maybe more than a sports broadcaster, but sometimes that’s the way you go.”
Because of this, Boyle was keenly interested in how ESPN reported Bill’s security about Damar Hamlin’s on-field cardiac arrest during the game against the Bengals on Monday Night Football. He watched all of the station’s coverage, from reporter Lisa Salters, to the studio crew of Suzy Kolber, Booger McFarland and Adam Schefter, to “SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt,” which also included former NFL player Ryan Clark.
“I was interested to see because I’m asking myself [in their place]. How would I have done that?” said Boyle. “They should be commended for how they handled this because in this day and age when information is everywhere and there are people out there trying to bring you down with false information, they really did an excellent job, by reporting something they had no idea was coming.”
No one on the “MNF” crew, from announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman down, could have been prepared for what was unfolding. The crew was ready to announce a game. So the network shift was commendable, if understandably not perfect. The excessive commercial breaks immediately following Hamlin’s collapse following his attack on wide receiver Tee Higgins bothered many viewers. But it was an understandable approach, given the horrifying scene and the scant information available.
Bears radio voice Jeff Joniak was on-call for a series of chilling scenes, like former wide receiver Johnny Knox’s hit that essentially ended his career and former tight end Zach Miller’s near-touchdown catch that nearly saw him be leg cost . But he had never seen anything like Hamlin, and he appreciated how Buck and Aikman had handled it.
“Observing their reactions and sincerity, the compassion,” Joniak said. “You have to make sure you have some awareness and respect the situation. The game is unimportant at this point. There’s no discussion about that.”
Buck eventually shared that Hamlin received CPR. Kolber, McFarland and Schefter focused on the humanity of the situation, appearing teary-eyed and speaking in practically hushed tones. McFarland was the first to call for the game to be suspended. The network was deliberate and avoided speculation despite information that appeared on Twitter from reporters and Hamlin’s marketing reps.
“ESPN didn’t do any of that,” Boyle said. “I found journalism to be great because it’s not about being first, it’s about being accurate and factual. When you’re covering something like this and it stretches out over several hours, it’s easy to slip up and say, let’s bring that up to move the story along. I thought they were very careful about waiting for official statements to dictate what they would say.”
Salters, who once burst into tears on air, showed what a good off-line reporter can bring to a show. She shared how the players reacted and detailed the interaction between Bills coach Sean McDermott, Bengals coach Zac Taylor and the officials. The only time Salters suspected anything was when she saw out-of-uniform players outside their dressing room, indicating the game was unlikely to resume.
“Lisa Salters was incredible,” said Joniak. “It’s okay to show emotions because you keep them real. It’s a moving moment. It’s the last thing you ever want to see in a sporting activity where someone is in a life-and-death mode. you have to be real It has to be organic, and it certainly was.”
By the time the game was called and Van Pelt and Clark took over, enough time had passed for reporters Ben Baby and Coley Harvey to arrive at the hospital and go on the air. As an example of the chaotic nature of the situation, Van Pelt asked a question twice, then admitted his mistake and apologized. Otherwise he was exceptional at directing the reporting and maintaining the appropriate tone.
Clark shone as he shared the perspective of his own life-threatening event. The former Steelers safety guard has sickle cell symptoms, which led to him being hospitalized after a game in Denver in 2007. The altitude deprived his major organs of oxygen, and his spleen and gallbladder were removed. Clark told the story of coach Mike Tomlin refusing to let him play in the Steelers’ subsequent trips to Denver.
All of this proved Boyle’s argument that news events can find sports watchers when they least expect it, and that they are capable of dealing with it. Joniak gave a reason for this.
“We are trained reporters in many cases,” he said. “I don’t think it’s as far-fetched as you might think. We are storytellers painting a picture and in this particular case it was certainly a very disturbing one.”
remote patrol
In the Nielsen fall ratings book for the key demographic of males aged 25-54, The Score’s show “Bernstein & Holmes” — co-hosted by recurrence Leila Rahimi — remained the most-watched sports talk show on the market, earning one 5.6 rating. Among all stations in the time window from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., it took second place behind the Mexican station WOJO-FM (9.0) in the summer book.
From 2pm to 6pm, ESPN 1000’s “Waddle & Silvy” inches ahead of The Score’s “Parkins & Spiegel” by 4.8-4.7 in third and fourth. The shows were published in the summer book on January 4th. bound.
The Score topped during peak listening hours, Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., taking third place with a 5.0. ESPN 1000 ranked fifth with a 4.2, but bounced from 3.6 and 9th place over the summer.
With both stations firmly in the top 5 in the market during prime listening, Chicago Sports Talk maintains a strong audience.
NFL games scheduled to air Sunday at the Chicago Market: Vikings at Bears, Noon, Fox-32 (Kenny Albert, Jonathan Vilma); Patriots at Bills, Noon, Ch. 2 (Jim Nantz, Tony Romo); Cowboys at Commanders, 3:25 p.m., Fox-32 (Kevin Burkhardt, Greg Olsen); Giants at Eagles, 3:25 p.m., Ch. 2 (Ian Eagle, Charles Davis).
Mark Schanowski will stand in for Adam Amin on NBC Sports Chicago’s Jazz-Bulls on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. Amin will call Sunday’s Buccaneers-Falcons game for Fox.
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