If you thought you were sick of Brett Favre before . . .
At least if he had gone to Tampa Bay there might have been some let-up in the all-consuming coverage of Favre. But now that he's in New York? Fuhgedaboutit. Do you know how close New York is to ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Conn.? (Not that the story being in Green Bay limited ESPN's overcoverage these past few weeks.)
Anyway, NFL Network already added next week's Jets exhibition “game” to its live telecast schedule (4 p.m., Aug. 16). And you just know the league would give anything right now to be able to get a mulligan on its overall schedule.
The Jets are down for just two national TV appearances – a Monday night game Sept. 22 at Qualcomm Stadium and a Thursday night game Nov. 13 at New England that will be carried on NFL Network. NBC and the NFL always can “flex” a late-season game to Sunday night, but the Jets don't appear to have many appealing games. In fact, the best chance could be a game at Seattle – with Favre's former coach, Mike Holmgren – in Week 16 when NBC is to show Chargers-Bucs.
And before you think that Favre-Brady matchup in November will be just the leverage the NFL needs to get its troubled network into more homes, remember how large the hype was for last year's Favre-Cowboys game, which also was played on a Thursday night on NFL Network. That didn't help, and neither will this. Sports bars might as well start ordering extra nachos now.
More football
Wow, what a surprise, the Chargers announcing enough tickets have been sold to lift the blackout for tomorrow's exhibition opener against Dallas. Are we going to have to go through this every time they play? Is there anyone who believes the games won't be on TV when so few tickets remain available?
By the way, tomorrow's game is on KFMB Channel 8 at 7 p.m. with Ron Pitts and Billy Ray Smith in the booth. Televisa also will show the game live.
Think ESPN will talk a little about Favre on Monday when it shows Packers-Bengals at 5 p.m.? Also this weekend, NFL Network has Eagles-Steelers at 4:30 p.m. today and Bills-Redskins at 5 p.m. tomorrow.
Chargers fans might want to catch next week's episode of “Hard Knocks,” which debuts at 10 p.m. Wednesday on HBO. Could be some good stuff from tomorrow's exhibition.
Hoop it up
I'm sure this will come as a big surprise, but the Celtics, Lakers, Cavs and Suns all will make 25 national TV appearances in the 2008-09 season, according to the NBA schedule released this week. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess 25 is the maximum number of appearances the league allows each team to make.
The season starts Oct. 28 with a TNT doubleheader featuring Cavs-Celtics and Blazers-Lakers. There will be 18 games on ABC, 72 on ESPN and 53 on TNT, with the three networks sharing an unprecedented Christmas Day quintupleheader – games at 9 and 11:30 a.m., and 2:15, 5 and 7:30 p.m. The highlight will be – what else? – a Celtics-Lakers game at 2:15.
Flipping channels
Coverage of the PGA Championship continues at 10 a.m. today on TNT, with a simulcast and additional online streaming available starting at 6 a.m. at PGA.com and on DirecTV. Online (and DirecTV) coverage continues at 8 a.m. tomorrow and Sunday, with TNT showing three hours of action (8-11 a.m.) before CBS takes over at 11.
With rain yesterday prompting a delay, TNT opted to show action from last year's PGA, won by – hey, what do you know – Tiger Woods. Colleague Tod Leonard reports that in the press tent, he heard one writer say “TNT just had its highest ratings” during the rain delay. Probably not far from the truth.
Dick Enberg will speak Wednesday at the Hall of Champions in Balboa Park as part of the “Sports at Lunch” program. The subject will be Enberg's one-man play, “McGuire,” which returns to the North Coast Repertory Theater on Aug. 18 and 19.
There will be a feature on the legacy of Skip Caray, who died last week, during TBS' broadcast of the Red Sox-White Sox game at 11 a.m. Sunday. Caray's son, Chip, is the play-by-play voice of TBS.
ESPN starts its live weekday morning “SportsCenter” editions at 6 a.m. Monday. Great, more chances to talk about Favre.
The Indy 500 will remain on ABC through at least 2012 as part of a new deal with the Indy Racing League. ABC also will show four other IndyCar Series races each year, but the remainder of the races no longer will be on ESPN. Instead, Versus will televise at least 13 IndyCar races a year for the next 10 years beginning in 2009.
Next time XTRA Sports 1360's Lee Hamilton wants to bash a Padre for poor defensive play, as he did with Edgar Gonzalez after Tuesday's game, he might want to make sure that Padre actually played in the field. Gonzalez appeared only as a pinch hitter Tuesday.
But the most embarrassing radio moment of the week belongs to XX Sports Radio, thanks to – what else? – its insistence on carrying Dan Patrick's syndicated show on a delay of so many hours I've lost count. Wednesday night, while Fox Sports Radio was breaking the news of the Favre trade on XTRA Sports and then discussing its ramifications, XX 1090 provided its listeners an interview with a Bucs beat reporter who believed it was better than 50-50 Favre would be traded to Tampa Bay.
Jay Posner: (619) 293-1834; jay.posner@uniontrib.com
