Jim Nantz’s star keeps rising at CBS. The silky smooth play-by-play man, who anchors the network’s college basketball coverage has been picked-along with analyst Randy Cross-for CBS’ No. 2 NFL playoffs team, replacing Verne Lundquist and Dan Fouts.
“It’s a tremendous honor,” said Nantz before Sunday’s Packers-Bears game. “CBS has tremendous depth, and there’s a lot of ways they could have gone with that assignment. I just feel very fortunate they selected us.”
While Nantz also will play a major role in CBS’ Winter Olympics coverage as well as on its golf telecasts, he doesn’t worry about the kind of overexposure that led to the demise of Brent Musburger.
“I work a lot of events,” he said. “But no one’s ever accused me of being overexposed. Networks today are downsizing. You’re really doing the right thing if you’re able to diversify. Between the football, basketball and golf, I can work virtually every week of the year.”
But so did Musburger, until he was surprisingly-and rather unceremoniously-dumped by the network nearly five years ago. And one reason given then was that CBS executives didn’t want one person playing such a big role.
“I’ve always been a big goal-setter,” said Nantz, “and I have so many things I still want to achieve. I’m just glad to make the transition from college to the NFL.”
The transition from a college basketball game one day to a pro football game the next, however, can be tricky.
“Believe me, I’m prepared,” said Nantz. “I spend all week on the phones and reading. Just this weekend, I flew from home (in Connecticut) to Chicago, drove to Lake Forest to meet with Dave Wannstedt, jumped in the car after an hour with the Bears to get back to O’Hare, flew to Indianapolis and went straight over to Bobby Knight’s practice. Then we had a production meeting. It was kind of an unusual day. It makes life interesting.”
As has been his first season with Cross, though the two began their TV association last season with a couple of telecasts, including the Bears-Vikings game when Jim Harbaugh made his ill-advised audible.
“We clicked right off the bat,” said Nantz, who had been working with Hank Stram as his regular partner. “That’s all due to Randy’s personality. We’ve been able to walk right in as if we’ve worked together for years.”
That teamwork showed during Sunday’s telecast, with Nantz stepping out of the way to let the outspoken Cross, in his fifth season with CBS, make his points. Whether commenting on a replay (“Look, he was going to pull out the flag and he didn’t”) or the game (“You hear that defense wins championships and offense puts people in the seats-everywhere but here in Chicago”), Cross adds an edge to the telecast and provides a perfect partner for Nantz.
Sunday scoop: NBC’s Jim Lampley (with the aid of Will McDonough) reported on the pregame “NFL Live” that Patriots owner James Orthwein warned the league not to meddle with possible plans to sell his team to a St. Louis buyer. CBS-which had the same story later on “NFL Today”-recovered nicely with a postgame report from Jim Gray, who revealed Orthwein is so angry he will only communicate with Commissioner Paul Tagliabue in writing from now on.
Random thoughts: It wasn’t perfect (the first-quarter Michigan State TD was missed), but on the whole, ESPN did a fine job juggling the De Paul basketball game and the Wisconsin football game for about 25 minutes Saturday night. . . . Top home remedy came from ABC’s Dick Vermeil, who told during the Army-Navy telecast how garlic wards off polio. . . . What did Mike Ditka mean when he said, cryptically, on NBC’s “NFL Live” that Raiders coach Art Shell was “playing with his hands tied?” . . . Forget goalie-cam, which did provide some dramatic shots. The highlight of Saturday’s CBS hockey telecast was forward Jeff Lazaro, sweating profusely, proposing marriage to his girlfriend at the end of the first period. . . . Does Digger Phelps’ arm hurt from patting himself on the back for predicting Kansas’ second-half comeback against De Paul on ESPN?
Programming notes: “The Best of the White Sox” returns to SportsChannel every Friday at noon in December and at 9 a.m. Fridays in January. In all, 15 games from last season will be shown, starting this week with the May 5 game against the Brewers. . . . Last month’s Evander Holyfield upset of Riddick Bowe for the world heavyweight title airs for the first time on basic cable at 7 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN2, with a repeat telecast at 9:30 p.m. Friday on ESPN. . . . ESPN telecasts the “College Football Awards Show” at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The 90-minute program, formerly seen on ABC, features presentation of eight honors and is hosted by Chris Fowler, Lee Corso and Craig James. . . . Mike Leiderman profiles figure skater Susie Wynne on “North Shore Magazine on the Air,” seen at 9:30 a.m. Sundays this month on WEHS-Ch. 60. . . . Leiderman also hosts the Jewish United Fund’s “Telethon ’93” at 6 p.m. Sunday on WGBO-Ch. 66, which features a sports panel of SportsChannel’s Ben Bentley, the Tribune’s Sam Smith and Melissa Isaacson, WMAQ-AM’s Steve Olken and WSCR-AM’s Mike Greenberg.
Other stuff: The 1993 White Sox highlights video, “Good Guys & Winners Wear Black,” is now available in stores. Produced by Major League Baseball Productions and narrated by Warner Fusselle, the video costs $14.95. . . . TNT reports its NBA ratings for the first nine telecasts (including three Bulls appearances) are up 17 percent over last year.
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