By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

So now you know the other reason why the Thursday night opener is growing so largefor NFL, Inc.: It presents another platform to debut, dazzle and befuddle with ads from the league’s best and most loyal corporate sponsors.

Sure did seem a lot cooler when WE were the ones unfurling the banner on opening night.

(Nice touch with the Terrible Towel at mid field during the pre-kick, by the Pittsburghers.)

. . . Rich Eisen remains solid, understated and just the right dose of knowledge and smarm. That was a great, not good, hire by the NFL Network, and a nice sign of the symbiotic relationship between the NFL and NBC.

. . . We also saw some interesting ad placement with an ESPN Monday Night spot thrown in during the NBC broadcast. We wonder if it was paid or exchanged, and perhaps we’ll see during the Monday Night double-header debut.

. . . Peter King stumbled a bit during his NBC half-time “reporting” and overt attempt at controversy-stirring with his report that Eli Manning is “going out of the system” to get advice from former coach, David Cutcliffe.

And the NBC folk didn’t exactly soft shoe the Notre Dame game set for this Saturday. Brady Quinn and Charlie Weiss, it turns out, are pitchmen just like the Manning Brothers.

. . . As kick-off nights go, Thursday’s delivered on most fronts and there will clearly be some residue from the weak red flag throw of Nick Saban and that exposed flaw in the instant replay system.

. . .Nice kickoff, as well, by the former ProJo Pats prowler, Tom Curran. He blogged it strong and hard form the very start. Nice effort, TC. You’re missed already.

. . . Lynn Settles is Charlie Batch’s mother. She appeared on TV around 11:40 p.m. EST during the final moments of Pittsburgh’s 28-17 win. Just thought you should know, so that maybe you could see if someone at YouTube puts up the video of Lynn Settles’ hairdo before the day is out.

• USA, where characters are welcome, got a nice match-up of tennis characters to go opposite the NFL debut and Shots will not hide that fact that we were “Last Channeling” between 7 and 35 all night long. Always able, Al Trautwig set the stage nicely when he led into the 8:30 US Open start between Roger Federer and James Blake by saying: “Tennis couldn’t have two better men in a bigger moment.”

Familiar face, Michael Barkann, got both racket men on their way to the court and never-shy John McEnroe followed up with a match-intro that included: “I think this is a critical juncture for (Blake). . . I think he can pull this off. You talk about a career-changing match? This (win in the quarterfinals) could win the tournament for him.”

All that AND some expert in-studio analysis from the engaging, savvy Jim Courier. TV works well when all the pieces fit together nicely.

At 10:25 the broadcast was getting ready to leave its 11 day wall to wall coverage as it stood 7-6, 6-0, 5-4 with Blake serving it to 5-5.

. . . While we’re on the issue of USA – why didn’t anyone ever tell me of the genius of “Monk?” And the undeniable attractiveness of (already-taken) Traylor Howard ? She’s wonderful in our eyes.

• So, when Laurance Maroney plays on Sunday, where do I line up to hear the apologies and retractions?

• Here’s a tale of three NFL preview sections that spent time on the Shanty’s reading table Thursday. It proves, once again, that not all sports desks are built alike.

More importantly though, it proves that some newspapers truly “get it” when it comes to selling their content and others, well, others are the Boston Globe.

Boston Globe:

Page count - 12, broadsheet
Ad count - One ½ page Ira Cars ad; One ½ page in-houser for a Pats’ “album.”
Content - A themed package of stories centering on the kicking game and including the obligatory league-breakdowns and scouting reports. No column from MacMullan, Ryan or Shaughnessy, which seemed odd. The full-page “Anatomy of a field goal” used sketch drawings from what appeared to be ancient high school mimeos for PhysEd instructions. We’re all for USA Today approaches in the graphics department – just do it with some elements that look like they were developed in the past 20 years or so.

Prof. Shots Grade - C-minus; One-topic themes as previews are mostly fine. But kicking is too esoteric, even if Adam’s departure justifies some of the concept. And the lack of ads is really baffling. By now, someone has had to figure out that coupling web ads with print ads could help everyone involved. It’s not a highbrow concept, trust us.

Boston Herald:

Page count - 28, tabloid
Ad count - numerous – with car ads, classifieds and other revenue-generating spots throughout. A back page full page ad was taken by Harley-Davidson of Everett and an inside full-pager, full-color spot (is everyone paying attention?) went to Betus.com, on the off chance, that, you know, someone with a betting interest was reading a sports section. Revolutionary concept, we know!
Content - A theme, but a more flexible, tabloid-esque one: Hank Herald’s boys went with “Next Generation” as its anchor and then went way heavy with John Tomase and Michael Felger and filling in the gaps with Albert Breer. They did choose to include a columnist – Steve Buckley – in their preview pull-out section, and Felger led off with a “Patriots Beat” column on P2.
Prof. Shots Grade - B; I’m thinking the section paid for itself editorially with the two full-pagers alone. Even if all the other ad revenue doesn’t go directly into the Sports desk’s ledger, the total revenue for the paper as a whole is justification enough to cram in the auto ads and a “Collector’s Corner.”

It shows that the Herald is thinking and plotting and trying to shake some trees in hopes a ripe fruit falls out. Neither local paper utilized its web presence to any palpable degree, but maybe those days are, as we’ve been promised, coming.

USA Today:

Page count - 16, broadsheet
Ad count - Take your pick – Campbell’s Soup, Canon, Coors, Madden ’07, the NFL (in large doses), Diet Pepsi, GMC and Sprint. Every one was a full-pager or more.
Content - Sparse, heavy on the NFL advertorial cop, but for good reason. This was simply the “Opening Night” Bonus section. Friday’s USA Today includes a 22-page “guide to the new-look NFL.”
Prof. Shots Grade - A; In two days, with 38 pages of special sections, USAT – which is, granted, a national paper – will have raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad revenue because of smart packaging and aggressive sales forces.

. . .We do, as you’re thinking, over-harp on the lack of synergy between edit and business, especially in Old Media enclaves. But the simple fact of modern day publishing is that if you’re not combining resources and creating ad revenue streams, you’re simply treading water and disservicing your customer.

• Shots will be in the regular spot, with the regular crew (including Richie Sacramento nee Richie Peabody) this Sunday starting at oh-nine-hundred-hours. Be sure to heed the travel advisories and play like a champion tailgater.

• Thank you, PatsFans.com and John Tomase for this wonderful link.

Wonderful, that is, if you’re not Monty Beisel.

• Let’s not forget to put “Turning of the Tide” on the Fall reading list. An excerpt lives here.

Shots had a very small role in the book and while royalties won’t be coming my way, pride will surely follow if you pick up a copy. Do it for Sam Cunningham, would ya?

• Some rumblings from Morrissey Boulevard that the “replacement” for recently-departed Jerome Solomon will be North regional sports guy, Christopher Gasper, who was been getting lots of reps lately for the main sports desk, especially on Sox coverage. (Notice Amalie Benjamin has been given US Open duties and ever-dutiful, Gordon Edes has re-assumed the nuts and bolts, Red Sox beat guy role.)

The Gasper promotion would make sense and would also be in line with the recent Joe Sullivan, promote-from-within theory on franchise/desk building. (See: Mike Reiss). Gasper, an African-American, would also fill the unspoken mandate for a minority hire and from what we’ve read and heard about Gasper, he’s got all the tools to thrive and succeed at the Globe.

If the move takes place, it will also likely translate into some monetary savings for the Sports desk, from what “veteran” Solomon was making compared to a young ‘un like BU COM Class of ’01, Gasper. The money-issue has to be a consideration for the NY Times under-performing, belt-tightening division and Sullivan will be making the higher-ups happy from a strictly business standpoint.

Hopefully, for the sake of the section’s coverage, Gasper will be sent directly to Foxboro to help out on the nitty-gritty of the Pats’ beat (things Nick Cafardo and Ron Borges won’t/shouldn’t be doing). Reiss could certainly do it on his own, but he shouldn’t have to.

• You’ve got to figure this could just as easily be Jerry Remy, especially as the games start to mean less and less in the coming weeks.

• We can’t tell you how many times we wondered: How on earth do they keep doing it? Maybe now we won’t have wonder anymore. That whole brand needs to be torn down and re-built. And Paul Allen was never going to do that.

• Be sure to read Jarrett Bell’s revealing piece with the always effervescent Edgerrin James. And also make sure you catch the sidebar where Tom Brady is text messaging with Ray Lewis. Who woulda thunk it?

• Don’t be fooled by this hype. Entercom’s Sports Leader’s is still not worth visiting. They could use some original content – beyond Larry Johnson tracings and links to Pete Gustin’s website.

And ringtones, aren’t exactly what we had mind.

• A good recent addition by the Globe with “Coupling” contributor, Shawn Peters’s fantasy offering.

Yes, we read “Coupling” religiously. Perhaps you could too, to show your sensitive side.

• The OmbudsESPN didn’t have quite as much trouble with the “plausibly-there” practice as we did, but at least he squeezed in an item on the FIBA games fakeout:

“. . . Finally, Jim Durham and Fran Fraschilla are calling FIBA World Basketball Championships games for ESPN from Bristol, and are not on site in Japan. A similar situation occurred this summer during some of the coverage of the FIFA World Cup from Germany. The solution is simple: Tell the viewers where the announcers are, and do it more than once a game.”

It’s nice when Shots is backed up by an Ombuds once in a while.

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. And can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmedDOTcom