It's been almost a week since the news came down and while I've been kind of busy the last couple of days and haven't had the chance to post, I didn't want to let Billy Packer's dismissal by CBS come and go without commenting on it.
First, let me say that I've never been a fan of Packer. He is to college basketball what Tim McCarver is to baseball -- a pompous, long-winded know-it-all who thinks he's bigger than the game and smarter than both his audience and the coaches he's constantly second-guessing. But having said that, he didn't deserve what CBS did to him on Monday. That's when the network announced it was replacing the 68-year-old Packer with Clark Kellogg as the lead analyst on its college basketball telecasts, effectively ending Packer's streak of 34 consecutive Final Four broadcasts.
The reason for his ouster?
Officially, it's because CBS officials thought the time was right for a change and that Kellogg deserved a chance to work with Jim Nantz on the lead announcing team. In reality, Packer's ouster likely came as the result of his committing the cardinal sin of broadcasting. He said something over the air that his bosses believed cost them money.
He did it by telling viewers that last April's national semifinal game between UNC and Kansas "was over" after the Jayhawks sprinted out to a 38-12 lead midway through the first half. Never mind that the game really was over, even though the Tar Heels eventually rallied back to make it interesting in the second half, or that Packer's job description was and always has been to tell it as he sees it. All the suits in New York heard was that someone on their payroll was telling people all across America to pick up their remotes and change the channel. And he paid for it with his job.
While the result of the decision is that CBS's college basketball coverage will be eminently more watchable in the future it doesn't make what the network did to Packer on Monday any less unfair.
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3 comments:
"This decision was made with myself and CBS over a year ago."
Unless BP is screwing up the call on his own life too, then the Kansas-UNC comment was after the fact.FWIW.
Packer had got a fair deal, IMO.
If he wanted to be at CBS longer, he should've negotiated his contract as such.
Packer doesn't seem to be upset, unless he's just full of it(which has been suggested before).
"These are really good circumstances,"
Do you really believe he left on his own, or do you think he just said that to make himself look better and go out like a pro.
For someone who 'calls it like he sees it' I don't know why he'd lie about the details of the split. The 'really good circumstances' comment could be just spin but I don't see why he'd need to fudge on the timing of the decision.
You make it out as his contract would've been renewed had it not been for the KU-UNC comment. Or at the least that the comment was the tipping point... I don't think that was the case.
Wasn't this decided before the season started and in fact Packer didn't want the news to break until after the Final Four?
For a guy that's been candid his whole career I don't understand why he'd bend the truth on the timeline.
I agree that Packer handled it like a pro (probably a concerted effort) but I think his ego is too big not to leak out ill-will or wrong-doing claims towards CBS.
I haven't heard any 'unfortunate events' type stuff from either party. It seems like somewhat mutual breakup vs a one sided firing. Are there bad blood rumors going around?
Maybe I've bought the spin, but if this decision was in fact made in/after April then Billy Packer flat out lied.
Even though I didn't like him as an announcer, shouldn't I give him the benefit of the doubt on this one?
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