The first week of the NFL postseason is in the books, and it turned out to be a big playoff weekend for the biggest sports league in the country.\u00a0 And TJ Rives breaks it all down and more with Mike Gill of ESPN 97.3 FM in Atlantic City on this week’s episode of the Last Word on Sports Media podcast.<\/p>\n
For Wild Card Weekend in the NFL, the viewership numbers for the NFL’s playoff push toward the Super Bowl continue to dwarf the competition.\u00a0 The marquee matchup on Sunday betweek the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers brought in an impressive 41 million viewers.\u00a0 Even the Amazon Prime matchup between the Bears and Packers showed that NFL fans will go wherever the game is being shown.\u00a0 But the matchup between the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday night ended up with a disappointing 28 million viewers.<\/p>\n
“I just don’t think the Chargers have enough national buzz,” Gill admitted.\u00a0 “[And] the Patriots aren’t this hated team anymore.”<\/p>\n
The guys also felt that after the drama of Eagles\/Niners, the country could have been a little gassed, especially for a game that turned out to be one-sided.\u00a0 They also were waiting on the numbers of Monday night’s matchup between the Texans and Steelers, which turned out to be Mike Tomlin’s final game as Pittsburgh’s head coach.<\/p>\n
TJ and Mike got into what was considered a rough day for CBS’s top analyst in the booth, former Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo.\u00a0 They talk about reports from Andrew Marchand of The Athletic<\/em><\/a> that Romo appears disengeged in the booth, doesn’t like watching film to prepare for games he’s covering, and that he and partner Jim Nantz just don’t seem to mesh well.<\/p>\n “Nantz is very stiff.\u00a0 Romo’s more playful,” Gill said of the contrasting personalities.\u00a0 “They just don’t work well together.”<\/p>\n TJ said there could be rumblings of making Ian Eagle and J.J. Watt the top broadcast paring at CBS because of the chemistry, despite Nantz being “royalty” at the Tiffany network, and still having years remaining on his deal.<\/p>\n The guys also got into Al Michaels announcing that at 81 years old, he’ll be returning for another year behind the mic for Thursday nights on Amazon.\u00a0 They also commented on Kirk Herbstreit’s wild schedule during football season, saying that Michaels might be helped by having a partner in the booth that doesn’t have to focus on a college football pregame show and calling a marquee game in college less than 48 hours later.<\/p>\nWere Lynn Jones’ Comments Appropriate?<\/h2>\n