Courtesy Ventura County Star

(April 9, 2010) The best play-by-play men are, for the most part, conservative people. It’s part of what makes them the best. They know how to convey the excitement of a moment without going overly crazy about it.

They aren’t lured into salacious side stories connected to the events they cover. For them, the game is sacred and it would take a monumental occurrence to move them off it.

In other words, the only way Mike Tirico and Jim Nantz will spend much time talking about Tiger Woods’ sex scandal during the Masters this weekend is if one of his mistresses suddenly jumps inside the ropes at Augusta National, throws her arms around him and presents him with their love child.

And maybe not even then.

The reason is simple. By now, is there anyone who doesn’t know about Woods’ marital troubles? Is there really a whole lot of exposition the announcers need to do on that this weekend?

No, there isn’t. The only thing the voices at ESPN and CBS have to do is allude to the fact Woods hasn’t played competitive golf for five months and that it will be interesting to see how he does at the world’s most prestigious tournament considering all he’s been though since November.

“I’m not there to do ‘Face the Nation,’ ” Nantz told reporters in a conference call this week, “I’m there to do a golf tournament.”

The more sensational aspects of Woods’ scandal are for other people to deal with, Nantz said. Not him.

“You guys have to understand. We’re covering a golf tournament. People are thinking, ‘Oh, it’s television, so you guys are going to break off and do like a studio show, like a 6:30-at-night tabloid (show),” he said. “We’re covering a golf tournament and we’re going to do it well.”

In ESPN’s conference call this week, Tirico said, “No one’s bigger than the Masters.

“ I’m not going to insult the intelligence of the audience who have seen it play out in every media venue possible over the last few months, so I think we’re just going to stick to the golf and cover that accordingly.”

CBS News and Sports president Sean McManus said his network will not ignore the Woods situation.

“Obviously, what has happened to Tiger Woods since Thanksgiving night is a major story at this golf tournament,” McManus said. “So it will be addressed. Everyone wants to know how he is going to react, how the fans, the patrons, react, how the other golfers react, so certainly, it’s going to be part of the story. We’re not going to ignore it. We’re going to talk about it as it pertains to the golf tournament.

“ We’re not going to pull any punches. I haven’t given any instructions to our announcers as to what they can and can’t say. I don’t think there’s a lot of new reporting that needs to be done on what’s happened to Tiger since Thanksgiving evening. What this story is now is how he plays, how he reacts. What the storyline is is that he’s at Augusta National at the Masters and that’s the story we’re going to tell and we’re going to tell fully.”

All that being said, CBS knows it’s sitting on an event with the potential to attract millions and millions of viewers if Woods does well enough to be in contention in the final round.

“This is not exactly a scoop,” said McManus, “but if he is on the leaderboard in contention Saturday and Sunday, I think the ratings will be very, very large. We’ve seen what happens normally when Tiger is on the leaderboard at Augusta; the ratings are very impressive. I think the non-golf interest in this year’s Masters obviously is heightened and if he were part of the story on Sunday, I think there would be an enormous amount of interest in the viewership and I think it could be an extraordinary rating.”

blog comments powered by Disqus