With all the great football today, it’s very possible you missed out on some awesome games outside of the NFL playoffs. In particular, Ohio State, a 19 point favorite, was taken to the limit by a scrappy Penn State team that just would not go away. For added significance, Duke’s loss earlier in the week made this game Ohio State’s last hurdle before likely claiming the new number one ranking.
Although the game had nowhere near the same level of significance as the other white knuckler game of the day in the Steelers vs Ravens, you could argue that down stretch this game actually had a more feverish and excited ending.
Unfortunately, though, with many Penn State fans doubling as Steelers fans, I’m sure the game also had a limited audience, as the basketball game tipped off in the second quarter of the Ravens vs Steelers match-up and ended with about 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter.
Calling this game was very underrated play-by-play man Tom Hamilton and our favorite Barbasol spokesman, Jim Jackson, who was actually a former OSU basketball star.
But given this gift of a good game considering many thought it would be a blowout, only one announcer really embraced the building drama while the other seemed to be pertubed he was working a game while there was a NFL playoff game on.
Tom Hamilton with a great call down the stretch
Jim Jackson more interested in Steelers game (about 39 seconds in. I did the full minute clip to be fair and not take the clip out of context)
Would love your feedback in the comments. Did Jackson break a cardinal rule of announcing?
You almost never see an announcer mention other games going on that are on another network. ESPN may give you updates of games on other ESPN channels and during football season Fox and CBS really promote their set of games rather than the other network’s slate of games that are going on at that time.
Yes, at times, an announcer will mention another big game that may be on another channel, but it’s usually in the context of looking at college football’s top ten or if other games have playoff implications.
It seems very out of place for Jackson to just dive into a tangent about how compelling the Steelers game was considering this game was tied with under a minute left. At this exact moment on CBS, the Steelers were driving for their game winning score in the 4th quarter. As mentioned before, Penn State fans and Steelers fans have a significant overlap.
It’s not only odd that he would mention it, but it’s just weird he seemed so excited about it. Jackson, someone born and bred in Ohio, and has no known connection to the city of Pittsburgh is watching his Alma mater trying to stage off a major upset with the number one ranking on the line. Instead, he’s reminding the audience, some of which may be casual fans (yes, they do exist), that there is a bigger game on network television that seems to have more of his attention. Does he have Sportacular on his phone or is he listening to the game on the radio during commercials? Maybe Jim Nantz hooked him up with a Flo Tv as long as he promoted CBS games?
Hamilton’s reaction is priceless as he doesn’t take the bait and talk AFC playoffs. He smoothly segues back to the game possibly kind of shocked by Jackson’s faux-pas
For what its worth, the game ended on another three-point play by Sullinger to give the Buckeyes a three-point win. It was actually the third three-point play of the final minute, all of which came in a tied game or tied the game up. Pretty crazy, actually, and something that I’ve never seen before, but man how about them Steelers?
Updated:
Thanks to a tip from loyal reader @vranich, we also learned that Jackson was so emotionally invested in the football game he found the time to tweet about the game as well. Pretty stark admission that his mind was elsewhere.
Didn’t know you were such a Steelers fan Jim. Any chance you joined me in taking them -3 and were giddy as I was as they made the comeback?
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