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Christmas is done, but the gifts keep coming. Houston is one of four markets nationwide in which the NFL is waiving the home team blackout regulation Sunday, which means both CBS and Fox will be allowed to show doubleheaders here on the regular season’s final weekend. Bears-Texans will air on KRIV (Channel 26), with Matt Vasgersian and JC Pearson calling the action, and KHOU (Channel 11) will be allowed to show Patriots-Bills, which has playoff implications, in the noon window. A league spokesman described the blackout lift as a limited experiment. Cowboys fans also will benefit Sunday. The league’s decision to switch kickoff for Cowboys-Eagles to 3:15 p.m. means it won’t clash with the Bears-Texans game and, thus, will air on Channel 26. Meanwhile, the NFL says about 9.2 percent of its subscriber base, or about 3.8 million households, watched the Ravens-Texans game last Saturday. Not bad, although the game would have had a larger audience had it been on ESPN or an over the air network. Ravens-Cowboys had a 3.2 Nielsen household rating in Houston, which, given that NFL Network probably isn’t carried in more than 25 percent to 30 percent of the market, isn’t half-bad (or quarter-bad, if you want to pick nits). We will, however, pick nits regarding the network’s coverage of the Texas Stadium shutdown ceremonies. NFL Network spent too much time with its talking heads in the studio and too much time with player news conferences. Sound problems also made it tough to hear some of the speeches by former players who came back to Irving for the final game at the stadium. Arbitron oops After months of speculation, we’ll get our first full four-station look at Houston’s sports radio marketplace next Thursday, when Arbitron releases its first monthly report that includes KGOW (1560 AM) in addition to KILT (610 AM), KBME (790 AM) and KFNC (97.5 FM). However, before we get too caught up in Arbitrons as the only measure of success, consider this tidbit reported by Inside Radio “The fact four people can represent 30,000 and a station thousands of miles away … shows the thinness of the ice on which the entire industry is skating,” Cox Radio CEO Bob Neil, a longtime critic of PPM, told Inside Radio. “It’s embarrassing to our industry and an insult to the intelligence of any advertiser that cares about accountability.” Arbitron did not reply to Inside Radio’s request for a comment. Texans’ ups and downs Razzle dazzles and rock and rolls aside, I think my favorite Marc Vandermeer moment of the 2008 Texans season came during the team’s four-game season-opening losing streak, when Vandermeer unleashed an “Oh, no,” that was truly remarkable in its timbre, resonance and heartbreaking despair. It makes me cackle every time I think of it. At any rate, Vandermeer remains relentlessly upbeat for the team’s season finale Sunday at Reliant Stadium against the Bears. “To come back as they did from 0-4 and 3-7 shows remarkable heart and professionalism,” he said. “But, at the same time, it’s a disappointment, because this was supposed to be the year to take the next step. “I go back to the hurricane. Losing the chance to play Baltimore in Week 2, before the Ravens got going, would have been a good early test and a good opportunity. Football players being creatures of habit, I think that had a tremendous impact later against Tennessee and Jacksonville. But it’s more of a reason than an excuse.” Still, he’s prepared to give this season an incomplete grade. “It’s a cliffhanger season. It’s to be continued at the end of this episode,” he said. “If they beat Chicago, I think people will be excited about what they can do next season.” Four DVRs, no waiting After our request last week, several readers passed along word that Gene Peterson’s and Jim Foley’s call of the Eddie Johnson buzzer-beater in the 1997 NBA playoffs can be found at www.clutchcity.net. … Fox Sports’ broadcast of the BCS championship game between Oklahoma and Florida will air in 3-D at 35 theaters nationwide, including the Rave Yorktown, 15900 Yorktown Crossing Boulevard. Check out www.cinedigm.com for ticket information. … Broadcast teams for bowl games involving Texas teams include Terry Gannon and David Norrie for Houston-Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl (ESPN), Pat Summerall and Brian Baldinger for Texas Tech-Ole Miss in the Cotton Bowl (Fox), Fran Charles and Tom Waddle for Rice-Western Michigan in the Texas Bowl (NFL Network) and Matt Vasgersian and Tim Ryan for Texas-Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl (Fox). Subterfuge, sleight of hand, trickery, finesse, camouflage, gadget play. Each is a valid synonym for a trick play, which means each is an option that Rece Davis should consider rather than repeating “trickeration” every 38 seconds as he did after Boise State’s trick play on the opening kickoff of the Poinsettia Bowl against TCU. … Fun with numbers: ESPN averaged 8.67 million households and 11.9 million viewers for Monday Night Football, making it the top-rated series on cable TV this year. ABC’s Saturday night college football games averaged 5.6 million households and eight million viewers, up 22 percent and 24 percent, respectively, from a year ago. Texas-Texas Tech averaged 8.59 million households and was the top-rated game of the year. … After its exclusive negotiating window with Westwood One elapsed without a deal, the NFL is shopping around radio rights to the next two seasons to ESPN Radio, Sporting News Radio, Sports USA Radio and others, according to Sports Business Journal. … According to AdWeek, NBC has rejected an ad agency’s scheme to pool eight advertisers in purchasing a $3 million 30-second spot at the Super Bowl ad for $395,000 each. … FedEx, one of the more creative Super Bowl advertisers in recent year5s, has said it will not buy an ad this season, citing the “unprecedented economic waters.” The company has bought time in 18 Super Bowls since 1989, according to BrandWeek. … ESPN’s Outside the Lines at 8 a.m. Sunday profiles Elena Delle Donne, the 2008 national high school girls basketball player of the year, who elected to give up the sport, turned down a scholarship to Connecticut and switched to volleyball at the University of Delaware. … Old friend Lance Barrow, CBS Sports’ coordinating producer for golf and the NFL, has been named outstanding alumnus of the year at Abilene Christian University. … Ron Lawrence, a Cowboys fan who lives in Chesapeake, Va., has won DirecTV’s Ultimate Displaced Fan contest. Lawrence, who watches games in his garage converted into a replica of Texas Stadium (does this mean he’ll renovate it to replicate JerryWorld?), received two tickets to Super Bowl XLIII. … Reader Bill Martin wants to know why Fox didn’t switch Channel 26 to another game midway through the Patriots-Cardinals rout last week. A Fox Sports spokesman says the network retains the ability to move parts of the country from one game to another, but it must plan ahead to do so and absorb the costs of making the switches. © http://www.golfonline.jp/ . All Rights Reserved. (???????) GolfOnline???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????R11,RAZR X HL????????
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