Neil Best - Boomer Esiason Is Upset With New England's Belichick Over Coach's Behavior After Loss To Colts

Lowering the boom on Bill - Neil Best - Newsday
January 23, 2007

Whatever you think of him as a TV analyst, there is one thing that consistently makes East Islip's own Boomer Esiason stand out from the pontificating pack: He thinks and talks like one of us!

That was evident late in Sunday's 8-hour gridiron gala, when he reacted to the strangest moment of a long TV day and night.

A seemingly nervous Solomon Wilcots had just attempted to conduct an interview with losing Patriots coach Bill Belichick and elicited only two terse non-answers.

Back to the CBS studio! Esiason threw up his arms, shook his head and said, "What was that?"

It was a nationally televised reminder that for all his brilliance, Belichick is not a particularly nice fellow, and is especially hopeless around journalists -- who, like it or not, are a conduit to fans.

Yeah, we know. Any fan would gladly take a nasty coach over a sweetheart if it means three rings in four years. But all else being equal, is there anything wrong with being, say, Tony Dungy?

Sometimes it's helpful to remind the paranoid coaching tree of (please, stay retired) Bill Parcells that helpfulness with the media -- remember: conduit to fans! -- and winning are not mutually exclusive.

Nine years ago, Dungy earned the Pro Football Writers of America's Horrigan Award for cooperation with reporters. Peyton Manning was nominated for it in 2004.

Belichick? Well, at least this week he didn't assault a photojournalist en route to barely acknowledging Manning after the game.

Anyway, Wilcots' encounter with Belichick capped a generally solid day of work from the No. 1 teams from Fox and CBS.

One Fox quibble: Neither Troy Aikman nor Joe Buck commented on the Saints' Reggie Bush pointing at Brian Urlacher as he ran toward, then flipped into, the end zone. The Bears were not amused.

On CBS, Phil Simms and Jim Nantz were their usual cautious selves about second-guesses or criticisms; it would have been interesting to see how they handled Manning if he had not rallied the Colts.

It never came to that, of course, but as of halftime, the bluntest opinions on Manning came from Esiason, who repeated a line he used on a conference call Wednesday:

"If he turns this ball over [again], he is going to have to buy a house in A-Rod's neighborhood, because that's where he's going to belong -- all the money, all the stats and no championships. So a lot of pressure on him."

Tough, but true. One half later, the world had turned and Belichick was the one who looked bad.

Esiason saw the tape of the Belichick interview seconds before it went on the air; he wished he had had more time to discuss it on CBS' brief postgame. He did so on the phone yesterday.

"I was pretty disgusted with Belichick," he said. "I've interviewed him on my MSG show. It's hard. It's really hard. I don't think he does it on purpose. I just think he doesn't know any better. I just thought it was unprofessional."

Esiason left a message Sunday night for Wilcots, a former teammate on the Bengals.

Among other things, he said, "I'm surprised you didn't strangle him."

Grid bits

The AFC and NFC title games attracted audiences that will make them the most viewed shows of the TV season thus far, surpassing the first two episodes of "American Idol." The AFC on CBS drew 28.1 percent of households in large markets; CBS did not release national figures, but that number will fall a bit when they do. The NFC on Fox drew a 25.1 national rating and 43.2 million viewers ... Even Eli Manning believed the penalty against the Patriots for roughing his brother Peyton on the Colts' winning drive was a bad call. He said so on Michael Kay's ESPN 1050 show ... The race to hire Tiki Barber has taken a turn, with him now leaning toward NBC over early favorite ABC/ESPN, a person familiar with his thinking said. A deal is unlikely until after the Pro Bowl ... The current HBO "Real Sports" has a report on disabled former NFL players and efforts to get help from the league and/or union. "The players today are the worst-represented union in all of sports," Mike Ditka says.

Sound bites

MSG's coverage of Friday's Knicks-Nets game drew 1.72 percent of households, compared with 0.65 on YES ... TV pros long have tried to translate hockey to a small screen, with Peter Puck to glowing pucks. Now this: Rail Cam. Versus showcases it for the All-Star Game tomorrow; it's a camera that runs on a rail above the glass. Worth a try ... CBS and DirecTV extended DirecTV's deal to show out-of-market NCAA Tournament games. But the big question is whether Major League Baseball will, as many expect, sell out-of-market rights exclusively to DirecTV, cutting out cable customers. An MLB spokesman said nothing is final despite a report in The New York Times that a deal is near ... Derric Rossy, a heavyweight out of Medford, fights Eddie Chambers on Feb. 9 at Suffolk CC on a card to be