Sideline interviews
ESPN had a pair of sideline reporters Saturday. Tom Luginbill was excellent. He knew where to go, what to ask and how to get out quickly. Dianna Russini was nowhere near as successful. She was overmatched. It was not her fault Seattle’s Dillon Day decided to curse when asked about being called for a personal foul. The attempt to interview players in the end zone was fruitless and useless. She would do well to study Pat McAfee and Luginbill’s work as well as that of Brock Huard for FOX. Huard was strong on the sidelines. Good questions, was in the right place. Could have done without him patting a Wildcat on the backside after an interview heading into halftime and Sammie Coates on the back after speaking to the wideout before the third quarter. The interview from the FOX booth with June Jones didn’t work well. It felt awkward with the coach trying to do his job while speaking to people in the abyss. This works well with NASCAR because drivers know the people on the other end of the conversation. Jones did drop the gem of gems in the interview, saying he recalled PJ Walker from a game in 2015 when the quarterback lit up his SMU team for Temple. Would have been wonderful to have known this beforehand to have been able to drop in video from the game. As mentioned above, FOX’s Jenny Taft did a superb job with the Vipers-Guardians game.
I may or may not have almost got @TroyAikman killed #XFL2020 pic.twitter.com/UXwQmdPkew
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) February 9, 2020