This is what I’m thinking:
CBS’ No. 1 NFL team, play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz and analyst Tony Romo, will call the Buffalo Bills game scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday with the New England Patriots.
Nantz confirmed the assignment, which CBS hasn’t announced, in a text.
It will be the fifth Bills game that the No. 1 team will have called this season and the second in Buffalo.
The Bills won the previous four games at home against Pittsburgh (38-3), at Kansas City (24-20), Thanksgiving Day at Detroit (28-25) and at home against the New York Jets (20-12).
Nantz and Romo normally work a late 4:25 p.m. Sunday game that goes to most of the country.
CBS has two late games Sunday. One is between the playoff-bound Los Angeles Chargers (10-6) and the disappointing Denver Broncos (4-12). And the other is between two playoff teams, the Philadelphia Eagles (13-3) and New York Giants (9-6-1).
New England (8-8) needs a win over the Bills (12-3) this Sunday to make the playoffs and the game could help determine playoff seeding for the Bills depending on what the NFL decides to do about the Bills game with the Cincinnati Bengals on "Monday Night Football" that was postponed after Damar Hamlin’s injury.
The emotional nature of Sunday’s game at Highmark Stadium coming as fans across the nation pray for Hamlin’s recovery might be an additional reason for CBS to send its No. 1 team.
Louie we, hardly knew you
Louie Del Rio, who joined the WIVB-TV (Channel 4) sports department a few months ago, is already gone.
General Manager Joe Abouzeid declined comment about Del Rio’s quick exit.
He arrived in October as the replacement for Paul Stockman, who left in August.
When he was hired, the station said he previously worked as a sports director for a Fox station in Illinois and covered the University of Illinois and the Chicago Cubs’ World Series victory in 2016 before leaving to become a radio disc jockey in Miami.
His presentation was a little over the top for staid Channel 4 so it would have been interesting to see if he succeeded here if he passed his probation period. He didn’t.
Abouzeid said that Del Rio will be replaced on the sports staff, which now includes Josh Reed and Heather Prusak at a very busy time for sports coverage.
I recently praised Don Paul, the Channel 4 meteorologist and Buffalo News freelance meteorologist for his appearance on "The PBS News Hour" last week to discuss the Blizzard of 2022.
But Paul said he made an error in that otherwise excellent appearance. He said Buffalo has fewer snowplows per capita than the New York City area, which gets considerably less snow.
He walked that back recently on Twitter. He wrote: “In my PBS interview, I stated that NYC had more plows per capita than Buffalo. Doing some research, despite NYC’s vast sanitation department, biggest in the country, my statement was wrong. I apologize for the error.”
I have to agree with John Stamos about the New Year’s Eve performance of Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper on CNN. During a video interview with Stamos, his wife and their young son, the actor told Cohen and Cooper they were funnier when they were drinking. They weren’t allowed to drink this year.
I watched the end of the Buffalo Sabres’ overtime win over the Boston Bruins Saturday afternoon on ESPN+, which used Boston’s telecast team.
After the game ended, the play-by-play announcer, (I believe it was Jack Edwards), said: “Buffalo won its sixth in a row and they are for real.”
It is one thing for people covering the Sabres to say they are for real even if they are being as objective as possible, quite another for a Bruins announcer to say it.
The Sabres' overtime win over Washington Tuesday night would seem to validate the idea they are for real.
