On Saturday, the RCN television crew and the announcing staff left for Fairfield, Connecticut, to cover the Lafayette-Sacred Heart football game. It was the opening game for Lafayette and there was plenty of excitement surrounding the defending Patriot League champions. That excitement was “doused” early in more ways than one. You see, we were playing an away game, too. RCN TV vs. Mother Nature.
The average fan turns on their set to watch any LIVE event with the expectation that all will go well and that is usually the case. Not this past Saturday. Upon the crew’s arrival in Connecticut, they were met with very hot and humid conditions and a forecast of severe thunderstorms in the area. I arrived at 3:00pm for the 6:00pm kickoff and the skies opened up. The heavy rain was accompanied by severe lightning. And the problems began.
By 5:00pm, our audio system had been “fried” by a lightning hit, the crew was ordered out of the stadium, the announcers could not get to the press box to set up for the game, and we faced the possibility of not getting on the air and an even greater possibility of not having any audio.
Luckily, the game was pushed back thirty minutes to a 6:35pm kickoff, which would allow our engineer and technical crew time to try to run new audio lines and “jerry-rig” a system that would allow us to announce the game and allow me to have some contact with the director (a necessity since he calls for the breaks, announces replays, and tells me to go to the reports from the sideline). By 6:20pm, 10 minutes before we were to go on the air, we had one headset working (mine), two antique hand-held microphones in operation, a wired sideline reporter, and an analyst who could only hear my comments. To everyone’s credit, the first half went off without a hitch. I do not think any viewer knew about the problems that the crew had overcome. Lafayette was trailing 20-7, but we were beating Mother Nature ½ -0.
As the teams were preparing to start the second half, another lightning warning was issued and everyone had to clear the stadium. Luckily, no further damage was done to our equipment at the stadium and the game managers allowed us back in the booth five minutes before the second half would start. However, there was havoc going on in the Lehigh Valley caused by the storm. Our signal back home was lost. Mother Nature was not going quietly. We were still sending a picture to the satellite and the game continued to be shown on the Patriot League Network and ESPN3, but not on RCN TV.
The game finished up at 10:00pm and I arrived home at 2:00am. Lafayette lost; the crew got to bed in Fairfield at 1:00am; and they ended their journey with a flat tire about five miles from home on Sunday. We’ll do it all over again next weekend. Hopefully, Mother Nature has an away game!
ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)
1. Six NFL games on Sunday were decided by a touchdown or less and two of those went into overtime. If you are a fan, you need to get the NFL Red Zone. Call 800-RING-RCN to get it. I was able to watch every exciting finish yesterday and it was great! I hope you did better with your picks than I did with mine. Who would have thought that Miami would beat New England, Atlanta over New Orleans, Buffalo beating Chicago, or Tennessee drubbing Kansas City? This could be an awful year to make predictions.
2. The Eagles did a great job of turning the fans extremely nasty in the first half against Jacksonville by trailing 17-0. Jacksonville never led in a game last year by more than 13 points. Everything got straightened out at the half and the Eagles scored 34 unanswered points. Civility returned to Lincoln Financial Field. Off to Tennessee for next Monday.
3. Three of the Big Ten Conference’s seven 2-0 teams are Maryland, Rutgers, and Nebraska. What? Good thing there are now 14 teams in the Big Ten. Six of the original ten have already lost.
4. No upsets again this week in Lehigh Valley high school football, but Central Catholic sure opened some eyes by going up 28-0 on Whitehall only to lose in OT 42-41. Central plays Parkland on Saturday night on RCN TV after the Lafayette-Robert Morris game. This will be Parkland’s first test.
5. Freedom scored 67 points against Nazareth on Friday night. Jake Young of Freedom recovered a fumble in the end zone on defense, caught a touchdown pass on offense, and returned a kickoff for a score on special teams. Six other teammates scored as 101 points were scored in the game.
(Last Week 9-7 56%)
PITTSBURGH
DETROIT
BUFFALO
JACKSONVILLE
TENNESSEE
ARIZONA
NEW ENGLAND
NEW ORLEANS
ATLANTA
TAMPA BAY
SEATTLE
HOUSTON
GREEN BAY
DENVER
SAN FRANCISCO
INDIANAPOLIS
