Longtime St. Louisan Dan Dierdorf has been one of the NFL’s top broadcasters for more than a quarter century, and it’s almost always a road show for him when he heads to work. But he has the rare opportunity to go from his home directly to his assignment this weekend as he’ll be on the call of the Rams’ game against Cincinnati at noon Sunday.
Dierdorf is the analyst on CBS’ No. 2 NFL broadcast team, working with play-by-play man Greg Gumbel. And two key factors keep him from working in town very often. First, the Rams are in the NFC and CBS primarily shows AFC games. And with the Rams having been woeful for so long, when an AFC team comes to St. Louis there usually is a better game elsewhere for Gumbel and Dierdorf to call.
But because CBS has a light schedule this weekend with few compelling matchups, Dierdorf stays home to broadcast what he says he thinks will be only the third game from St. Louis in the 13 seasons he has been at CBS. He last called a game in St. Louis in 2006, when the Rams played Denver on opening day.
"It’s nice to be home this close to Christmas," he said Thursday. "Doing AFC games living in an NFC city, these are few and far between."
CBS’ lead team of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms calls the New England-Denver contest, a 3:15 p.m. game that will be televised in most of the nation as the back end of the doubleheader that airs on KMOV (Channel 4).
Although Dierdorf rarely is able to see the Rams play because he usually is working when they are in action, he has lived in St. Louis since he began his Pro Football Hall of Fame career as an offensive lineman with the Cardinals in 1971 and well knows the frustrations Rams fans have experienced for nearly a decade — especially in recent seasons as the team is 15-62 in its last 77 outings.
"It’s not so much that the Rams lose, the fans don’t think they’re competitive and that’s the biggest source of frustration from people who come up to me," he said. "They say, ‘We go into the game and never thought they were going to win.’ That’s what’s really a shame, when the fan base gets to that point."
Dierdorf said the Rams’ decline could become even uglier.
"(Team owner) Stan Kroenke has a lot of difficult decisions to make," Dierdorf said. "It’s a business where everybody wants to win, the Rams aren’t alone in that. But in a business where there are sales involved, you have to have a product that people want to buy and spend their money to participate in. Stan Kroenke has got to be very aware of that. You can only go through a slide like this for so long before the public becomes calloused to it, they become nonchalant, uninterested — and that’s a dangerous place. It would be a big help if the Rams would be a team people would want to see."
Dierdorf has heard the talk around town that he seems like the perfect candidate to be the football version locally of hockey’s John Davidson, who went from a player to an acclaimed broadcaster to now being a key part of the management group that is trying to turn the long-downtrodden Blues franchise around.
"It’s very flattering, but I’m a broadcaster for CBS," said Dierdorf, who has two more seasons left on that contract. "That’s what I do and I’m very happy doing it. I don’t want to sound like a politician, I don’t want to sound like Urban Meyer, I really am happy doing what I’m doing."
And he has been highly successful in what he has been doing. After spending 12 seasons (1987-98) in ABC’s "Monday Night Football" booth he has been with CBS ever since. That’s where he began his national career in 1985, and now at age 62 he is the longest-tenured NFL game analyst on network television.
"None of that computes to me, I don’t feel old — but I guess maybe I am," he said, chuckling, adding he still is invigorated at work. "I try to tell people whether you’re doing a game at night, whether you’re doing a game during the day, there comes that moment when it’s (a few) minutes before kickoff and the energy in a stadium, that anticipation of the game that’s right around the corner — jets are flying overhead, the ‘Terrible Towels’ are waiving — the hair on the back of my neck still stands up. It never gets old. I’ve been in an NFL stadium every Sunday or Monday every (football) weekend of every year for 41 years. I don’t know anything else. I can tell you it’s as exciting today as the first time I ever did it.
"The best part is that I’m in a different stadium every weekend. There’s no repetitiveness, one week I’m in Pittsburgh, the next the Meadowlands. I’m fortunate that most of the games I’m doing are big games, competitive ones with good teams. I had New England last week, and the energy that surrounds good football is contagious. You want to be around it every week."
But that energy level figures to be much lower this week, with the wallowing Rams at home.
"I haven’t been in the (Edward Jones) Dome for a football game for (several) years, so I’m not sure what to expect," he said. ""I don’t know what the crowd support will be like. I just hope it gets better soon. I hope they play well. I just hope it’s a good game."
And he hopes the Rams eventually become competitive again.
"I’m just a fan like everybody else in the sense I’ve lived in St. Louis all my adult life,’’ he said. "I was 21 when I moved to St. Louis and I’ve been here ever sense, so I have as much civic pride as anybody. I bask in the glow when the Cardinals win the World Series, I basked in the glow when the Rams won the Super Bowl. It’s not fun being (the way) the Rams are now.’’
MCLAUGHLIN UPDATE
It continues to look as if Cardinals lead television play-by-play announcer Dan McLaughlin will be retained if he remains successful in his rehabilitation efforts from alcoholism after his recent second arrest on a drunken driving charge.
The decision on his status is being made by Fox Sports Midwest, for whom he works on the telecasts, with input from the team and Fox corporate officials.
"What’s most important is that Dan continue to focus on his sobriety and getting well," FSM’s Geoff Goldman said. "We’ll continue to monitor his progress."
MONDAY MALAISE
Despite the highly unattractive matchup Monday on ESPN between the 2-10 Rams and 5-7 Seattle Seahawks, it was only the third-worst rated "Monday Night Football’’ game this season according to The Nielsen Co., which says the telecast was seen in 7.2 percent of the nation’s homes with a TV. Two other games were at 7.1 — San Diego’s rout of listless Jacksonville the week before and the Baltimore-Jacksonville contest on Oct. 24 that was beaten in the ratings by Game 5 of the World Series. Locally, the game drew a 17.9 rating — 10.7 on KTVI (Channel 2), 7.2 on ESPN.
PLAYING CATCHUP
One development of note while "Media Views" was on vacation last week was that former Cardinals catcher Tim McCarver, the longtime lead baseball analyst for several TV networks, was named this year’s winner of the Ford C. Frick Award. That honor is presented for excellence in broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Cards announcer Mike Shannon was a finalist, via fan balloting.
ON ICE
Fox Sports Midwest has its annual "St. Louis Classic" event Saturday at Steinberg Skating Rink in Forest Park, in which Fox Sports Midwest’s telecast of the Blues’ game at Nashville will be shown on a giant screen while fans can take to the ice. FSM’s Jim Hayes, Pat Parris, Bernie Federko and Tony Twist will be broadcasting from the event, which begins at 5 p.m., two hours before the game starts. There is no fee to attend, but there is a charge to skate and rent skates.
