January 5, 1998
No. 270
| ITEM ONE: | LAST SHALL BE FIRST |
| The final ABC NFL Monday Night Football game of the season – the New England Patriots at the Miami Dolphins on December 22 – won honors as the highest-rated program of Christmas week. In fact, three of the top 10 prime-time programs for that week were NFL-related. ABC’s NFL Monday Showcase, the introduction to the Monday night game that is rated as a separate show by Nielsen, was the fourth highest-rated show, and the FOX Wild Card Postgame Show of December 28 following the Detroit Lions-Tampa Bay Buccaneers telecast was ranked No. 7. | |
| ITEM TWO: | TAMPA GLAD TO HAVE THE BUCS |
| It’s not often that newspaper editorials delve into sports, but the Tampa Tribune did just that on December 30 with the message that the city of Tampa should be glad to have the Tampa Bay Buccaneers representing it to the rest of the nation. Referring to the Bucs’ playoff victory over the visiting Detroit Lions, the Tribune said that the nationally televised game "was the kind of good advertising all but impossible to get in any other way." Another section of the editorial asked the questions, "It’s nice to have an NFL team in town, isn’t it? It’s nice that a new, far more comfortable stadium will be up and ready by next September, isn’t it?" The Bucs play in a new 65,000-seat stadium beginning in September. The stadium (and the entire Tampa community) will host Super Bowl XXXV in January, 2001. | |
| ITEM THREE: | INSPIRATIONAL NFL CHILDREN’S BOOK PUBLISHED |
| They got the message as youngsters. Now 60 NFL players are passing it along to a new generation in a book entitled "Spiritual Touchdowns: Inspirational Profiles from the NFL." The 128-page book presents inspirational stories from two players from each of the 30 NFL teams. The messages range from not giving in to adversity (BRENT JONES, San Francisco 49ers)…to obeying your parents, even if you come from a single-parent home (COURTNEY HAWKINS, Pittsburgh Steelers)…to overcoming impediments such as dyslexia (MARK SCHLERETH, Denver Broncos). Written by SHERRY SACINO, "Spiritual Touchdowns" was inspired by former New England Patriots cornerback SCOOTER MC GRUDER, who was profiled in an earlier book by Sacino and urged her to write about all the inspirational stories in the NFL. | |
| ITEM FOUR: | IT’S SUPER BOWL TIME – IN CLEVELAND |
| The excitement of the National Football League doesn’t return to Cleveland for real until 1999. But the Electric Football League, licensed by the NFL, will get Ohio fans charged up this coming January 17-18 in the Super Bowl of Electric Football 4. To be held at the Cleveland Browns’ training facility in Berea, Ohio, devotees from as far away as Europe are expected to be at the convention of electric footballers. "Anyone can go to a warm-weather site for a football game," said MICHAEL LANDSMAN, commissioner of the Electric Football League. "But it takes a real fan to travel to Cleveland in January." The electric football board game, now in its 50th year, is played on an electrified field with miniature football-player figures. |