Bucs fans have allies on CNN/SI

By ERNEST HOOPER

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 27, 2000

ATLANTA -- The conference room at CNN/Sports Illustrated is not unlike the kind you would find at any corporation, assuming every company has a stack of pizza boxes and a box of doughnuts in its.

What did you expect? This is guys talking football, not day trading.

The high-level discussions Wednesday involved NFL Preview analysts Trev Alberts and Ron Meyer and host Bob Lorenz, who was fresh off a maple doughnut. The subject was the Bucs and the controversial replay reversal that negated an apparent catch by receiver Bert Emanuel and took the steam out of their last-minute drive against St. Louis in Sunday's NFC Championship Game.

"We were sitting there watching that, and we were like, "That catch is made by hundreds of players every week in the National Football League,' " Alberts said. "It sounds so bad because you feel good for the Rams, but I don't know. I've hated instant replay from the start."

Meyer quickly jumped in with his take: "I've already been for instant replay but never how the NFL implements it. They ought to put a third-grader up there because a, they have better judgment, and b, they have better sense. A third-grader could have told you that was a catch."

Alberts and Meyer said they are surprised the catch has not received more attention from the national media. They noted, correctly, that the reversal took more than a play away from Tampa Bay. It cost the Bucs a timeout because coach Tony Dungy called timeout thinking it was a reception. It cost them 13 yards and a makeable third and 10, and it cost them momentum.

"Ever since I was kid playing football, you could just feel when you had the momentum," Alberts said. "When I was watching the Bucs, and we're like, "They got it.' They were within the scheme of their offense, they were moving the ball down the field, and you could just see it setting up for a late touchdown and they get the win.

"(The replay) changes the momentum. Everyone is standing around for three minutes. They lost the momentum, and they're sitting at second and 23, and it's not within the frame of their offense to run those kind of plays."

Meyer, who called the reversal a travesty, said the greatest harm of the play was the impact it had on the game.

"No matter how you cut it, no matter how you define it, to have that overruled was a travesty and a farce," Meyer said. "They took away a great, great football game and let it be held in suspense.

"The NFL historically has a way of tweaking things that could be good. They're like our Congress. They get something good, but by the time you get in a mass of body of things, it ends up screwed up. A prime example is picking Atlanta as a Super Bowl site."

NFL Preview may get overlooked amid all the other pregame shows, but it deserves a look. It airs at 10 a.m. Sunday.

The network also will have a Super Bowl special at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. The show, with host Nick Charles, will follow people with differing views of Super Bowl week, including an officer from the Atlanta police vice division and agent Drew Rosenhaus. FINE TUNING: Good news for Storm fans. ESPN Classic replays the Tampa Bay Storm-Iowa Barnstormers clash in the 1996 ArenaBowl tonight. It's part of their "Smalltime to Showtime" evening, which includes the 1994 Jackson State-Alcorn State battle. The Arena game features Rams quarterback Kurt Warner, and the Jackson-Alcorn game showcases Titans quarterback Steve McNair.

OH, BOY: ESPN reporter Andrea Kraemer gave birth to 5 pound, 2 ounce boy at 8 a.m. Wednesday. Mother and child reportedly were fine.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.