Bucs' Gramatica joins ESPN International team

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By ERNEST HOOPER

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 28, 2000

ATLANTA -- Bucs kicker Martin Gramatica makes his broadcast debut at Sunday's Super Bowl, but don't look for him next to Al Michaels and Boomer Esiason.

Gramatica will be part of ESPN International's global broadcasts. Joining him on the Spanish version will be play-by-play commentator Eduardo Varela and former Vikings and Dolphins placekicker Fuad Reveiz.

"My dad told me to practice in front of the mirror, but the guy on the other side didn't look too good," Gramatica quipped.

Gramatica's rising popularity is one reason he is being included on the broadcast. The Argentine-born placekicker has become quite a star in his native country as well as the rest of South America and Central America.

"Every Monday after a game, in the most important newspapers in Argentina, you have what happened the day before with Martin," ESPN International producer Ricardo Wolanow said, "maybe a full page or his picture, talking just Martin Gramatica."

Said Gramatica: "I'm just glad to know that they're following and they're learning and they can be able to see what I'm doing so it gives them a dream that they, too, can make it. For me, I watched Fuad when he kicked and ... that gave me inspiration. Hopefully, I can do that (Sunday)."

Though soccer is still the No. 1 sport in Latin America, ESPN International's broadcasts of Sunday and Monday night regular-season games have built American football's popularity south of the border. Argentina has a professional flag football league with 10 teams.

"The thing that's amazing to me is when I started with ESPN three years ago, it was basically Mexico and a few other countries," Reveiz said. "Now its Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Venezuela, Panama. It's not like you see it stagnant, because if it's stagnant, you wonder if you're wasting your time.

"But every year it's just that much more interest: "How can we get leagues? How can we get more people involved? Who's in it from our culture?' "

Gramatica should do a pretty good job. But if he had his way, he would be kicking against Tennessee instead of picking against the Titans.

"It's really hard to swallow," Gramatica said of the Bucs' 11-6 loss. "Coach (Tony) Dungy told us it's over, we can't do anything about it. The only thing we can do is use it for fuel for next year.

"I think the whole team is ready to start the next season already."

Gramatica wants to see St. Louis win just so he can say the Bucs lost to the best. Varela, who played free safety for a team in Mexico, likes the Titans' chances, as does Reveiz.

ESPN International also will broadcast versions of the game in Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese and Hindi to more than 123 countries. The game also will be available on 46 cruise ships.

Basically, ESPN takes the ABC feed we will see and relays it through various facilities around the world.

ENHANCED TV: All you used to need for a good Super Bowl party was someone to serve food and drinks. Now you need someone to get on a server and access ABC's Super Bowl Web site.

The network is calling the site Enhanced TV, and it hopes the site will draw close to half-million hits Sunday. The best asset of the site is instant information. The answer to any question you have about the game can be accessed instantly. If someone at your party wants to know what college London Fletcher went to, you can access his biography on the site.

If Tennessee's Eddie George is running rampant and you want to know how many yards he has, the site can relay the information to you instantly.

The site also features Prime Time Player, a game users can play with other Internet users by guessing which player will get the ball.

ABC vice president Jonathan Leess said his only fear is that with 12 commercials for Internet companies during the telecast, Internet service providers may have trouble getting users to the Enhanced TV site, which can be accessed through ABC.com, ESPN.com or SuperBowl.com.

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