CBS disses Payton, doesn’t broadcast halftime tribute
I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything more from CBS. They’re no better than any other national outlet when covering our little cow patch. Chicago is a but a blip on a radar and a layover when jet-setting from New York to LA, so this LOWER THE BOOM goes out to CBS.
The Bears paid tribute to the legendary Walter Payton during halftime of Sunday’s drubbing of the Cleveland Browns on the 10th anniversary of Payton’s sudden passing back in 1999. The Payton family, including wife Connie, daughter Brittney and son Jarrett along with Payton’s mother Alyne were on hand, as were former teammates Matt Suhey and Dennis Gentry.
So as the taffy pull by the lake unfolded on Sunday, what I looked forward to most was the tribute that the Bears planned for halftime. But as the teams headed to their respective locker rooms to attempt to re-discover offensive football, CBS headed back to New York so the talking heads to blather on about the Bears-Browns and all the other games going on.
I understand that there are commercial sponsors, updates that need to be given, etc, but in the local market, couldn’t CBS have kept it live at Soldier Field so Bears fans not lucky enough to have a ticket to the game get a chance to see the tribute and share in that experience?
Fox had a freakin’ Favre cam for the Vikings-Packers tilt, where you could log into their website to see what Favre was doing the entire game. No lie. Couldn’t CBS have at least had a similar setup for halftime? Couldn’t they have worked out a deal to let a local station break into their coverage? Check out the video clip of the Payton tribute I pulled of the Bears’ website after the jump.
I can’t say it enough – Thanks for the memories Walter!