roxfan00 Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 DETROIT STATION RIPS MILLEN DURING SUPER BOWL PREGAME SHOWPosted by Josh Alper on February 2, 2009, 7:35 p.m. ESTThe NBC affiliate in Detroit didn?t see eye to eye with their corporate overlords when it came to the decision to hire Matt Millen as an analyst for the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl. The Detroit Free Press reports that WDIV expressed their disappointment via a ticker on the bottom of the screen while Millen was talking during Sunday?s pregame show.?Matt Millen was president of the Lions for the worst eight-year run in the history of the NFL. Knowing his history with the team, is there a credibility issue as he now serves as an analyst for NBC Sports? ??No word on a response from the big boys at NBC Sports at this point.ProfootballTalk.com "Mr. President, call in the National Guard! Send as many men as you can spare! Because we are killing the Patriots! They need emergency help!" - Shannon Sharpe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oddball Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Well Matt Millen proved a bunch of things. #1) You don't have to have intelligence to play football. #2) All the Super Bowl teams that he was on, were won despite Millen's presence. #3) It proves that you don't have to be intelligent to get a GM job in the NFL. #4) Just because you played the game, does not mean you know anything about the game.It's great the Matt won Super Bowls, but after what he did to the Lions, he should not be allowed anywhere near a football game and that includes the electronic ones. Kudos to Detroit for doing what they did! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkrdevil Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Ok, he was a bad GM and held onto his job too long. That said what the station did was unprofessional. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
infrared41 Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Ok, he was a bad GM and held onto his job too long. That said what the station did was unprofessional.Totally. If they had behaved in the same way on a political matter the national media would be screaming bloody murder. Typical local hacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oddball Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Ok, he was a bad GM and held onto his job too long. That said what the station did was unprofessional.Oh please. Stop being so damn politically correct! There ain't one Lions fan who disagreed that Millen in the biggest hack, and I 100% support what they did. I'm sorry if the truth hurts, but someone needs to embarrass Millen like he embarrassed that franchise. Then again, I guess you must be out of the Bush administration and you must control what everyone thinks and says. Kudos for those who did this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheelhouse Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Just because it's funny doesn't mean it isn't unprofessional. A television station shouldn't be going out of its way to embarrass anyone.It is pretty funny, though. "Purists will bitch and whine, but so what? Purists will Always bitch and whine. That is their function. Res Ipsa Loquitur."-HST Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oddball Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 And a GM shouldn't embarrass a franchise for what 7-8 years? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEAD! Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Lets see, Millen ran the Lions into the ground for nearly a decade. NBC decided to bring him in the booth. What did Millen do or say that makes him a reliable analyst? Um? Ummm? Uuummmmm? Can you guys help me out here?Oh, and I chuckled every single time that scroll came up. Millen's a joke!He was an analyst before he took over the Lions GM job. If anything, Millen was better suited for a coaching job, not GM. I saw, I came, I left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
totc Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 It was unprofessional what the affiliate did. Jeff Zucker will come in with mass firings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tannerman Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 It was unprofessional what the affiliate did. Jeff Zucker will come in with mass firings.If Zucker won't fire Ben Silverman for running NBC into the ground, he sure isn't going to do anything here. Olympic Broadcaster Logos - BevReview.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sport Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 I was on the phone with my mom while watching the super bowl pregame and I could hear my dad in the background say "Matt Millen was a mediocre player, and a horrible general manager. Who gives a what Matt Millen thinks?" It gave me a laugh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veb68 Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 NBC hired Millen in order to generate controversy and buzz. If a Detroit station wants to publicly rip him, then good for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
footballfiji Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 It was unprofessional what the affiliate did. Jeff Zucker will come in with mass firings.Except that he can't. NBC can't touch the affiliate unless it's an O&O (Owned and Operated). NBC only has a few of those left:NBC Owned-and-Operated Stations# WNBC (NBC4 New York)# KNBC (NBC4 Los Angeles)# WMAQ (NBC5 Chicago)# WCAU (NBC10 Philadelphia)# KNTV (NBC3 San Jose/San Fran.)# KXAS (NBC5 Dallas/Fort Worth)# WRC (NBC4 Washington)# WTVJ (NBC6 Miami)# KNSD (NBC7/39 San Diego)# WVIT (NBC30 Hartford)WDIV (NBC 4 Detroit) is owned by Post-Newsweek and since it's a flagship station, I'm pretty sure post would do all it can to defend the station. Contrary to belief, affiliates can pretty much do whatever they want when it comes to network programming. That includes pre-emption, crawls, bugs, and refusing to show programs. Plainsman Parking Lot. Auburn Baseball Blog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief. Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Fans publicly ridiculed him for years. I think he's used to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-kj Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 We do that station's website, and they put the ticker text up on their site for "instant feedback". The story's gotten a large number of comments, which is not surprising. Buy some t-shirts and stuff at KJ Shop! KJ Branded | Behance portfolio POTD 2013-08-22 On 7/14/2012 at 2:20 AM, tajmccall said: When it comes to style, ya'll really should listen to Kev. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tp49 Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 It was unprofessional what the affiliate did. Jeff Zucker will come in with mass firings.Except that he can't. NBC can't touch the affiliate unless it's an O&O (Owned and Operated). NBC only has a few of those left:NBC Owned-and-Operated Stations# WNBC (NBC4 New York)# KNBC (NBC4 Los Angeles)# WMAQ (NBC5 Chicago)# WCAU (NBC10 Philadelphia)# KNTV (NBC3 San Jose/San Fran.)# KXAS (NBC5 Dallas/Fort Worth)# WRC (NBC4 Washington)# WTVJ (NBC6 Miami)# KNSD (NBC7/39 San Diego)# WVIT (NBC30 Hartford)WDIV (NBC 4 Detroit) is owned by Post-Newsweek and since it's a flagship station, I'm pretty sure post would do all it can to defend the station. Contrary to belief, affiliates can pretty much do whatever they want when it comes to network programming. That includes pre-emption, crawls, bugs, and refusing to show programs.However, the network can terminate it's affiliate agreement with WDIV and go to another station in that market. I'm sure there's an independent station in Detroit that would love the dollars in ad revenue that being a major network affiliate would bring in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaltimoreFan Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Ok, he was a bad GM and held onto his job too long. That said what the station did was unprofessional.Sorry that this is off topic, but this story reminded me. But did anyone else's NBC affilate, run a lottry drawing during the halftime show? Here in Baltimore, WBAL 11 did a split screen (making the lottery drawing huge and the halftime show small) for the lottery drawing. I honestly could not believe they did that. The crazy thing is that they did it in the 4th quarter of the Ravens-Cowboys Saturday night game. I was at a party and everyone was really mad, I can't believe they did it again during the Super Bowl. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oddball Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 I say Detroit is allowed to ridicule Matt Millen for the same amount of time he was GM of the franchise, and then you move on. Oh heck, Matt Millen has always been a joke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luigi74 Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 However, the network can terminate it's affiliate agreement with WDIV and go to another station in that market. I'm sure there's an independent station in Detroit that would love the dollars in ad revenue that being a major network affiliate would bring in.There really isn't a station that NBC could switch to in the Detroit market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadmanLA Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 However, the network can terminate it's affiliate agreement with WDIV and go to another station in that market. I'm sure there's an independent station in Detroit that would love the dollars in ad revenue that being a major network affiliate would bring in.There really isn't a station that NBC could switch to in the Detroit market.Exactly...CBS and Fox own their respective stations (WWJ-TV and WJBK;CBS also owns the local CW affiliate there, WKBD), and WXYZ, the longtime ABC affiliate (and former o&o) is locked into a long-term deal with their network. That only leaves an all-informerial channel on Channel 38 (WADL), and the MyNetworkTV station on Channel 20 (WMYD). WDIV is one of NBC's oldest affiliated stations...almost 62 years and counting. Remember when Fox first won the NFL rights in '94, there were massive affiliation swaps, including in Detroit, with WJBK going from CBS to Fox, WKBD going from Fox to independent (but joined startup UPN a few months later), and the station that eventually became WWJ going from independent to CBS.As for the Millen situation...maybe WDIV should have shown better tact, but it was funny to see though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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