FanHouse JimNantz

CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz has been ordered to pay alimony and child support totaling nearly $1 million a year in a divorce case that the judge ruled was the fault of neither Nantz nor his wife of 26 years, Lorrie.

It would be easy to blame Zach Johnson's recent Sunday struggles on nerves, but that would conveniently overlook the fact that he owns a green jacket, and that he won the Sony Open in January.

After a rough final round at Quail Hollow two weeks ago (one that CBS's Jim Nantz suggested might have been due to migraines, though he made sure to point out he wasn't making excuses for Johnson; duly noted, Jim, and happy 50th, friend), Johnson stumbled through most of Sunday's round at the Valero Open.

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During the final round of the Masters, Tiger Woods hit his tee shot on the first hole so far left, it prompted CBS announcer Jim Nantz to describe it as a "comprehensive hook." Thankfully, unsuspecting patrons two fairways over -- where the ball finally came to rest -- avoided injury.

A week and 450 miles later, some poor woman minding her own business in her Lutz, Fla. front yard wasn't so lucky.

The FanHouse Podcast: Because bloggers are much sexier on the phone.

Angel Cabrera is your 2009 Masters Champion. But he wasn't the only excitement to hit Augusta today -- both Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods made a run at the green jacket, there was playoff golf with Kenny Perry and we got to meet Mrs. Chad Campbell.

Will Brinson, Ryan Wilson and Shane Bacon fired up the podcast machine shortly after the 2009 Masters ended to talk about what the tournament means, as well as a bunch of other stuff, including who they would pick to replace Jim Nantz if he ever retires, and whether Shane could shoot a 75 at Augusta tommorow. Download and/or listen after the jump.

The final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was set to begin at 7:35 AM PT, but due to inclement weather, the pros are still in the clubhouse and the ams have been, in the words of CBS golf analyst Jim Nantz, "excused." Which is a nice way of saying, "Yeah, sorry about that, but this year's event is just a three-round affair for the hackers."

UPDATE: the fourth round is now postponed until Monday. Hopefully.

So the NFL has robbed us of the usual late-season slate of Saturday afternoon games, but what they've given us in return is much, much better. Okay, not really -- for starters, as it currently stands, about 250 people get NFL Network, which means that a lot of you will be shut out of tonight's Ravens-Cowboys game.

Not only that, but most people who don't blog for a living have stuff to do on Saturday night. I suspect Roger Goodell doesn't care about such things.

Not to worry, though; the fine folks who bring us the NFL Network pregame show -- Rich Eisen, Steve Mariucci, Deion Sanders, Marshall Faulk and Warren Sapp -- are all about making the experience a happy one. For all 250 of you (via Awful Announcing):



Wow. Warren Sapp is so fat that the fat house fun mirror makes him look skinny. Which, I think, means that Shaun Rogers and Casey Hampton would look like Rob and Fab. I'd pay to see that.

By the way, I'd love to see the CBS folks "accidentally" use the fat lens on broadcasting's moral beacon, Jim Nantz. I'm guessing he'd find it hilarious in much the same way Joe Buck loved Randy Moss' decision to pretend moon Packers' fans.

ESPN's college basketball analyst Dick Vitale was enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this past September. According to CBS's Jim Nantz, broadcast partner Billy Packer deserved to be there first.

When it was put forth to Nantz that the opinion of his former partner among sports fans, blogs and radio types was, um, less-than-favorable, it clearly struck a nerve.

Packer is the "greatest friend college basketball has ever had," said Nantz, "He looked after the sport and made sure there was an honesty and an integrity to it."

Whoa! No offense but I cannot say "honesty" when thinking about Packer. Sure, he called it like he saw it but he never admitted when he saw it wrong. As for "integrity", does that mean making sexist comments to a couple of females at Duke or to continuously belittle mid-majors?

I'm not as down on Packer as most people since I grew up in ACC country listening to him call games. But there is a reason that it's taken this long to nominate him for enshrinement into the Hall.

Add CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz to the legions of mainstream media members who don't like blogs.

Asked in an interview with Dan Fleschner if he saw Buzz Bissinger's infamous anti-blog screed, Nantz said that he read about it, and added:

I have to admit, I'm so far out of the loop on the blogosphere, I really don't partake in that. I know that it's got a huge following. On the few occasions that I have gone or been introduced to it and checked out what's been written, maybe about my world, it's usually so vile and vicious that I shut it down after a minute or two. ...

I really appreciated Buzz Bissinger -- I read he was a little ashamed of his level of anger -- but I completely understood where he was coming from.

Nantz doesn't say which blogs he finds to be vile and vicious, but I would bet that if he read more blogs, and stopped and thought about it a little bit, he would realize that there's nothing inherently vile and vicious about blogs, and that there's plenty of vile and vicious stuff on CBS. There is good content and bad on blogs, just as there is good content and bad on network television.

Okay, so maybe Sunday at The Masters wasn't all that exciting. It was windy, the course was playing like the U.S. Open, and just about everybody with a remote chance to make a run at third-round leader (and eventual champion) Trevor Immelman played over-par golf.

Worst of all -- for CBS, anyway -- is that Tiger Woods was never really in danger of making a run. He started the day six strokes off the lead, and eventually lost by three shots because Immelman had a "Greg Norman" moment on the 16th.

Despite the missing "The Masters starts on the back nine on Sunday" drama, CBS' Jim Nantz did his best to beat viewers over the head with over-the-top sentimentality, and the silly Little Bill "Hello, Friends" salutations were enough to make you reconsider ESPN's decision to have Chris Berman sit this one out.

Unsurprisingly, CBS tried to manufacture some Woodsian drama yesterday, presumably because that's what most of us expected (from Woods and CBS):

Predictably, CBS focused largely on Tiger Woods on Sunday. Don't touch that remote, Ian Baker-Finch suggested, with Woods on the 12th green Sunday, because "Tiger, ominously lurking, is just five strokes behind." Like TV's treatment of Michael Jordan, Woods can always be the story.

Obviously, it didn't happen, but ESPN did great numbers with its Par-3 Contest-Thursday-Friday coverage, and according to USA Today, "CBS' third-round Masters coverage drew a 6.1 overnight rating, translating to 6.1% of households in 56 urban TV markets - equal with last year."

Pretty impressive considering that Tiger last won a green jacket in 2005. The takeaway, I suppose, is this: Woods doesn't have to win it to boost ratings, he just has to "lurk." Duly noted.