TSN sticks to business and avoids Grey Cup distractions

Sunday's Grey Cup was one of those A Tale of Two Cities moments for TSN.

It was indeed the best of times -- an incredible atmosphere fuelled by the CFL's most rabid fan base, a million story lines and enough history to fill a book. But it also presented the worst of times -- a game that was basically over before some band most of us never heard of put on its halftime show.

While the combination could have proved deadly and led to all kinds of foolishness, TSN did a solid job of avoiding the sideshow and sticking with the main event -- a championship football game.

With the crowd and apparently even the Saskatchewan Roughriders celebrating victory as the half ended with the home team up 31-6, you could not have blamed TSN producer Jon Hynes for deciding to go all Fox on the game.

For the uninitiated, that means abandoning coverage of the game and training cameras on every celebrity and pretty young face you can find in the stands. If you remember, Fox managed to miss a home run during the last World Series as cameras were trained on some sweet young thing in the fifth row.

What with all the lunacy in the stands and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats looking more like the Guelph Minor Atoms than a pro football team, it would have been tempting. But TSN stayed the course and provided what a football broadcast should provide, even when the Ticats looked less likely than Rob Ford getting a modelling contract.

With an arsenal of 37 cameras, TSN gave viewers just about everything they needed. The super slo-mo camera on Saskatchewan quarterback Darian Durant's first fumble told the whole story. Later on, an enhanced version of it clarified that he had indeed fumbled near the Hamilton goal-line and supported a Hamilton challenge.

Play-by-play man Chris Cuthbert, who as always called an impeccable game, hit the nail on the head when he told viewers that the call likely wouldn't have been overturned without the enhanced version of the shot. (Question: Did enhancing the shot involve the use of Zoomies?)

Analyst Glen Suitor, with help from Paul LaPolice, did a solid job of breaking down plays and showing viewers why things happened. The two did a superb job of illustrating exactly how Rider receiver Geroy Simon got open for the game's first touchdown.

Suitor didn't shy away from strong opinions, either, especially when he noted that Hamilton quarterback Henry Burris was getting that glassy-eyed look in the second quarter.

Despite all of its weaponry and a focus inside the lines, TSN didn't tell the entire story, though. TSN didn't pay much attention to the weather, which was obviously a factor considering that most of the points were scored with the wind.

Viewers never got an explanation of just what happened on that bizarre snap that flew past a startled Burris. Was it crowd noise? Panic? Alien brain abduction?

But these are minor quibbles. On a scale of 1 to 10, TSN gets a 9 on a game that probably rated as a 5.

THE GOOD: Letting viewers hear the crowd noise on Hamilton's first possession was brilliant, though we didn't get to hear whether or not it had much effect on the Ticats. ... LaPolice has been a major find for TSN all season, translating the complexity of football into layman's terms. His best moment Sunday came in the pre-game when he and Durant broke down the West final. ... Brian Williams did a great job on a pre-game feature on Hamilton running back C.J. Gable. ... Tom Hanks and Martin Short provided the highlight of the pre-game show, supplying a bit of Hollywood glitz and a break from the familiar. ... TSN blessedly broke with its annoying tradition of letting players yammer interminably into the camera after big plays. Let's hope this is a portent of things to come.

THE BAD: The line that sent a chill through the spines of viewers tuning into the pre-game show: ``It's only four and a half hours to kickoff." Wars have been fought in less time. ... With fans going wild and Saskatchewan players celebrating at game's end, TSN cameras inexplicably focused on Hamilton coach Kent Austin looking somewhat bewildered on the field. There was no explanation and Hamilton's reaction was never mentioned until Cuthbert told viewers long after the game ended that the Ticats had not made anyone available for comment. Talk about sore losers. ... A couple of guys from The Amazing Race Canada in the pre-game show? Really?

THE UGLY: The TSN panel spent half-time and its post-game segment screaming to be heard as a mob of Rider fans shouted and chanted behind them. Whoever thought placing the panel that close to the fans was a good idea should be sent back to broadcasting school.