Wow. What a week. This happens once a season. The Giants play at home against an AFC team and if it’s Sunday afternoon, the game becomes a CBS game. That;s the NFL rule. The road team’s network televises the game. That’s why this weekend, the Giants are offered on CBS, instead of FOX,
where 99% of their Sunday afternoon games are televised.
The problem here in Connecticut is that the CBS station, us, channel 3, already has a commitment to televise the Patriots game. Look, channel 3 is the Patriots station in Connecticut, just as FOX 61 is the Giants station. Channel 3 televises the Patriots every time they’re on CBS. Patriots fans expect that coverage, and deserve it. They represent half the football fan base in the state.
We know no matter what we do, someone will be mad. So what we have to do is decide who we want mad at us. All of the Patriots fans who watch us every single Sunday during the football season,
or Giants fans who will watch us once, then go back to Fox to see the Giants next week, and the week after that. I can’t believe Giants fans don’t see how clear cut it is. We are being loyal to our viewers,
and if that makes us bad guys, so be it. We’ve been called a lot worse, as you’ll see in the e-mails I’ve received this week.
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Hey tell that sports jerk that the giants never screwed us like the patriots did to Hartford. Patiots SUCK!!!!!!!!!
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I just watched your news program and the sports personel describe New York Giants fans who wanted to see the game on , instead of the New England Patriots as the”guy you see at the market once a year”. Well I ahve two things to say;(1) is that the New York Giants are the world champions, not the New England patriots and (2) this “guy you only see at the market once a year” watches WFSB each day for daily news, or did until this comment, I’ll be watch Fox from know on thanks for making the switch easy.
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I’ve been watching WFSB news for about 10 years now. I will seriously consider changing my news station after hearing Joe Zone refer to me and my wife (huge Giants fans) as “the person you run into in the grocery store once a year”. This was insulting. And Joe, don’t forget, not airing the G-Men won’t change the fact that we are world champs and your Patsies are the World Champion chokers!!!!
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how can wfsb decide to show the patriots vs dolphins game instead of the superbowl champion giants vs the bengals???? this decision is an easy one, and wfsb screwed it up. drop the pats bandwagon, their run is over. start paying attention.
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Why does Joe Zone say that this state is a Patriots state and that the Giants game will not be seen on Sunday.
I don’t know who makes the decision to broadcast certain games but there are a lot of Giant fans. Being that the Giants won the superbowl should take precedence over any other game. Joe Zone should wake up.
The game should be changed to the Giants.
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For Joe Zone: Just because I am a resident of Connecticut I do not have to be a “Patriots” fan. Your opinion doesn’t concern me.
Just report the sports results which is your job.
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Those are just some of what’s been coming into the sports3 inbox this week. It’ll be a lot worse when I get in on Sunday after hundreds more fans realize they’re not seeing the game.
I know one thing. It sure would be nice to hear from some Patriots fans thanking us for airng their games.
Then again, I’ve learned after 25 years in television that viewers hardly ever say thanks.
It’s
I watch all my news coverage on WFSB – except sports from now on. Zone you always were a Pats homer but your cocky comment towards Giants fans was out of line.
Show the world champion Giants this Sunday!!
Let me start by saying i do not live in CT and only visit friends up there but i find your comment out of LIne zone I feel you should appoligize to every New yorker whome u prolly offended by your comment.
The information in Joe Zone’s blog is as accurate as his nightly sports cast. He states:
“So what we have to do is decide who we want mad at us. All of the Patriots fans who watch us every single Sunday during the football season….”
Every single Sunday during football season? A simple check of the Patriots schedule would show that almost half of their games (7) this season, are televised on networks not named CBS. But like many of the facts and figures on his nightly sports cast, Joe Zone does not engage in due dilligence to see if he’s correct. He simply assumes he is.
A little history for you Joe, well before the Patriots arrival in the area, the New York Giants were the pro football team of choice for most fans, with years of history in this state, including playing at the Yale Bowl and training at Fairfield University. The Patriots history? Well, not sure we need to dredge that up again.
If Joe Zone want to espouse the company line of WFSB being the Patriots station, thats fine. Its business. I’ll go a friend’s house with Sunday Ticket to watch the Giants. But don’t give us Giants fans the smarmy response about one time shoppers in the market. That comment may not be beneath the lazy Joe Zone, but its certainly out of character for WFSB.
It’s amazing to me how many people assume that I am a Patriots fan because I happen to work at the Patriots station. I’ve been a Giants fan longer than most of the people complaining about our choice of games have been alive.
My favorite childhood players were Tucker Fredrickson, Homer Jones, Fran Tarkenton, Bob Tucker and Spider Lockhart.
Some of my best childhood memories are of watching Giants games on Sunday with my dad. My biggest professional thrill was covering their 1987 Super Bowl.
So when a viewer like Lev says “us Giants fans”,
he dosen’t even realize he means me.
Maybe he should’ve checked HIS facts before he excluded me from the Giants fan base in the state.
He’s right though about every Sunday. In my comments on the air about this topic, I have always said “when the Patriots are on CBS on Sunday”, which is where they play more than any other place, and where they have played, most of the time, for the last decade.
A simple call to the NFL will verify that we are the Patriots station in Connecticut.
Who knew, that without any other reasonable attack on my position, that someone like would go for the inaccurate card.
Evidentally, I touched a nerve with my above post, Joe. If you re-read my post, you’ll see the exact quote I challenged. The one where you claim Patriots fans come to FSB “every single Sunday during football season.” I pointed out that is factually not true.
It doesn’t matter to me whether you’re a Giants fan or not, if you in fact are one, it makes your “one time shopper” comment even more puzzling. Why put down fellow NYG fans, who are FSB viewers, by pandering to Patriots folks? That’s what it clearly seems like now. Your comments were a clear suck-up to them.
Since this was a business decision, simply leave it at that. Any sort of embellishment makes no sense and alienates viewers.
After all the Pats did to us, CT sports fans, how can you possibly offer loyalty to them? They screwed us, and Rowland, and don’t deserve anything from you, or the citizens from the state of Connecticut. The Giants are the world champs, not the Patsies. I learned a bit about Ch.3, and you Zone. I’ll look elsewhere for sports,
Lev, are you kidding me? Can your attack be any more personal? What was it you called me, lazy?
I’m so lazy, I’ve spent hours of my own time trying to answer viewer complaints on this sibject.
And then you follow that up by suggesting I’m lying about my allegiance to the Giants.
A lazy liar. That’s as personal as it gets.
If you re-read my post, you’ll see my first statement was that Channel 3 televises the Patriots every time they’re on CBS.
Factually correct. Everything after that is “embellishment” to make my point.
My first comment on tv on this subject last Monday was exactly as you suggested. “We are the Patriots station in Connecticut. We televise the Patriots when they’re on CBS.” In other words, a buisness decision.
If you read some of the attached e-mails, and there were a dozen others I didn’t include, that answer was not good enough.
Viewers responded not only by critisizing the decision to do buisness as usual, but critisized the premise of buisness as usual that we are the Patriots station in Connecticut.
Therefore, the continual dialogue, or as you call it, embellishment.
I stand by my comment on the 6pm sportscast last Tuesday.
When it comes to the NFL on channel 3, our viewers are Patriots fans, not Giants fans.
There is nothing mean spirited about that comment,
unlike your personal attack of me.
I’m a Pats fan.
We get to do this all over again on December 21st when the Pats and Giants both play 1pm games on Fox.
But of course since that’s so late in the season, it’s more likely that competativeness and playoff implicating games will get the priority.
Just to finish this up, Joe, you seem like a nice enough guy. Hardworking and passionate about his craft. In fact, as a huge sports fan, my comments could be taken as jealousy, as you occupy what I feel to be any sports fan’s dream job. Do you make errors during your sportscast? Yes, you do. So don’t take that as a personal attack, take it as constructive criticism.
In your posts above, you have yet to address the comments you made about Giants fans. We are not just Giants fans, but WSFB consumers. I turn to FSB for news, sports, and weather. Not just to pop in and watch one game for three hours. So don’t critique many of us as “one-time shoppers.”
Joe, Sometimes I think some of these people take things too seriously. Down here in Williamsport, PA, we get the Steelers 99.9% of the time on WYOU TV 22 and the Eagles about the same percentage on WOLF TV 56. Would I like to see some of the other games (case in point-Buffalo) besides the Steelers and the Eagles? Of course I would, but the NFL and the networks have decided that Northcentral and Northeastern PA will get the Steelers and Eagles. I’m sure that down in the Harrisburg area, they get the Ravens and Redskins. I do NOT have the DirecTV Sunday NFL package, so I live with what I get because there are better things to worry about than what team is on TV.
I also caught your comments in the Scranton Times regarding Tim Karlson and his tragic passing. Very classy on your part. I never had any problem with Tim calling stuff in to him.
I love both teams, both are great for Connecticut. AUTISM SPEAKS HAS SPOKE!