Real Sports (November)

Where Is The Good Stuff?
December's Real Sports Doesn't Dig Deep

NEW YORK (AQB)--The December episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel is cute and cuddly but lacks the edge Gumbel is known for providing.

This month's program, which airs at 10 p.m. ET Tuesday, includes a segment on Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, Lehigh University running back Ronald Jean, the problems with card collection and the impact of concussions in the NFL.

Unfortunately, the tape supplied by HBO failed to include the NFL piece, leaving me to view two fluff segments - on Manning and Jean - and the rather weak spot on card collecting, which was so boring that I won't even talk about it.

(Note: Review copies don't include host Gumbel's conversations with the reporters featured in the stories.)

Of the fluff pieces, the Jean story was the best idea and I'm not just saying that because I played football at Lehigh. Most of the television-viewing public doesn't know much, if anything, about this young man who was abandoned by his mom at a bus stop nine years ago and has become a Division I-AA football star. Still, some parts of this piece - like riding around in the car with the cop who found the young man at the bus stop - are cheesy and add nothing to the segment.

On the other hand, everyone knows about Peyton Manning and it surprised me that Real Sports would follow the lead of so many other shows that have done pieces on Manning and the emergence of the Colts. Correspondent Frank Deford is good but the story's premise - Mr. Born To Be A Quarterback - is repeated on NFL pregame shows on what seems like a weekly basis.

I'd much rather have seen a piece on someone the Colts and the fine City of Indianapolis probably aren't so proud of: Steve Muhammad, the defensive back who allegedly beat his wife just days before she died while prematurely giving birth to a still born child last month.

Or what about a segment on the arrest of Rae Carruth for allegedly shooting his pregnant girlfriend? These stories apparently aren't sexy enough for the networks, which ignore them like the plague, but isn't this supposed to be right up Gumbel's alley?

Curl up by the fire and read a book or just go to bed - outside of the Jean piece, you're better off avoiding Real Sports until January.

Grade: C-. If the concussion piece is well done, we may be looking at a higher grade.

Other play dates: Thursday, 6 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.; Dec. 18, 5:40 a.m. and 10 a.m.; Dec. 20, 8 p.m.; Dec. 22, 5 p.m.; Dec. 26, 9:15 p.m.