Doris Nantz passed away earlier this month at the age of 92. Her family said she was concerned with everyone else’s well-being over her own and her children knew her as the greatest mother and grandmother anyone could ever have. You likely have never heard of Doris Nantz, but you certainly know her son. He called the Bills’ 24-20 win over the Chiefs on Sunday alongside Tony Romo and Tracy Wolfson.

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Jim Nantz is a longtime pro, so you would not know based on Sunday’s broadcast that he, in his own words, is “gutted” by the loss of Doris. My mother passed in March 2020, a week before the world turned upside down, and the sense of loss never disappears entirely. I was thinking about Doris Nantz this Sunday as her son called the epic battle between the AFC’s top teams, 266 days after Kansas City’s spellbinding overtime win in last year’s AFC divisional playoff game. I’m told Doris was a frequent guest of CBS Sports at Super Bowls and Final Fours.

Jim Nantz was excellent from the jump of Sunday’s game, including seamlessly navigating an intro and reset for the Patriots-Browns audience at 4:28 p.m. ET that had morphed into the Buffalo-Kansas City game a couple of plays in. A second before the snap on the play where Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen found wideout Gabe Davis for a 34-yard touchdown late in the second quarter, Nantz recognized for viewers that “Davis got one on one at the bottom here” before Davis beat his singular man. He was definitive on Taron Johnson’s interception to clinch the game before the refs made it formal.

Ran the Gabe Davis Touchdown Play™️.

📺: @NFLonCBS

— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) October 16, 2022

Romo has faced more external criticism in the last 12 months than he did over his first couple of years, but I would hope his critics would acknowledge his work on Sunday. He was excellent — measured and informative all game. Early in the first quarter, Romo predicted things would be low-scoring because defenses would limit big plays, and that each team’s running backs would be more key than expected. (“This is not going to be a high-scoring game,” Romo said five-and-half minutes into the game. “Because these two defenses are going to make you drive the field. The clock is going to run a lot because they are going to be consistently checking it down, running the football. Every once in a while, you will get a big play. But this is going to be a 24-20 type of game. Maybe 30 if somebody goes off.”)

It was 10-10 at the end of the first half, an opening 30 minutes that saw Buffalo running back Devin Singletary roll up a season-high 76 rushing yards. Romo was all over Kansas City defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo opting to put blitzing pressure on Allen. He offered great insight for viewers on why an apparent opening drive touchdown pass from Patrick Mahomes to wideout Marquez Valdes-Scantling was canceled because of an ineligible player downfield. (Romo explained why Mahomes should have released the ball earlier on the run-pass option.). Even the small things were clean: He had a phenomenally timed take to the break after Allen found Stefon Diggs at the two-minute warning of the final quarter.

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The NFL cleared the schedule for CBS so that the Bills-Chiefs game aired nationally during the late window (Fox had regional coverage of Cardinals-Seahawks and Panthers-Rams). When the viewership numbers come in, it should be a monster.

Nantz’s loss obviously isn’t unique; people lose parents every day on this planet. Nor should his family’s loss make you feel any different about his game-calling or how you think CBS did with Bills-Chiefs. But in watching Sunday’s game, I was reminded of the testimony of the capacity of the human race to forge on amid grief. We do it daily.

This is not breaking news: We live in polarized times. Many are struggling financially and emotionally. It is not a boom era for optimists and romantics. But one of the singular best things about sports — perhaps the best part of it — is the possibility for escapism, even for a short duration.

This Saturday was one of the great sports days we’ve seen in some time. There were so many incredible images to embrace, even if your team was not playing. Had you sat in front of a device that day, you may have experienced Tennessee’s 52-49 thriller over Alabama, an 18-inning classic between the Astros and Mariners, the Guardians defeating the Yankees with a dramatic ninth-inning comeback at home, the Padres eliminating the mighty Dodgers in front of a delirious Petco Park crowd, TCU’s double-overtime 43-40 win over Oklahoma State, a two-point conversion with 48 seconds left to give Utah a 43-42 victory over USC, and plenty more.

It was a great day to be a sports fan, and a day where you could feel bonded to people simply by the power of sport.

GO DEEPER

Ubben: Following the goal posts on Tennessee's euphoric night of greatness

I have no idea how viewers will ultimately feel about Rob Gronkowski as an NFL studio analyst. Fox announced this week that he’ll be appearing on “Fox NFL Kickoff” and “Fox NFL Sunday” during the 2022 season. Gronkowski often comes off like a character from “Old School,” but it’s not performative. This is him. Authenticity can be a very big strength in the business if viewers perceive it as such. That’s why you’ve seen Pat McAfee find a big audience. Same with TNT’s Charles Barkley and many others.

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Gronkowski made two appearances on “Fox NFL Sunday” this week. First, he appeared in front of the News Corp. building on Sixth Avenue in New York City for a couple of minutes, answering questions in a humor segment (not bad). Later, he appeared for 32 seconds on the Bucs-Steelers game (which gave viewers nada). One positive thing for Gronkowski is the show’s infrastructure will give him a chance to succeed. The longtime cast members of the show clearly like each other and have had solid chemistry for decades. The show eventually has to find a next generation. Is Gronkowski a candidate for the long haul? No idea. That will reveal itself over the next few months.

The names of sports television producers and directors are obviously not well known. But for those of us who have written this content for a bit, you come to recognize the value of having the same producer and director working together for many years.

The “SEC on CBS” team of producer Craig Silver and director Steve Milton have worked together on the SEC football package for 19 years. On Saturday, amid the postgame madness of Tennessee’s win over Alabama, you saw how a good producer and director in sync can tell a story with images — a forlorn Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, an aerial view of the orange sea of fans at Neyland Stadium. It was excellent work. This clip is the start of it:

TENNESSEE TAKES DOWN ALABAMA AND THE FANS ARE STORMING THE FIELD AT NEYLAND STADIUM.

WHAT A WIN FOR THE VOLS.

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) October 15, 2022

Credit play-by-play announcer Brad Nessler for a memorable line on Tennessee kicker Chase McGrath’s winning field goal as he and Gary Danielson summarized the scene afterward. “It wasn’t pretty,” Nessler said, “but it was beautiful.”

Yesterday was a memorable day for the Eagle family. Ian Eagle called the Giants’ win over the Ravens for CBS while his son Noah Eagle made his debut as a Fox NFL broadcaster on Atlanta’s win over San Francisco. (Fox studio host Curt Menefee gave him an official corporate welcome during a game break in the fourth quarter.) The younger Eagle has called the Nickelodeon NFL game for CBS over the past two seasons, college football for Fox, and is the television voice of the NBA’s Clippers.

Noah Eagle obviously has to navigate charges of nepotism — and unquestionably his last name opened up opportunities that he would not have received if it was “Smith” — but he’s shown at a young age many of the qualities top broadcasters have.

Do good New York teams boost NFL ratings? Here’s why it’s not that simple.

TBS MLB broadcaster Brian Anderson passed along his schedule for Saturday, when he, Jeff Francoeur and Matt Winer called the 18-inning game between the Astros and Mariners.

7 a.m.: Wake up, then breakfast.
9 a.m.:  Depart for T-Mobile Park.
9:30 a.m.: Managers meetings.
10:30 a.m.: MLB umpire/ground rules meeting.
11 a.m.: Lunch.
Noon: View production elements.
12:30 p.m.: Pregame hit.
1 p.m.: On-air opener.
Time of game: 6:22
8 p.m.: Dinner.
10 p.m.: Bed.

The Ink Report

1. The NBA regular season tips off Tuesday night with a doubleheader on TNT. The Celtics host the Sixers at 7:30 p.m. ET followed by Lakers at Warriors at 10 p.m. ET. On Thursday, TNT will air Bucks at Sixers at 7:30 p.m. ET followed by Clippers at Lakers (10 p.m. ET). Here’s the complete NBA on TNT schedule.

ESPN’s 2022-23 NBA regular-season game coverage begins on Wednesday with a doubleheader featuring Knicks at Grizzlies (7:30 p.m. ET) followed by Mavericks at Suns (10 p.m. ET). The champion Warriors will appear on ESPN/ABC 18 times while the Celtics will make 16 appearances. Here’s ESPN’s national NBA schedule.

2. ESPN senior writers Don Van Natta Jr., Seth Wickersham and Tisha Thompson delivered one of the sports stories of the year last week with detailed claims of Washington NFL owner Dan Snyder getting dirt on NFL owners. It is a particularly significant piece given ESPN is a rights-holder partner of the NFL. Yes, Snyder is an astoundingly awful sports figure, and clearly most of the league owners were overjoyed to see this piece. (League officials are not going to reach out to ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro to complain about this — and likely the opposite.) But it’s always significant when a media partner does this kind of deep work beyond owner criticism on television shoulder programming. Ask yourself if any other NFL media partner would have invested the resources for this piece? The editors for this piece were Mike J. Drago, Christopher A. Buckle, and Laura M. Purtell. The researcher was John Mastroberardino. John Keim provided additional reporting. Phenomenal work.

2a. Amazon Prime Video play-by-play broadcaster Al Michaels discussed the story above for about 60 seconds during game coverage of the Commanders’ win over the Bears last Thursday. Is that in-depth? Obviously not. (Analyst Kirk Herbstreit did not weigh in.) But it is genuinely significant that Michaels did this during a game because that is where such a thought can have an impact given the viewership. Props to him. I interviewed Bob Costas last week on this very subject. You may find this interesting because Costas spelled all of it out.

2c. Very good pieces from longtime soccer journalist Grant Wahl and Christopher Harris of World Soccer Talk on Fox Sports saying it won’t cover Qatar’s migrant workers, LGBTQ concerns, or any issues regarding the upcoming World Cup away from the pitch. That’s in direct contrast to what Costas refers to above. Fox also punted four years ago on covering Russia, a country with a long history of totalitarianism and anti-U.S. sentiment, away from the pitch. Says Wahl: “Not surprising given how much money Fox is making from state-owned sponsor Qatar Airways, but still embarrassing sportswashing.”

2d. On this note, The Guardian reports the Qatar World Cup has imposed “chilling” restrictions on international television crews.

2e. This isn’t a news flash, but no front-facing talent at ESPN has more juice than Stephen A. Smith. He’s the centerpiece of ESPN’s morning programming strategy, he appears all over the brand, and Smith has longstanding support from powerful senior management figures such as ESPN executive editor and head of event and studio production Norby Williamson. Does he get “Jordan Rules” treatment at ESPN? Of course he does. So will Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. So do Adam Schefter and Kirk Herbstreit. Same at every sports media place I’ve ever worked. At old-school SI, Rick Reilly was given permission to do things (including famously appearing in a television ad for Miller Lite) other SI writers could not have done.

Once upon a time, when House Targaryen of Dragonstone ruled the Seven Media Kingdoms, ESPN PR was very reticent about promoting “First Take,” a show created from the Lannister sports television management school. Today, ESPN PR celebrates the show the way PBS championed “Downton Abbey.” In fact, there’s an easy argument to make that Smith is currently underpaid at $12 million annually given Aikman’s salary (he’s the highest-paid ESPN staffer at $18.5 million annually), if your metric is who is more front-facing for the brand over extended properties.

So that’s the backdrop if you were curious about why Smith has made the rounds this month on politically-specific shows such as “Hannity” to promote his new podcast, “Know Mercy with Stephen A. Smith,” which offers Smith’s views on politics, business, and current events. (Please note that Cadence 13 is one of the partners on Smith’s podcast, along with Smith’s production company, and Cadence 13 is the company that has produced and distributed my sports media podcast, which is independent of The Athletic, since 2018).

Said an ESPN spokesperson: “Stephen A. has a recent agreement to host a podcast separate from ESPN, which we approved specifically because it’s focused on topics outside of the sports realm. That (“Hannity”) appearance was an extension of what he discusses on his podcast, and the conversation and topics were not related to his sports-centric ESPN work.”

All good here. Why not extend it to everyone at the company? Fox Sports has always been very liberal allowing and trusting its on-air talent to appear on shows that are not specific to sports. Plenty of Fox Sports talent have appeared over the years on Fox News programs. The interesting question is whether this now opens up an avenue for other ESPN staffers appearing on similar shows. Could an ESPN-er go on Fox News, MSNBC or SiriusXM’s P.O.T.U.S. channel if he or she was invited to discuss a non-sports issue that had personal meaning to them, as politics clearly does for Smith?

I asked, and here’s what I received.

“We review news network requests on a case-by-case basis and the overwhelming majority of ones that come in are focused on sports-related topics,” said the ESPN spokesperson. “In those instances, our commentators are representing the work they do for ESPN and/or their perspective on the sports news of the day.”

2f. In an effort to preview some of the media-centric stories in the NHL this year, I paneled five of The Athletic’s accomplished hockey writers. Here’s how they answered the questions. 

3. Sports pieces of note:

• This is a great piece. Celebratory cigars and a party 16 years in the making. By Ryan McGee of ESPN.

• The worst NFL game in the last 20 years: Browns 6, Bills 3. By Tim Graham of The Athletic.

• San Diego State football coach gets raise amid rape allegations against three of his players. By Josh Peter and Steve Berkowitz of USA Today.

• How Nike Lost Lionel Messi. By Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg of the Wall Street Journal.

• Meet the NASCAR fan who travels to every Cup race — and found himself along the way. By Jeff Gluck of The Athletic.

• World Corrupt Episode 1: A Toxic Love Affair Between Politics And Sports.

• Rokit Leaves Trail of Millions in Deserted Deals, Lawsuits and Bankruptcies. By Daniel Libit and Eben Novy-Williams of Sportico.

• From Tua Tagovailoa to Jack Eichel: How much control should a team have over an athlete’s body? By Dan Robson of The Athletic.

• Why Ray Ferraro stepped away from TSN and his hockey obsession. By Bruce Arthur of The Toronto Star.

Non-sports pieces of note:

• My friend Dom Phillips and activist Bruno Pereira were shot dead in the Amazon. I traveled deep into the forest to find out why. By Terrence McCoy of The Washington Post.

• Can’t poop when you go on vacation? Here’s why. By Meredith Goldstein of The Boston Globe.

• Is Alex Jones verdict the death of disinformation? Unlikely. By David Bauder of The Associated Press.

• We Should Try to Prevent Another Alex Jones. By Zeynep Tufekci of The New York Times.

• How an urban myth about litter boxes in schools became a GOP talking point. By Tyler Kingkade, Ben Goggin, Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny of NBC News.

• The scale of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure, visualized. By Dalton Bennett, Imogen Piper, Atthar Mirza, Stefanie Le and Kamila Hrabchuk of The Washington Post.

• What the Jan. 6 Hearings Accomplished. By The Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal.

• The rise of the Taiwanese identity — and why it’s not simple. By Joanna Chiu of The Toronto Star.

• Xi Jinping’s Endgame: A China Prepared for Conflict With the U.S. By Jonathan Cheng of The Wall Street Journal.

• I once fell for the fantasy of uploading ourselves. It’s a destructive vision. By Jean Guerrero of the L.A. Times.

• Drew Harwell of The Washington Post on a Truth Social whistleblower.

• In Buenos Aires, a city riven by economic and political turmoil, the subway shows up every three minutes. Yeah, that’s different from Boston. By Taylor Dolven of The Boston Globe.

• Every hour of the day and night with the gamers, parents, insomniacs, preteens and aspiring comedians who are the earliest adopters of the immersive, three-dimensional internet that Mark Zuckerberg has bet the future of his company on. By Kashmir Hill of The New York Times.

• New research reveals the impact of optimism on problem-solving in romantic relationships. By Eric W. Dolan of Psy Post.

• We Left Iran in 1982. I Should Be There Now. Watching the protests, 40 years after my family fled, all I want is to go back. By Neda Toloui-Semnani for The Cut.

• In the Land of Too Much Television, This Nerd Is Queen. By Reggie Ugwu of The New York Times.

• Robbie Coltrane was a brilliant actor. Everyone knows him from Harry Potter, of course. But for those of us who love horse racing films — how great was he as the ticket taker in “Let It Ride?” A small role but so fantastic. He passed away this week at 72.

(Photo of Josh Allen: Cooper Neill / Getty Images)