Last night on Twitter, I wondered aloud why NFL shows like Sunday Night Football used their news and rumors guy (in this case, Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk) to talk about injuries. Florio later tweeted back that injuries were news, and while I agree with him at some level, Bob Costas first discussed with him the helmet-to-helmet issue and then threw it back to him saying “tell us about the injuries.” 

Florio got a bit defensive and it wasn’t my intention to say that he shouldn’t be talking about injuries. He does a great job on TV and is a nice addition to the telecast. I was just speaking to the overarching need for someone to talk specifically about injuries. When I was at ESPN, John Walsh, the Executive Editor and content czar, told me he didn’t think injuries worked on TV. I was certainly in no position to disagree and as a legend in the business, he certainly knows more about that than I ever will.

But I think they do to some level. Maybe it’s the Anchorman fan in me, but I think that injuries are to sports news the way that weather is to the nightly newscast. Sometimes, the weather is the lead story. A big injury or an overarching theme like the helmet to helmet hits yesterday gets it up front or brings on the team coverage. Most of the time, it’s a couple minutes that gives you what you need to know. 

Could the anchor of a newscast read the weather report off the prompter? Sure, you see that sometimes on weekends or shortened telecasts. Usually, however, there’s an inherent credibility in the weatherman for whatever reason, despite their penchant for being wrong. It’s usually the weatherman that gets folksy or heads out in the crowd. In local news, they tend to be long-term and there’s a bigger connection between the community and the weatherman. 

I’m not suggesting it should be me that’s the ‘sports weatherman’ but that it would be a great addition to some telecasts. NBC’s show might be short on time, the cost is non-zero, but the addition of specialists like former umpire guru Mike Fereira show that specialists add value to telecasts. I know I’m biased, but I think it could work.