Belated congratulations to Chris Peak and Kenny Pickett on the Kenny Pickett Show.
For better and worse, I have been listening to interview shows with coaches and players for at least 50 years. This goes back to the Tom Bender Sports Show in the early 1970s, the Johnny Majors Show in the exciting early days, the Bear Bryant-esque intonations of the young Jackie Sherrill and even something called TV Quarterbacks on Channel 13. Not to mention the Foge Fazio shows when he would challenge critical callers to come down to the studio, and the years when I thought the full names of the Pitt coaches were Coca-Cola Paul Hackett and Coca-Cola Paul Evans.
In all that time, for me, Chris’s interviews with Kenny Pickett were the best that I have seen, by far.
Much of the credit goes to Chris. His thorough preparation and low-key style established a rapport that enabled him to ask fair but real questions that consistently elicited candid, interesting and insightful answers. It was striking to contrast Chris’s interviews with many of the national interviewers who made the interviews with Pickett about them in their cloying and overly gregarious way (on which so much of modern sports journalism and broadcasting is based.)
A lot of the credit also goes to Kenny Pickett. Through these shows, you got a real sense of him, and any pro scout staking his livelihood on deciding whom to draft would do well to listen to these episodes. My own amateur assessment: whether Kenny Pickett has the physical ability to excel in the NFL (my feeling is that he does), I have absolutely no doubt that he has the intelligence, leadership, and intangible qualities to succeed at the highest level.
My two favorite moments:
When Chris asked Pickett about the impact of the crowd and he shifted gears to talk about the Pitt band playing as he was trying to call signals.
More substantively, the way he genuinely and forthrightly took ownership of his contribution to the Western Michigan loss and the need to win and lose as a team (notwithstanding his otherwise brilliant play in that game), in stark contrast to his coach. I have to believe that this type of player leadership was a big factor in Pitt’s breakthrough season.
It was a fortuitous confluence of circumstances that led to there being a show like this, and to have it all come together in this initial year, with this team and this player. I cannot recall anything timed so well at Pitt since the Major Majors commentaries of the spring of 1973.
Thank you Chris, and best to you and all in this holiday season.
17-15
For better and worse, I have been listening to interview shows with coaches and players for at least 50 years. This goes back to the Tom Bender Sports Show in the early 1970s, the Johnny Majors Show in the exciting early days, the Bear Bryant-esque intonations of the young Jackie Sherrill and even something called TV Quarterbacks on Channel 13. Not to mention the Foge Fazio shows when he would challenge critical callers to come down to the studio, and the years when I thought the full names of the Pitt coaches were Coca-Cola Paul Hackett and Coca-Cola Paul Evans.
In all that time, for me, Chris’s interviews with Kenny Pickett were the best that I have seen, by far.
Much of the credit goes to Chris. His thorough preparation and low-key style established a rapport that enabled him to ask fair but real questions that consistently elicited candid, interesting and insightful answers. It was striking to contrast Chris’s interviews with many of the national interviewers who made the interviews with Pickett about them in their cloying and overly gregarious way (on which so much of modern sports journalism and broadcasting is based.)
A lot of the credit also goes to Kenny Pickett. Through these shows, you got a real sense of him, and any pro scout staking his livelihood on deciding whom to draft would do well to listen to these episodes. My own amateur assessment: whether Kenny Pickett has the physical ability to excel in the NFL (my feeling is that he does), I have absolutely no doubt that he has the intelligence, leadership, and intangible qualities to succeed at the highest level.
My two favorite moments:
When Chris asked Pickett about the impact of the crowd and he shifted gears to talk about the Pitt band playing as he was trying to call signals.
More substantively, the way he genuinely and forthrightly took ownership of his contribution to the Western Michigan loss and the need to win and lose as a team (notwithstanding his otherwise brilliant play in that game), in stark contrast to his coach. I have to believe that this type of player leadership was a big factor in Pitt’s breakthrough season.
It was a fortuitous confluence of circumstances that led to there being a show like this, and to have it all come together in this initial year, with this team and this player. I cannot recall anything timed so well at Pitt since the Major Majors commentaries of the spring of 1973.
Thank you Chris, and best to you and all in this holiday season.
17-15
