by Kent Sterling
Every Saturday is special because Fox 59’s Chris Hagan and I get the chance to talk sports on 1070 the Fan and 107.5 FM, and we try to take full advantage of it by booking great guests and making sure we are ready to talk Colts, Pacers, Bulldogs, and Hoosiers.
Today is different though. Hagan gets to talk to the stars of “Grudge Match.” Robert DeNiro and Sylvester Stallone sit down to talk about imitations of their on camera personas and the physical demands of being really old while training for a boxing movie. Chris does a great job with these interviews. He’s superb at making people feel comfortable, and he always gets the best stuff out of guests.
We’ll also talk to David West about tonight’s game against the Brooklyn Nets. Getting a Christmas game is supposed to be an honor for NBA teams and players, and we’ll ask David whether or not he would prefer to play on Christmas.
And what the hell is going on with the Pro Bowl selections? The Colts are likely to be 11-5 after tomorrow’s game, and could be one of four teams in the NFL with a first round bye, and only Robert Mathis is worthy of an invitation to Hawaii? There is a chance that more could be named after the conference championships as there might be some replacements needed because of the Super Bowl, but there are two takeaways from the snub – the Colts get little national respect, and Chuck Pagano must be the coach of the year to coax a division title out of such a mediocre group.
The show is shortened by 30 minutes this week because of the Butler vs. NJIT game. The Butler pre game will air at 12:30p, so that’s when we’ll bow out. While listeners will be enthralled by the call of the Bulldogs latest conquest (we hope they can beat the D-1 punching bag from the Garden State), we could talk for six hours about the Week 17 NFL match ups and their playoff implications.
“Ahead of the Curve” is always the highlight of my week, and today listeners will get the best we have. Throughout the week, I write post after post at kentsterling.com about Indiana and national sports that serve as a great method of show prep.
The Colts have a chance to roll into the playoffs with momentum, the Pacers look like a team that can do the impossible by bringing focus to all 82 regular season games, and the fortunes of Indiana, Purdue, and Butler basketball are completely unknown. Add the Chicago Cubs bogus bidding for Masahiro Tanaka, the Louisville vs. Kentucky game, and continued bowl game onslaught, and putting together today’s show isn’t so much about what to talk about as it is deciding what to leave out.
As always, I can’t wait to get started.