Marv Albert and Boomer Esiason do excellent radio announcing for CBS/Westwood One football coverage. The Super Bowl should be no exception and those of you within range of a Westwood One affiliated radio station can hear them announce it while watching on TV. Those of us beyond over-the-air range of a Westwood One affiliated radio station are apparently out of luck.  CBS has a live football audio streaming blackout policy and, even though Westwood One was divested from CBS in 2008, it appears they are following CBS policy. This is the current trend in Internet radio around football. The commercials are left in, so money is still made, and limiting audio shrinks the audience base, so it seems not to make sense to black them out, but that's how it goes. Anyone know a workaround for this for the Super Bowl?

Chiefs fans who live well away from the KC area have (so far) been fortunate to listen to one of the few remaining free Internet streaming audio broadcasts of live NFL football coverage in the US. This is via KCFX's live stream of Chiefs' games. What about the Super Bowl? Marv Albert and Boomer Esiason do excellent radio announcing for CBS/Westwood One football coverage. The Super Bowl should be no exception and those of you within over-the-air range of a Westwood One affiliated radio station can hear them announce it while watching on TV.

Those of us beyond over-the-air range of a Westwood One affiliated radio station, will either hope for a digital TV signal, or be prepared to pay Sirius Radio or NFL Field pass to hear radio coverage of the game. CBS has a live football audio streaming blackout policy and, even though Westwood One was divested from CBS in 2008, it appears they are following CBS policy. This is the current trend in Internet radio around football. The commercials are left in, so money is still made, and limiting audio shrinks the audience base, so it seems not to make sense to black them out, but that's how it goes.  Anyone know a workaround for this for the Super Bowl?

I posted a simple graphic a couple weeks ago showing a potential Cal 2010 defense squad. It apparently worked well as a conversation starter and it's good to hear from various points of view with differing levels of team access. Eventually, I put up a second version based on feedback.

This post is similar, meant to encourage discussion and to create an initial mental picture for 2010. I don't follow offense as closely as defense, so it might be imprecise for some offense experts here. For example, I mixed WR's with those who often line-up in a slot position, eg Sofele. Comments welcome.

Edit: Looking at the comments below, made a first edit of the chart. Not all back-ups will fit in this chart. Cheadle was dropped in favor of Schwenke. Sofele was left in WR/Slot group out of spite. Just kidding, he seems multipurpose and in the slot a lot so leaving him there rather than next to Vereen & DeBoskie? Guarmero left where he is, but it's understood competition is likely at Center and RG. Inverted the chart. I'll look-in again tomorrow.

Click to enlarge

A question for me is who will move to the important LT position. I put up a poll below. For my money, I've been impressed with MSG most of the season; a talented freshman. If that happens, it's unclear who can step-in competently to LG. Maybe I've overlooked someone.

In 2009, it appears there is no way for Eagle fans who are outside the broadcast air signal of WYSP/WIP, or others in Eagles radio network, to catch a free, live audio broadcast of the game. New policies which apparently include the Eagles, CBS, and the NFL block any person from receiving live audio streams unless they are paying for it, viz through Sirius or NFL field pass. This is probably because radio stations in the Eagles network are CBS network stations. Although I'm talking here about digital audio, CBS has an overall digital media policy (which includes audio) and it's the most restrictive of the big four networks. That's why no CBS on Hulu, where you can see NBC, Fox, and ABC. CBS has a similar "no live stream" policy in the New England Patriots radio market. They also recently introduced their restrictive policies into their new SEC contract. By contrast, Kansas City Chiefs radio networks are Cumulus stations which allow both on-air broadcasts and streaming of the game.

But part of it is the Eagles themselves, otherwise KC would have to follow the same NFL policy. So it appears that, if the Eagles told CBS to stream their games on radio, CBS would apparently have to do so, instead of allowing only over-air broadcasting. Again, currently, people outside of the Philly radio network over-air zone cannot listen to Eagles games unless they pay for them. Take me for example. I'm an Eagles fan currently living on the West Coast. I want to hear the games. When I attempt to catch the stream online at their flagship station WYSP, I get rock music during the game. My choices for a live broadcast are then to purchase a Sirius radio system and plan (satellite), or the $15 NFL field pass (internet) for a month or $40 for the season just to listen. That's supposed to hold my loyalty as a fan? Eagles and other teams who do this, such as the Patriots, cut their own throats in the same way that music companies who overly concern themselves with downloading do. It BUILDS and KEEPS publicity alive to pump free audio streams of a game over the net. Why? Because having the largest possible fanbase is the way to make money. Those of us who listen on the net are not local in Philly to buy tickets anyway, or might be too low-income if living nearby, but we can stay connected and keep Eagles' passion by listening online. We share that with others, make merchandise purchases, etc, and Eagles publicity thereby spreads as wide as the internet -- potentially worldwide. By taking a pay route for basic audio, the Eagles step over a dollar to pick-up a quarter. We're talking about audio to the game.

Currently, the NFL has not pressured KC to shut-down all streams and go with the NFL Field pass and, since the radio stations in the KC area are not CBS, KC has also not been pressured by CBS to kill all streams. So, living here on the West Coast this year, I can hear KC games via internet streaming . How long it will last, I don't know. But seeing Philly start this garbage this year has really been a disappointment. It's hard to be a fan when the policy is essentially telling me, "Unless you have a car radio and are living in Philly, give us your money or you can't hear our games". I guess football is turning into a pasttime for the wealthy, even on the audio side. In the long run, greed of this magnitude, locking out low-income and distant Eagles fans who can't buy tickets anyway, is cutting their own fan base. It's not right, either.

For things to work in my puny head, graphics are required.  I constructed a graphic of one potential Cal defense for next season, and since there had been discussion by others here , I thought I'd post it up.  I reviewed the Stanford game again, which I considered relatively successful defense, and  blended-in my own opinions.  It has their class ( in 2010 terms) and their experience level next year beside it.  Hope it helps any who, like me, rely on visuals a lot.

Edit: I reviewed the comments and the poll results and updated the graphic and the text beneath it. Accordingly, the graphic below is the second version for this post. Edited text is in italics. Thanks to those who commented and/or responded to poll.

Click to enlarge

DLine used rotation in 2009. Assuming that continues in 2010, the front three above are considered the current top three of those. Consensus was pretty strong from responses to this post that Derrick Hill will start at NG, so I moved Kendrick Payne into the rotation pool and out of the start NG position. Inserted Chris Conte into the second safety position, presumably FS, removing Alex Logan. Finally, reviewing the poll below, I placed DJ Holt in the fourth linebacker position, an open position on the original graphic.

I don't know if I'm happy with it, but I expect Hagan at corner if he can keep his demeanor together. Josh Hill will be competitive if healthy, and hopefully he is coached well to develop properly.  That is the largest question mark in my mind for next year - DB coaching.  Where I arguably go against the grain is with Nnabuife; I believe he has good ball instincts and good fundamentals. He doesn't appear to be an athletic powerhouse, at least not in 2009, but his head and instincts are more consistent than others. I like that and coaches like that. We'll see.

I intend to post another one of these for the offense, time permitting, unless someone else does. Hope it helps. Happy holidays.

Working on the West Coast this year, I don't often see Chiefs games. Accordingly, I've logged into www.kcchiefsradio.com throughout the season at game time. Announcing has been excellent and it's a great idea that many other teams haven't apparently implemented. It builds the fan base and helps keep those far-away in-touch with the Chiefs.

Today I logged-on and found a "Service Unavailable" notice. Then I went to the main KC Chiefs site, and noticed that KCChiefs Radio was not in the "Audio" tab at the main site. Instead a podcast of a Soren Petro show recorded earlier in the week was pimped. This is a policy that New England has with their games, probably because they have some sort of licensing through CBS. I connected to a couple of the radio stations on their radio network list during the game, and all I got was music or prerecorded junk.

The Chiefs do a lot of things New England does. So, at the Chiefs site, when I saw the "Service Unavailable" message today, in league with what appears to be changes in the KC Chiefs audio policy, I got pissed. I sent the Chiefs an email through their site's email form during the game when I couldn't follow the game. It was to the Chiefs (a business), and not to us fans, so my tone emphasized annoyance and $$$:

Dear KC Media Administrator

I see KC Chiefs radio is unavailable for streaming during the game today. If so, decision to cut KC Chiefs radio streaming is consistent with New England audio streaming policy. That is to say, it's mistaken and misguided. Broadcasting weekday radio shows in place of live games isn't even a loss leader. It's an intellectual property control mistake made by media companies who have been driving away their own customers. CBS (NE media contract) consistently displays over-zealous DRM management to their detriment in several markets. Hint: leave some avenue open for low-income supporters to at least listen to games.

In other words, streaming audio INCREASES interest and publicity and advertising revenue for the Chiefs by those who can't attend anyway. Streaming does not DECREASE interest in the Chiefs. Hire someone with an IQ over 100 and market analysis skills. Isn't your organization a business?

Some of us temporarily live so far from KC that we can't follow the games any other way than streaming. KC Chiefs radio was a perfect compromise for that, now apparently eliminated. Nice work during the holiday season.

Best,
Russell Humboldt

Of course, this may have been an overreaction. Maybe. It might be a technical glitch and not a policy change? I don't like this.