Subdued return for 'Joe Buck Live' (cont.)

Studs

• Boomer Esiason was terrific in the closing moments of Westwood One's radio broadcast of Monday Night Football. The analyst called out Dolphins offensive coordinator Dan Henning for his conservative play-calling when Miami opted to run on a 3rd-and-6 from the Colts' 30-yard line with 4:33 left and trailing by three points. He also forcefully stated that Miami wideout Ted Ginn Jr. needed to make an end-zone catch in the final minute of the game. "On any given Sunday in the National Football League, big-time wide receivers make that catch," Esiason said. For those who want a different MNF experience, Esiason, play-by-play announcer Marv Albert and sideline reporter Steve Tasker are an enjoyable listen.

• If you blinked, you would have missed it: NBC Football Night in America co-host Keith Olbermann channeled his inner Ernie Anastos on Sunday by saying, "Keep plucking that chicken" during his reading of the Chiefs-Raiders highlights.

• Though much of it is an exercise in vanity and uber-insider status, I find myself enjoying The Afterparty with Jay Glazer, one of the new Internet-only shows that recently debuted on FoxSports.com from the Fox Sports Digital Entertainment. It's fair to question whether Glazer is too close with some of his subjects (he's addressed objectivity issues in this space). But such insider access pays off for The Afterparty, as demonstrated Monday when Jets defensive tackle Kris Jenkins and Saints safety Darren Sharper clearly felt comfortable enough to provide some interesting nuggets. For instance, Jenkins said Patriots quarterback Tom Brady isn't the same player he was before the knee injury: "I don't know what he's going through, but you can tell something is not the same right now."

Also, Vikings defensive end Jared Allen, a Glazer regular, appeared from teammate Chad Greenway's home, and the host had the two reenact the conversation between former President George W. Bush and John Madden (who sat together during the Cowboys-Giants game). The segment was a train wreck, but an amusing train wreck. It's also an enjoyable exercise to count the number of times Glazer says, "I just received a text from [fill in the NFL quarterback]." The over-under on that number next week is 6.

• Florida's 23-13 victory over Tennessee on CBS drew an overnight rating of 4.8, up 60 percent from a 3.0 overnight for the same game last year.

Duds

Richard Deitsch's Mailbag Submit a question or comment for Richard. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND Follow Richard Deitsch on Twitter

• A general rule for avoiding trouble on the Web: Stay away from any and all Hitler references and never compare professional sports to gay porn. Unfortunately, FoxSports.com violated the latter edict last Thursday during its premiere episode of Cubed, which Fox billed as "The Office meets Howard Stern." A better title would have been "Gigli meets New Coke."

The Webisode -- featuring young professionals sitting at adjoined cubicles waxing no-holds barred about sports -- included nudity in the first 25 seconds and an opening segment in which one of the characters asked, "Would you rather watch the WNBA or gay porn?" The worst crime of all? It was horribly unfunny. Hours after the debut, Fox Sports cut the 16-minute version down to a couple of minutes.

In a statement, Fox said: "The entire concept of 'Lunch w/ Benefits' was always described as experimental, as it is quite simply, a world first. In an experiment, things happen which are not always predicted. As one moves down the experimental pathway, it is normal to make changes and adjustments, hence the changes in the Cubed version now available."

Cubed is scheduled to return Thursday.

• NBC Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth said during the Football Night in America pregame show that the Giants-Cowboys game "will come down to one man: Brandon Jacobs." That man rushed for 58 yards and watched another man, Eli Manning, coolly lead his team to a game-winning drive.

• I thought Fox NFL Sunday analyst Michael Strahan should have been allowed to plug his new sitcom, Brothers, a bit more last Sunday. Clearly, a half-dozen references were not enough for viewers.

• Rarely do I receive e-mails on boxing announcers, but my inbox was flooded Monday from some passionate Sports Illustrated colleagues killing Max Kellerman's performance last Saturday at the conclusion of HBO's pay-per-view coverage of Floyd Mayweather's win over Juan Manuel Marquez. Deadspin.com cheekily ran this headline: "If Boxing Weren't Dead Already, Max Kellerman Would've Killed It On Saturday." The announcer also took heat on Twitter (an especially big shot here by CNN contributor Roland Martin) and from boxing writers. The post-bout interview, which I always found Al Bernstein and Larry Merchant handled adeptly, is not an easy gig. But from the many YouTube videos I've seen (I didn't watch the fight live), it's clear Kellerman injected himself into the story. Let the principals act and report on those actions. HBO will air a heavyweight title fight between Vitali Klitschko (37-2,36 KOs) and Cristobal Arreola (27-0, 24 KOs) on Saturday (10:00 p.m. ET)

Sports Media Tweets of the Week

Update: On Friday NBC informed reporters that the Tweet War between Jets safety Kerry Rhodes and former Patriot-safety-turned-NBC analyst Rodney Harrison were conducted by an imposter posing as Harrison. An NBC Spokesperson told SI.com that they are in the process of working with Twitter to get the fake Harrison Twitter account closed. The person admitted on Friday that he was impersonating Harrison ["This account does not belong to Rodney Harrison but everything posted here was taken from interviews he made," the person tweeted.] The real Harrison is not on Twitter nor Facebook, according to NBC.

Links of the Week

The perception from most was that NBC was, shall we say, a little over the top in paying tribute to Cowboys Stadium during its broadcast of Giants-Cowboys. A sampling of takes are here, here and here.

They Said It

"The idea that people are going to tune in tonight to look at a place is stupid."
-- ESPN Sports Reporters panelist and New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica, before Sunday night's Cowboys-Giants game.

The broadcast was the most-watched NFL prime-time regular-season game in 12 years (since the Broncos-49ers on Dec. 15, 1997). It drew a 15.1 national rating and 24.8 million viewers, nearly doubling the viewership for the Emmy Awards. Locally, KXAS-NBC drew a 41.7 rating and about 1.06 million, according to the Dallas Morning News. The newspaper reported it was the first time the Cowboys reached more than one million homes locally since November 2007.