The View From Wisconsin

I have come to an agonizing conclusion in the sports world:

If you're not in New York, Boston, DC, Chicago, Dallas or LA, the only way anyone who cares about sports is going to give you the time of day is if you win a championship. Otherwise, they'll give you thirty seconds of airtime, then move on to something else.

Case in point - today's Nashville/Chicago playoff game on NBC. Doc Emmerick and Eddie Olczyk spent maybe about 30 seconds analyzing David Legwand's first goal of the game, with maybe one or two replays. When Andrew Ladd scored a few minutes later - BAM! About a dozen different angles, and about a good minute or two droning on about how Ladd got left all alone, how the play was set up, blah blah blah.

For all the times that Emmerick dropped Shea Weber and Ryan Suter's names on the Olympic hockey telecasts, you'd think they might have spent a little less time analyzing a game-tying goal. But no - because the goal was scored by the home team, the one who plays in the Big City, you gotta spend countless minutes analyzing how the light reflecting off of Jonathan Toews' skate blades blinded the hapless defender just long enough to cause a turnover that led to a goal... Oy.

There are times when I would wish nothing more than for all four major league team sports to not have a single team from any of the Big Six cities in their post-season dances. But the odds are too good that they will have at least one.