Silly FOX

Viewers of the Los Angeles Rams-Minnesota Vikings game on Sunday will be treated to an extra voice in the FOX broadcast booth. Carolina Panthers tight end Greg Olsen will make the duo of Kevin Burkhardt and Charles Davis a trio. Olsen's available because the Panthers are on a bye. He also hasn't played since he suffered a foot injury in Week 2. That all works out to this being a perfect time to get a feel for a profession that he might pursue when he's done playing football. Olsen is a bright, engaging personality and should be terrific talking football. This is a great opportunity for him The only problem is that he's not done playing football. He's expected to be ready to return from that foot injury when the Panthers return from their bye. That's the Week 12 game against the New York Jets. He'll definitely be ready for the Panthers Week 14 game against the Minnesota Vikings. That's a problem. Broadcasters assigned to a game get unique access to the teams involved in it. Access that most in the media don't get. Access that active players from competing teams shouldn't get. What's FOX thinking? There's really no reason for Olsen to be assigned to this game. FOX has six games this Sunday.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Miami Dolphins
Detroit Lions @ Chicago Bears
Washington Redskins @ New Orleans Saints
Arizona Cardinals @ Houston Texans
Los Angeles Rams @ Minnesota Vikings
Buffalo Bills @ Los Angeles Cahrgers

Having Olsen broadcast a game involving an NFC South foe is even more stupid than sending him to Minnesota. So, toss out the Buccaneers-Dolphins and Redskins-Saints games. That leaves three games that don't present an obvious conflict. None of the six teams that play in those games are on the Panthers remaining schedule. Perfect! Simple common sense should prompt FOX to send Olsen to one of those games. The Lions-Bears game has the interesting twist that the Panthers have already played both teams. Olsen might have some insight into those teams that we typically don't get from a broadcast team. Instead, FOX goes silly and sends their "special" broadcaster to a game that they shouldn't.

Vikings general manager Rick Spielman isn't happy about it. He calls it "inappropriate" and requested that Olsen be removed. FOX declined. The Rams aren't happy either. They see the Panthers as a possible postseason opponent and don't like the thought of a potential opposing player prowling around their building. That seems overly optimistic on the Rams part. So with the Rams looking ahead to the postseason and the Vikings looking at a Week 14 game neither team playing in Sunday's game is happy with Olsen being a part of it. But FOX carries on. The network has conceded that Olsen's access to to the teams will be limited. The question returns, why send him to this game at all? Limiting his access to the teams involved in the game limits his ability to broadcast the game. The whole thing is just so silly.

FOX had this to say.

"We are excited for the opportunity to make this Sunday's broadcast fun and insightful with Pro Bowler Greg Olsen," FOX said in a statement to Sports Illustrated. "We fully respect the Vikings concerns and will limit the amount of pre-game access allowed to Greg. We look forward to welcoming him in the broadcast booth and giving viewers a unique perspective this Sunday."

If FOX respected the Vikings concerns they wouldn't continue with this nonsense. Perhaps all of this is trivial, even silly, but it's so easily avoided. There are three other games that make more sense. That isn't hard to do because sending Greg Olsen to the Rams-Vikings game makes no sense.