"Fellow viewers, welcome to the fifteenth week of the regular season, and now we're at Candlestick Field in San Francisco to broadcast the final game of the week and the highlight of the week, the San Francisco 49ers vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers."

At this moment, it is not Teddy and Kirk, who are familiar to San Francisco viewers, who are broadcasting live across the United States, but ESPN's commentators and commentators.

After Roger Goodale took over as president, the NFL's television rights were truly carried forward, with ESPN for Monday night, NFLN for Thursday night, CBS for Sunday night, and NBC and Fox for the rest of Sunday's games.

Later, because the cost of NFL broadcast rights was too expensive, the TV stations jointly bought them.

For example, in 2017, in order to build its own popularity, the Amazon platform bought the broadcast rights of ten Thursday night games in the NFL for $50 million, and bundled a marketing package worth $30 million, in other words, the streaming rights of ten Thursday night games cost $80 million-

This is just the broadcast of the streaming media on the network, and the TV broadcast rights are sold separately.

Even the three major broadcasters such as CBS cannot afford to buy the rights to broadcast a full Thursday night game for a season, and they can only share the benefits with other broadcasters.

In 2017, the NFL's annual revenue in the United States exceeded $2.67 billion. In the same year, NBA broadcast rights revenue was only about one-third of that figure.

ESPN has exclusive rights to broadcast tonight's Monday Night game, so Teddy and Kirk, who are most familiar to Bay Area viewers, can only sit in front of the TV and watch the game, rather than commentating on the game.

The host of the live broadcast is Mike Tirico, a veteran professional who joined the industry in 1988 and entered ESPN in 1991.

Since 2006, Ticico has been the host of ESPN's "Monday Night Game", and a bare head and chubby body have become the hallmark of the Monday Night Game.

There are two commentators who will provide commentary on today's game, one is Ron-Jaoski, a former quarterback who entered the league in 1973 and retired in 1989, he is not a top quarterback, but he still has a good career with the Philadelphia Hawks.

And then there's Jon-Gruden, a coach through and through.

He entered the league in 1986 and later became the head coach of the Oakland Raiders and then the Tampa Bay Bucanerates, winning the Super Bowl in his first season as the head coach of the Buccaneers, which was his peak - interestingly, the opponent the Pirates defeated in the Super Bowl was the Oakland Raiders who Gruden had been head coach the year before.

After being fired from the Buccaneers in 2008, Gruden went into semi-retirement, and his "Monday Night Race" was undoubtedly a popular stage for him to show his strengths.

It's worth mentioning that Gruden is also a football family, and his father, Jim-Gruden, was an assistant coach in the league for many years and a longtime scout for the San Francisco 49ers; And his younger brother, Jay-Gruden, just took over as the offensive coach of the Cincinnati Tigers this year.

Tonight, the three will work together to complete the commentary of the game.

After Terico expertly completed the opening, he did not immediately throw the topic to the two guests, but brought up the most important topic of the day, "It's snowing in San Francisco." Yes, you heard it right, it's snowing in San Francisco. ”

According to official reports, this is the first snow in San Francisco in thirty-five years, which is undoubtedly good news for city residents, but adds more unknowns for the team and players. Before we get into the game preview, let's take a look inside the stadium. "Thirico cut into today's game with his characteristic tone of voice, leading the crowd into the Cindelabra stadium in just a few words, which is really eye-catching.

"John, John?" Terico also called himself a special correspondent on the scene.

"Yes, Mike." Standing in the stadium, John-Sutcliffe appeared in front of the camera lens, "Today, it snowed in San Francisco, and it was the lowest temperature of the whole winter, and now the temperature in the stadium is only 38 degrees Fahrenheit (about three degrees Celsius), and the temperature feels even lower. ”

Standing in the stadium, the home fans had already begun to sing loudly, and Saccliff had to raise his voice, "Now the snow in the stadium has been cleared, and there is a slight drizzle, but it has basically stopped, and it will not affect the progress of the game." But as you can see, everyone has to be fully armed, because the snow will make it even colder. ”

Saccliff turned around and moved out of the way, signaling that the camera could capture the warm-up players on the field, "Now that the coaching staff and bench players have put on long down jackets, what we often see in Fort Fox and Green Bay, I didn't expect, but I can see it in San Francisco." ”

"It's worth noting that the Steelers seem to be comfortable with the situation, they put on hats, gloves, down jackets, and the whole warm-up looks orderly; On the other hand, the 49ers were slightly slower by half a beat, and their warm-up activities were also 30 minutes later than expected. This creates the illusion that the home and away games are reversed. ”

After Shacklev presented the whole picture, Terico's voice came to his ears, "Quarterbacks, what about the quarterbacks of the two teams?" How does it feel now? ”

"Quarterback?" Saccliff repeated, then explained, "Ben Rothlisberger still had some injuries in this game, his left ankle was still protected, and he didn't dare to make movements in the warm-up phase, which became one of the uncertainties of this game; On the other hand, Lu Ke was also affected by some weather. ”

Saccliff found Lu Ke in the crowd, but because of the distance, the camera lens could not capture a clear picture, so he could only directly explain, "After the warm-up, Lu Ke carried out a simple passing training, but the passing effect still had a slight deviation, and then, he hesitated again and again, or chose to wear gloves, the training effect is slightly better, but in the actual game, what errors will be generated, this is temporarily unpredictable." ”

After Saccliff's live report, Tellico immediately looked at the two guest analysts and took the lead in asking former quarterback Jaworski, "Lang, what is the impact of playing in such weather conditions on the quarterback?" ”

"First of all, this is San Francisco, home of the 49ers, and their weather is known for its year-round weather. With this premise in mind, let's break it down. Jaworski spoke eloquently and expressed his opinion.

"The quarterback's passing touch is very delicate, and when you put on the gloves, the contact between your fingertips and the rugby ball becomes dull, and the sense of control and power will be deviated during the pass, and even the spin after the shot will change." Jawozki's thinking is extremely clear, "Lu Ke is a quarterback with delicate control and accurate passing, and after wearing gloves, it has a relatively large impact on him, and at the same time, it also has a certain impact on the receiver. ”

"Relatively speaking, Big Ben is more adapted to the weather, and the delicacy of ball control is not what he is good at. So, purely in terms of weather, the Steelers did win a little bit of luck today and got a help from San Francisco. Jaworski made a final summary.

Gruden chuckled sullenly and said half-jokingly, "The timing is right, and now it seems that the Steelers have snatched the first two places." ”

……

Not only are the three commentators in the studio watching the Candlestick Stadium, but the whole of North America is also watching, and there is still some time before the game starts, and more than 20 million viewers have already turned on their televisions and locked on the ESPN channel, looking forward to today's showdown.

At the same time, social networks suddenly began to be lively.

"It's snowing! Does this mean that the Steelers are going to sweep the 49ers? ”

"That's not right. Obviously it is the home of the San Francisco 49ers, why does the game look like Pittsburgh, and does even God want Big Ben to win this game? ”

"What's going on? Snow for the first time in 35 years, and then San Francisco will host the defensive behemoth Steelers? Did you get the wrong script? ”

'I think it could have been a disaster today, with both teams dropping on the pitch and then finishing with a very low score. God, don't do that, I'm looking forward to a big fight. ”

"Snow battles? Rain wars? Did I switch to the wrong channel? It's not like San Francisco. ”

"It's over, the last time in Baltimore, the 49ers' quarterback behaved like sleepwalking, and today in San Francisco, it actually encountered this kind of weather again, is it going to collapse completely?"

"Haha, the Steelers will win!"

"Why does everyone think the Steelers are going to win? Oh, sorry, I didn't see snow in San Francisco. ”

The bustling discussion quickly spread on the Internet, and the ratings of the show began to climb, with more and more eyes projected towards the Candlestick Stadium, and the unexpected impact of a light snow has only just begun.

……

After the warm-up activities, Lu Ke did not stop exercising immediately, still standing on the edge of the court, constantly carrying out simple passing training, he needed to adapt to such weather, the whole muscle seemed to be stiffer than usual, and the touch of his fingertips was also a little dull, so the whole feeling of controlling the pass needed to be readjusted.

He has to be familiar with passing in such a situation, otherwise today's game will be a complete disaster. And Lu Ke had no intention of disarming and surrendering.