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Millen makes the Super Bowl

NBC has announced that Matt Millen will be a pre-game analyst on its Super Bowl telecast Feb. 1. Before an unfortunate turn running the Lions, Millen worked NFL games for CBS and Fox. An earlier blog entry raised the question of whether his tenure in Detroit has damaged his authority as an analyst.

Comments

Listening to Mad Dog Russo's show on Sirius, he had Cris Collinsworth on, and Collinsworth picked Baltimore to win the whole thing.

Millen must be a very charming guy. He had the Fords keep him around years after most any normal person would have fired him, and TV has made a pretty gutsy move to bring him back on the air given what happened.

It must be said though that, while Millen is a bad GM, he was a great player and a great analyst. I remember him from his analyst days and he was terrific. Marino was a HOF QB, but he is just average as an analyst.

GM and analyst are two different jobs, so I have no problem with Millen being out there.

Being great with the media obviously does not necessarily translate into practical football operations knowledge. Would you hire say, John Clayton, to be your GM?


I don't think Millen's credibility was hurt one bit by his GM failure in Detroit. I remember him from his television days and he was a good commentator.

I guess the lesson is: Never try anything that you're not absolutely sure you'll succeed in. Millen was a great player and won Super Bowls with multiple teams; he was a great commentator. He tries being a GM and now all of a sudden he's a bum. How many sports writers have tried to run any type of organization? It's always easy to be a critic.

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Ray replies: Off the top of my head, two former sportswriters who ended up running teams: Ned Colletti (Dodgers) and Ernie Accorsi (Colts, Browns, Giants).

Speaking of sportswriters running teams, could you see BIll Simmons running any kind of sport team?

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About Ray Frager
Ray Frager joined The Baltimore Sun’s sports department in 1985 and has been an assistant sports editor for more than 15 years. This is his second stint writing a sports media column for The Baltimore Sun. Most sequels aren't as good as the original, but then, the original wasn't all that great either.

Frager, born in 1957, grew up in northern Delaware (graduating from a high school that since has shut down) and received his bachelor's degree in journalism from Rider College in Lawrenceville, N.J. He worked as a reporter and copy editor at The Trenton Times and The Dallas Morning News before coming to Baltimore.

Surprisingly, if you look at his accompanying photo, Frager is married and has a son and daughter. He enjoys playing basketball and has organized pickup games among members of The Baltimore Sun staff for many years, which means they don't get too mad at him for shooting way too much.

He has a good beat and is easy to dance to. I'd give him an 85.
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