All it took was one 30-second commercial to turn John Clayton into a Youtube phenomenon.

At last check, his new SportsCenter ad has generated nearly 2 million page views.

Clayton, 58, told USA Today’s Michael Hiestand the response has been overwhelming:

Clayton, who began writing about football in high school and lives in Pittsburgh, says being on TV gets him “recognized just about any place in public. But with this, it’s just like, wow!”

At 4:30 a.m. local time at the Kansas City airport Monday, “I was checking out my iPad and saw a tweet saying, ‘I can’t believe I’m sitting by John Clayton at the airport,’ ” Clayton said.

Later, Hiestand writes:

Clayton marvels that the ad has drawn more than 2 million Youtube hits. Yet he seems a bit disappointed: “They wouldn’t let me keep the wig.”

All I can say is: Hey Ma, I finished my segment!

Classic.

Chris Berman critics, you’re not going to like this. “Boomer” is going to be around ESPN for a long, long, long time. Did I say long?

The network announced a new contract extension today for Berman on the network’s 33rd anniversary. He joined ESPN in Oct., 1979

The release includes this line:

Berman’s extension will officially begin in 2013. At the conclusion of his new deal, Berman will have worked for ESPN for nearly 40 years.

I’m guessing it is at least a six-year deal. Regardless, it shows Berman is locked in at ESPN through nearly the end of the decade.

Here are the obligatory “everybody’s happy” quotes. Everybody but his critics, that is:

ESPN President John Skipper said:‪‪ “On the day we commemorate our company’s birthday, it’s fitting we extend our relationship with Chris, arguably the most recognizable face and voice in ESPN’s history. Since arriving in Bristol in 1979, Chris’ passion and enthusiasm, and, of course his signature highlights, have long been his trademarks, earning him a special place among fans for more than three decades.”

“For more than three decades, Chris has developed a special relationship with our fans, especially fans of the NFL. He is synonymous with our coverage of the league and other major events, and we’re thrilled he will remain an integral part of ESPN in the years ahead,” added ESPN Executive Vice President, Production John Wildhack.‪‪

Said Berman: “I never could have dreamed that ESPN would be my home as a young man in his 20’s all the way to a not-so-young man in his 60’s. It’s always been a privilege to work alongside thousands of colleagues who love the sports we cover and the people who make them so special. It remains an honor to be welcomed into the homes of sports fans far and wide, and I’m thrilled to be able to continue such a marvelous journey.”

To celebrate, Berman will be on play-by-play for Monday’s Oakland-San Diego game on ESPN. Somehow, I think it won’t be his last NFL game on the call.

Somehow I suspected this might be the case for “The Professor.”

Next Wednesday marks the 40th anniversary of the Munich Massacre. There are several notable programs marking that terrible day.

Below is a preview of Jeremy Schaap’s report that will air on SportsCenter Sunday at 10 a.m. ET and Outside the Lines Wednesday at 2 p.m.

ESPN Classic will air the documentary Tragedy at Munich throughout the day on Wednesday and Thursday. Make a point of setting your Tivo so you can watch those programs.

An 11-program run is on top for one of ESPN’s best shows.

Here’s the trailer:

Here’s all the info from ESPN:

ESPN’s award-winning news magazine, E:60, makes its Fall 2012 season premiere Tuesday, Aug. 28 at 7 p.m. ET with an episode that showcases features on “Megatron” (Detroit Lions WR Calvin Johnson); Rutgers’ Jamil Pollard, the first recruit to commit to Penn State in the wake of the Sandusky scandal; and U.S. Women’s soccer goalkeeper and two-time Olympic gold medalist Hope Solo.

Embarking on its sixth season, E:60 continues to innovate long-form storytelling, enterprise reporting and production technique.

For its fall line-up, E:60 features superstar athlete profiles including Calvin Johnson, Justin Verlander, Hope Solo, Rob Gronkowski, Matt Kemp, Ray Lewis, Victor Cruz, Darrelle Revis, Chris Bosh, Justin Tuck, Matthew Stafford, LeSean McCoy, and Georges St. Pierre. In its investigative mode, E:60 looks into concussions and catastrophic injury insurance at the high school level. At the intersection of sports and medicine are stories about a kidney transplant, Huntington’s Disease, Down Syndrome and liver cancer.

Fall Highlights of E:60

I’m not the only one who actually thinks Skip Bayless had a valid point regarding his comments about Derek Jeters and PED.

Somebody named Pat from FanIQ.com also agrees with Bayless, although don’t confuse him with being a fan. He writes:

99% of the time, Skip Bayless makes almost no sense at all, and his opinions are completely worthless.
On Wednesday, for the first time in a long time, Bayless actually made an excellent point that no one else in the sports world was willing to make. He was absolutely right, and it was a timely message to the rest of the sports media and to fans.
Surprisingly, everyone ripped Bayless for these comments, and accused him of everything from trolling to being the sports equivalent of Kim Kardashian.
What did Skip say that was so controversial?
Not much, really. Just something that should have been in the back of everyone’s mind for a while.

Indeed, Bayless didn’t say Jeter was taking PEDs. He said you have to allow for the possibility that Jeter, or any athlete, is juicing considering what came out this week on the cheating front.

While it may not be fair, no athlete is beyond suspicion these days. That’s Bayless’ point.

You know the old PR adage: Any publicity is good publicity.

If that’s the case, Skip Bayless wins again. The ESPN First Take host has everyone riled up with suggestions that Derek Jeter’s big season at the age of 38 might be the result of taking PEDs.

Name another TV sports personality who generated more ink (cyber-space?) this week?

FoxSports.com went a bit overboard. In a very weird photo-illustration, it placed Bayless’ head on what I assume is Kim Kardashian’s body. Not a good look. In fact, disturbing.

The premise of Peter Scharger’s column is that Bayless has become Kardashian-like in being able to generate undeserved attention.

He writes:

Kardashian’s all over the headlines, but it’s baffling to me as to why anyone would pay attention to her. In the sports media world, there’s only one man she can be compared to. That man is Skip Bayless.

Every few weeks or so, Bayless says something on his daytime ESPN2 show “First Take” that ticks off everyone in sports media world. Like clockwork, someone with a verified account tweets about Bayless’ stupidity, the rest of the sports media world chases after the bone with wagging tongues, and it — somehow, someway — becomes a “story.” It’s a vicious cycle, one that repeats itself far too often, and one that can cause right-minded people great frustration.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News also went after Bayless for the Jeter comments:

“First Take” has undergone a bunch of changes since it was created. It is not  exactly a ratings juggernaut. The ratings are all that matters to Bayless, his  co-pilot Stephen A. Smith and the producers of the show. Accountability finishes  a distant fifth.

The employment future of all involved in the show depends on those ratings.  If smearing Jeter helps Bayless & Co. reach their ratings goals, and keep  their jobs, then it’s well worth the effort. If Jeter is collateral damage, so  be it.

Will Leitch in New York has a column with a great headline: “Please stop feeding the Skip Bayless.”

Leitch writes:

The problem is not Skip Bayless; he is simply being Skip Bayless, Numbnut. The problem is us. We all listen to him and quote him and can’t believe how outrageous he’s being, tsk tsk, tsk tsk, oh jeez, look what he’s doing now, that’s totally over the line, let’s let him kick off another news cycle. This is a daytime television shock jock — not even a good one — and people act like what he says has any connection to the physical world we all inhabit. This is just making him stronger.

ESPN coverage of the Little League World Series now is in full swing. The event has become more than a cult.

The small kids pull in big ratings.

“There are Little League World Series games that do higher than college basketball,” said Mark Gross, ESPN’s senior vice-president and executive producer for production. “We have games rate higher than MLB games. The kids are doing a 1.2 rating, while MLB is doing a .6.

“The thing about Little League is that the game is quick. It moves along. The game can be over in an hour, 90 minutes.”

That’s barely the top of the fourth for a Yankees-Red Sox game.

Invariably, though, during every Little League World Series, ESPN gets knocked for showing the little kids crying after a tough loss.

Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times wrote last year:

I’ve written this column before, and I’ll write it again, and nobody will listen because more than 1 million people are usually watching, but the truth is as clear as those rivulets running down a strikeout victim’s cheeks.

Allowing the public viewing of pubescent angst under the guise of a baseball game is opportunistic, offensive and just plain wrong.

The 69 Little League World Series and qualifying games that are currently being shown on ESPN and ABC are the worst sort of reality television, turning 11-to-13-year-olds into adults, turning adults into kids, turning my stomach.

Gross has heard it all before. Here is his response:

“If the kid is crying his eyes out, we don’t dwell on it. We’re respectful of the kids and how they play. It’s not about dwelling on the negative. We’re not looking to embarrass anybody. We’re just looking to document the event. Do you see a kid crying? It is part of the game. Ten minutes later, you might see him running to an arcade game.

“That’s an easy thing that people like to pick on. In my opinion, they don’t watch closely enough to see how different things are being covered. It’s easy say, ‘Oh, there’s ESPN they’re showing a kid crying.’ The kid is upset. He just lost. He wanted to win. We document the event. That’s what people expect.”

Terry Francona is looking forward to working his first Little League World Series. From Michael Hiestand of USA Today:

When he first talked to ESPN executives, he specifically asked if his assignments could include LLWS. Their response, he says: “They laughed, of course, and said yes.”

So why the interest in kids? “It’s just such a cool event,” Francona said. “Every MLB clubhouse, I’d be willing to bet, is going to have the games on. It’s the way baseball is supposed to be.”

But what about the old criticism, that TV coverage puts extra pressure on the players? “I see that point. But (LLWS organizers) go out of their way to see the game stays the way it’s supposed to be. I have a feeling once the game starts, they’re not worried who’s watching.”

I know it felt weird last night with the Olympics being over. Suddenly, we all had 3-4 hours of actually having to make a decision as to what to watch on TV. No, reading a book was not an option.

Even Luke Donald found the situation perplexing, noting in this tweet:

@LukeDonald  Missing my usual couple of hours of evening Olympic coverage. Not quite the same watching keeping up with the Kardashians!!!

Apparently, other people felt withdrawal. For some, it got so bad they actually tuned into the Dallas-Oakland preseason game on ESPN.

Incredibly, the telecast did a 3.8 overnight rating, which was higher than the total points scored in the 3-0 game. That translates into 5.4 million people who had nothing better to do than watch something that vaguely resembled football.

From Mr. Twitter:

@darrenrovell  Last night’s Cowboys-Raiders game drew 5.4 million viewers, beating Game 6 of this year’s Stanley Cup Finals (4.9 million)

Really, what’s wrong with you, people? Just because they trot out players wearing NFL uniforms doesn’t mean they are actually NFL players. You’ll never get those three hours back.

As for me, I watched American Triumvirate, the Golf Channel’s fine documentary on Byron Nelson, Sam Snead and Ben Hogan.

Hey, Luke, forget about the Kardashians. You should be watching Hogan, Snead and Nelson.