Category Archives: ESPN

Intriguing cover photo of Danica Patrick for ESPN the Magazine

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Initially, I really had no desire to read another story about Danica Patrick. Then I saw the cover for the latest edition of ESPN the Magazine, which focuses on women in sports.

As you can see, Patrick isn’t in a bikini or something Go Daddy-ish. Rather, it is a portrait, one of thousands of her.

Yet this one clearly is different. Her eyes are darting over her left shoulder. Her arms are folded and her expression says….?

Yes, exactly what does it say? I’m not exactly sure, but there seems to be a sense of exasperation of being trapped in yet another photo shoot. The price of celebrity, right? Then again, maybe not.

I asked editor Chad Millman why that photo was selected for the cover. He replied in an email:

We chose it because, as is usually the case, we liked it the most. No real hidden message. To me it felt like we caught her mid-thought in a candid moment, that’s rare with athletes when they are posing, but it’s the kind of honesty you want to capture. It makes you wonder, what is she thinking?

The Maxim crowd may be disappointed she isn’t portrayed wearing something more revealing, but the cover enticed me to read the article by Janet Reitman, which also is posted on ESPNW. The site also has a three-minute video interview.

I actually learned quite a bit about Patrick. Interesting woman.

From the story:

From the moment she started racing professionally, Danica says, she’s been aware of the need to “create a situation for myself so I can have the same lifestyle after I quit racing as I’ve had during my career,” which can be done only through investments and nonstop hawking of the brand. While she embraces the responsibility, it isn’t hard to see why she sometimes gets defensive.

“Do I use being a girl to my advantage? I use everything I can to my advantage,” she says. “Maybe back in the day you didn’t need to be the greatest looking [athlete] to be on TV and you didn’t need to speak the best, but in this day and age, I think you need to be the package. You need to look the part for your sponsors, you need to be able to speak the part for the media and to big CEOs of big-name companies, and you have to do all of it. And I feel like that is one of my strengths. Do I get more attention than a lot of people who at times do better than me?”

That would be yes, Danica suggests. “But it doesn’t come without its costs, that’s for sure. It doesn’t come without its criticisms. It doesn’t come without the overanalyzing of absolutely every word I say. I mean, I have to be careful what I say, how I say it, what I tweet. You have to be careful with everything you do. You can’t have opinions; you can’t alienate anyone.”

At this point, Haley looks at her client and gives her a “please shut up now” smile.

 

 

 

Van Gundy defends harsh comments against Orlando; discusses sensitive players

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It should be interesting when Jeff Van Gundy calls an Orlando Magic game next year.

During a teleconference Tuesday, I asked Van Gundy about his comments in a radio interview last week with Stephen A. Smith in New York. He blasted Orlando for not only firing his brother, Stan, as coach, but also for the way they handled it.

I asked Van Gundy if that fact that Stan is his brother impacted his comments. He said:

Sure it had an impact. He’s my brother. I know in the three years before Stan came to Orlando, Dwight Howard had never had a winning record.  And he had never won a playoff game, and he had never been the defensive player of the year, he had never been an all‑NBA player.  So I know all those things.

And so when he was fired, listen, teams have the right to change coaches.  Dr. Jack (Ramsey, also on call) has been through it.  Every coach has been through it except for the very few lucky ones.

But there’s a manner in which you go about changing that shows you have a dignity and an integrity about you.  And so a couple ‑‑ their callous disregard for what Stan helped them do, winning more playoff series in his five years than they have had in the entire time that they’ve been a franchise, add into that he’s my brother, sure, it impacted my comments.

But I didn’t overreact.  In fact, if anything, I underreacted.  Because when you see leadership by appeasement or appeasement as a leadership strategy, I think it’s wrong.  I think it’s wrong for the individual player.  I think it’s wrong for the team and the franchise and that’s what I said in many different ways.

Van Gundy also discussed being ranked No. 2 in a Sports Illustrated poll of NBA players regarding their favorite announcer. Charles Barkley was first.

Van Gundy got the nod despite knowing he’s ticked off a few players with his pointed comments. He said:

I never really knew how sensitive the players are (in making the adjustment from coaching to analyst). You might say 99 percent good things, and if you say one thing that you would like to see have been done differently, they get quite angry. I was doing a game in the Playoffs where a player made a basket and he jogged down court, he didn’t look directly at me, but I knew he was looking towards me, and screamed something out I couldn’t share with you for print.

 

But I was amazed, I was like, wow, you know, I’ve been ‑‑ like I say what I see, but some of it I didn’t like in a particular game and I said that.  And I didn’t realize how sensitive guys were.

 

 

 

Jeff Van Gundy on broadcasting with brother: He’d verbally assault me

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How about this NBA broadcast team? Jeff and Stan Van Gundy working together as analysts.

You’ve got to think it will be discussed if Stan doesn’t land another coaching job. All you have to do is watch the HBO Real Sports profile of the brothers to see what great chemistry they have. Stan has shown he’s just as outspoken as Jeff.

I mentioned the possibility to Jeff Van Gundy during an ESPN conference call Tuesday morning.

“It would be fun,” Van Gundy said. “I don’t get to see that much of him. He’s always busy with his job and we live in two different cities. He’d probably verbally assault me like he has his whole life.”

Van Gundy thinks Stan would be a terrific broadcaster if he decided to go that route. However, he cautioned that his brother should take things slow before deciding his next move.

“Stan is extremely smart, intelligent and insightful,” Van Gundy said. “He does everything with a high amount of candor. With the record he’s amassed, he’ll have multiple opportunities. Unlike a lot of us, he’s smart enough where he can do something outside of basketball. He’s one of those guys who can do a lot of things and do them well.”

I’ll have more from Van Gundy later today.

 

 

Recommended reading: Wright Thompson’s story on Bear Bryant’s driver

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Great to find a story that goes above and beyond these days.

ESPN.com’s Wright Thompson has a terrific piece on Billy Varner, who served as Paul “Bear” Bryant’s driver/right-hand man for 20 years.

From the story:

Bear Bryant surrounded himself with people he could trust, and he trusted nobody more than Billy Varner, a tough, barrel-chested African-American. Billy was always just around, in the office, on the road, on the sidelines. Over the years, various accounts have given him different titles, but essentially, he was a fixer. He took care of business, and he kept everything to himself, even after Bryant died.

“We knew he’d been offered a lot of money to write a book or help make a movie,” says Linda Knowles, Bryant’s longtime secretary, “and he would have none of that. And no one knew Coach Bryant better than Billy. Even Mrs. Bryant didn’t know him as well as Billy did. He was with him almost 24 hours a day.”

Billy picked him up in the morning. He dropped him off at night. Sometimes they talked. Sometimes they didn’t. Often, Coach read the paper aloud. Once, when a state trooper clocked Varner speeding, Bryant stuck his houndstooth hat in the back window. The patrolman understood and backed off. Billy saw him weak and insecure. He drove him to Birmingham one year before Christmas because Bryant got a letter from a sick girl and he wanted to surprise her. He saw him cry. When Paul took his grandson fishing, Billy came along.

Breaking hot dog news: ESPN extends pact for excessive eating contest

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ESPN just sent out a release that states:

ESPN has reached an agreement with Major League Eating, in conjunction with Nathan’s Famous, Inc., that provides the network exclusive rights to televise a live, one-hour show of the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest each year through 2017.

Seriously.

You know why this is a big deal? According to the release:

The event consistently generates powerful ratings and has become a holiday viewing tradition for millions of Americans. Last year’s July 4th telecast set a viewership record with 1.95 million live viewers and nearly nine million viewers total on July 4, including two re-airs.

Seriously? Perhaps ESPN is using the number of people who eat hot dogs on the Fourth? Really, we don’t have anything better to do than watch people gorge themselves with hot dogs?

And here’s my favorite line from the release:

More than twenty-five eating athletes from around the world will compete for the respective Men’s and Women’s July 4thHot Dog Eating World Championship Belts.

Athletes? Yes, these definitely are finely trained athletes.

Coming soon: A 24/7 hot dog eating channel.

 

 

 

 

Fox’s Hill talks about ‘second-screen experience’

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Fox Sports Chairman David Hill brought up an interesting notion at the NCTA Convention Wednesday in Boston.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Hill, the Australian-born visionary who has revolutionized the technology of American sports with everything from the scoreboard box on the screen to new ways to cover the drama of baseball, said “the next big development for all of us is the second-screen experience. I don’t believe that has been explored in terms of potential as it should be. If you look at multi-tasking that is going on, a valid second screen experience (people watching a second screen in addition to the primary screen) – which could be American Idol – is going to be a huge development down the road.”

David, I really don’t need a second screen if it’s going to be used to watch American Idol. And by the way, whatever happened to Picture-in-Picture? Wasn’t that a second screen experience?

Bottom line: Nobody knows for sure what how we’re going to be watching sports in 2025. The execs just know we’re going to be watching, and paying to watch.

On the subject of right fees, there was this passage:

No sports discussion would be complete without some worrying about the rising cost of sports rights. At a panel discussion at the NCTA this week, a Wall Street analyst worried that rights fees were going to put a squeeze on cable to the point it could interfere with their ability to do other things. The Wednesday panelists did not disagree that rights are rising and expensive, but the attitude seemed to be that it is an inevitable part of the value of sports on TV.

“Anybody who thinks they can figure out what rights are going to be worth in 2026 doesn’t really know,” said (ESPN President) Skipper, referring to a recent news story about the sale of some sports rights far into the future. “What we will make a bet on is that the value of sports rights are going to continue to appreciate. We would love it if sports rights would come down, but sports rights are going up because the value of sports rights are going up.”

Hill recalled a CBS executive who in 1977 said sports rights had gone as high as it was possible for them to go and they would not go any higher. What he did not recognize, said Hill, is that “sports rights are the purest example of supply and demand.”

 

Fox, ESPN winners at Sports Business Awards

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It was a big night for Fox and ESPN at the fifth annual Sports Business Awards in New York, presented by Street and Smith’s Sports Business Daily.

Among the networks, Fox was the biggest winner. It won for Best in Sports Television and Best in Sports Media.

“I consider the standard of production of all of us now to be at the highest point ever,” said Fox Sports Group Chair David Hill. “The sports fan now is better served now than ever before.”

ESPN, though, didn’t walk away empty handed. It won Best in Digital Sports Media and Best in Sports Technology, for WatchESPN.

Here’s a list of all the winners:

AWARD WINNER
Executive of the Year NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell
Sports Event of the Year ’12 PGA Tour Humana Challenge
Best in Sports Media Fox Sports
Sports League of the Year MLB
Sports Sponsor of the Year Bridgestone
Best in Corporate Consulting, Marketing             and Client Services The Marketing Arm
Sports Facility of the Year Amway Center
Best in Sports Television Fox Sports
Lifetime Achievement Award Paul Tagliabue
AD of the Year Michigan State AD Mark Hollis
Best in Property Consulting, Sales             and Client Services IMG
Best in Sports Technology ESPN’s WatchESPN
Sports Team of the Year Boston Bruins
Best in Digital Sports Media ESPN Digital Media
Best in Sports Event and Experiential Marketing MLB/Fan Cave
Best in Talent Representation and Management Wasserman Media Group

Indy 500 won’t have Danica Patrick storyline this year; ABC still will televise

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I never was a big auto racing fan, but I always used to watch the Indianapolis 500. I even knew the names of most of the drivers: A.J. Foyt, Bobby and Al Unser, Mario Andretti, Rick Mears, Johnny Rutherford, and one of the great names of all time, Gordon Johncock.

Fast forward, and now about the only thing I know about this year’s Indy 500 is that Danica Patrick won’t be in the field. That says plenty about the state of Indy car racing these days.

ABC will air the race Sunday at 11 a.m. Naturally, Patrick’s name came up during a teleconference this week.

Analyst Eddie Cheever said of Patrick’s absence:

You can tell there’s a difference in the paddock.  Danica brought a lot of interest from people that were not really involved in racing.  I think she did some amazing things at her time that she spent in IndyCars.

When you’re at the racetrack and you’re watching the Go Daddy car go around the track, it’s doing pretty well right now.  So I think from the purely emotional part of being involved in following a car, that team picked up where it left off, and it’s doing very well.

I personally, my daughter follows Danica Patrick, no matter what she’s doing, whether she’s racing here or somewhere else.  But there are a lot of very talented drivers in IndyCar, many of which are females that are doing very well, and I think the series will just pick up and keep on going forward.

Actually, Patrick won’t be a complete no-show Sunday, according to producer Rich Feinberg:

In terms of the Danica story, not being there, we will address it.  It’s not something we’re going to avoid.  If you watch real, real closely to the prerace, you will see a brief cameo appearance in this year’s telecast by Danica, which she was happy to do for us and we think we’ll have some fun with our viewers.

As for race coverage, Feinberg noted as many as 12 cars will be wired with HD camera systems. He said:

If we achieve our goal of 12 cars, that would be 48 onboard cameras, which is a first in terms of volume for us. Additionally some interesting things about those in-car camera systems.  For the first time all the cars that have systems will offer our viewers driver shots which we’ve not been able to do in many, many years.

We’re also introducing what we call dual path technology, which allows viewers to see both the driver’s perspective and the driver driving simultaneously at the same time.  That technology has never been used in IndyCar racing and we’re excited to debut it at this year’s Indianapolis 500.  Additionally we plan on using within the telecast Ultra Hi motion cameras that shoot at a frame rate of one thousand frames per second.  This should offer some compelling views for our fans and viewers in ultraslow motion of key moments in the race and on the track.  We’ve never used those before as well. A lot of exciting new technology.

 

 

Woman element magnifies ESPN’s move to drop Ward off college football

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ESPN shifts announcers all the time, and the moves usually don’t produce headlines. Especially for a play-by-play voice for college football games on ESPNU.

However, news that ESPN dropped Pam Ward off its roster of announcers for college football Monday blazed through the Internet Monday. The story was among the most popular at USA Today’s site and elsewhere.

Why? Why do you think?

Ward is a woman. In fact, she and Beth Mowins were the only two women calling college football games for ESPN last year. When ESPN cuts the field of female play-by-play voices in half, that’s news.

And furthermore, Ward was the first woman play-by-play voice on college football, beginning her run in 2000. Ward even was labeled as “a trailblazer” in a statement by ESPN.

So her reassignment in that regard also is news. According to ESPN, she will  “continue to be a big part of our coverage plans across multiple sports including college basketball, softball, the WNBA and more.”

Just not college football on ESPNU.

ESPN gave her 11 years. It’s not as if Ward was moved out simply because she is a woman.

Yet there will be people who assume that’s the case. Let a woman call the WNBA or college softball. But by golly, don’t let her near a football game.

Ward had her fair share of critics, most notably Awfulannouncing.com. Her face is prominent at the top of AA’s site in its Mt. Rushmore of least favorite announcers, joining Dick Vitale, Tim McCarver and Craig James.

Tuesday, AA’s Matt Yoder did an installment of “The Pam Ward Chronicles,” detailing her mistakes on college football play-by-play dating back to 2007. It’s fairly brutal stuff. It has to be devastating for Ward to be the brunt of such an assault on her work.

I made an attempt to talk to Ward Tuesday, but an ESPN spokesman said she isn’t doing any interviews.

According to an ESPN insider I talked to, Ward “didn’t make more mistakes than (any male) play-by-play announcer.” It happens if you’re on the air long enough.

The insider praised Ward and said: “Voice aside, she wouldn’t be getting the same kind of criticism if she was a man.”

Perhaps, but we’ll never know for sure because Ward is a woman. A woman who made news because she no longer will be doing college football for ESPN.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen A enjoys Jay Pharoah’s impression on SNL

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You know you’ve reached a new level of celebrity when Saturday Night Live starts to goof on you. SNL locked in on ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith Saturday.

Stephen A. had a favorable impression of Jay P’s impression. On his Twitter feed, he said:

Saturday Night Live spoofed me last night. And I got to admit: it was damn HILARIOUS! Loved it! Hysterical!!!

Then on SportsCenter, he said:

“It was hysterical…but I would never wear that shirt w/that tie.”

And one more from this morning:

“Loved it! It was Hilarious. Comical. Especially the looks/facial expressions. I’m still laughing!”

The skit didn’t appear on the actual show. It ran as a bonus on SNL’s site.

I think the bit killed. I wouldn’t be surprised if Pharoah’s Stephen A becomes a regular character on Weekend Update.

Next, I’m looking forward to SNL’s take on Skip Bayless.