Category Archives: ESPN

Scott Van Pelt staying at ESPN

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ESPN is keeping at least one big-name free agent.

Last night, Scott Van Pelt confirmed that he is staying in beautiful Bristol via a Tweet. Isn’t that how it’s done these days?

Appreciate the interest and support here.  Feel very fortunate to have gone through process but glad it’s over. Ultimately, ESPN is my home

It’s a good move for Van Pelt. He loves his midday radio show on the network and it’s hard to beat the power of ESPN.

Regarding ESPN’s other free agents, it appears as if Michelle Beadle is leaving to become a co-host of Access Hollywood along with having duties at NBC. Still no word on the fate of Erin Andrews.

 

Profile:60 focuses on Patrick Willis’ difficult childhood

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Tonight’s Profile:60 will give you a different perspective of 49ers’ linebacker Patrick Willis.

From the release:

In Tuesday’s PROFILE:60 (ESPN, 7:30 p.m. ET), Willis visits his hometown of Bruceton, Tenn., and openly discusses an unimaginable childhood where he had no running water, no electricity and, worst of all, no compassion from the family who around him. At an early age he was forced to fend for himself and his siblings in the face of beatings and neglect by an abusive father. ESPN senior writer Jeff Chadiha speaks with Willis about the harrowing journey, the unexpected loss of a brother and his new life in San Francisco.

Excerpts:

“He’s a guy that has every reason to quit. He’s a guy that has every reason to hate everybody. Greatness is not about the guy that has all the skill and talent. Greatness is measured by the setbacks that you had in life — have you been able to fight through them and be stronger.” – Mike Singletary, 49ers head coach 2008-2010

“He looked back at me and he was like, ‘Boy, if you get in between my business like that again I’ll kill you.’” – Patrick Willis, on confronting his abusive father.

The beat: Beadle leaving ESPN? Kornheiser keeping radio gig; La Canfora joins NFL Today

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Updated:

I knew something must be going on this afternoon because my keyboard suddenly started to heat up. Sure enough, I checked my Twitter and saw that Michelle Beadle appears to leaving ESPN.

SportsbyBrooks had the following Tweets:

SbB has learned Michelle Beadle will depart ESPN for NBC Sports with the plan for her to land eventually at Access Hollywood as co-host.

And:

Before Beadle transitions to NBCUniversal-distributed Access Hollywood, she’ll cover Olympics, appear on Today Show, among other duties.

But wait a minute. Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead just delivered this Tweet:

Text from Michelle Beadle: “not accurate.” my interpretation: she’s probably leaving Espn, for something at NBC, as SBB claims

It hardly would be a surprise if Beadle left SportsNation and ESPN. She reportedly has aspired to duties beyond sports.

She seems like a nice person, and I wish her the best. But I’m jumping off this speculation train about her future. Wake me when something happens.

Tony staying: Tony Kornheiser is keeping his radio job in Washington. The Washington Post reports that despite some hints he might wave bye-bye, Mr. Tony will continue at ESPN 980.

From the Post:

“I need to talk about the immediate and long-term status of this show,” he said during his second hour. “The long-term prospects for this show have brightened recently. This show should be on the air for another two years, at least, so I think that’s very good….

“I thought we should make that clear, because I was pessimistic for a while that the show would end and that we’d have to find another place to do the show. The show won’t end….The show will continue, so I should say that.”

Kornheiser, though, did tell his listeners he will take an extended summer vacation from the show.

NFL Today change: Big move for Jason La Canfora. He will replace Charley Casserly as CBS’ NFL insider on its “The NFL Today” pregame show. La Canfora also will begin writing for CBSSports.com in July. Prior to joining CBS, La Canfora had been at NFL Network.

 

 

 

 

ESPN signs on for Coach K’s 80th birthday

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ESPN and the ACC have signed a contract extension through the 2026-2027 season.

No, that isn’t a typo. The United States has treaties that don’t last that long.

The new deal means ESPN will be on hand to celebrate Mike Krzyzewski’s 80th birthday on Feb. 13, 2027 at Cameron Indoor. What are the odds he’s going for his 1,400th victory? It also means 87-year old Dick Vitale will be there to help Coach K blow out the candles. Dickie V. still will have plenty of hot air left in him.

The $3.6 billion deal (again, not a typo) shows the impact of Syracuse and Pittsburgh being added to the ACC. ESPN.com runs down the key points:

When the ACC adds Pittsburgh and Syracuse, the conference will play an 18-game regular-season men’s basketball schedule — and ESPN networks will show an additional 30 regular-season games, plus two more conference tournament games. The new deal also adds 14 more football games, including three Friday night games (one of which, hosted by Boston College or Syracuse, to be played the day after Thanksgiving).

ESPN will televise a number of regular-season ACC women’s basketball games, plus the entire conference tournament and will increase its coverage of Olympic sports, highlighted by baseball, softball, lacrosse along with men’s and women’s soccer.

Games will also be shown on ESPN3, ESPN Mobile TV, ESPN 3D as well as a number of other ESPN-branded networks both in the U.S. and internationally.

ESPN’s original deal with the ACC was through 2023. The new deal added four years, plus more games.  ESPN also gained title sponsorship rights to all conference tournament events, including the ACC men’s tournament, which has never been sponsored.

“We are proud that ESPN has invested so deeply in the ACC both from a resource and exposure standpoint,” said ACC commissioner John Swofford. “As we look to the future, this relationship will be tremendous for our schools, fans, coaches and student-athletes.”

“This expansion and extension of our exclusive agreement brings tremendous value to our company and to ACC fans everywhere,” said John Skipper, president, ESPN and co-chair, Disney Media Networks. “We look forward to showcasing this premier conference across all platforms through 2027.”

 

 

Stoudemire’s stupidity ranks on SportsCenter

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If you can’t do something great to land some air time on SportsCenter, then do something incredibly stupid.

That’s what Amar’e Stoudemire showed athletes over all the world.

Deadspin has a regular feature called Bristolmetrics. It breaks down, minute-by-minute, content that appears on ESPN’s 11 p.m. edition of SportsCenter throughout the week.

Bless you, Patrick Burns, for devoting your time to this worthy endeavor.

The latest edition revealed that Stoudemire received the most mentions of any athlete on SportsCenter from April 27-May 3. And for what? The Knicks forward’s great feat was smashing his hand into a fire extinguisher after a loss.

Stoudemire led with 44 mentions; Bryce Harper was second with 39; and LeBron James and Albert Pujols were third with 35.

You must be proud, Amar’e

Stoudemire’s stupidity actually benefited the Knicks. They had the most air time of any team in sports at 35:25 minutes.

In the sport-by-sport breakdown, it’s interesting to note hockey went back to normal back-of-the-bus levels on SportsCenter after a big jump in the previous week.

Here’s the breakdown:

NBA: 109 minutes (33.5%)(last week 19.4%)

MLB: 94.75 (29.1%) (last week 26.5%)

SportsCenter staples (things like the “Top 10,” “Encore,” “What 2 Watch 4,” etc.): 45.5 (14%) (last week 15.2%)

NFL: 34.25 (10.5%) (last week 17.8%)

NHL: 25.25 (7.8%) (last week 15%)

NASCAR: 10.75 (3.3%) (last week 1.2%)

Other sports: 3.5 (1.1%) (last week 3.1%)

Golf: 1.75 (0.5%) (last week 0.1%)

College football: 1 (0.3%) (last week 1.6%)

College basketball: 0 minutes (0%) (last week 0.2%)

 

ESPN late SportsCenter chooses NBA first round over Rangers-Caps thriller

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Not to beat a dead horse here, but…

I found it interesting that the late version of ESPN’s SportsCenter led with the NBA over the NHL Tuesday morning.

My son, Matt, who knows what I have been writing about ESPN’s hockey coverage (or lack thereof), called it to my attention. An avid hockey fan, he said, “I can’t believe they’re starting off with Memphis-Clippers.”

Indeed, ESPN’s producers decided Game 4 of a first round NBA series was more newsworthy than Game 5 of a second-round NHL series. And that game featured an incredible finish with the New York Rangers scoring the tying goal with six seconds remaining and then beating Washington in overtime.

Indeed, not only did ESPN begin with the Clippers game (admittedly an exciting overtime game), but it went to the San Antonio-Utah game next with extended highlights and interviews. Then, SportsCenter finally turned to Rangers-Caps.

OK, maybe ESPN opted for the Clippers out of the box because it finished late. Most viewers in the East went to bed without knowing the outcome. Also, the late SportsCenter is geared to a West Coast audience, especially in LA.

However, we still can ask the question: Would ESPN have made the same news decision if the network had the NHL rights? Given the finish and the fact that this was a pivotal game in a second-round series, wasn’t the Rangers victory more important?

Where’s that dead horse…?

 

 

 

ESPN classic ad: Manning brothers get dad mad

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More Manning stuff to get you ready for Eli’s starring role on SNL tonight.

Here’s one of my all-time favorite ESPN ads: The Manning brothers acting like brothers during a tour of the facility. Note how hard Peyton kicks Eli at the end. Nothing made up there.

Do you suppose Peyton knew that one day Eli would have more Super Bowl titles than him?

Here’s a DirecTV ad they did.

 

 

Hockey fans respond to ESPN Doria’s coverage comments

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Nothing like some comments questioning hockey’s popularity to get its fans to throw down the gloves.

Yesterday, I did a post on Vince Doria, senior VP and director of news, insisting ESPN doesn’t hate hockey. However, the network, which no longer has the rights, doesn’t like it much. Prior to the playoffs, you’d be hard-pressed to find much NHL coverage during SportsCenter.

Doria’s views generated an interesting response. Deadspin dinged him for saying hockey “doesn’t transfer much to a national discussion.”

Wrote Patrick Burns:

It’s always funny when ESPN executives innocently talk about “national discussions,” as if national discussions happen apart from ESPN—as if they rise organically out the soil in New York and Deer Isle and Des Moines and Tupelo and San Bernardino. ESPN is the national discussion; if ESPN doesn’t discuss hockey, the nation doesn’t, either.

Meanwhile, I received plenty of comments on my site.

Reilly wrote:

ESPN, stop being a joke. Stop ramming down our throats Tebow, Lebron, Baseball and actually cover a sport like a real journalist would. I could give two SH!TS about Tebow right now or the draft, i don’t care about game three of the Heat/Knicks which the heat should win, I care about a triple OT game in the second round of the playoffs… and I know a lot of people not in NY or WAS did to!

From DRBEAR:

Well of course there isn’t demand. It is as if McDonald’s used to carry hamburgers, then dropped most of them from the menu and just carried one type at lunch. Then they say “of course we don’t carry many different kinds of hamburgers, there isn’t the interest.” To my mind, an all-sports network should cover all sports. If it doesn’t, it’s not doing its job.

LegendofVT chimed in:

Doria is delusional if he thinks that asking the producers of SportsCenter, Around The Horn, and PTI to add more hockey content during the playoffs, after ignoring the sport during the regular season, is enough to bring hockey fans back. There’s plenty of lip service, but nothing that indicates that they’re willing to repair their relationship with us.

Doria, though, did have somebody who agreed with him. Kaz said:

I agree. As a die-hard fan, I almost prefer to read/watch something very home-team-centric. Maybe I am a bit of a homer and only want to here good stuff, but the bad stuff is interesting, too. I have the Center Ice package, but never watch a game other than my favorite team…

ESPN embarrassed by Phillips hoax

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If you really want to make your head spin, check out all the stuff that’s been written about Sarah Phillips and ESPN.com.

Deadspin started it all with a 5,000-word opus, revealing a scammer using a fake identity who landed a column on sports gambling for ESPN.com.

The story has exploded from there, making my head spin even more. Fang’s Bites has compiled a nice digest of the reports if you have three hours to waste.

Frankly, I have little use for scammers. It happens in all walks of life, including journalism. Remember Janet Cooke of the Washington Post winning a Pulitzer Prize for a fictional story?

However, this story underscores the dangers of knowing exactly who you are dealing with in this often wacky Internet age. You could be sure at the WWL headquarters there will be a complete review of the hiring process here, and that changes will be forthcoming.

This whole episode is embarrassing to ESPN. And it should serve as a warning to other outlets that it also could happen to you.

 

Stephen A. to join Skip B. full time on First Take

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This makes too much sense.

Stephen A. Smith will join First Take on a permanent basis. USA Today reports the deal isn’t finalized, but host Jay Crawford disclosed the new set-up on the air.

Smith and Bayless know the drill for the show better than anyone. Crawford should look into increasing his health insurance.