Rob Riggle is the new resident funny guy on Fox NFL Sunday.

In a release, Riggle said:

“I’m very excited to join the FOX NFL SUNDAY team! Wait, what does NFL stand for again?”

I expect that the material will improve. Riggle, a Kansas City Chiefs fan, is a funny guy. For this type of show, his work as a faux correspondent for the Daily Show should serve him well.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand writes Fox NFL Sunday wanted to shift away from Frank Caliendo after nine years. Farewell again, John Madden.

“Nothing against Frank, we love Frank,” says Fox producer Chris Pizzi. “But it’s been nine years. We wanted something fresh. Rob is on the edge of becoming a huge star. We want to help him. And that helps our show too.”

Given my Midwest sensibalities, my first reaction to Joey Harrington becoming part of Fox’s new college football pregame show was, “Detroit’s not going to like this.”

Harrington’s flopped as a high first-round pick with the Lions. He’s one of the reasons why former GM Matt Millen is working with ESPN. So now Harrington’s presence on Fox will serve as another reminder of Millen’s brutal regime.

But then I remembered Harrington was a big-time quarterback at Oregon. And Fox’s primetime slate will feature Pac 12 game.

So now it all makes sense.

Fox also announced Eddie George will be the other studio analyst, joining Erin Andrews and Harrington.

Here are the details from Fox:

Heisman Trophy winner and College Football Hall of Famer Eddie George and former Oregon quarterback Joey Harrington partner with host Erin Andrews to form the FOX COLLEGE FOOTBALL studio team.  Andrews and the analyst duo of George and Harrington handle all pregame, halftime and postgame studio coverage live from the FOX Network Center in Los Angeles. The network’s coverage kicks-off on Saturday, Sept. 1(7:30 PM ET) when Hawaii visits USC.  The announcement was made today by Executive Producer, Co-President & COO, FOX Sports Media Group, Eric Shanks.

“We look for analysts who can break down the game while being entertaining at the same time and Eddie and Joey are the total package,” said Shanks.  “Eddie is a terrific analyst using his knowledge and passion for college football to offer a unique perspective and it’s an honor to have him back in the FOX Sports family. Joey’s charisma combined with his credentials on the field as a standout quarterback at Oregon put him in position to be one of the best college football analysts in the business.  The chemistry between Eddie, Joey and Erin sets this team apart.  Fans are in for an entertaining and enlightening show on FOX every Saturday during the college football season.”

George, a standout running back at The Ohio State University, ranks among the top three in school history in rushing yards (3,768), rushing touchdowns (44), 100-yard games (20) and holds school records with five 200-yard outings and 12 consecutive 100-yard games.  Since retiring from football, George has worked in television in a variety of roles. He served as a studio analyst during FOX’s coverage of the 2007 – 2009 BCS Championship Games alongside analysts such as Barry Switzer, Jimmy Johnson and Emmitt Smith.

As a senior, George set a single-season school record with 1,927 rushing yards en route to winning the 1995 Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Player of the Year Award, Doak Walker Award and Jim Brown Award while leading the nation in scoring, placing fourth in all-purpose yards and fifth in rushing yards per game and yards per carry.  He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and has his No. 27 retired at Ohio State. 

Drafted in the first round by the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans, he owns virtually every franchise rushing record.  He won several NFL Rookie of the Year awards in 1996 and was considered one of the NFL’s premier running backs, possessing an explosive combination of speed, power and toughness.  George earned four consecutive trips to the Pro Bowl from 1998 to 2001 and led the AFC Champion Titans to Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000.  He finished his NFL career in 2004 as a member of the Dallas Cowboys. He is one of only 30 players in NFL history to rush for 10,000 yards.

Harrington – once nicknamed “Joey Heisman” after a well-known Times Square billboard campaign – was a three-year starter at quarterback for the Oregon Ducks.  During his senior year in 2001, Harrington threw for 2,414 yards and 23 touchdowns to help lead the Ducks to a Pac-10 Conference Title and a victory in the Fiesta Bowl. Harrington was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award that season.  He was also named Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year and first team All-American.  He finished his college career with a 25-3 record. 

 The Detroit Lions drafted Harrington with the third overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft.  Harrington played for the Lions through the 2005 season before stints with the Miami Dolphins, Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints.  After his days in the NFL, Harrington started his broadcast career FOX Sports Radio in 2009 as an NFL and college football analyst.  In 2010, he joined the Oregon Sports Network as an analyst during Ducks football games.

In addition to broadcasting 13 consecutive weeks of regular-season action, including 12 prime time games and seven doubleheaders, FOX Sports boasts exclusive coverage of college football’s Pac-12 Conference Football Championship Game on Friday, Nov. 30 (8:00 PM ET) followed by the Big Ten Conference Football Championship Game on Saturday, Dec. 1 (8:00 PM ET).  FOX Sports wraps up its 2012-13 campaign with an exciting Big 12/SEC match-up in the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic live from Cowboys Stadium on Friday, Jan. 4 (8:00 PM ET).

The man who created Fox Sports is moving on. Things won’t be the same.

From the release:

David Hill, who has served as Chairman and CEO of Fox Sports since 1999, has been elevated to Senior Executive Vice President, News Corporation. In this new role Mr. Hill will focus on programming, digital initiatives and other opportunities spanning the breadth of the Company’s operating units across Latin America, Asia, Australia, Europe and the U.S. Mr. Hill will be based in Los Angeles.

“After 30 years spent building our sports businesses into global leaders, I’ve been eager to dive into a broader role that enables me to hunt down untapped programming, investment and digital opportunities all over the world. From sports rights in emerging markets to new overseas digital channels, this new role will allow me to explore and experiment with new programming concepts across the whole of News Corporation in a completely new way,” said Mr. Hill. “I am immensely proud of the work we’ve done to revolutionize the television business, both in the U.S. and in Europe, and I leave Fox Sports in an amazing position, with a great team in place led by Randy and Eric.”

Randy and Eric would be Fox Sports co-presidents Randy Freer and Eric Shanks. Big shoes to fill there.

Yeah, that game sucked. All I can say is that I wonder why Justin Verlander doesn’t pitch that way against the White Sox.

However, surprise, surprise. Despite the National League’s 8-0 victory, ratings for the All-Star Game actually were up 3 percent. Fox did an 8.1 overnight rating, marking the first increase for an All-Star Game in four years.

So that’s the good news for Fox and baseball. Here’s the bad news: Clearly, the rating would have been much higher with a better game.

It was a snoozefest with the American League hitters looking feeble against the NL pitchers. I half-expected Commissioner Bud Selig to reset the score to 0-0 after four innings in an effort to lure back viewers.

It’s been an interesting day for Tom Hoffarth in the wake of his scathing column on Erin Andrews and Fox Sports. To say the least.

The Los Angeles Daily News sports columnist has received plenty of reaction from readers and the blog/Twitter world.

While I thought Hoffarth made some valid points, I was among the people who felt he was overly harsh in his assessment of Andrews. He had this response in an email to me:

Don’t think Tom Hoffarth will be part of the official Los Angeles welcoming committee for Erin Andrews.

The long-time Los Angeles Daily News columnist obliterated Andrews and her hiring by Fox Sports in a scathing column Friday. He predicts an implosion will be the end result of this match.

Hoffarth threw the first grenade. He called her a “sweet-as-pie sideline maven,” and described her delivery as being full of “nasally vapid words.”

And it gets worse. He writes:

The assumption is someone at Fox watched Andrews carom through week after week as solo host of the early expanded version on ESPN’s “College GameDay,” given an hour to read off her notes and awkwardly ad-lib on ESPNU before the real crew came to start the party. And they still hired her, apparently distracted enough into thinking she did a real swell job.

A few weeks ago, Hoffarth did a superb package on women in sports media tied to the 40th anniversary of Title IX. With that in mind, he writes:

Circle back to the piece we did a couple of weeks ago about Title IX, creating a list of the 40 women in the sports media over the past 40 years who raised the bar in the business.

We sought feedback from a few trusted people who work in the sports media to make sure we hadn’t left anyone out or given someone too much credit.

Only one suggested we find a way to add Andrews. But in pointing out that “raise the bar” requirement, and already having a top tier of female sideline reporters in Lesley Visser, Andrea Kremer, Bonnie Bernstein, Doris Burke, Jeannine Edwards, Jamie Little, Lisa Salters, Michele Tafoya, Jeanne Zelasko or Suzy Kolber, it was pretty clear Andrews was not part of this ya-ya circle.

In a sideline beauty pageant against the likes (and dislikes) of Melissa Stark, Lisa Guerrero, Jenn Brown or Jill Arrington, then Andrews wins – and not just on Miss Congeniality points.

Naturally, Hoffarth is catching plenty of heat for the column.  The Big Lead’s Ty Duffy had problems with it.

I have to say I agree. Hoffarth definitely has some valid points, but I think he was overly harsh in his judgement of Andrews.

While I don’t think Andrews is Diane Sawyer, I do think she has some skills and a presence, an essential quality for any TV sports personality, male or female. Naturally, it helps immensely that she’s good looking, but you need much more than that to succeed.

Surely, there will be more on Erin Andrews. There always is.