I had an unusual experience last night.

I was at an event benefitting the First Tee of Chicago. Luke Donald was the host, and he was joined by Steve Stricker, Mark Wilson and Mark Rolfing.

Among the auction items was art by LeRoy Neiman on the upcoming Ryder Cup at Medinah in September. Included was a giant golf ball painted by Neiman.

Benjamin Isaacs, a terrific man who worked with Neiman as CEO of Cobalt Artworks, greeted us during the cocktail reception. He was excited about Neiman’s work for the Ryder Cup. He took out a camera phone and showed us a picture of the great artist recently celebrating his 91st birthday.

“Isn’t it amazing at 91 he’s still painting?” Isaacs said.

A couple hours later, Isaacs, ashen-faced, came up to me and put his hands on my shoulders. “LeRoy just passed away,” he said.

It was surreal in that prior to meeting Isaacs earlier this year I had no connection to Neiman. Then suddenly myself and others had to console someone who was very close to him.

Isaacs composed himself and gave a beautiful speech to the crowd, paying tribute to Neiman. It reminded everyone what a huge figure he was in sports.

Neiman showed there is more to documenting sports than through words, video and pictures. His iconic art, detailing the great games and events and athletes of the last 50-plus years, also defined a generation of sports in his own unique way.

From the obituary in the Wall Street Journal:

Neiman was fascinated with large game animals, and twice traveled to Kenya to paint lions and elephants “in the bush” in his trademark vibrant palette.

But it was the essence of a basketball or football game, swim meet or cycling event that captured his imagination most.

“For an artist, watching a (Joe) Namath throw a football or a Willie Mays hit a baseball is an experience far more overpowering than painting a beautiful woman or leading political figure,” Neiman said in 1972.

With his sketchbook and pencil, trademark handlebar mustache and slicked back hair, Neiman was instantly recognizable.

At a New York Jets game at Shea Stadium in 1975, fans yelled, “Put LeRoy in,” when the play wasn’t going their way.

A New Daily News story has several pictures of Neiman with athletes, including his most famous subject, Muhammad Ali. From the story:

Muhammad Ali was his favorite subject, and he once explained to the Daily News’  Bill Gallo why he was drawn to larger-than-life figures.

“It’s not the act of arrogance to draw, it’s humbling – you must use your  God-given talent. And of all the people I sketch, in most cases I feel I have to  measure up to the subject,” he said.

From a PR blurb about next Rock Center with Brian Williams (NBC, Thursday, 10 p.m. ET):

As the trial of Jerry Sandusky goes to the jury, exclusive new details on the story “Rock Center” has dominated from the start.

Interesting to see if the show addresses some of controversy over the unused portion of the original Bob Costas-Jerry Sandusky interview.

*****

Speaking of Mr. Costas, he has a new show tonight on NBC Sports Network.

Tennis legend John McEnroe, Bill Maher, host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, and Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick are scheduled to join Bob Costas, a 23-time Emmy Award-winning journalist and one of America’s preeminent interviewers, on the latest edition of Costas Tonight, a 60-minute interview program, to air on Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.

Can’t wait to see Costas interview Bill Maher.

*****

SI.com’s Richard Deitsch did an interview Poynter Review Project, the group that is ESPN’s de-facto ombudsman. A passage:

SI.com: Let me read you something written by John Carvalho, who is an  associate professor of journalism at Auburn University. I’m sure you’ve read  this. In describing the relationship between ESPN and the Poynter Review  Project, Carvalho wrote: “In practice, the arrangement seems to be  having little effect on how ESPN conducts its conflict-of-interest-filled daily  business.” How would you respond?

Dunlap: I think that goes back to what we discussed earlier about what  effect we are having on ESPN. I think it’s clear that we are having an effect on  ESPN, and probably clearest to ESPN. It might not be as clear to others looking  from the outside, and I think also the kind of work we are doing will be  measured over time. So there are some changes in policy now, and I think there  are some things that will happen outside of us as they go forward. I don’t think  that criticism is valid.

Buckley: Well, one of the things that we said is ESPN is a web of  conflicts of interest. We have said that more than once in the pieces that we  have written. I think where I would disagree with the professor is that is I  think we have been able to compel, urge, exhort ESPN to think much more deeply  and carefully about those conflicts. Again, I don’t want to sound defensive, but  I think the professor is asking us to prove a negative in that we don’t have any  sense of the things that ESPN does not do or does more thoughtfully because of  the work the Project has done.

*******

Joe Favorito writes about the upcoming 25th anniversary of WFAN.

Like other ventures, sports talk 24/7 was seen as the latest sign of the apocalypse. it could not sell as a stand-alone, it wasn’t like an ESPN because there was not that much to do with audio, but WFAN grew, and grew, moved down the dial to replace WNBC Radio at the powerful 660 spot, and now the audio side of sports, with over 300 sports talk radio stations across the country, countless blogtalk opportunities, college and high school sports radio and podcasts, have made sports audio bigger as a genre than ever before.

Now the ability to record and download interviews or shows tailored to our niche listening preferences makes sports audio in North America more valuable than ever before as a tool. If you miss NPR’s great “Only A Game” show on Saturday mornings at 7 don’t worry, download it and listen later. President Obama wants to reach a diverse male audience, go on a podcast with Bill Simmons. You want to get all-MMA all the time, try “Fight Club” on Sirius. All Fantasy Sports? There are many stops to listen to that as well.

I’ll have more on WFAN’s anniversary next week.

Thanks to Ken Fang of Fang’s Bites and Keith Thibault of Sports Media Journal for having me on the 103rd edition of their Sports Media Weekly podcast.

Both guys do a great job breaking down the latest in sports media each week and always have interesting guests. It was nice of them to think of me.

I also appreciate getting top billing for the podcast since their second guest is Michelle Beadle. Considering she is the hottest thing in sports media right now, it sort of felt like a marquee that had Tom Dressen’s name over Frank Sinatra’s.

Listening to Beadle, you can see why she resonates with viewers. Besides having opinions, she’s entertaining and doesn’t take herself too seriously.

Beadle had this response to all the Internet speculation about her future:

I read the Internet every day. It’s very bizarre to be reading about yourself. I wanted to correct people (with wrong information), but I couldn’t. I had to be silent. Every once in a while, I’m thinking, ‘Who are they talking about?’

Beadle said she chose to leave ESPN because NBC offers her multiple platforms for her talents. They include a new sports show on the NBC Sports Network. She said it would be “an opinion-based show.”

She said, “I want to have opinions on sports.”

Making the rounds as the NBA and the networks continue to pray for Miami to beat Indiana:

Reload: Don’t look for ESPN to fret about losing Michelle Beadle or anyone else for that matter. I found this comment from ESPN president John Skipper in USA Today to be very telling:

Getting excited about people leaving is very overrated — whether it be executives or on-air. Mostly it gives somebody else a chance to shine. I can’t think of a single instance where losing a talent has been significantly debilitating to a specific program. I don’t think we’ve ever canceled a program because we couldn’t find somebody to do it.

In other words, ESPN plans on finding another Michelle Beadle.

Redhead return: SportsbyBrooks is reporting that Bill Walton will return to the analyst’s chair. Reportedly, the former UCLA great will lend his expertise for ESPN’s coverage of the Pac 12. Walton had cut back on his broadcast duties because of chronic back problems.

I know Walton’s style irritates a lot of people, but I like him. It’ll be good to have him back.

Golf Channel shift: Erik Kuselias is gone as a co-host of the Golf Channel’s Morning Drive? He did a tweet over the weekend saying he is moving up to Connecticut to work for the NBC Sports Network.

As for Kuselias’ replacement, Jimmy Roberts is handling the duties this week. I’d be a big fan of him getting the job on a permanent basis. Great guy, and he knows golf.

Making the rounds on the NBA, Skip Bayless, Lakers and KCAL, and Jason La Canfora.

The NBA nearly had a big weekend with three game 7s. Instead, it has only one with Lakers-Denver after Chicago and Atlanta blew opportunities to take their series home for the grand finale.

Losing Chicago, the No. 1 seed, was a big blow for the networks and the NBA. Even without Derrick Rose, the Bulls have more drawing power than Philadelphia. Also, I don’t see the 76ers giving Boston much of a series. The 76ers might be the worst team ever to win a playoff series. Yes, I’m bitter in Chicago.

Go Heat: Let’s see, which team will the networks and the NBA be rooting for in the Miami-Indiana series? I expect commissioner David Stern to show up in a Heat jersey.

More Skip: Mel Bracht of the Oklahoman has an interview with native son Skip Bayless. The First Take star insists he loves the Thunder even though his hometown thinks otherwise:

I want to make it very clear that contrary to unpopular opinion in the state  of Oklahoma,  I am a huge Thunder fan. I’m obviously a native Oklahoman born and bred, and  when I die, I’ll be Sooner dead. I still love the state as much as I love my  mother who lives in Oklahoma City.

I root for the Thunder, and yet from the distance I offer constructive  criticism. I don’t trust the Westbrook-Durant dynamic in crucial playoff games. Russell  Westbrook seems like a fine kid but he is a two guard masquerading as a  point guard. I don’t think he wants to do it, and I think in their heart of  hearts, they don’t want him to be their point guard, and it just happened and he  has to try to be. And yet in pivotal situations, I don’t trust his instincts  because his instincts are mainly to shoot it.

Good-bye: Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County-Star writes that after 35 years, the Lakers will be leaving KCAL. Next year, they begin their deal with the new Time-Warner sports outlet in LA.

Carlisle writes:

It’s still sad to see the Lakers leave broadcast TV altogether by dumping KCAL,  and leaving its original cable TV home, a network that came into being primarily  to show the Lakers.

Carlisle also writes how Fox Sports West is handling the break-up. Not well:

While KCAL has remained rather civil about its breakup, Fox’s relationship  with the Lakers has been on the rocks most of the season. Earlier this season,  Fox did what heretofore would have been unthinkable: It showed two Angels games  on FS West and farmed the Lakers out to Prime Ticket (the channel originally  known as Fox Sports West 2 and was later given the name of FSW’s  predecessor).

The Lakers had always taken precedence over any other team when Fox had  conflicts. But now, since the Angels have a contract with FS West and the Lakers  no longer do, Fox had few qualms about sending Kobe Bryant and his friends off  to another network.

Not only that, but have you noticed how the little watermark logo in the  upper-right corner of the screen that used to say “FS Lakers” has been replaced  with the more generic “FS West”?

It’s like an estranged father saying “I have no son! You are dead to me!”

Decision: CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus tells Michael Hiestand why the network decided to hire Jason La Canfora as its insider, dumping Charley Casserly in the process. Hiestand writes:

“Charley was terrific,” says CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus. “But when I watched Jason, I was amazed at the information he developed. I was looking to be more aggressive seven days a week.” La Canfora also will work on the CBS Sports Network cable channel and cbssports.com. CBSSN, says McManus, “will relatively shortly be doing greatly expanded NFL programming” — with a Sunday pregame show “a possibility.” As for La Canfora’s role on CBS’ pregame show, “we haven’t decided yet. We’re not locked into anything.

I haven’t been comfortable with many outlets linking Junior Seau’s suicide to the concussions that he suffered playing football.

Yes, it certainly can be a plausible reason. However, I think the discussion overlooks the bigger reason: Depression.

You don’t need to be a football player to suffer from depression. The condition has affected my family, and I’m betting it has impacted somebody who is close to you.

Detroit News columnist Chris McCoskey wrote about his battles with depression Tuesday. I knew Chris back in the early 90s when I covered college football for the Chicago Tribune and he was on the Michigan beat. Nice guy, always seemed upbeat.

Little did I know that he was going through personal turmoil. He writes:

I was diagnosed in 1991 and spent a year or longer playing the pharmacology  game, but after countless changes in drug and dosage, I threw the pills away.  All those things ever did was give me constipation and dry mouth. Nothing like a  little constipation and dry mouth to heal a person’s aching soul.

My life was falling apart. My first marriage was failing. My  ever-understanding employer at the time found out what I was struggling with and  terminated my employment. I could have fought that and won, but it would’ve cost  too much and ultimately killed my career.

Plus, I had a bigger, more important fight on my hands.

McCoskey writes about an episode where he considered suicide while driving in a car. He also details his on-going struggles.

More importantly, McCoskey tries to explain about a condition few people truly understand. He writes.

People with depression can’t always just “turn that frown upside down.” They  can’t always just suck it up. It’s a dark, overwhelming place sometimes. And a  lot of us suffer alone because we are ashamed. We feel stupid. How can a person  be incapable of having fun? Any moron knows how to have a good time.

It’s almost impossible to talk about it to regular people (bosses, spouses,  friends). They can’t fathom how somebody in good physical health, with a good  job, with kids who love them, who seems relatively normal on the outside, can be  terminally unhappy.

And when you try to explain it, you come off sounding so pathetic, so weak  and whiney, even to yourself — it’s just easier, though infinitely more harmful,  to suffer in silence.

Junior Seau wasn’t sad when he pointed that gun to his chest. He wasn’t being  a coward. He wasn’t being selfish. He was sick.

Congratulations to Chris for having the courage to speak out. This is an important story. Read it and then pass it on.

New Sun-Times editor Jim Kirk has weighed in on Joe Cowley.

Cowley has been under considerable fire since a series of offensive tweets about women went viral on Sunday. He is getting pounded from many points on the Internet.

Kirk, who was named editor last week, is quoted in a Chicago Tribune story:

“Recently, a reporter in our newsroom, Joe Cowley, made offensive comments on his Twitter account. The Chicago Sun-Times is an institution with important social responsibilities, and we expect those who represent our paper to act with the respect and sensitivity that our readers deserve. Mr. Cowley’s remarks were offensive and he has been reprimanded appropriately.”

Cowley continues to write for the Sun-Times.. He has done three stories since Sunday.  He still is listed as a columnist on the Sun-Times’ site. His last column in his archive is from April 22.

Deadspin did an original post on Cowley’s twitter exchange with a woman sportswriter Sunday. It has followed up with two more posts.

Various other outlets have weighed in, blasting Cowley.

This thing was so, so unnecessary. It still is mind-boggling to me that Tiger Woods and his camp put him in position to look bad again.

As I noted yesterday, Woods did a 14-minute video on his site, reading and answering questions from his followers. The idea is for Woods to have more of a direct connection with his fans. Great.

Here’s the kicker: His social media session will serve as Woods’ only pre-tournament comments prior to this week’s Wells Fargo Championship. He won’t be meeting with the golf media in Charlotte until after he plays the first round Thursday.

The weird media strategy has ignited a firestorm. The frosty relationship between Woods and the golf media has gone further in the deep freeze.

Here’s more reaction:

Robert Lusetich of Foxsports.com writes:

It’s disturbing that Steinberg and Woods have seen fit to substitute their homemade, modern-day homage to the old Soviet TASS news broadcasts for an independent press conference.

It’s a decision that reeks of paranoia; a clumsy attempt at controlling the message. It also gives the impression — rightly or wrongly — that Woods wants to dodge tough questions, perhaps about his implosion at Augusta or about revelations in “The Big Miss,” the tell-all written by his estranged coach, Hank Haney.

Randall Mell of Golfchannel.com writes:

The Tiger Woods fan presser Monday wasn’t exactly riveting fare.

You could call it a clinic on “The Art of the 2-Foot Putt.”

Or maybe just “The Big Miss II.”

As questions go, they were all 2-footers. It was about as much fun as watching Woods line up gimmes all day on the practice putting green. It must have been easier than shooting reporters in a barrel, uh, I mean fish in a barrel.

Shane Bacon of CBSsportline.com writes:

Woods can do whatever he wants, and he almost always does, but if the guy really wants to reach the public in a different way, maybe he should work on his ability to answer a question properly in the media room and not what to say to a camera on questions you and your team are able to choose. It just seems that a move made for public relations isn’t going to help, but actually hurt his image in the long run.

Jeff Rude of Golfweek offered his unique twist as only he can. He did a version of the Q/A he wished had taken place.

Q: Considering you won 51 percent of your PGA Tour starts from July 2006 to the day you hit that hydrant in 2009, what was so bad about that “wipey” swing anyway? – H. Haney, Dallas

TW: I’m afraid whatever I say here will end up in a book somewhere.

• • •

• Q: Can you please watch the kids June 14-17? – E. Nordegren, North Palm Beach, Fla.

TW: Maybe on Saturday and Sunday.

• • •

• Q: Is it possible I can pick the movies the next time we room together? – Z. Johnson, Sea Island, Ga.

TW: What would they be rated?

• • •

• Q: Are you still mad at me? – S. Williams, Auckland, New Zealand.

TW: Yes.

Yell fore, Tiger Woods, because you just hit–to quote the title of a certain book–a Big Miss.

This time, it comes in the form of the former No. 1 doing a Q/A with fans on his website Monday rather than meeting with the media in advance of this week’s Quail Hollow Championship in Charlotte.

Here is a link to the so-called press conference.

Basically, it is Woods first reading the question and then supplying the answer. The difficult (not!) queries include:

How many practice rounds do you play before a tournament?

What do you think is the coolest trophy among the four majors? (A: Claret Jug)

Do you have a good chance of winning?

The video session lasted 14 minutes, and surprise, surprise, it included two sponsor-related questions that produced nice plugs. His public just has to know about Fuze.

Naturally, Woods’ critics pounced. Geoff Shackelford wrote:

Love the minimalist hostage video and echoey (sound)…The only thing missing is Tiger holding up today’s paper.

Stina Sternberg of Golf Digest did this tweet:

Downloading Tiger’s video for those sleepless nights when counting sheep doesn’t work.

Jason Sobel of GolfChannel.com said.

Boy, that Tiger Woods is a swell guy.

He obviously knows how overworked we in the golf media are on a week-in, week-out basis. He undoubtedly understands our difficulties in trying to ask and re-ask new, exciting interview questions in hopes of writing and rewriting new, exciting pieces about him.

(Your sarcasm detector should be beeping feverishly by now…)

And so what has Tiger done for all of the hardworking members of the press focused on his every move? He gave us the day off.

Prior to most tournaments, Woods usually meets with the media in an interview area just off the green following Wednesday’s pro-am. It usually lasts 10 minutes tops.

Why couldn’t he have done both the fan Q/A and his media Q/A this week? I don’t think it would have been that taxing.

And it would have saved him from taking more shots from his critics.