Dick Ebersol was one of the most accessible executives in any realm, sports or otherwise, during his tenure as head of NBC Sports. He knew the importance of the media. However, more than that, he genuinely liked to talk to anyone who was interested in the business.

Ebersol, though, has taken a decidedly low profile since leaving the spotlight. He feels it is someone else’s turn.

That’s why it is great to see Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal run a package of stories on Ebersol in advance of him being awarded its Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2015 Sports Business Awards.

John Ourand did a profile of Ebersol that gets to the core of his success: Building relationships. Everyone has a story about dealing with Ebersol. Here’s mine:

In August, 2008, I took a buyout from the Chicago Tribune. One day, my phone rings and it is Ebersol calling from Beijing, where he was immersed in the 2008 Summer Olympics. Even though he was way beyond busy, he wanted to take a minute to acknowledge my coverage of NBC and sports media and to wish me well in future endeavors. The call was much appreciated and speaks to Ebersol as a person.

There’s more from Ourand.

Ebersol was a demanding boss — a hardcore negotiator who inspired fear among people who were not part of his inner circle — but his closest friends use words to describe their friendship with Ebersol that they would use to describe their marriage: love, loyalty, affection.

Former NBA Commissioner David Stern describes their first meeting as “love at first sight.” Former MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, who still sees Ebersol a few times a year, says, “I cannot tell you my enormous affection and respect for him.” Even Vince McMahon, the rugged chairman and CEO of WWE who first met Ebersol in the mid-1980s, sounds smitten when talking about Ebersol. “I just love the guy,” McMahon says. “It’s funny when men say that about other men. But he’s the kind of guy you can say that about.”

These types of comments don’t surprise anyone who has spent time with Ebersol. Former colleagues and clients say the bulk of Ebersol’s conversations never had anything to do with business. Instead, Ebersol takes the time to learn about what makes people tick and has the ability to retain much of that information for future conversations, according to nearly everyone interviewed for this story.

“The foundation of all of those relationships had little to do with his business accomplishments,” said longtime NBC Sports colleague Ken Schanzer. “The bulk of the time we spent together was talking about all of the things that make the rest of your life meaningful. I suspect that is the baseline of most of his relationships.”

Ourand also has a passage on the ill-fated XFL and how it still had an impact in coverage of the NFL.

Ebersol embraces his mistakes, and the bonds that were formed while making them. Fourteen years after the XFL launched its first and only season, Ebersol still beams when he talks about the league, which he calls “a fantastic failure.” As with many failures, the XFL spawned innovations that still are being used today.

Ebersol mentioned Skycam, which was popularized during NBC’s telecast of XFL games. He recalls hearing that a former NFL executive, the late Val Pinchbeck, said at the time that the NFL would never allow cameras over or onto the field. A few short years later, of course, it did.

Like Ebersol, other executives who were with NBC at the time also remember the XFL’s “fantastic failure” warmly.

“One of the things that I’ve learned from Dick is that you don’t always win,” said Zaslav, who first worked with Ebersol in the mid-’90s. “With the XFL, he put it all out there. That was unbelievably ambitious. He fought like hell. He gave a big part of his heart and soul and sweat and life to it — along with a whole bunch of the sports team. Dick’s proud of that. That’s what life’s about. Everything doesn’t work. It was a great swing. We all loved it. We all had the [XFL] hats. We all were rooting for Dick. But it didn’t work out.”

McMahon said one of the things he most remembers about the XFL is the amount of fun he had doing it with Ebersol, even as the league was going down the tubes. “It was certainly worth the gamble on both our parts,” McMahon said. “It would have been huge if it took off.”

Joe Delessio of Sports on Earth compiled a top 10 list of memorable sports moments with David Letterman.

You’ll need to read the story to find out Delessio’s choice for No. 1. However, No. 9 brought back a lot of memories.

This one didn’t make Delessio’s list, but during his appearance, Joe Garagiola brought out a surprise guest: Ted Williams.

With the White Sox retiring Paul Konerko’s number Saturday, the team’s tribute book figures to be a hot seller.

“14” is a glossy book featuring photos and stories from Konerko’s career on the South Side. The introduction of “14,” edited by senior vice-president of communications Scott Reifert, says the team was inundated with fans requests for a book after his emotional final weekend at U.S. Cellular Field.

“After 16 seasons, he considered every fan a friend. So this publication is a farewell to a friend,” the book says.

The photos, many of them taken by team photographer Ron Vesely, capture Konerko during various points of his 16-year career with the Sox. There’s even a shot of Konerko, hardly known for his speed, running the bases for an inside-the-park homer.

The book includes a nice two-page spread with thank-you tweets from fans during Konerko’s big celebration night from the final weekend last September.

“14” is available for $35 (plus $5 shipping/handling fee) through whitesox.com/PKbook. Proceeds from the sale of the book benefit Chicago White Sox Charities.

Say what you want about Bill Simmons, he certainly developed a quality site in Grantland. This farewell note Bill Barnwell posted on Twitter speaks to the impact he had on the staff.

The note shows Barnwell and others likely would follow him if Simmons wanted to launch a similar Grantland elsewhere.

Nice addition. Congratulations to Kevin.

From the Post sports editor Matt Vita:

 We are very excited to announce that Kevin Blackistone, a veteran journalist and educator, will be writing regular commentary for the Sports section on topics ranging from our local sports teams to the relationship between sports and major social issues. He’ll also be a contributor to Post TV.

Kevin has a long and distinguished career in journalism and is currently a commentator for ESPN and a regular panelist on ESPN’s popular weekday show, “Around the Horn.” He’s worked as a reporter for the Boston Globe and Dallas Morning News, where he covered national and regional economics for the business section before being named a sports columnist. In addition to his television work for ESPN, Kevin also has written in the digital arena, for AOL Fanhouse, the Daily tablet and the Guardian.com. He’s the author of a 2009 memoir of former NFL player Everson Wall’s decision to become an organ donor for longtime teammate Ron Springs and he has published numerous academic papers on sports topics, many of which have focused on the lives of black athletes.

In recent years, Kevin has served as a teacher and mentor to aspiring journalists as a visiting professor at the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism at the University of Maryland. And as a longtime resident of our area, Kevin is familiar – he might say too familiar – with the trials and tribulations of local professional and college sports teams.

This rich and distinguished background, coupled with Kevin’s thoughtfulness about the issues that matter where sports and society intersect – coupled with his grace as a writer — will provide our readers with a dynamic new voice and perspective.

Spanning the globe to provide the constant variety of sport media…

I know there has to be a reason for the abrupt timing of ESPN announcing that Bill Simmons is done at the network last Friday. James Andrew Miller, who knows all things ESPN, details for Vanity Fair how it was Simmons’ interview with Dan Patrick that set everything in motion.

 The chief reason there was an abrupt announcement last week and that a drama-free, buddy-buddy ending didn’t happen is painfully simple, and simply painful: it was all because of Simmons’s latest appearance on the Dan Patrick Show, and his seemingly gratuitous slam at N.F.L. commissioner Goodell. He had performed a similar routine last fall, calling Goodell a “liar” on his own podcast, and earned a three-week suspension. Once was forgiven; twice was Bugs Bunny declaring, “Of course, you know: this means war.”

Simmons seems like a bright guy. Considering all he’s been through with ESPN, there could be little doubt as to how management would regard his decisions to (a) go back on Patrick’s show (for years, ESPN didn’t allow any of its talent on the show because Patrick, a onetimeSportsCenter anchor, often doesn’t pull punches when trashing his alma mater) and (b) declare the commissioner to be lacking “testicular fortitude.” You almost have to admire Simmons’s own qualities in that department in doing so. Behold, a guy with so many options for future employment that he didn’t think twice about committing professionalhara-kiri.

Skipper cut the cord the very next day.

The Big Lead staff lists its top 25 people in sports media. And the winner is…? Not to be a spoiler, but his last name rhymes with Timmons. Here are a couple of others on the list.

18. Paul Finebaum, ESPN/SEC Network – He was profiled by the New Yorker, and that was before he became a multimedia presence on ESPN and the SEC Network. His radio show is a focal point for college football fans and media members. He can alter the sport’s national discussion with aninterview, a hot bit of gossip, an offhand comment or a tweet.

17. Jason Whitlock, ESPN. Former columnist and radio host is running an ESPN site on race, sports and culture. Polarizing is probably the word that fits him best. Truth is, that’s a good thing in the sports media if the goal is to maximize your exposure. The majority of folks on this list have a love/hate relationship with their audience.

16. Dan Patrick, NBC Sports. One of the few success stories of high-profile media members to leave ESPN and land on his feet. He hosts a daily radio show — of which interviews regularly become ensconced in the news cycle — as well as Sports Jeopardy, and has studio roles for the Olympics and Sunday Night Football.

Old high school pal Bob Kravitz tells Ben Mullin of Poynter that he hasn’t told his wife who his source was for the Deflategate story.

After you broke the story, there was a lot of speculation about the identity of your source. Was it hard to protect his or her identity?

Not in the least. My wife doesn’t even know. She thinks she knows, but I’m not going to tell her whether she’s right or wrong.

But no. Protecting your source is really, really easy. You just shut your fucking mouth. That’s all you do. You just keep your mouth shut and let people guess. It’s actually kind of enjoyable because people have been so consistently wrong in trying to figure out who it is.

Welch Suggs, writing for Medium.com, gives his reasons why he is not a fan of Simmons.

Despite all the good storytelling and journalism with which he’s been associated, Simmons is not a journalist. He may know a lot about pro basketball, but his knowledge and perspective do not come from covering the sport and learning how it works the way journalists do. ESPN employs a lot of talking heads, and at his worst, Simmons has been just another one of those.

I tell my students over and over again that their opinions do not matter; their judgment based on reporting and evidence-gathering does. Obviously a lot of consumers (and producers) of sports media do not value reporting the way I do, but I truly believe that if you’re not there interacting with the people you’re discussing, what value are you adding to the conversation? If you aren’t, you’re writing or talking about merely what’s going on in your own head, and for the overwhelming majority of people the overwhelmingly majority of the time, it isn’t all that interesting.

Michael Bradley weighs in on Bill Simmons’ future at the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana.

Perhaps he cobbles together a Sports Guy fiefdom that includes a little bit of everything, and he becomes a sports and entertainment Medici of sorts, his influence touching a wide range of fields. Or, he casts in with another company and helps it launch a legitimate challenge to ESPN. The most important thing for those of us who have enjoyed his work is that he keeps producing. Don’t stop the mailbags. Keep the films coming. Stay on TV. There’s a lot left for Simmons to do. He must now carry on without the air cover of sports’ biggest squadron. That isn’t going to be easy to do. But carry on he must.

Ken Fang of Awful Announcing did a Q/A with Jeremy Schaap about his E:60 story on Sepp Blatter.

JS: I’m pretty sure the first serious discussions we had about this were back in October or November and since then, I’ve been doing some other stuff, producers have been doing other stuff, but it’s been almost a full-time job for the past six months. There must be 40 hours of interviews we conducted with people who made the piece, obviously people who didn’t make the piece, people who were interviewed off-camera back and forth in four or five different countries and here in the U.S. and we’ve been in edit for a long time too.

The hardest part of this type of process is when you have a show like this is that is seems daunting at the beginning, but you realize very quickly when you have these riches of material the hardest part is going to be deciding what not to include and that’s what we’ve been doing actually for the last week or so figuring out what not to include.

Andrew Bucholtz of Awful Announcing examines the possible replacements for Scott Van Pelt on his radio show.

Russilo on his own:  Russilo’s been doing the show with Van Pelt for the last five years, and he has substantial ESPN Radio experience from before that period too. Letting him fly solo, even if just for a test period, might provide the most continuity for the show’s enthusiastic fanbase, and it sounds like Van Pelt is encouraging that option. Of course, there are some issues with this as well. For one, Russilo’s contract is expiring this year. For another, single-host radio can carry its own challenges, especially in a big and prominent timeslot that’s been key for ESPN over the years. Beyond that, Van Pelt is such a popular sports figure and such a key part of that show that replacing him with no one may feel like a downgrade. That’s why it may make sense to bring in another host to work with Russilo. 

Jeff Pearlman did an interview with CBSSports.com baseball writer Jon Heyman.

J.P.: With so many people covering the Majors, how do you get scoops? Is it a matter of calling, calling, calling? Establishing relationships? Timing? Gut?

J.H.: Now it’s more often texting, texting, texting. But calling is still important, oftentimes to clear up cryptic texts and make sure I understand the message. It’s also important to get to know folks. It would take some special texting ability and cleverness to form a relationship without actually speaking to the person. This is far from brain surgery, as we’ve seen 18-yar-old kids breaking stories on Twitter. I’m not pretending what I do is Woodward and Bernstein stuff by any means, but I’d think generally getting exclusives is about some combination of 1) having a knack; 2) having natural curiosity; 3) hard work.

ESPN is busy this week. The network announced several moves.

–Scott Van Pelt will be the solo anchor for ESPN’s weeknight editions of “SportsCenter” at 11 p.m. As a result of the move, Van Pelt will give up his “SVP & Russillo” midday radio show.

“It was going to take something remarkable for me to consider a day that didn’t include radio, and this would qualify,” said Van Pelt, who joined ESPN in 2001. “To be allowed and empowered to bring some of the sensibility of radio to this space is fantastic.”

–The “Mike & Mike” show, which is heard locally on WMVP, will be moving to New York next February. The network says the move will enable the morning show to tap into more entertainment and pop culture aspects. Members of ABC’s “Good Morning America” also will make appearances on the show.

–ESPN is adding two additional hours of live “SportsCenter” in the morning. Starting next February, “SportsCenter AM” will air from 6-8 a.m. ESPN says the show will have a fast-paced format.

Bill Simmons’ pending departure from ESPN generated considerable fireworks. However, the man who hired him and numerous people who became big names at the network, John Walsh, retired without much fanfare in February. Few people had more impact on ESPN than Walsh.

So I was pleased to see James Andrew Miller’s terrific piece on Walsh for Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal.

An excerpt:

From the start, Walsh saw “SportsCenter” as not just a 30-minute daily “results” show but as the gateway to all future roads for ESPN. During his consultancy he wrote extensive memos about his plans for fixing “SC” to Bornstein and to then-president Roger Werner. Although Walsh arrived at ESPN fully schooled in journalism (holding an English degree from the University of Scranton and a master’s in journalism from the University of Missouri), Bornstein could see that if Walsh was going to create a new era for “SportsCenter,” he’d have to learn a lot more about television than he knew. So Bornstein joined Walsh at the hip with director of production Steve Anderson, the two quickly becoming best friends and staying that way through the present day, working together on new ideas and innovations to make “SportsCenter” the jewel in ESPN’s crown.

For six months in 1988, Walsh interviewed ESPN personnel, followed by a year of experimenting with the “SportsCenter” format: making changes, changing the changes, then sometimes changing them back again.

Guided partly by his own sharp instincts as a fan, Walsh realized that he had always felt cheated by the perfunctory way local TV stations reported sports on their 11 p.m. newscasts. He decided that “SportsCenter,” as ESPN’s flagship show, should represent a huge improvement. He saw the revamped show as a virtual gathering place where sports fans could “assemble” every night, not just to hang out but to learn something. He did it with better reporting, deeper coverage and a ton more highlights.

Fine-tuning “SportsCenter” to the smallest detail, Walsh reimagined every aspect of the show and imposed high standards and practices where sloppy had frequently ruled. Editorial meetings became a powerful force. He instituted the then-bold notion that the beginning of “SportsCenter” should look like the front page of a sports section, with a multitude of sports up top rather than just plodding doggedly down the line from sport to sport. Walsh and Anderson established talent and production teams that worked together to deliver consistency, and Walsh brought on more reporters to do features and news, along with expert analysts like Peter Gammons for baseball, thus bringing additional value aboard.