Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports media…

Vin Scully: Tom Hoffarth reports that Vin Scully, who only does home games, won’t be able to see road games on the new Dodgers network. He is a DirecTV subscriber, and the outlet doesn’t have a deal with Sports Net LA.

Yes, we’re going to play the Scully card. Angst and all.

“The less I say about it, it’s probably the better,” he responded when we asked recently about his thoughts on the SportsNet L.A. launch.

If this matters to anyone, Scully is a DirecTV subscriber. Imagine what happens if this thing really drags out, and the Dodgers’ road trip in late April comes around, the one where they have a nine-game swing through Minnesota, Florida and Washington. That’s one of the trips where he stays home.

So if he wanted to access those games from his living room, and it wasn’t there, would it be proper form for him, or someone else, to tweet out “#INeedMyDodgers?”

Really, how embarrassing can this thing get?

Bill Walton: Ken Fang at Awful Announcing chronicles listening to game called by the red head.

(After Roxy Bernstein reads a promo for the NCAA Hockey Championships)
Walton: So this Frozen Four… is that some sort of drink that you have on a spring break or what is this?
Roxy Bernstein: It probably is somewhere. But that’s actually the Frozen Four, but it’s for ice hockey.
Walton: Ice hockey?
Bernstein: I know you’re big into cycling, Bill, but when was the last time you were on ice skates?
Walton: It’s been more than a couple of days. Wayne Gretzky, that guy he could skate.
Bernstein: That’s why he was called “The Great One” …
Walton: He could think too. He saw things before anybody else did. Saw things before they happened. That’s the way that Ricky Kreklow has played here tonight …

Ian Darke: Richard Deitsch at SI.com talks to the soccer announcer about his future after working this year’s World Cup for ESPN.

“That’s too difficult and anything I say would be considered disloyal to ESPN,” Darke said, laughing. “I don’t even know that ESPN would offer me another deal beyond 2016. When we get to the end of the European Championships at the end of 2016, I am like every other commentator without a contract.”

If Fox Sports management has done its due diligence, they already know about Darke’s contractual status. The network has committed to Gus Johnson as its primary voice for the 2018 World Cup, a decision that has caused consternation among some soccer fans. Fox is not going to budge with Johnson, so it’s vital they provide as much quality around an unproven international soccer game-caller. Hiring Darke for the 2018 World Cup (and 2019 Women’s World Cup) would be a brilliant move if the objective is to gain the trust of hardcore soccer viewers.

Gus Johnson: Meanwhile, Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing says this will be a big year for Johnson on the soccer front.

Stepping away from that strategy, and doing so with someone with such little experience broadcasting soccer, is a huge gamble.  Anointing Johnson as their lead voice as they take over World Cup coverage from ESPN beginning in 2015 is the ultimate risk-reward proposition.  Having a mainstream American voice call the game is an important step forward for televised soccer in the states in the long term.  However, since Johnson is not the quality of Martin Tyler and Ian Darke, Fox risks alienating and losing fans by offering a subpar product in the short term.  Fox faces a ton of pressure to live up to the high standards set by ESPN for the 2015 Women’s World Cup from Canada.

Allie LaForce: Neil Best of Newsday writes about LaForce, who is having a strong tournament as a sideline reporter.

Allie LaForce was Miss Teen USA in 2005, but any notion players and coaches might have that she is just another pretty face as a sideline reporter quickly are dispelled when she starts talking basketball.

She played the game at the Division I level as a reserve at Ohio University during her freshman and sophomore years before transitioning into a media role as a junior.

“There are a lot of sideline reporters who haven’t played the game who do an incredible job,’’ said LaForce, who will be the courtside reporter for the NCAA East Regional at the Garden. “But I think it makes a world of difference, for several reasons.”

Ron Balicki: The long-time college writer for Golfweek died Tuesday. His impact on today’s pros who he met in college was considerable as evidenced by these tweet.

Rickie Fowler, @RickieFowlerPGA: “Ron was the first and only guy I called to release the news about my decision to turn pro…he was a special man and a true friend!!”

Brandt Snedeker, @BrandtSnedeker: “RIP Ron Balicki.. You will be missed and thanks for all you did for all the young golfers across the world… Including me..”

Luke Donald, @LukeDonald: “Sad to hear about the sad loss of Ron Balicki to cancer today. Remember him well during my collegiate years. Good man”

David Duval, @david59duval: “You will be missed Wrong Ron.”

Jane Leavy: The latest Sports-Casters podcast features the great Jane Leavy.

-Jane Leavy is making her fifth appearance (0:22:36) on the podcast. Jane joins us for the first time on this podcast to talk about women in sports and how their role has changed, stayed the same, or maybe even changed again during her time in sports. Jane also talks about Derek Jeter and compares the end of his Yankees career to the end of “her guy” Mickey Mantle and other Yankee legends. Jane also talks about how Jeter’s farewell tour will be different from Mariano Rivera’s. Jane leaves us with news that she is currently working on her next project about Babe Ruth and reaches out to any listeners that might have information could help the project she hopes to get on shelves in 2016.

Mark Cuban: Michael Bradley at the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana offers his take on Cuban’s comments about the NFL becoming a fat hog.

It is possible that continued hubris, and as Cuban puts it, greed, will weaken the NFL’s position. Like the Roman Empire and the Ming Dynasty, no powerful entity lasts forever. It would be stunning if the NFL and Goodell were so blind as to think that anything they were to do would succeed on a grand level, and that the point of diminishing marginal returns is so far off that it doesn’t apply. Expect the NFL to focus on the maximization of its digital platforms, enhancing fan experiences and making its product as available as possible to the largest audience it can attract, before it starts trying to expand into other nights of the week – if it ever does that.

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Best sports days: Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing writes about the 10 best sports days on the calendar. As a golf guy, I support his No. 2 choice.

2. Final Round of the Masters

Maybe it’s Jim Nantz and his poetic praise of the azaleas over the piano and strings.  Maybe it’s the hushed tones of the announcers referring to “patrons” instead of fans.  Maybe it’s the sight of sunshine and green grass after a long winter.  Whatever the case, there’s something totally unique about The Masters as a television event.  And more specifically, the presentation of the Final Round convinces you that the entire world is watching.  From Arnold Palmer in 1960 to Jack Nicklaus in 1986 to Tiger Woods in 1997 and Adam Scott last year, there’s no better amphitheater in sports than the Back 9 on Sunday at The Masters and it’s proven year after year after year.

NBA TV: John Lombardo and John Ourand of Sports Business Daily write about the landscape for the NBA as it pursues new network TV deals.

Moving the NBA on TNT off of Thursday night?

Taking on a third TV partner?

Bringing the NBA’s digital rights back in-house?

These are three of the ideas that have been floated as the league starts the process of negotiating its next media deal.

The talks are still in their embryonic stages, so the ideas may never come to fruition. But the fact that such topics are even being contemplated illustrates how the league and its TV network partners are viewing the upcoming negotiations: Everything is on the table as both sides try to figure out how the NBA media landscape will look into the next decade.

Adam Schefter: On page 2 of his voluminous weekly column, SI.com’s Richard Deitsch talks to Schefter about the competition among NFL TV reporters.

Believe it or not, what drives me is my boss, Seth Markman. He knows how to push my buttons. Before free agency every year, he gives me a list of players and the stories he wants me to get. This year he dubbed it “The Markman 50.” He promised me $1 — very Trading Places-ish — for each name I got. Maybe I shouldn’t admit this, but I was obsessed with landing every player I could on The Markman 50. It had nothing to do with the dollar, and everything with the competition with him. We would argue about whether guys belonged, where the credit should be. Even when a player like Ravens linebacker and Markman 50er member Daryl Smith re-signed, it brought me far more gratification than it should. When Seth first sent me this year’s list, he wrote he expected 45 of the 50 stories. So considerate of him to leave such a wide margin of error. All week I felt like I was competing to get as many players as possible on The Markman 50. I told him he’s driving me like a mule. He offered not to do it next year. I told him it’s like going through boot camp; you’re better for having gone through it.

Dodgers TV Network: The Los Angeles Daily News writes an editorial saying the new Dodgers network shuts out too many people in LA.

George Will: Sports Book Review Center reviews Will’s latest book on the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Field.

Will has lived in the Washington area for many years, and he certainly can go to an Orioles or Nationals game when convenient. However, it’s still true that your favorite team as a child usually stays with you for a lifetime. “A Nice Little Place on the North Side” is a charming love letter to a team that has frequently broken his heart, yet left him coming back for more.

Boomer and Carton: Neil Best of Newsday writes about national exposures for the WFAN morning team.

McManus said he has not heard complaints from the hinterlands about hearing and seeing New York voices.

“It’s playing well, I think, nationally,’’ he said. “It’s more obviously geared toward local New York sports, but I think both of them are entertaining enough and both of them talk about even non-sports elements sometimes that I think it plays really well.

“Whether you’re talking about New York sports or the Los Angeles Lakers or the Miami Heat, if it’s good entertaining radio and good entertaining television it will play well across a national audience.’’

Covering the beat: Jason Lloyd, the Cleveland Cavaliers beat writer for the Akron Beacon Journal, writes about being on 24/7 call.

I was standing on a golf course when I learned the Cavs were trading J.J. Hickson. I was at Panera trying to have lunch with my wife when Chris Grant was fired.

I was standing in a pet store last summer trying to replace the family goldfish when news broke Andrew Bynum would join the Cavs. When I had a story that was critical of Kyrie Irving a few weeks back, my boss edited it from the frozen-food aisle of Giant Eagle.

Covering the tournament: Michael Bradley, writing for the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana, says it still is tough to beat covering the NCAA tournament.

The media can’t help but fall prey to the moment, too. Despite the time-honored mandate of remaining objective, writers and broadcasters find themselves rooting – for the event itself. It’s so much fun to be in an arena knowing there are four important games ahead, and the whole day is part of an event that captivates America. Just as the teams try to elevate their performances to reach the tournament’s level, so too do media members seek to do their jobs to a higher standard. Even the pre-game hanging out takes on a tone of greater importance, since A Teamers from outlets around the country have congregated to chronicle the happenings.

APSE: As the association nears its 40th anniversary, president Tim Stephens outlines some goals for APSE.

In D.C., we’ll celebrate APSE’s 40th anniversary with a forward-thinking conference lineup that will emphasize professional development and hands-on training. APSE was formed in 1974 to help set high standards for American sports journalism. It has been a support group, an advocate for access, a source of mentorship and career development and a beacon of quality during that time. Our mission has not changed even if the industry around us has, leading us to evolve with it.

APSE has taken on serious challenges before; we must do so again now.

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Rick Reilly: Been a busy week, and haven’t been able to weigh in on Rick Reilly’s decision to give up his column at ESPN.com. However, several other people did. Here are some excerpts.

Matt Yoder, Awful Announcing:

The announcement comes at a very interesting time with ESPN welcoming Nate Silver and the 538 brand to its corporate umbrella beginning next Monday.  It’s a true changing of the guard in Bristol, and perhaps it’s representative of the entire sportswriting industry.  Out goes a multi-time national sportswriter of the year who has made his living on columns based on first-person perspective and storytelling.  In comes one of the most renowned stat-junkies of modern times to lead an entire armada of writers that will be based in numbers.

Josh Levin at Slate:

Chris Chase, USA Today:

In recent years, Reilly has earned criticism for various offenses such as misquoting his father-in-law, recycling old ideas and relying on the same jokes  While the critiques were fair, the assumptions drawn from them were not. First, they ignored that Reilly was the closest thing sportswriting ever had to a rock star. If you’re of a certain age, you grew up reading Rick Reilly in Sports Illustrated and thought, “he must have the greatest job in the world.”

Jay Mariotti, Mariottishow.com:

Dan Jenkins: Bryan Curtis of Grantland does a profile of the legend.

Jenkins is an 84-year-old golf writer of antiromantic disposition. He has a helmet of white hair and a squint that suggests cheerful orneriness. He had begun the afternoon in the Colonial dining room, where the club had put his World Golf Hall of Fame blazer in a glass case.

“Which I wasn’t going to wear anyway,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins walked from the lunchroom to the terrace. He noted Colonial’s exercise room. “Which I’m against,” he said. Jenkins noted the new tennis center. “Tennis doesn’t deserve this,” he said.

Baseball writers: Richard Deitsch of SI.com talks to baseball writers about their jobs and covering the game.

1. How would you define your job?

Jaffe: I blend a bit of reporting, a bit of opinion, a bit of humor and a whole lot of analysis. SI’s Strike Zone is a blog in that things get published at all hours of the day and have a feel of immediacy, but we’re selective about what we cover, and we strive for substance when we weigh in. My focus is generally on the biggest topic of the day — a big move, a new controversy, a look at the top pitchers available at the trade deadline, or what Mike Trout’s next contract could entail, whatever.

Neal: I don’t know if “Twins beat writer” covers it anymore. I cover a beat. I break news. I write features and game stories. But you really have two jobs now: You write for your paper and you write for your website. We also use a lot of video. I use a smartphone to record video interviews. I also head to the office to shoot video updates for the website. We blog before and after games — sometimes during games, if there’s breaking news. And, my goodness, who can forget Twitter, how it’s tied into all of the above on a daily basis. I’m open to suggestions on what the job title should be!

Peter Vecsey: Jeff Pearlman on his site does a Q/A with the long-time NBA writer.

J.P.: You started covering the Nets in 1967, and wrote your final column on July 1, 2012. That’s a ton of basketball. A ton. How do you explain your love for the sport? How didn’t it ever get old? Or stale? Or did it?

P.V.: In actuality, I started covering the Nets on a regular basis beginning in ’69-70. Before that, I wrote about every sport for two or three years. I loved baseball (and was a better player than at basketball) more than anything. But everyone wanted that beat and I had little experience and less education (115 credits shy of a college degree) to think I was ever going to get such a plum assignment. Nobody cared about the ABA or the Nets. That’s how the opportunity presented itself. For quite a while, I covered on my own time, for half the pay as a regular reporter. By the ’80s, I had lost all interest in baseball. I had always loved basketball, but soon after inhaling the beat, I became addicted. I wrote about the game, became much better playing it and even coached pros summers in the Rucker Tournament. It never gets old because rarely does a game go by without seeing something I never saw before.

Verne Lundquist: The CBS announcer was a guest on a Fang’s Bites podcast.

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports media…

Charles Barkley: Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing writes that Barkley says he never will work at ESPN. Until, of course, he does. From an interview with Dan Patrick.

On whether ESPN has ever offered him a job…

“They call me every year, but I would never go there.  Number one they work their guys too hard, but also I think they manufacture stories.  They manufacture controversies.”

On Dan Patrick joking that he could channel Skip Bayless…

“The next sound you’ll hear is me killing myself.”

Fox Sport 1: John Ourand of Sports Business Daily reports Fox Sports execs like the trends for the new network, although there’s still a long, long way to go.

Six months later, though, it’s clear that Fox Sports 1 isn’t ESPN — not by a long shot. It’s not even ESPN2 yet.

But its audience is bigger and better than its predecessor Speed, and Fox Sports executives say that they are encouraged by the viewership trends they’ve seen during the last month as it has started to produce live NASCAR races on the channel for the first time.

“Our first goal was to do better with Fox Sports 1 than we were doing with Speed,” said Bill Wanger, Fox Sports Media Group’s executive vice president of programming, research and content strategy. “We achieved that.”

Dodger TV woes: Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes about Dodgers’ fans frustrations with cable providers not carrying the new Dodgers TV network.

Roger Arrieta, a graphic designer from West Covina, launched one on his DodgersBeat.com blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts, punctuated by a design he created showing a fan with an L.A. cap covered in a blindfold under the heading: “Dodger Fans Held Hostage.”

 “It’s like we’re all being held hostage by billion-dollar companies, and as fans, we know it is what it is, we’re going to see our bills go higher, but why can’t they just get it done?” said Arrieta, a 41-year-old who saw what he could accomplish with his “Save the Dodgers” social media movement several years ago, when former owner Frank McCourt went into bankruptcy.

Baseball on Fox: Steve Lepore of Awful Announcing looks at Fox’s baseball schedule for 2014. Which teams are on too much, and not enough?

Fox stipulated in their new deal that they could grab more games featuring the 15 teams who have RSNs owned by Fox than the ones they don’t. That proved true to form when the schedule got announced, as there are 88 games featuring teams that do play on Fox networks (which include YES, as they have a majority stake in the Yankees channel), and 44 on non-Fox RSNs like Comcast, ROOT and Time Warner Cable.

APSE contest: The complete list of the newspaper, digital and writing winners in the annual contest.

Six media groups won “Grand Slam” honors in the annual Associated Press Sports Editors’ writing and sections contest that ended Wednesday.

The Boston Globe and Washington Post, competing in the over-175,000 circulation division, earned top-10 recognition for their daily, Sunday and special sections to augment a top-10 website award previously announced in the Class A website division (over 2 million monthly unique visitors).

Grammar police: Michael Bradley, writing for the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana, talks about the myriad of grammar woes in today’s media.

Before just about every class I teach at esteemed universities in the Philadelphia area, I provide a few reminders of grammatical rules for students, few (if any) of whom have any idea of what the regulations are. Even college seniors, many of whom graduated from top-flight high schools, have little idea what appositives and split infinitives are. And don’t even mention a gerund, lest the young folks’ eyes begin to spin wildly.

Jarrett Payton: Robert Feder reports Walter’s son now is a part of new afternoon team on sports talk radio in Chicago.

Jarrett Payton, former NFL running back and son of Bears legend Walter Payton, has been hired as afternoon co-host at Tribune Broadcasting sports/talk WGWG LP 87.7, station officials confirmed Monday.

Starting Wednesday, he’ll join Harry Teinowitz and Spike Manton from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday on The Game 87.7 FM.

“I think Jarrett is way more than sports royalty in this town,” said Todd Manley, vice president of creative content at The Game. “He’s the sort of creative, inventive mind that will help us define the future of this brand.”

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports media…

Al Michaels: Richard Deitsch of SI.com talks to Michaels about his Olympic hosting duties and how much longer he intends to work. Michaels turns 70 this year.

“In my brain, I feel 19,” he said. “I’m a rascal in my head. I like to have fun, I like to laugh. I have great pals and colleagues in the business. So a couple of things here: Number one is health, and knock on wood, I have stayed healthy. I don’t like to travel but that is part of the deal. Nothing is perfect. I still love the games. I have been a sports fan since I was six years old. I find them exciting. I love competition at the highest level in any sport, which is what the NFL is. I love strategy and drama, that still excites me. When a game is really good I am still excited as I ever was.

“I think when I get to the point where I can’t do it the way the way I am happy doing it, that will be the sign. Health is out of my hands. But if I can’t do it the way I want to do it, then it’s sayonara. I know one thing: I will not hang on. If I can’t do it the way I’m happy doing it, I’m out.”

Dan Jenkins: Sports Book Review Center has a look at Jenkins’ new autobiography. I will have my take on it soon.

As you’d expect, there is plenty of Jenkins’ style on display here. He not only quotes old leads from past stories that he composed, but comes up more than a quota’s worth of laugh-out-loud lines that the rest of us could never match. There are also funny lines by others. Mix that in with some name-dropping and other stories accumulated over a lifetime, and you have an entertaining book.

Dick Button: It’s a good day any time I get to type in Dick Button’s name. Sandy Keenan of the New York Times did a Q/A with the legend, who still looks spry at 84.

Are you ever tired of talking about skating?

Never. Skating encourages you to learn about so many art forms: dance, performance, athleticism, history, choreography, even haute couture. How could anyone tire of it?

Who is the next Dick Button?

Probably Johnny Weir. Now, wait a second — I can’t say that.

You just did. What do you like best about him?

He’s thoughtful, clear and recognizes what he has to do in this world to be firm and honest about what his passions are.

Kentucky Derby: Steve Lepore at Awful Announcing that NBC has signed a new 10-year deal to air America’s great race through 2025.

Erin Andrews: Reva Friedel of Awful Announcing asks if sports viewers will tune in to watch her on Dancing With The Stars?

Okay, first of all, I think I know approximately zero guys who are now going to watch DWTS with Andrews as the new co-host. People are more interested in watching the show for the “talent” rather than the hosts, am I right? Also, let’s keep in mind that this is a show that Lindsay Lohan turned down, so it has bigger problems than finding a younger, hotter, co-host.

SportsNet LA: Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has a proposal to resolve the distribution issues over the new Dodgers network in LA.

Time Warner Cable, we agree to your financial terms. But the deal is, our customers have told us they want to see only the games. So we want the channel only from March 1 to Nov. 1, when there are exhibition- and regular-season contests.

For those other four months, the channel disappears and we don’t pay for it.

The math should work on this. Eight months at $4.50 means $36 per customer during the season. If TWC discounts the cost to, say, $4 to cover the entire 12-month period, that’s still $48 per customer. TWC would have to lower it all the way to $3 per subscriber for the full year to make it equal to the eight-month, full-price agreement. And you really can’t see that happening.

Michael Sam: Manny Randhawa of the National Sports Journalism Center reports on the media circus that was Sam’s press conference at the NFL Combine.

But the name of the player heading to a podium was not Michael Sam. It was Missouri’s other star defensive end, Kony Ealy, a projected first-round draft pick who would climb the steps to the stage. Much of the media throng that awaited Sam’s arrival also had questions for Ealy, and they weren’t all related to football, or even him.

“Kony, for those of us who don’t know Michael Sam, how would you describe him as a person?” was one such question asked of Ealy. He responded that Sam is “a loving brother,” and “caring for the team.” He added that “he’s fun to be around and fun to play with … there’s no other guy I’d rather go to war with.”

The next question?

A follow-up:

“How would you expect him to handle the type of scrutiny that he’s going to garner as he goes through this process and after he’s drafted?”

“Like a professional,” Ealy said. “He’s not a collegiate player anymore. He’s a professional, and I expect him to handle it no other way.”

Ealy was asked other questions about Sam, including one that spoke to the media’s preoccupation with the story about Sam’s sexual orientation over his ability as a football player:

“How does it feel to be getting less attention as a potential first round pick than Michael Sam?”

Olympics ratings: Sports Media Watch does a comprehensive review of NBC’s ratings.

Though the Sochi Olympics averaged the second-lowest primetime rating ever (12.3), NBC topped its competition on the other three major broadcast networks every single night of the games. By comparison, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics was the top draw of the night on 14 of 17 occasions, and the Turin Olympics topped the charts just 8 of 17 times. NBC beat ABC, CBS and FOX combined by 32% in ratings, 45% in viewership, and 51% among adults 18-49 during the Olympics, which the network says is a record.

Athletes and media: Michael Bradley of the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana has issues with LeBron James’ advice to Tony Romo.

“Don’t watch ESPN. All these so-called everyone knows what to do, but they never put on a uniform, trying to tell you what to do. It’s not about that. I think Tony’s at a point now in his career where he’s one of the great quarterbacks we have in our game. It’s because of his work ethic.”

Forget for a moment the silly comment about Romo’s being one of the “great quarterbacks” in the NFL and focus on the bigger picture.

Don’t watch ESPN? There are a lot of reasons to follow that advice, but James is the last one to have any credibility about anybody’s relationship to the network. There may not be an athlete on the planet who has benefitted more from ESPN’s broad reach and promotional relationship with the NBA than James has. ESPN’s Bob Ley said as much when he tweeted at James, “Help me here @KingJames. Don’t watch ESPN – except when you’re the focus of a 1 hour show announcing your free agent decision?”

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Life after Costas: Not that it will happen anytime soon, but Richard Deitsch of SI.com reports that Bob Costas’ eye issues gave a glimpse of what it will be like without him. From Deitsch’s interview with NBC Sports chairman Mark Lazarus.

You had six days without Bob Costas as the primetime host. How — and did – his absence make you think about the long-term succession for a staffer who has been one of the best Olympic hosts in history?

We said after Sochi we would start to think about what life after Bob might be, whether post-Rio, post-Pyeongchang, post-Tokyo, whenever he does not want to do it anymore. It is a big time commitment for a host. It is tons of research, tons of preparation and a ton of time away from your family. Certainly, we would be foolish not to be thinking about what a succession might look like. That is part of my job. I think about that for all sports. This obviously is a little bit of a wake-up call and it says make sure you are prepared because that day will come eventually. It’s not a theoretical.

Life after Costas II: Jason McIntyre of Big Lead writes about the potential candidates to replace Costas. Not that it will happen any time soon.

Ernie Johnson, TNT: Lazarus was previously the President of Turner Sports. He obviously is very familiar with the work of Johnson, who is versatile enough to have hosted MLB, NBA and World Cup in the studio, as well as called some Olympic events. There’s an easy bonhomie about Johnson, which is just one reason he’s part of the most popular postgame show in sports, Inside the NBA.

Josh Elliott, ABC: From Sportscenter to Good Morning America to the Olympics? According to Page 6, he’s currently in contract negotiations with ABC, but if NBC can dangle a future role (the next Matt Lauer?) on the Today Show, and the Olympics, would that been enough to pry him away from Disney? Problem: It’s tough to see GMA letting another member of the team that got them to the top walk away (Sam Champion left for NBC/Weather Channelin December).

Chris Fowler, ESPN: If he’s not the best host ESPN has, he’s got to be right there near the top. Fowler appears to be a longshot to leave for NBC, though – especially since all indications are that he’s muscled his way into taking Brent Musburger’s job calling college football games each week with Kirk Herbstreit (and still hosting Gameday, and tennis, and, basically, whatever he wants at ESPN). Fowler hosts the best pregame show in sports, Gameday, at a time when pregame shows are passe.

New guard at NBC: Tripp Mickle and John Ourand of Sports Business Daily reports on how these are NBC’s first Olympics in which Dick Ebersol didn’t participate. He was on hand as a consultant for London in 2012.

These are the Games of Lazarus and Bell. There was no doubt that they were the ones in charge, with Bell focused on production and Lazarus on business. Tasked with replacing the legendary Ebersol as the Olympics’ producer for the London Games in 2012, they have developed a collaborative style that permeates NBC’s entire Olympic operation.

The differences can be seen everywhere: whiteboard meetings that include both business and production executives; live daytime telecasts of figure skating on a cable channel; the streaming of every single winter competition.

NBC’s Olympic strategy in Sochi presents a microcosm of the direction the network plans to take with the Olympics in the coming years.

NBC analysis: The crew at Awful Announcing analyze NBC’s coverage of the Olympics in a podcast.

-Best & Worst Moments from NBC’s coverage thus far.
-Bob Costas’ pink eye and how the network handled an unexpected “crisis”
-The live versus tape delay debate and why NBC’s effort towards sports fans is better in 2014, but still a long ways from perfect.
-Record ratings for NBCSN and whether or not the Olympics actually pulls them ahead of Fox Sports 1 in the race for #2 behind ESPN.
-Why did the Bode Miller interview receive such an immense backlash?
-Tara Lipinski & Johnny Weir being the stars of Sochi and how NBC can use them going forward.
-Favorite moments from the Olympic competition – hockey and curling feature prominently here.
-An overall grade for NBC’s coverage.

New Dodgers network: Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes about the distribution problems for the new network.

The two-million Time Warner Cable customers in the Dodgers’ coverage map are already in. It’s just that TWC hasn’t announced the channel numbers yet.

For the rest of you — including some two million Southern California users of DirecTV and thousands more on other systems — it depends on how needy you’ve become over the last few weeks.

Tara and Johnny: Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes how Tara Lipiniski and Johnny Weir have become big stars during the Olympics.

Weir is generally calmer yet colorful. And his chemistry with Lipinski suggests an ongoing, enthusiastic conversation among confidants.

“We’re very good friends, and we have the best time educating people about our sport,” Weir said. Asked if he thinks he has surprised viewers who might have expected analysis as flashy as his wardrobes, he said: “I come from a small town in Pennsylvania, so I’ve spent a lot of time educating my family about my sport. It’s something I’ve learned to do without being aggressive or arrogant.”

Don Van Natta Jr.: Cory Collins at the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana reports on what Van Natta had to say to students during a recent visit. He discussed his book, Wonder Girl, on Babe Didrikson Zaharais.

“Her whole life was a quest to find a place to play,” said Van Natta. “She had a lot to overcome. She wanted to be the greatest athlete of all time.”

A woman with a complicated legacy.

“One of the things that surprised me most was how mean she was, how selfish she was,” Van Natta admitted. “She had to be that way, in her mind, to succeed, to get noticed.”

And a woman, despite success never since rivaled, largely forgotten. Until now.

“There really hasn’t been a lot of attention given to her in the last 40 years,” he said. “But the more I found out about Babe, the more intrigued I got.”

Joe Goddard: My old pal says farewell after 44 years of writing sports about Hinsdale Central.

Though he never attended Hinsdale Central, Goddard was inducted into the Hinsdale Central Foundation Hall of Fame in 2009 and is one of the few honorees without a direct connection to the school.

Under his picture in the school’s Alumni Room, part of the dedication reads: “Though not an alumnus, teacher or school administrator, no one has done more to chronicle the great athletic traditions of Hinsdale Central than Joe Goddard. His love of Hinsdale, the local high school, its sports teams and athletes, and his lifelong journalistic professionalism make Joe Goddard a local treasure.”

Long time: Classic TV Sports looks at the longest-running announcers duos in TV sports history. Who is No. 1?

Joe Buck and Tim McCarver worked together from 1996-2013 in the Fox baseball TV booth. How does their on-air partnership of 18 years stack up historically against other network TV announcer duos? Which national broadcast pairings have remained intact the longest in various sports? Which tandems hold the longest active streaks? To follow up on my look last year at consecutive season streaks by network TV broadcasters, here is a summary of my research on similar streaks by pairs of announcers.

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports media…

Michael Sam commentary: Barry Horn in the Dallas Morning News has a story on Dale Hansen’s commentary on Sam. The Dallas sportscaster was stunned about his piece going viral with more than 4 million views on youtube. Well worth checking out if you haven’t seen it.

On Monday’s 10 p.m. newscast, the longtime WFAA-TV (Channel 8) sports anchor offered up a 428-word commentary in support of Michael Sam, the former University of Missouri defensive end who, in a prelude to the NFL draft, on Sunday declared to various national media outlets that he is gay.

It took Hansen two minutes and 15 seconds to deliver.

By 5 p.m. Thursday, Hansen’s “Unplugged” segment had 2.34 million views on YouTube and was front page on a slew of websites. Even conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh was talking Hansen.

“I think Mr. Hansen has some decent points,” said Limbaugh, despite insisting he didn’t see what all the fuss was about.

By his own count, Hansen received more than 1,000 emails from across the country and around the world. He even had 14 telephone messages, “and nobody leaves those for me anymore,” he said.

Chuck Culpepper on Michael Sam: Culpepper, who is gay, lauds Michael Sam’s courage at Sports on Earth.

Even when you consider America’s whoosh on the gay issue across the last decade; even when you consider that those who condemn homosexuality as a “choice” fade ever more into the margins with each generation; and even when you know that Sam’s Missouri teammates just spent a whole season loving him enough to vote him MVP; he still just chucked aside a lot of rational and irrational fear.

With fear a daily enemy in so much of life, here’s a great big bravo to him on that.

Marv Albert: Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing does a podcast with the one-and-only prior to the NBA All-Star game.

What makes the All-Star broadcast unique from any other.
-Top storylines, surprises, and disappointments of the season so far.
-The Indiana Pacers trying to knock off the Miami Heat and whether they’d be playoff favorites if they get the East’s top seed.
-The change at the top of the league with Adam Silver replacing David Stern.
-The evolution of pro basketball and how the game is played differently now versus the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
-How Marv’s signature “YES!” call originated, which is a fantastic story.
-Expanding his announcing portfolio calling the NFL and NCAA Tournament for CBS Sports. Also, why Jim Nantz should remain in place as the Final Four’s lead announcer.
-His broadcast influences growing up and advice to younger announcers on being yourself.
-Why Willis Reed’s heroics in Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals is still his most memorable call from his illustrious career.

Figure skating: Ken Fang at Awful Announcing compares the live coverage of figure skating on NBCSN to the primetime on NBC.

Gannon, Lipinski and Weir have been delightful in their calls. They’re having fun in the booth plus Lipinski and Weir have been on top of the skaters’ elements, telling viewers about jumps, lifts, twizzles and footwork. In addition, Tara and Johnny have also clearly explained what the judges are looking for, how they review each jump, what can be a points deduction and what can be viewed as a bonus.

Maria Sharapova: Richard Deitsch at SI.com write about the tennis player’s broadcast future.

Among her NBC segments: Touring Russia House in Sochi with Ato Boldon and traveling around the city with Carillo. As far as Boldon is concerned, Sharapova could have a big future in television. “Oh, there is no doubt she could do TV in a second,” said Boldon, who is working as a correspondent for NBC in Sochi and is a sensational track and field analyst for the network. “The camera loves her and she is smart and very articulate. She is not too self-absorbed and I think has a good sense of who she is and who she is not. I remember once hearing her say she wanted to be a Bond girl. I doubt she would say that now.”

Added NBC Olympics executive producer Jim Bell, who hired Sharapova: “Maria has tremendous potential in television when her tennis career ends and I think she’ll have opportunities to consider beyond the tennis announcing booth.”

Rob Neyer: He writes his first baseball column for Foxsports.com.

Chuck Tanner used to say, “Baseball’s just an opinion.”*

* He also used to say, “Really? Half the guys on my team were snorting cocaine every day?”

I’ve never been a fan of Tanner’s Dictum, because it might seem to suggest that nobody knows anything; that nobody can know anything, in which case there’s little point in even trying. You think Omar Moreno’s just as good as Chet Lemon? Hey, baseball’s just an opinion. You think Jack Morris was the premier big-game pitcher of his generation? Hey, baseball’s just an opinion.

But don’t worry, friends. This column, my first (but not my last) in this space, isn’t about Jack Morris. It’s about humility, and the limits of our knowledge and our wisdom.

Jeannie Morris: In Chicago, Robert Feder reports the great Jeanne Morris will be the first woman sports journalist to win the Ring Lardner Award. Well deserved.

“This is well-deserved!” tweeted CBS 2 sports anchor Megan Mawicke. “Working at CBS I know just how much Jeannie paved the way for the rest of us!!”

Tweeted: NBC 5′s Peggy Kusinski: “Every Woman Sportscaster in Chicago should know & thank Jeannie Morris for being smart & a Pro – I’m a huge fan!”

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports media…

Ralph Kiner: The death of the Hall of Fame slugger and long-time Mets announcer produced many tributes, including this one from Keith Olbermann.

Richard Sandomir, New York Times:

His lack of pretension and his wit and amiability made “Kiner’s Korner,” his postgame show, required viewing, even if it looked like public access programming. In its debut from the Polo Grounds, Mets Manager Casey Stengel forgot to remove his microphone as he left the interview and brought the set down.

“Hold up the cue cards because we have to get to commercial so I can get off the air,” Kiner recalled telling his production assistant during an interview in 2012.

And, inadvertently, he was a brilliant malapropist.

Bob Raissman, New York Daily News:

This isn’t about the malaprops that made us laugh or his Hall of Fame career. Nor is it about his amazing recall of baseball history. It ain’t about how he, Lindsey Nelson, and Bob Murphy gave birth to the Mets’ earliest selling point — that loveable loser image.

No, this is about the courage Ralph Kiner displayed turning the corner and heading down the last lane of his broadcast career. On Thursday afternoon, shortly after we learned Kiner was dead, someone asked Vin Scully, the patron soul of all baseball microphones, about Ralphie.

“Ralph Kiner,” Scully — pausing- said. “Loud bat. Soft voice.”

Phil Mushnick, New York Post:

I went to college near Pittsburgh, and any time I was around the fathers of my friends from those western Pennsylvania coal and steel towns, I asked about Kiner. Almost invariably, they told how Forbes Field would empty, be it the seventh, eighth or ninth inning, after what was presumed to be Kiner’s last at bat.

NFL money machine: Ben Koo at Awful Announcing writes that the latest TV deal with CBS is yet another example of the power of the NFL.

Nearly four years ago, Roger Goodell outlined a rather audacious annual revenue goal of $25 billion by 2027 to NFL owners, his de-facto employers. At the time, the NFL was doing about $8.5 billion annually meaning that Goodell was hoping to raise revenue $1 billion a year for 18 years to hit the mark. Surprisingly, with the help of recently renegotiated television deals as well as the new CBS Thursday Night partnership, the NFL is on track. Not bad for a non profit organization right? 

There are a lot of interesting things to ponder in light of the NFL’s latest big step towards the goal with a shrewdly conceived gameplan on the Thursday night front but what sticks out to me is just how brilliantly efficient and aggressive the NFL is becoming as a business. As a fan, some of this is troubling but as a guy who just started watching syndicated programming on CNBC, it’s damn impressive.

Turner and NBA: John Ourand of Sports Business Daily predicts Turner’s digital power will help the network do a new contract with the NBA.

I’ll come out and say it now. Turner Sports will renew its NBA media deal this season for reasons that have nothing to do with Charles Barkley, Ernie Johnson and the rest of TNT’s Emmy-winning on-air talent.

Rather, it’s Turner’s management of the NBA’s vast digital properties that will carry the most sway with the league.
 
Of course, Turner will have to pay enough money to renew its rights deal. But Turner’s handling of the NBA’s digital business, which is now in its sixth season, has become so extensive, encompassing everything from mobile and social to broadband and the NBA’s out-of-market package. It would be difficult for the league to unwind that structure.

Lolo Jones: Michael Bradley of the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana writes about another round of Lolo at the Olympics.

Now that we are a scant few days away from the official commencement of the Putin Games in Sochi, Americans must brace themselves for what promises to be an onslaught of coverage regarding Lolo Jones. Normally, bobsled competition isn’t all that popular, but the inclusion of Jones as a brakeman (brakeperson?) on the U.S. squad guarantees that the NBC broadcast posse and writers/broadcasters in need of something other than tales of corruption and abuse will be focusing on the hometown sled and its chances.

Make that focusing on Jones and her quest for a gold medal.

Olympic shame: In his NPR commentary, Frank Deford hates the idea of an Olympics being hosted by Putin.

How is it possible that the IOC could have done so little due diligence as to award the games to a Soviet throwback, bent on putting on a show in an out-of-the-way place where poverty and pay-offs thrive, where terrorism and tragedy loom, where the environment is endangered, dissent is disallowed, and prejudice is certified by law? Does anybody in the IOC ever have to answer for its mistakes? In particular, why aren’t our American reps ever held to account?

CSN Chicago event: Paul Banks of Chicago Sports Media Watch talks to David Kaplan, who will co-host The 26th Annual Comcast SportsNet Sports Awards Monday. The annual dinner, one of the highlights of the year in Chicago, benefits the March of Dimes.

Jeff Pearlman stories: Pearlman on his site writes about his reporting on two 7,000-word plus stories that came out this week; a piece about a one-time storied football recruit who landed in jail and another on the 1984 U.S. hockey team.

As soon as I agreed to write up Williams, I dug and dug and dug through old clips, circling any name that might be worth contacting. For me, that doesn’t just mean family members and friends. It means old teammates, lawyers, people he accompanied on recruiting trips, coaches, associates, journalists who covered his high school and college careers. I developed a philosophy back in my days at Sports Illustrated that still works for me today: Namely, someone may well write a sexier/smoother/snappier story. But—with dogged reporting and interviewing—no one will write a more complete story. So I call everyone. Literally, everyone. Some call back, some don’t. But I always reach out.

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports media…

Pam Oliver: Bob Raissman writes that Pam Oliver’s situation is uncertain at Fox after Sunday’s Super Bowl. Her contract is up.

All season long, Oliver, who has been with Fox for 19 years, 12 working as sideline reporter with the No. 1 team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, watched the Foxies continue treating Erin Andrews like a queen, giving her a major push on college football and NFL telecasts. Andrews has joined Oliver on the sidelines during the postseason. The Foxies all but fit Oliver for a second-team jersey.

Or were they just greasing the skids for her exit?

For as the countdown to Super Bowl XLVIII winds down, so do the days on the final year of Oliver’s Fox contract. She said she fully expects to have a “nice” negotiation, revealing there already have been some talks. Still, her focus remains solely on Sunday’s game.
“Look, it (that Sunday could be her last game for Fox) has entered my mind. I’m a realist,” she said. “My husband cautioned me, admonished me really, not to treat this as a farewell tour.”
Easier said than done.

Terry and Howie: Richard Deitsch in SI has a Q/A with Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long. They have spent 20 years together at Fox.

Why does the relationship work?

Long: It’s like that phrase catching lightning in a bottle, because I really don’t know. We do come from different backgrounds, and there’s an age difference, but for whatever reason, from Day One we just gravitated toward each other. I am lucky to call him my friend.

Bradshaw: That is what’s so great about this. It’s kind of like true love. People can’t define it, like when you look at an old ugly guy with a beautiful young woman, and she’s happy and totally in love. It’s just chemistry. He represents a lot of the things that I wish I were. He’s a good-looking man. He has a great marriage. He’s a great dad. He’s intelligent. He’s a smart businessman. He’s all of those things. I’m a 180 from that.

Erin Andrews: Brad Gagnon of Awful Announcing does a Q/A.

BG: Do you read what critics write about you?

EA: Yeah. 

BG: What do you take from it?

EA: Some of it really upsets me and some of it I think to myself, ‘There’s always going to be the naysayers, there’s always going to be the haters.’ Even the best of the best get criticized. 

BG: Do you think you handled the Richard Sherman interview well?

EA: I have gone over it in my head 8,000 times. I think after it happened I’m more so worried about if I asked the right thing. I’m my biggest critic. Regardless of whatever these other people that say things think that they are with me. I’m the one that judges myself the hardest. I don’t know, there’s parts of it I wish I had done different. I wish I had thrown it to Joe differently. I didn’t realize that we were going to cut out of my question that quickly so I think I was stunned and kind of just said, ‘Joe, back to you,’ where I wish I had just said, ‘Joe, 90 seconds after he made the play of his life, a very emotional Richard Sherman.’ I wish I had handled it like that.

 Erin Andrews 2: Gwen Knapp at Sports on Earth looks at the fallout from her interview with Richard Sherman.

For some reason, instead of engaging in a more thoughtful conversation, it ends up being easier to unload on Andrews, as if she has created a bad template for women in sports media, defining them all as personalities rather than journalists, willing to date athletes rather than keep a professional distance and available for modeling gigs and “Dancing with the Stars” slots. I understand the concern, but I’m not sure it’s entirely fair. No one has a problem with Michael Strahan crossing over from his mornings with Kelly Ripa to do analysis with Fox, and certain ex-player commentators have visibly struggled with the concept of objectivity. They have the playing credentials, but they do not conform to journalism standards. Yet we don’t think they damage the reputations of the Scotts, Bucks or Bermans, who have more traditional credentials.

Regardless of the larger debate about Andrews’ place in the business, she did not deserve flak for the Sherman interview. I have no idea whether she is good at her job on a regular basis. I don’t pay enough attention to postgame interviews, and I would have missed this one if the clip hadn’t become the Zapruder film of its genre.

NFL TV: Mike McCarthy in Advertising Age has a piece on the possible network bidding if the NFL expands the playoffs.

“If we expanded the playoffs, nobody has contractual rights to those games,” said Mr. Rolapp, chief operating officer of NFL Media, here at league headquarters in Manhattan. “So our steps are, first, to figure out: Does it work from a football standpoint? Second, if it does, how do you schedule to maximize not only your television exposure, so fans can watch it at home, but also fans who are traveling to the game. Then, third, you figure out who the best broadcast partner is to package those and distribute those (games). We’re still on that first part for how to make it work.”

Michael Wilbon: The first installment in the Povich Center for Sports Journalism series “Still No Cheering in the Press Box” features the kid from Chicago. Didn’t know his cousin is Carole Simpson.

I finally met Shirley Povich for the first time as a rookie reporter for The Post when we drove together to cover a boxing match. He was such a helpful mentor who not only spoke words of advice, but also showed it with his actions every day. Some of the best advice he ever gave me was that you only have about three paragraphs to grab the reader’s attention; a lot of times it’s only two. And he knew how to do this in his writing, which would appeal to the audience but not pander to them. From day one, he wanted me treat him as an equal, but I could not help but be in awe of him when he would talk about covering the Jack Dempsey-Gene Tunney, long-count fight in 1927, or Babe Ruth or Walter Johnson or Sammy Baugh. I once asked him if he had any idea how much that amazed me. He simply said, “It’s only time. In 50 years some young fellow is going to point at you and say, ‘See that old guy over there? He knew Michael Jordan.’ And you’re going to think, ‘What’s the big deal?’” And he was right.

PTI: Speaking of Wilbon, Chad Finn of the Boston Globe writes about the enduring popularity of Pardon the Interruption. I agree.

“PTI” is a mixture of the companionable and the outraged. On a recent episode, Wilbon was furious with football fans who had whined about the lack of tackling in previous Pro Bowls, and then complained again about the hard hits in this year’s game. The potential for weather disruptions at the Super Bowl, held for the first time this year at an outdoor cold-weather site, also propelled Kornheiser to suggest fixing a camera on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, to catch him when he retreats from his seat to an indoor luxury box: “This is a potential William Henry Harrison situation.”

NBC and Olympics: Richard Deitsch provides an extensive guide to the infinite hours of Olympics coverage.

NBCUniversal, naturally, has attempted to present Sochi in the best possible light because they have a lot invested in the product. The company shelled out about $775 million for the U.S. television rights for these games and the Olympics are always an essential driver to promote NBC’s morning, primetime and late-night programming as well NBC’s cable networks. How much Olympics will NBC air? The networks of NBC — and its online offerings — will telecast 1,539 hours of programming from Sochi, more than the total for Vancouver and Torino combined

“Our plan is pretty straightforward: We’re going to deliver the most comprehensive coverage the Winter Olympics have ever had,” said NBC Sports Group chairman Mark Lazarus.

Changing media: Michael Bradley of the National Sports Journalism Center writes about the continuing evolution in media.

Five years ago, SB Nation did not exist. Today, it enjoys more than 50 million unique visitors per month and has more than 70,000 Twitter followers. Its focus is less on creating objective content along the lines of traditional journalism and more on providing fans with a point of view that matches their passion and perspective. As you can see by the numbers, SB Nation’s model has been wildly successful. More importantly, Vox, through SB Nation and its other sites, The Verge, Polygon, etc., has been face-forward on setting the standard for how journalism should operate in a connected world. It’s one thing for a newspaper to have an on-line presence and another for a company to blend the most modern technology with content people want to consume.

According to Carr, “digital publishing is its own thing, not an additional platform for established news companies”. That’s where the showdown is likely to come in the next decade: the start-ups, which base a large part of their existence on their technological superiority, versus the holdovers that are trying to adapt.

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports media…

Erin Andrews: Jeff Pearlman, writing on his blog, does a takedown of Erin Andrews. He compares her to Kim Kardashian. Too harsh?

The thing is, Erin Andrews has done nothing wrong. She was born pretty, she was a college athlete, she speaks well and she likes sports. If someone wants to pay her huge amounts of money for that, well, so be it. She’s the Kardashian of televised sports—and being a Kardashian has worked out pretty well for the actual Kardashians. The problem comes when something like the Richard Sherman situation arises, and Fox’s sideline star looks overwhelmed and out of her league and lost. Bonnie Bernstein (the gold standard, in my opinion), fires right back—hard. So does Jim Gray—confrontational, edgy, oft-hated—but a guy who doesn’t digest an athlete’s nonsense with an crooked smile and a “Back to you, Troy …”

Sigh

Rare TV audio: Classic TV Sports has vintage audio of the 1965 NFL title game with Ray Scott, Ken Coleman and Frank Gifford. There’s more on the site with a complete analysis. Very cool.

Network shilling is nothing new. At the 11:15 mark of the 4Q video, Coleman does a promo for the CBS telecast of the meaningless Playoff Bowl (a consolation game between 2nd place teams) and hypes it as a “big one”.

Brent Musburger: Richard Deitsch at SI.com reports that Musburger isn’t pleased with how he’s being treated at ESPN. And if the network makes the change, who will replace him as ESPN’s lead voice on college football.

As first reported by James Andrew Miller, Musburger has been offered the job of lead college football announcer for the upcoming SEC Network, which debuts at the end of August. It is unclear whether Musburger will take that offer, as some sources I spoke with noted he is unhappy with how the process is shaking out. What seems clear is that Musburger is being pulled from the lead announcer spot for ABC’s Saturday Night Football, which is ESPN’s top game each week. (Musburger, via ESPN PR, turned down an interview request from SI.com. “He isn’t doing any interviews on the subject,” said an ESPN spokesperson.)

More Brent: In a college football roundtable at Awful Announcing, Musburger’s future is among the issues discussed.

Fang: I don’t agree with this and Brent may have an age discrimination case if he so desires. Brent still has his fastball and shows no sign that he’s slipping. ESPN is caught between a rock and a hard place as Chris Fowler’s contract is expiring this year and it wants to keep him happy. He’s been with the network since the late 1980’s. According to two published reports, Brent has been offered the top spot at the SEC Network, but has yet to accept it. Brent deserves to bring ESPN into the College Football Playoff era, but it appears he won’t have that opportunity.

Covering Super Bowl: Deitsch at MMQB talks to veteran reporters on what it is like to cover the Super Bowl circus.

Werder: For me, the most frustrating element of Super Bowl week is that while you have access to all the players and coaches for several days, there is almost no opportunity to speak with prominent players individually or in small groups, or to develop a logical line of questioning that’s usually necessary to extract something of value. It’s also unnerving to be responsible for covering a team at an event of this magnitude when the story of the day might exist anywhere in the room and be delivered at any time. Richard Sherman is going to be closely followed—especially after his remarks following Sunday’s game—but the quote everybody wants could come from any of his teammates from somewhere across the room in the presence of other reporters working for prominent newspapers, TV networks or websites without me knowing until after media access has been completed.

NHL Revealed: Steve Lepore at Awful Announcing does a Q/A with Ross Greenburg on NBC SN’s new NHL show.

Steve Lepore: You obviously have an extensive history in working on shows like this, but was there anything about the actual production of this as you went about it?  

Ross Greenburg: I think when we announced that we were gonna follow the nine teams that are in the [Stadium Series] through those games and the Sochi Olympics, and do a behind-the-scenes on the NHL and what happens to those star players when they transition… it’s one thing to say it, and it’s another to actually do it. 

It’s been an awesome task to send out multiple crews around North America and get the access from all the nine teams in order to execute on the vision, and that’s a tall task but my co-executive producers Julie Bristow and Steve Mayer, they put together a heck of a team. We’re getting closer to episode one and we’re pretty proud of what we’re delivering. 

We definitely fulfilled the promise that we’re going to take people inside, it isn’t the first time, but we’re going pretty deep. We’re seeing babies born in the hospital, we’re getting a pretty sentimental night with Martin Brodeur in Montreal in this first episode. He’s reunited with his family after the recent passing of his dad, and goes on the ice and plays a pretty spectacular game for the Devils as they beat Montreal, a typical Martin Brodeur stage toward the end of the game.

We’re everywhere we want to be, and I think we’re everywhere the viewers want us to be.

Super Bowl restraint? Michael Bradley at the National Sports Journalism Center asks for the impossible: toning down the hype for a Super Bowl week in New York.

It will be an excruciating process, and weariness with the Sherman story should set in by about next Monday. There will likely also be many cries of “enough!” regarding the coverage of Manning, because talk of his legacy, his place in history, his health, his record-setting season and his future will be ubiquitous. Then there are his myriad car and pizza commercials, which are likely to occupy entire half-hour blocks of programming.

It would be great if there were some restraint exercised leading up to the game. Talk football, for sure, but try not to manufacture outrage and anger. These teams have no beef with each other. Trying to create one is the worst kind of “journalism.”

Podcasts: Sports-Casters is back with a new Podcast that includes an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins. Fang’s Bites has a podcast with ESPN book author James Andrew Miller.

Andrew Catalon talked curling in an Awful Announcing podcast.