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

Chris Fowler: Richard Deitsch of SI.com has an interesting interview with one of the best in the business. Fowler wants to expand his horizons at ESPN.

SI.com: Generally speaking, are you happy at ESPN?

Fowler: I have been very happy — more than happy. Fulfilled, satisfied and challenged, and as long as that continues, I would expect to stay there. But what I think is important to know for anyone in this business is people sort of view you in a static state. For me, anyway, you want to be continuously challenged. Professionally, you don’t want to coast into the sunset. I am 50. [He turns 51 on Friday]. I have a lot more to do and there are other things I want to do that I have not done. I don’t think it is anything secret internally what I want the next step for me to be at ESPN. I don’t think that is a mystery given the landscape. It’s why GameDay is a unique standalone thing for me. It doesn’t act or feel like a studio show. But the live events are the most inspiring, unexplored thing for me.

SI.com: How so?

Fowler: I really have a passion to document live events as they happen. Hosting is wonderful and remains really satisfying but the joy for me is calling big matches and it was very hard for me to give up calling Thursday Night Football on ESPN. It became too much to manage with GameDay’s increased schedule and travel. But giving up calling football in the booth was the toughest decision I have had to make. That remains something I am drawn powerfully to.

In game commercials: Richard Sandomir of the New York writes about those in-game commercials, “drop ins,” that clutter up radio broadcasts of baseball.

The phenomenon, playing out on airwaves around the country, is most pronounced in Yankees broadcasts. The first Yankees walk prompts, “Just walk into any of CityMD’s six convenient locations.” The announcement of the game’s umpires is brought to you by Levy Phillips & Konigsberg, a law firm specializing in asbestos exposure cases. The personal injury law firm Cellino & Barnes gets a plug when the announcers explain the broadcast’s copyright violation policy. A call to the bullpen comes with a nod to one of three sponsors: Aamco Car Care, Hyundai and the Tri-State Ford Dealers.

The postgame wrap-up show? That’s brought to you, naturally, by Reynolds Wrap.

“They’re not tough to do, but does it feel like it slows the pace of the game?” said Charley Steiner, a Los Angeles Dodgers announcer who previously called Yankee games. “Of course it does. From an announcer’s point of view, less is more.”

Fox Sports 1: Eric Deggans of the National Sports Journalism Center thinks the new network got off to a good start.

Here’s a secret about new TV programs any experienced critic knows: Often, when evaluating the first episode, you can’t judge the content, you gotta judge the framework.

So in the case of new cable sportschannel Fox Sports 1, you can’t jump to conclusions just because its one-on-one interview series looks like a half-hour hagiography, or the smart alecky anchors on its “SportsCenter” clone “Fox Sports Live” sound like the announcers on ABC’s parody of a sports competition, “Wipeout.”

What matters most, is the framework. And on that score, Fox Sports 1 mostly gets positive marks in its first weekend on air.

Regis: In this week’s NPR commentary, Frank Deford takes a knock at Fox Sports 1 and Regis Philbin.

To get in on this sports TV humbug, Fox just opened its new all-sports network. The centerpiece is a talk show hosted by Regis Philbin, who says his credentials for the job are that he’s a fan.

I hate to tell the Fox people this, but the last thing sports fans want to listen to is another fan. If you are a fan, you don’t want to hear jack from another fan, because, hey, you know more. Instead, you want to hear from experts and analysts, and fired ex-coaches and washed-up ex-players, the artless in-the-know crowd.

Premier League: Joe Lucia of Awful Announcing was impressed with NBC SN’s first weekend of coverage.

NBC presented the Premier League more like it presents the Olympics as opposed to how they present the NHL: like a major event. The commentators and studio crew used a technique that more American commentators could learn from: silence letting the crowd tell the story. The very first Premier League match on NBCSN pitted Liverpool against Stoke City. Although they were using a syndicated feed, NBC let the crowd at Anfield take over with their rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” instead of talking over it. From then, I was almost immediately hooked.

Sportsdash: Steve Lepore of SB Nation has a Q/A about NBC Sports SN’s new show.

Steve Lepore: Where did the idea come from? I know NBC had partnered with Yahoo! a while back, had they been looking to collaborate on a show?

Dan Steir: The concept came from expanding our news gathering, and taking advantage of this great relationship with, and the asset of, Yahoo. We said let’s go ahead and extend the window of Dan Patrick, play off that and do an hour at noon where a lot of people are sort of transitioning into the real time and relevant news of the day during their lunch timeframe.

To your original question, it was sort of “how do we maximize this relationship with Yahoo?” and let’s start getting our feet wet in the news and information department.

Hal McCoy: Rick Reilly at ESPN.com writes about the legendary Cincinnati baseball writer who continues to cover the Reds despite failing eyesight.

“The worst part is people think I’m ignoring them,” McCoy says. “I have to get up on a guy to two feet before I know who it is. So people will say hello to me and I won’t say anything. They probably think I’m an arrogant jerk.”

Ali documentary: Dave Zirin with Edge on Sports is very high on a new documentary about Muhammad Ali.

I write all this so it’s understood that when I say that The Trials of Muhammad Ali is the best documentary ever made about the most famous draft-resister in human history, you know that I choose those words with extreme care. What makes The Trials of Muhammad Ali, by Academy Award–nominated director Bill (The Weather Underground) Siegel so special, is that it succeeds where so many have failed. Finally we have a film that presents an honest, thorough excavation of Ali’s politics in the 1960s. Siegel, perhaps because he has experience chronicling the often messy movements of that era, is able to communicate Ali’s journey of rebellion against racism and war with nuance and without a hint of condescension.

Sports Journalism: With school starting again, Michael Bradley of the National Sports Journalism Center has sage advice for prospective sports journalists.

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak to a pair of students who will be starting their collegiate journeys this semester. Each, like so many other young people, was interested in sports journalism and wanted to know what they should do. My answer, in a word, was “everything.” I referenced comments by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who said that anybody interested in being in sports had better have a strong resume in place before they leave college. I told them that they should be involved in every possible media opportunity available at their schools and then look for more off campus. They had better blog and establish a presence on Twitter.

Pro! Magazine: Remember the vintage NFL magazine? Classic Sports TV and Media revisits a 1976 edition that featured Ken Anderson on the cover.

My favorite piece is the PRO! Talk feature which has a conversion with Tom Brookshier who was in his second full season as the #1 analyst on the CBS telecasts. That article focuses on Brookshier’s broadcasting career which started on Philadelphia radio in 1962. It includes a detailed recap of his infamous Duane Thomas “Evidently” interview during the Super Bowl 6 postgame show. The story also covers his TV partnership with Pat Summerall which began with the syndicated NFL Films highlight show This Week in Pro Football. The interview also delves into the decision by CBS to pair this duo together midway through the 1974 season and Brookshier shares his perspective on their early days as a booth tandem. Brookshier incorrectly recalls their first telecast together as being a Giants-Cardinals game in St Louis. (The opponent that day in St Louis was actually the Redskins.) Brookshier also describes the day that he and Summerall were awarded the Super Bowl 10 booth assignment and spends several paragraphs recapping that telecast from January of that year.

Podcasts:

Awful Announcing: An interview with Sam Ponder.

Sports-Casters: Interviews with Mike Tirico, and Doug Farrar with Chris Burke, co-authors of the Audibles Blog at SI.Com.