koblin Page 11 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Hey, Grantland Is Streaming Live From Bill Simmons's "Man Cave"
Here's ESPN's counterprogramming from Day 1 of the tournament: A live feed from Bill Simmons's house. Jalen Rose has a bat over his shoulder, there's a tux and Simmons is wearing a T-shirt for a fictional band. There's lots of talk about gambling. Watch it here. ...
The U.S. Open Will Nearly Double Its Player Payout By 2017
The total winners' purse at the U.S. Open is set to balloon to $50 million in four years—about double the amount they received in total last year. Where is the USTA going to find all that extra money? SI's Jon Wertheim has a great primer on how this came to be (cranky non-American players who are d...
Welcome, "Kinglandia"! <em>Sports Illustrated</em> Is Giving Peter King His Own Website
Peter King and Sports Illustrated are taking a crack at the Grantland model....
This Is Awful: Jay Mariotti Has A Really Long Story On ESPN.com, For Some Reason
So, Jay Mariotti's no-seriously-I-have-a-girlfriend-in-Canada-I-met-her-at-summer-camp freelance project? Turned out to be real. ESPN allowed Mariotti to write more than 5,000 unforgivable words on Kobe and the Lakers....
ESPN Suspends Bill Simmons From Twitter After <em>First Take</em> Criticism
Apparently Bill Simmons is not beyond reproach....
New York Attorney General Reminds Roger Goodell That NFL GMs Can't Ask Players If They "Like Girls"
During this year's combine, NFL GMs wanted to know if Manti Te'o was gay, some teams reportedly asked Colorado tight end Nick Kasa if he "likes girls," and Michigan's Denard Robinson and Michigan State's Le'Veon Bell were both asked about their sexuality....
A Bizarre Sexting Scandal Has Cost An ESPN Partner His Job
The executive who oversees Hearst's ESPN interest (Hearst is the publishing company that owns—the often forgotten!—20 percent of the network) has quit his job amid an odd horndoggery scandal....
"They Went For An Older Pope, OK": Mike Francesa Gave The Greatest Running Commentary On The New Pope
There are several Mike Francesa-on-the-pope videos floating around right now, but we highly suggest this one, courtesy of WFAN Audio. It's 15 minutes, yes, but it's well worth the listen....
ESPN Is Canceling Two Best-Trick Competitions At The X Games; Does That Have Anything To Do With An Upcoming <em>Real Sports</em> Segment?
ESPN announced last night that it will no longer host a pair of best-trick competitions at the X Games: the Moto X best trick and the snowmobile best trick. ESPN is citing safety reasons and insists that it doesn't have anything to do with Caleb Moore, the snowmobiler who died a week after his cras...
ESPN Hires Ray Lewis
We knew this back in January, and now it's official: Ray Lewis is heading to ESPN. He'll join Trent Dilfer, Steve Young, and Stuart Scott for Monday night pre-game and post-game analysis. It's a big hire for ESPN, which will soon have enough ex-NFLers to fill out an alumni-game two-deep. ...
ESPN News And NBA TV Both Aired Shows Two Weeks Ago That Had Zero Nielsen Viewers
Kate Aurthur took a look around the TV world to find shows that earned Nielsen's dreaded 0.0 rating—that's the fancy Nielsen metric that means nobody watched—from a random week in late February and early March. ...
Bill Simmons Calls The Bayless-Sherman <em>First Take</em> Meltdown "Awful And Embarrassing"
It's been a while, but Bill Simmons has finally weighed in on something ESPN. Naturally, it's about the show that sucks up the most oxygen in Bristol, First Take. ...
Rob Parker's "Cornball Brother" Comment Is Still A Big Headache For ESPN
Well, actually, the Rob Parker cornball comment became a big headache for the CEO of ESPN's parent company, Disney. At a Disney shareholders meeting yesterday, one guy representing a conservative group, the National Center for Public Policy Research, used Parker's comment to demonstrate that ESPN is...
Life At <em>Sports Illustrated</em> Is About To Become Even More Difficult
Well, this isn't good. Sports Illustrated's parent company, Time Inc., is going to spin off from its very rich corporate overlord, Time Warner. Time Inc.'s 21 magazines—which include SI, Time, People and Entertainment Weekly—will be tossed aside into a new public company....
Fox Sports 1, The ESPN "Alternative," Starts In August, And Regis Philbin Is Involved
"Fans are ready for an alternative to the establishment," reads the press release announcing the Aug. 17 launch of Fox Sports 1. That's how big ESPN is: In the sports world, Rupert Murdoch is considered the scrappy alternative....
Jim Valvano Gave His Moving ESPYs Speech 20 Years Ago Today
Jim Valvano's famous ESPYs speech was 20 years ago today. Valvano had bone cancer and it was unclear if he would even have the energy to appear at the ESPYs. This is what former ESPN executive John Lack said about it in Those Guys Have All The Fun:...
Keith Olbermann Wants To Work At ESPN Again; ESPN Responds By Swinging Its Dick Around
Keith Olbermann very badly wants to work for ESPN again. And today's New York Times story—written by Those Guys Have All the Fun co-author Jim Miller, who along with Richard Sandomir is working on a feature about ESPN for the paper—suggests that Olbermann is going to have a hell of a hard time findi...
ESPN Reports On ESPN Negotiation; ESPN Spokesman Declines Comment
Here is an ESPN.com story written by ESPN college football reporter Brett McMurphy about the battle between ESPN and NBC Sports for Big East broadcast rights:...
Mike Piazza Once Hired A "Karate Guy" To Teach Him How To Beat Up Roger Clemens
After Roger Clemens threw a large part of a shattered bat at Mike Piazza in Game 2 of the 2000 World Series, the Mets catcher's first instinct was to beat him up. Piazza thought better of it, though, for plenty of reasons: It was the first inning of a game in the World Series; Clemens was half-apolo...