koblin Page 9 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Sources: ESPN Laying Off Hundreds [UPDATE]

ESPN is laying off a portion of its staff today, a network spokesman confirms to us. How many? ESPN won't say. A tipster told us earlier today that it would be more than 400 staffers. A source at ESPN said that number is a little high, but it appears to be in the hundreds. ...

ESPN Will Replace CBS As The Home For The U.S. Open Finals. Thank God.

In two years, ESPN will start broadcasting the men's and women's finals at the U.S. Open. ESPN has gone all-in on tennis—it already airs the Australian Open and the Wimbledon finals—and this means that CBS's decades-long run of broadcasting the men's and women's U.S. Open finals will conclude next S...

Stephen A. Smith Will Be On ESPN For Six Consecutive Hours Next Week

Well, ESPN2 technically. But yeah, this is happening on Monday: ...

After Being Scandalously Interesting, Sloane Stephens Opts To Get Dull

Why do athletes give the worst quotes in the world? Because at a young age they learn the hard way that it's not at all worth it to say interesting things to a reporter. ...

ESPN Chief: We Should Have Been "More Careful With Chris Broussard"

At the network's upfront today, ESPN president John Skipper acknowledged the gross stupidity of Chris Broussard's comments on Jason Collins's coming-out day, when the NBA reporter declared gayness an abomination unto the Lord. (No, really.) ESPN shouldn't have given Broussard that platform, Skipper...

Here's What <em>SportsCenter</em>'s Huge New Set Will Look Like

ESPN unveiled a digitized preview of what its new SportsCenter set will look like and, holy shit, it's huge. ...

Eddie Jordan Admits He Didn't Graduate From Rutgers [UPDATE]

Earlier today, we reported that Rutgers's new men's basketball coach, Eddie Jordan, never received a degree from Rutgers University, even though his official university bio says he graduated in 1977....

Eddie Jordan Didn't Graduate From Rutgers, Despite School's Claim [UPDATE]

On April 23, Rutgers introduced Eddie Jordan as the new men's basketball coach. Nearly three weeks earlier, ESPN had aired video of the previous coach, Mike Rice, calling his players "fucking faggots" and chucking basketballs at their heads. From the beginning, Jordan was presented a sort of institu...

Bill Simmons Blames Haters For ESPN's "Bad" Night At The Sports Emmys

Awards make journalists crazy. All the time. Without fail. ...

We're going to mostly ignore the Sports Emmys, which were given out last night. But: Al Michaels won for best play-by-play guy, Cris Collinsworth won for best analyst and Sunday Night Football won for best live sports series. That's not a surprise. They're the best. We can explain. ...

Carrie Underwood is replacing Faith Hill for the Sunday Night Football opener. Rest easy: The theme will remain the same. Also, who else actually remembered that Pink had the job in 2006?...

So, Sloane Stephens And Serena Williams Really Aren't Friends

Back in January, before 19-year-old Sloane Stephens upset Serena Williams in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, we went through the dumbest possible pre-match story: the fake mentorship narrative. ...

Why ESPN's Chris Broussard Came Out As A Bigot

Outside the Lines is supposed to be the safe haven from all the bullshit. Bob Ley likes to call the show the Switzerland of ESPN. It's the thinking man's sports program—Bristol's answer to NewsHour. Sonorous reporters intoning Serious News. An air of calm, cool reflection about the issues of the day...

Thanks to Jason Collins, SI.com had its biggest traffic day ever. The site recorded 3.71 million unique visitors yesterday, according to SI. Previous record holder: Swimsuit issue launch and the Winter Olympics on Feb. 9, 2010 (3.6 million uniques). ...

How Franz Lidz Landed The Jason Collins Scoop For His Former Magazine

Superagent Arn Tellem had a proposition for his longtime friend, magazine writer Franz Lidz. If an active NBA player wanted to come out of the closet, would Lidz be interested in the story?...

ESPN Says It Regrets Chris Broussard's Comments Were "A Distraction"

ESPN released the following statement about Chris Broussard's comments on OTL earlier today:...

ESPN's Chris Broussard Says Being Gay Is "An Open Rebellion To God"

Well, after ESPN had a fairly terrible morning covering the Jason Collins story, it looked like the network was making progress this afternoon: Smart news hour Outside The Lines would expand to a full hour to discuss the NBA player's announcement. Fantastic. ...

Mike Francesa Really Can't Stand This Jason Collins Story

Ugh, Mike Francesa thought. A gay player? Why do we have to talk abut this? Who cares? This is so stupid, a ploy by Sports Illustrated for some buzz:...

Here's Everything ESPN Covered Before Mentioning Jason Collins

The sports world blew up at a little after 11 a.m. this morning when Sports Illustrated posted its Jason Collins coming-out story. News takes a while to travel up to Bristol, apparently. How did ESPN cover it?...

How <em>Sports Illustrated</em> Broke The Jason Collins Story

A little over four weeks ago, Sports Illustrated senior writer Franz Lidz heard from a player rep that his client was ready to come out of the closet. Lidz didn't know who, but he let SI's editor, Chris Stone, know early on March 31, a Sunday, that something was afoot....