ESPN Page 186 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Quite Frankly ... There's No One Watching Your Show
Well, "Quite Frankly With Stephen A. Smith" just turned two months old so we thought we'd check in and see how the much-hyped show was doing in the ratings....

Meet The New ESPN Guy: John Skipper
See that guy right there? That's John Skipper, a guy of whom it is very difficult to find a picture online. (A helpful reader sent us this larger one; Mark Shapiro, on the other hand, was smiling and waving everywhere we looked.) Skipper is also the new guy in charge at ESPN. As first reported by ...

Yo, CBS Sportsline Is Rad, Dude!
We know we make fun of ESPN's Page 2 a lot, and if you've ever tried to make it through five sentences of "24 College Avenue," you'll understand why. But when we thought that SI.com's Scorecard Daily was the worst Page 2 ripoff that could exist, we were way, way wrong....

It's A Good Time To Be Bill Simmons
All kinds of news involving Our Boy Bill Simmons, kicked off with a glowing pop culture icon validation from Slate's Bryan Curtis, who writes the "Middlebrow" column for the Web mag, which has featured luminaries like Michael Flatley, Demi Moore and Cirque du Soleil in the past. Curtis has big nic...

We Have To Ask ...
Suggested questions for today's ESPN SportsNation chatters ... • 10 a.m. NFL with Michael Smith: Man, oh man, you look so much like that kid on Everybody Hates Chris that it's actually distracting me from my breakfast ... • 2 p.m. NCAA BB with Steve Lavin: Once again you've put off sending out those...

Woody Paige Bites The Hand That Fed Him
After pointing out last week that "Cold Pizza"'s Woody Paige had been reduced to eating dog food live on camera, we've heard some more news about everybody's favorite "columnist."...

We Have To Ask ...
Suggested questions for today's ESPN SportsNation chatters ... • Noon. MLB with Gary Miller: We see they've moved you from Insider and are now offering your columns for free. Welcome to coach class. • 3 p.m. Writer Frank Deford: Do you sometimes catch you own reflection in the mirror and just stare ...

We Have To Ask ...
Suggested questions for today's ESPN SportsNation chatters ... • 11 a.m. New Music Buzz: She's a little bit country, I'm a little bit rock 'n roll. And we're both a little bit concerned over the guy in the corner who's always asking about Hanson. • Noon. NFL with Sean Salisbury: What was your most e...

Good Times And Bad Times For Simmons Duo
Our Boy Bill Simmons gets a lot of gruff from old-school sports journalists for being too much of a "fan" and not enough of a "reporter," or, when he does do deign to do interviews, ends up crawling a little too high up the subject's nether regions. We've never really agreed with the former critic...

A Stuart Scott Chat Excerpt, Presented Without Comment
ESPN SportsNation [ESPN]...

We Have To Ask ...
Suggested questions for today's ESPN SportsNation chatters ... • 10 a.m. The Buzzmaster: Judging from this picture, you are either really fed up with this job or really, really stoned. • Noon. MLB with Steve Phillips: Is it true that when the Mets fired you, they offered to retain your mustache? • 3...

The Legacy Of Shapiro
We've looked at what departing ESPN big momma Mark Shapiro did right during his reign atop the network and at what he did wrong. The real question is what the network will do now that the man responsible for its radical facelift over the last few years has gone. There will be no real "replacement"...

The Definitive Bill Simmons Interview, By Those Who Know Him Best
Well, we covered the 3-2-1 Liftoff! of Our Boy Bill Simmons' Now I Can Die In Peace in our own goofy way, and now, for that whole "perspective" and "intelligent analysis" way, David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch talks in length with Simmons about his place among the Boston media, his meteoric...

Mark Shapiro's Many Missteps
As we continue to glance backward at ESPN alpha dog Mark Shapiro's tenure, we take a look back at some of the more serious missteps during his reign....

Saying Goodbye To ESPN's Mark Shapiro
After a reign that changed the culture of the world's largest sports entertainment network, ESPN executive vice president Mark Shapiro has now left the network to work for Redskins owner Daniel Snyder with his new venture with Six Flags. Ignoring all "Quite Frankly With Yosemite Same" jokes for a ...

We Have To Ask ...
Suggested questions for today's ESPN SportsNation chatters ... • 11 a.m. Skip Bayless on NFL kickers: Who better to discuss kickers than a little man whom everyone seems to want to beat to a pulp? • Noon. Boxing with Dan Rafael: So, Michael Buffer. Don't you just want to pop him in the snout? • 4 p....

Yahoo Sneaks Past ESPN.com
We know you love those Web site ranking numbers, so we've got some more for you, and they're good ones. Last week, Yahoo Sports — are we supposed to use the exclamation point? We always feel like goobers typing "Yahoo!" — beat ESPN.com in both unique users and visitors. We've heard all kinds of ar...

Alberts Prays To Wrong God For Help
Earlier this month, ESPN college football analyst Trev Alberts was fired by his network for refusing to show up because of an airtime dispute. In his first public comments since the firing, Alberts says that ESPN has pretty much crushed his ability to be on TV again....

We Have To Ask ...
Suggested questions for today's ESPN SportsNation chatters ... • Noon. MLB Senate Hearings with Darren Rovell: You blew the lid off of the Gatorade story, what better person to dig out the truth here? • 2 p.m. Boxer Andre Ward: Just so you're prepared, ESPN's Web site has your chat listed as "Boxer ...

Yeah, Red Smith Totally Used To Eat Weird Crap
OK, so we were just watching the rerun of this morning's episode of ESPN2's "Cold Pizza" — we can only watch the same "SportsCenter" so many times before our soul starts to collapse into powder — and we saw Hometown Columnist Woody Paige eat a whole canister of dog food....