ESPN Page 88 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Rachel Nichols Needs To Get A New Twitter Handle
Once word got out this afternoon that Rachel Nichols was leaving ESPN for a gig with CNN/Turner, many people took to Twitter to offer Nichols their congratulations. One problem: They were tweeting at the wrong Rachel Nichols....
![ESPN Says It Has A Spreadsheet Of Manti Te'o's Phone Calls [UPDATED]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/18cerw1sm2qodpng.png)
ESPN Says It Has A Spreadsheet Of Manti Te'o's Phone Calls [UPDATED]
Jeremy Schaap has obtained from "a source" (Te'o?) what are purported to be Manti Te'o's phone records, covering the four months from May 11 through Sept. 12, when Lennay Kekua "died."...

Report: ESPN Suspends Two Producers For Cutting Away From Notre Dame AD's Te'o Presser Last Week
Just about four hours after we broke the Manti Te'o story, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick held that extremely weird presser. He got choked up. He talked a lot about an intense investigation after Notre Dame hired some PIs (which turned out to be the biggest nothing investigation ever)...

Which Pundits Predicted A Ravens-49ers Super Bowl? Grading ESPN And <em>Sports Illustrated</em>
Republished with permission from PunditTracker.com...

Manti Te'o Tells Katie Couric He Lied
Manti Te'o's full sit-down with Katie Couric will air tomorrow, but highlights of the interview were shown on today's Good Morning America. (You can view some of it here.) Te'o's story seems similar in substance to the one he gave in his non-televised, late-night interview with Jeremy Schaap, with a...

Report: Tipped Off By Manti Te'o's Agent, ESPN Balked At Publishing Hoax Story Because It Hadn't Landed A TV Interview
ESPN knew something was up about Manti Te'o for six days before our story got published. But just how close did they get to breaking it? The New York Times's Richard Sandomir and Those Guys Have All the Fun co-author Jim Miller posed that question to Vince Doria....

The <em>B.S. Report</em> Report: Get It On
Julia Alvidrez, Gawker Media's operations manager, is an unabashed fan of Bill Simmons and everything Grantland. She is also an occasional reader of Deadspin. Every week, she will recap Simmons's podcast, The B.S. Report, for us....

What Happened To Manti Te'o's Interview With ESPN?
At his teary press conference last night, when pressed on details that didn't add up, Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick promised to let Manti Te'o tell those parts himself. Te'o, Swarbrick said, would be addressing the media "soon."...

ESPN Reporter On Te'o Story: "Short Of Asking To See A Death Certificate, I'm Not Sure What Most People Would Do Differently"
The other angle to the Manti Te'o drama? The media. More than a dozen news outlets reported about the girlfriend who didn't exist. So, why didn't the likes of CBS News or ESPN or Sports Illustrated find out sooner?...

ESPN's Matthew Berry Is A Big ***** Van ***** Fan, Says ESPN's Content Filter
The screencap above was taken from ESPN's fantasy homepage, which features a live-updating, scrolling box containing tweets from ESPN's various fantasy sports writers. You'll notice that the second tweet on the list, sent by Matthew Berry, looks a little odd. Who the hell is ***** Van *****?...
![Brent Musburger Closed Out Tonight's Broadcast By Saying Holly Rowe "Was Really Smokin' Tonight" [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/Image_Not_Found_1x_qjofp8.png)
Brent Musburger Closed Out Tonight's Broadcast By Saying Holly Rowe "Was Really Smokin' Tonight" [UPDATE]
At this point, you just have to hand it to veteran ESPN broadcaster Brent Musburger. Not only did he let the Katherine Webb controversy just roll off his shoulder, he had enough of the mojo left in him to continue the mackin' brigade. Here's his closing comments from tonight's Baylor-Kansas game, ...

ESPN SportsNation, Like The Academy, Fucking Loves <em>Lincoln</em>
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences really doesn't like to rock the boat. Sure, they'll slip a couple surprises into their Oscar nominations, but for winners they're generally more comfortable going with the broadly-appealing, safe, consensus picks....

"How Much Do You Blame Jay Cutler For RGIII's Injury?" Was An Actual Topic Of Conversation On <em>SportsNation</em>
ESPN's SportsNation relocated to California a few weeks ago, but it seems the absurdity of the program didn't depart along with the WWL's top sociocultural critic. We're sure this conversation was chock-full of unique and intelligent insights....

Why Does ESPN.com Insist On Referring To Bowls By Their Full, Corporate Names?
Reader Reggie pointed something out to us the other day: ESPN.com writers have a habit of referring to the various bowl games by their full, awkward, sponsored names. This is not how normal people write (unless it's to mock), so we went looking for examples. They were not hard to find....

ESPN Apologizes For Brent Musburger's Boner
ESPN actually came out with a comment about this. Here it is:...

Rob Parker Is Out At ESPN
After Rob Parker appeared on a Detroit-based community-affairs show on Sunday and revealed that First Take producers knew exactly what he was going to say when he made his "cornball brother" comments, some speculation ran around Bristol on Monday that his suspension would be permanent....

Brent Musburger Is A Bit Too Infatuated With A.J. McCarron's Girlfriend, Katherine Webb
As often happens during boring, blowout bowl games, the cameras and commentary shifted tonight from the action on the field to the stands and Alabama QB A.J. McCarron's girlfriend Katherine Webb. Okay, sure, mention she goes to Auburn and how scandalous that is—that's normal. ESPN announcer Brent...

Rob Parker: <em>First Take</em> Producers Knew What I Was Going To Talk About
Rob Parker's suspension for asking if Robert Griffin III was a "brother or a cornball brother" ends in a week or so and 1.) he really doesn't seem that sorry about what happened and 2.) he says First Take producers knew what he had to say....

2012 Deadspin Hall Of Fame Nominee: Lynn Hoppes
His body of work as ESPN's senior Jonas Brothers correspondent had been impressive long before last year. But 2012 was when Lynn Hoppes really set himself apart. He told us how great the party was. He hired Sarah Phillips. He told us about Michael Bolton's hole-in-one. He copied shit verbatim from W...

Let's Play "Count The Slurs In Jemele Hill's Hate Mail"
Jemele Hill posted to Twitter one of the many hate letters ESPN gets about her, this time for her appearances on Colin Cowherd's radio show. And you have to give the writer some credit. Besides the immaculate penmanship (Hill notes a correlation between racists and hand-written letters), he manages ...