media Page 14 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
How <em>First Take</em> Poisoned ESPN
This is exactly what First Take was designed to do. That's not hyperbole. First Take's reason for existence is to reduce every subject, from the incredibly complex to the totally uncontroversial, down to a binary issue that can be debated. Is Tim Tebow a good quarterback? Is LeBron clutch? Should Ra...
We Live In The Golden Age Of Sports Documentaries
A piece in this week's SportsBusiness Journal is nominally about how HBO Sports has lost its preeminence in the sports documentary biz, and sure enough, it has gutted its in-house doc unit in recent years. But it's heartening to realize that even as the former biggest player scales back, the sports ...
How Rupert Murdoch Could Go To War With ESPN
The blockbuster news that Rupert Murdoch bid $80 billion for Time Warner—and was at least temporarily rebuffed—points to an impending seismic shift in the media landscape. And, as the New York Times points out today, nowhere would that shift be felt more than in the business of televised sports. A F...
World Cup Goals, As Called By Local Announcers: June 14
Each day, we scavenge to find broadcasts of every country participating in the World Cup. Here's every goal scored yesterday, with audio from announcers in Colombia, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Italy, England, Japan, and the Ivory Coast....
NFL Writers Are Mad At Michael Sam Because NFL Writers Are Clowns
Of the four major American sports, the NFL has the bitchiest and most territorial media, who arrogate for themselves certain rights of access that they decry when granted to someone outside the fraternity. They're dogs who snarl when the cat takes their place on the owner's lap....
What I Learned From Gary Smith
I can pinpoint the moment I realized I was never going to be Gary Smith. This was back in the spring of 2005, shortly before I graduated college. The campus paper had just published the best thing I thought I'd ever written. My profile of George Washington University basketball player J.R. Pinnock w...
Evan Mathis Trolled A Reporter Hard
It was questionable whether the Eagles' guard Evan Mathis would show up for today's voluntary OTAs, given that he's a potential trade or holdout candidate. Last night, the Philadelphia Daily News's longtime columnist Paul Domowitch pretty conclusively declared that Mathis would be absent:...
WrestleMania Gets New Orleans Newspaper's Front Page
Today's New Orleans Times-Picayune features five pages of coverage of last night's WrestleMania at the Superdome—an event which managed to bleed over into the public consciousness more than usual, thanks in large part to the end of the Undertaker's streak. Still, it's odd to see wrestling get the fr...
The MLB Regular Season Is Here, So Here's Vin Scully Speaking Australian
The Dodgers and Diamondbacks kicked off MLB's regular season today in Sydney, with L.A. taking Game One and Game Two underway now. Vin Scully is back, of course, and already giving us great sound bytes. Here he is introducing you to tonight's game with his attempt at speaking Australian....
Ilya Bryzgalov Is Like A Kicked Puppy Who Must Learn To Trust Again
The Bryz Show has moved to Minnesota, and is likely to get his first action this weekend. At today's media's scrum, the usually expansive Bryzgalov was not so eager to play along....
CBS's NFL Deal Means More Phil Simms, The Return Of Saturday Football
The long-rumored (and yet long-denied by the NFL) Thursday night package has finally been sold. It's a strange semi-partnership between CBS and the NFL Network, and it promises quite the repercussions for your viewing experience....
Staying In Sochi Is A Hilarious Adventure
The North American media has descended on Sochi, and...how do we put this gently? Sochi's not ready....
9/11 Truther Sneaked Into Super Bowl By Telling Security He Was Late
The most memorable quote from the Super Bowl was, unexpectedly, "Investigate 9/11. 9/11 was perpetrated by people within our own government." But how in the hell did that guy make it past so many levels of security to interrupt Malcolm Smith's press conference in the first place? Pretty easily, it t...
Batman On Steroids: How The <em>NFL On Fox</em> Theme Song Was Born
It was March 1994, and Fox Sports president David Hill was on the phone with a new employee. Hill himself was something of a new employee. The network was only a few months old at that point, being built on the fly after Rupert Murdoch had unexpectedly outbid CBS for NFC broadcast rights. Hill was k...
Reply Allpocalypse Brings Media World To Screeching Halt
This afternoon, the Columbia Journalism School sent out a mass email to hundreds of media members inviting them and their organizations to register for an upcoming career fair....
Detroit NBC Winter Classic Broadcast Gets Angry, Profane
"C'mon, man, what do you want us to fuckin' do?" ...
Dan Patrick Soldiers Through A Brutal Interview With Alshon Jeffery
Alshon Jeffery: fantastic football player, horrible interview. But Dan Patrick's a pro, and he powered through four painful minutes with the Bears receiver on his show this morning, despite Jeffery's total lack of interest in answering questions beyond platitudes and one-word responses....
Who Are The Best And Worst NFL Announcers?
Over at Sports on Earth, Aaron Gordon watched two NFL games called by each announcing crew in an attempt to quantify the best and worst broadcasters in the business. There were few surprises....
German Announcers Lose Their Minds Over Dortmund Goal
An 87th minute strike from Kevin Grosskreutz put Dortmund over Marseille and into the Champions League round of 16. Here's the call from the Dortmund radio crew. (If you have headphones in, this video gets loud.)...