mediameltdown Page 131 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Linda Cohn Bravely Tests The ESPN Social Networking Policy
60,000 Cohn Heads. Now there ain't but 20,000 Bristol police in the whole town... can you dig it? [The Rookies]...

If Mike Vick Is Repentant, He'll Never Tell
Michael Vick made an appearance at a Humane Society event yesterday, but don't expect to hear an inspiring message of redemption. Don't expect to hear it at all. Vick's talk wasn't for the community: it was for his own gain....

Newspaper Shoves Legally Blind, Much-Beloved Baseball Writer Into Retirement
Dayton Daily News pushes Hal McCoy out the door and next season will join everyone else in pretending the Reds don't exist. McCoy: "My miniature schnauzer, Barkley, is looking at me wondering why his old man is sniffling." [Real McCoy]...

The Bidding Wars For The Erin Andrews Interview Have Begun (UPDATE)
Oprah. Larry King. Diane Sawyer. Katie Couric. According to one snitch/source, these are some of the heavy-hitters jockeying for the exclusive EA post-peephole heart-to-heart sit-down....

Status Of Reilly-Simmons Rivalry Captured By Mediaite's Portentous Colored Arrows
The oracle at Mediaite has spoken. The green-arrowed Rick Reilly is on the rise. The red-arrowed Sporting Fellow is in decline. Reilly is squirting grapefruit juice in Bill Simmons' face! [Mediaite, h/t HabsFan29]...

Twitter Provides More Unintentional Hilarity From ESPN
"As social-media sites continue to mature, the clamps are going to tighten on what athletes are allowed to do with it." Yes, those poor athletes. (Twitter got hacked today, btw. They're just like us!) [ESPN]...

You May Be Taller, But You're Still Beneath Him
Mike Lupica's ego is to sportswriting what Milton Berle's cock is to comedy. It is an occupational totem, around which colleagues spin fantastical-seeming yarns that just so happen to be true. Here are a few such tales....

Frank Deford Has Noticed That ESPN Has Some Influence
Once a week, Frank Deford ambles down to his local NPR station, talks into a microphone for three minutes, then goes back to his VHS library of women's Wimbledon matches. This week, he had "harsh" words for his some-time employer....

Rick Reilly®'s Column Manages To Be Awful In New And Exciting Ways
Rick Reilly® has some kind words for oily mediocrity Rick Neuheisel, a coach whose sole discernible talent is that he tricks people like Rick Reilly® into writing kind words about Rick Neuheisel — and, in this case, into rewriting history....

ESPN Twitter Memo: The Remix
So now that the infamous memo has been passed around to everyone, ESPN has reworked their guidelines for those individuals still confused or incensed by the policy and what they can and cannot do....

Jay Glazer Is Ready To Make Mortensen's 2009 NFL Season Miserable
Tough start of the week for Mort. First, ESPN takes away his Twitter freedom. And now he's back at training camp and dealing with this asshole again. Which week do you think Glazer TP's the Mort Mobile? [PFT]...

LA Headline Writers Need Sensitivity Training
"Injuries Haven't Killed Angels," trumpets the headline in the LA Daily News. Except for, you know, that injury that killed an Angels player four months ago. [LADN]...

Hardline Twitter Memo Makes ESPN Employees Hilariously Paranoid
ESPN NBA writer Ric Bucher set the World Wide Leader's legion of writers, editors, and on-air personalities with raging Twitter habits into a collective shit-tizzy with one of his updates. Now, a revolution is afoot! Not really....

It Might Be Time For ESPN To Update Its Sidebar
The schedule is out, so it's time to gear up for the NBA season ... in 2006, apparently. Hey ESPN, would you like us to hold Seattle down while you twist its nipple and take its lunch money? [ESPN]...

9 Days Is A Long Time To Hold A Grudge
"N.Y. Post sports writers have been told they are welcome to return to ESPN television and radio programs, effective immediately." [Watchdog/DeitschTwitter]...

ESPN Dresses Subjects In Electrodes To Measure "Arousal"
At tWWL's lab, focus groups decked out in wires watch ESPN and researchers monitor their eye movements, heart rate and skin conductivity. Sounds like torture! Testers are supposed to be anonymous, but if you want to blow the whistle... [USAToday]...

Stephen A. Smith: Pundit Voice Of Moderation?
So Stephen A. Smith has reinvented himself as a malapropping political bloviator on MSNBC. This is truly an amazing fact of American cultural life, and I'm not sure it's sunk in yet....

Rick Reilly®, Sportsmanship Nazi
"I hated that sweater for the same reason I hate when a player preens for the camera in the 'I'm going to Disney World' commercials," Reilly writes in his latest, thus completing his transformation into Andy Rooney....

Sports Writer Turns To Pimping For Extra Cash
Things are tough these days for newspapers (don't say it) and their writers (don't say it), but if you must work a second job, please don't try "deriving income from prostitution," because that just causes more difficulties for you. (Don't....)...

Sources: With Favre's Decision, ESPN Will Have To Turn Elsewhere For Worthless Scoops
One of the many tragedies of Brett Favre's non-unretirement is that Ed Werder and Chris Mortensen, ESPN's Woodward and Bernstein of the small-bore, will no longer be feverishly working their anonymous sources for the world's most trivial Favre scoops....