mel Page 175 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
![Sadly, The World Will Never Know Who Shaq "Blames For That Shit" [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/18j4o93efncp6jpg.jpg)
Sadly, The World Will Never Know Who Shaq "Blames For That Shit" [UPDATE]
This slip-up came at the tail end of a conversation on TNT about Twinkie-maker Hostess declaring bankruptcy, an entirely reasonable topic for a studio show previewing a night of NBA action. I assume it's that bankruptcy filing Shaquille O'Neal means by "that shit," but we were all sent to commerc...

Bonnie Bernstein Defends Holly Rowe's Sharp Elbows
We all got a kick out of watching Holly Rowe bust out the sharp elbows to establish her turf after last week's Sugar Bowl. We were amused again to discover it wasn't the first time Rowe had thrown around some muscle in the name of postgame journalism. But there's a reason Rowe does this, and it's ...

Iowa Basketball Coach Fran McCaffery Loses His Shit, Berates Refs And Players, Slams A Chair
Your morning roundup for Jan. 11, the day we learned Siberia saved the animals. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors....

Linda Cohn Had Some Generational Struggles Tonight With Robert Griffin III
Robert Griffin III's nickname is RG3 because he's the third consecutive Robert Griffin in his family—hence the III. While this has been a problem for ESPN before, it's never created so many issues as it did for Linda Cohn tonight on SportsCenter, who despite dropping several "RG3" references cont...

This Is Not Actually The Halftime Score, ESPN
I mean, it is, but that team should have that much and that team should have that much. Close enough. The production truck's only half paying attention; field goals will do that....

Todd Bozeman Is In Trouble Again, This Time For (Maybe) Hitting One Of His Players
That would be the same Todd Bozeman whose once-promising coaching career hit a snag when he was at Cal in the mid-1990s because he admitted he had paid a recruit's family $30,000. The affair kept Bozeman away from the college game for 10 years after the NCAA slapped him with a show-cause penalty, b...

The Secret Service Says Delonte West Was Never Banned From The White House
When he wasn't playing basketball games this weekend, Delonte West spent his days engaged in leisurely Twitter meltdowns: He complained about his salary and his team, and related it all to the media's portrayal of him since his arrest in 2009. He also singled out one particular writer who he says ne...

Holly Rowe's Been In The Interview-Muscle Racket For Years
We brought you video last week of Holly Rowe giving the Worldwide Leader's Elbow to an as-yet-unidentified reporter after the Sugar Bowl. It's no secret Rowe can be aggressive in protecting her employer's interests (ESPN uses its own monetary muscle to shut out other media outlets from the best po...

Delonte West Had A Twitter Meltdown
Delonte West won't be making the trip with his teammates (he's on the Dallas Mavericks now) to visit President Obama at the White House, as is customary for all championship teams these days. Background checks are now required and West apparently flunked his thanks to weapons charges from 2009. App...

"Resume Goes Here" For The ESPN Graphics Operator Who Made This Blunder
ESPN makes plenty of graphics errors, but this one (from today's BBVA Compass Bowl) is a doozy reminiscent of the golden era of ESPN chyron failures. ...

An Interview With Jim Everett About "Teeny, Tiny" Jim Rome's Departure From ESPN
With all this business about Jim Rome leaving ESPN today, we figured we should check in with Jim Everett, the Rams, Saints, and Chargers quarterback whom Rome repeatedly called "Chris" on ESPN2 in 1994. Everett charged Rome. The video endures on YouTube. Everett is now a financial professional in...

Also Thinking He's Off Air, Kevin Harlan Talks About How The Saints "Kicked The Shit Out Of" Teams
Charles Barkley wasn't the only one caught last night talking into a hot microphone that was picked up by NBA.tv during a TNT commercial break. Here, play-by-play man Kevin Harlan makes an eloquent case for how well he thinks the New Orleans Saints play at home....

Jim Rome Left Partly Because Of Stuff Said About Him In The ESPN Book
So Jim Rome is going from ESPN to CBS Sports Network even though the Worldwide Leader had offered him a multi-year extension for Rome Is Burning. According to a source, Rome wanted out at least in part because of comments made by an ESPN executive in Those Guys Have All The Fun, the oral history pu...

NBC Reporter Charged With DUI After Partying With Jerry Sandusky's Lawyer "Pleaded" With Police Over Blood-Alcohol Test
We told you last month about NBC television reporter Jay Gray's arrest for DUI two nights before Jerry Sandusky's preliminary hearing near State College, Pa. At the time, the Pennsylvania State Police did not release any additional details, but TMZ reported that Gray had been at a party at the home...

Thinking He's Off Air, Charles Barkley Says His Weight Watchers Endorsement Is A Big Scam
Via Eye On Basketball, what was a commercial break on TNT was shown live on NBA.tv's stream. With a secretly hot mic and a live camera, Charles Barkley shed some light on his contract with Weight Watchers:...

The Salsa Music That Played After Victor Cruz's Touchdown Sunday Was Entirely Planned By NBC
The NFL looks down upon premeditated celebrations, but it seems that restriction doesn't apply to the No Fun League's broadcast partners. Despite NBC's Bob Costas gasbagging about celebrations earlier this season, the Peacock Network elected to enhance Victor Cruz's celebration with a bit of Latin...

No, Brad Nessler, West Virginia Is Not A City In Virginia
This just in from the Allstate Sugar Bowl featuring Michigan vs. Virginia Tech: In tomorrow night's Orange Bowl, the Clemson Tigers will "take on another team from the state of Virginia: West Virginia." (H/T Jeff Q. and Cyrus the Virus)...

Here's Mike Ditka Calling Dan Orlovsky A Polack, Then Apologizing
Mike Ditka comes from a Ukrainian family and grew up amongst people of various Slavic extraction in western Pennsylvania. He inevitably had friends who were Slovakian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Slovenian, or Czech. He also probably knew some Polish people, whom he and everyone else he grew up around cal...
![Mavericks Play-By-Play Voice Mark Followill Will Not Tolerate Your Online Criticism [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/18j4opz3qbkx6jpg.jpg)
Mavericks Play-By-Play Voice Mark Followill Will Not Tolerate Your Online Criticism [UPDATE]
NBA X's & O's maven Sebastian Pruiti (formerly of NBA Playbook, now at Grantland) watches a lot of basketball on television—as much, I'd wager, as anyone in the country. An experienced observer of local NBA broadcasts, then, he's within his rights to offer the tame criticism of the Mavericks broadc...

Mike Milbury Referred To The New York Rangers As "The Blue Shits" Yesterday
It wasn't deliberate, and he quickly corrected himself, but we can all still have a laugh at it. [NBC; h/t to Roe H.]...