ESPN Fail

I know ESPN does the best they can but can you at least get the right logo for Loyola Marymount and not confuse them with Loyola in Baltimore. Is that too much to ask.

2013 NFL DRAFT

ESPN Fail

On the front page of ESPN.com around 12:30, the lead story was Arsenal draw with Sunderland. Small problem. The World Wide Leader in sports put a picture of the Championship game between Charlton and Birmingham with the story. How can u get this wrong especially since they have been promoting the season starting so much.

EURO 2012 Here We Come

With the European Club season ending, its time for soccer fans to shift their attention to Euro 2102. Here are some of the great promos that are running around the world.

Nike's "My Time is Now" ad




ITV (England) has a great ad campaign asking people to dream



ESPN's promo for Euro 2012



Random promo I found on YouTube and its great



Another great promo I found on YouTube, this one takes a look at some of the tournaments great moments

Twitter is going to destroy the NFL Draft

While the NFL has taken steps to eliminate networks from giving out draft picks before they are officially announced, there are still many issues. On Thursday night, many of the teams first round picks were released on twitter before the commissioner announced them. The Sherman Report takes a look at the impact Twitter had on the draft: Twitter removes draft suspense for ESPN, NFL Network.

A Day at the Big East Tournament With Jay Bilas, what could be better

Over the last couple of years ESPN's Jay Bilas has grown into one of the best color guys in college basketball. Some people hate him, other love him and many other find him annoying. The Big Lead, a sports blog, spent a day at the Big East Tournament with Bilas and boy is it interesting.

ESPNU and 247Sports rule National Signing Day

National Signing Day has come on gone and people are debating who had the best class in the country. The only true winner on National Signing Day was ESPNU and 247Sports. Its amazing how much college football fans care about 18-years signing scholarship papers. 

We may not win every game, but we've never lost a party

As a big tailgater, ESPN College Gameday breaks it down and does a great job.

ESPN is the true puppet master

With all of the talk of conference realignment going on right now, Poynter takes a looks at ESPN's roll in the whole situation. A very well done story. This comment by LSU Chancellor Michael Martin sums it up the whole situation best: "I think we could end up with two enormous conferences, one called ESPN and the one called Fox." So I guess ESPN is the true puppet master in conference realignment.

ESPN's Next College Football Star

First it was Kirk Herbstreit, now ESPN is in the process of grooming their next college football television star. If you have watched David Pollack's career at ESPN over the last couple of years, you have to think that he is set to be a major force on the four letter network over the next coupe of years.

Pollack's broadcasting career starting in Sept. 9, 2008, after a neck injury forced him to retire from football, as an afternoon sports talk host on Atlanta's 790 The Zone. Also in 2008, Pollack began studio work for CBS's college football coverage. He also is a college football analyst for ESPNU.

Pollack's big chance happened this year, he was selected to be part of the traveling road show that is know as College Game. Also he is a host on the Palmer and Pollack show, which is 2.5 hours long on ESPNU.

While the show is great, being part of College GameDay has served as Pollack's big break. He has been a standout when he has appeared on GameDay and has done a great job breaking down things, he adds a passion that sometimes is lost on people. I heard him on Sirius XM Radios 24/7 College Sports Radio with Bill King a couple of weeks ago and came away very impressed. During the interview, no matter the topic, he had a view on the subject from conference expansion to LSU.

With Lee Corson starting to get up there in age, could David Pollack be the perfect replacement for him on College GameDay. I have no idea what ESPN is going to do, but they could do a lot worst then having Pollack, join Fowler and Herbstreit on a full time basis.

MLS deal shows NBC/Comcast is ready for primetime

I know a secondary Major League Soccer television package is not a big deal, but for NBC/Comcast it shows that they are ready to get involved in all sports.

On Tuesday Major League Soccer announced games will be televised by NBC's networks starting next season, doubling the number of homes that dozens of games will be available in.    The package currently on Fox Soccer Channel will move mainly to the NBC Sports Network, Versus' new name beginning Jan. 2. The cable channel will air 38 regular-season games, three playoff games and two U.S. men's national team matches each year. NBC will broadcast two regular-season MLS games, two playoff games and two national team appearances under the three-year contract announced Wednesday.

In addition to the Major League Soccer deal, NBC/Comcast has been rumoured to get involved in the bidding for the Big East football rights package that is up after the year. I know its only the Big East, but it shows that these two giants are ready to really get involved in big time college football and challenge the ABC/ESPN group.

Anytime you create competition for something its a good thing and in tv its no different and these two moves show that NBC/Comcast is committed to being a player in sports television. 

The Real Stars of Championship Week

Usually the stars of ESPN Champions League are the players that hit the last minute shots to win a game and send a team on to the next round, but this years Championship Week star might be a little know broadcaster.

During the course of his work on the Big East Tournament, Dave Pasch, a Syracuse graduate, has shown that he is ready to be a big time star on TV. While working the tournament Pasch was at the controls for the two biggest moments of the week: the ref error in the Rutgers vs. St. John's game and the game winner by UConn's Kemba Walker against Pitt.

On both calls Pasch showed grace and a flair. While others also do that, Pasch let the moment breath and did not over power it, which is something that you rarely see anymore as announcers try to brand themselves.

This is how little a name Pasch is, check out his Wikipedia entry: "Dave Pasch is an American sportscaster. As of 2010  Pasch works for ESPN, for which he calls play-by-play of college football, college basketball, NBA, WNBA, and Arena football games. He has also been the radio voice for the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL since 2002, teaming with Ron Wolfley." Not exactly the wikipedia entry of a big time sports announcer.

With his performance on the mic I would expect Pasch's stature to continue to grow in the coming years and maybe take on a bigger role at ESPN.

Crazy Enough to Work

With the NFL possibly going to an 18 game schedule, could the idea of rotating quarterbacks every other game work for the Eagles, PTI host Mike Wilbon thinks so.


During his show today Wilbon said that the Eagles would be the perfect team to try it out with Kevin Kolb and Mike Vick. Wilbon compared the rotating of qbs game by game to a pitching staffs in baseball, sounds like it could work. Could you imagine Big Red not announcing his starting qb till friday and making teams prepare for both of them. It could just work right.

Beadle Loves them Russian Boys

The recently completed World Junior Championship attracted a record number of fans, but one person caught World Junior Championship Fever big time during the dramatic final between Russia and Canada. ESPN SportsNation host Michelle Beadle lost her mind on her twitter as the Russian team erased a 3-0 Canada lead and won  the game 5-3.

The following post are from Beadle's twitter account during the final on Wednesday night:

• They will break us. RT @Siwicki4: wow Russia going to pull this insane comeback off....
• Do svidaniya homies! Russians crush Canada...#WJC
• Dear Lord...Russian boys are screaming at me in my living room....I thought it was the wine...but it's happening! Make. It. Stop.

Just when I thought she was done with the World Junior Championship love, she addressed the issue the next day on the show. Somewhere in Russia, a member of the team is reading her messages think that he has a shot with America's favorite female sports host.

Ask him! I'm fighting for hockey...#WJC RT @leemorreale: @ESPN_Michelle Any chance you can get @BizNasty2point0 on sportsnation?

Really ABC

So there is a game between two Top 15 teams and a match up between two unranked teams, guess which game I got on ABC. So instead of Oklahoma State Oklahoma game I have USC Notre Dame, but no problem. Thank god for XBox live, I'm able to watch the Cowboys and Sooners on ESPN3. It has saved the night.
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The Passion of the South

I was driving home from work today listening to the Paul Finebaum Show on XM Satellite Radio and they were talking about the on going saga involving Cam Newton and his recruitment to Auburn. After a couple of minutes one thing became clear passion for a team can quickly turn out of control.

Today all of the hate appeared to be directed at ESPN Joe Schad who reported that Newton and his father talked about a pay to play scenario during his recruitment. One caller said that he wanted to get a group of friends together and go ""Schad hunting'' and when they found him they were going to break his jaw.

Schad is not the only ESPN reporter feeling the heat from Auburn fans, it has gotten so bad for Mark Schlabach that he has had to get security at his home, Finebaum said during his show today. Schlabach was also heckled by Auburn fans when he was trying to do a live report from the Plains last weekend. People said that he was a "disgrace to journalism."


Ok, I know a fan never wants to see his or her school get in trouble, but this is getting out of hand. Schad and Schlabach are just doing their job. Its not their fault that something illegal may have happened during Newton recruiting. Reporters being threatened on the radio and having to get security shows how nuts people can get about sports. For years we talked about how terrible European soccer fans where, this just shows that some SEC fans are just as bad.

ESPN Magazine has passed Sports Illustrated

Since I was a kid I always looked forward to Sports Illustrated's College Football preview issue but this year it lacks something when it comes to its competitor, ESPN Magazine.

So yesterday both magazines showed at the home office and boy is there a difference in them. First Sports Illustrated is your basic preview issue with stories on the Top 25 teams and one major feature on college football.

ESPN The Magazine took a different tack with their preview issue. Gone are the previews of the Top 25 teams, which I'm fine with, replacing them are a couple of great features. The features include: a story on coming out of the tunnel, a great feature on Bill Curry starting the Georgia State football program, and a feature on compliance officers at program. These are great stories ideas instead of your basic preview type stories. The issue also includes a photo feature on the numbers of college football including Alabama spending $3,329.95 at a Chick-fil-A in Arlington, Va before their visit to the White House to see the president after their BCS Title.

During the course of the last couple of years, Sports Illustrated as continued to do great work, but when it comes to their college football preview issues SI is starting to look like a lower BCS program while ESPN The Magazine is looking a BCS title contender.
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Summer Friendly Series Quick Thoughts: United vs Celtic

During the course of the next six week OTWT will be breaking down the as many friendlies as we can. We start with United and Celtic in Toronto.

• Oberton needs to play more. He has the skills but needs more seasoning.
• Love the United kids back line of the de Silva twins, Smalling, and Evans. Now if that is something to look forward to.
• I know its preseason, but Celtic do not look like a good team at all. If I'm Rangers, I'm not that worried in the. SPL.
• Wow Berba actually showed some effort in this one good to see. He showed the skill that he has with several moves during the match.
• Diouf might not get a lot of first team chances but with a loan spell he may be something good.
• On a tv note, I love listen to Kyle Martino on the radio during the World Cup and he did another great job today. He might be a real star on tv.

Tomorrow at some point we will running the microscope over Spurs and San Jose game.
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Falling down

I was driving home from work yesterday, listening to my XM Radio and found a familar voices come on, former ESPN analist and Mets GM Steve Phillips. Instead of working for one of the best best networks on tv or running a major market baseball team, Phillips is now the co-host of a fantasy baseball show on XM Radio's Fantasy Sports Radio, now that is a long fall. After working with the greatest of the game he is now working with such great personalities as Anita Marks and Matt Camps, now that is big time.

The fall from grace started, on October 21, 2009 when it was revealed that Phillips had been involved in an affair with a 22-year-old ESPN production assistant. After an initial suspension by ESPN, Phillips was fired by the company on October 25, 2009.

While some people think Phillips is a hack on TV, I was always in the other camp. I thought that he was a fun to listen to and one of the better ESPN guys. Its just surprising to see fall this far.

Ian Darke, Twitter Hero

The World Cup has had a huge impact on the American TV viewers from, the games featuring the United States to great games, but one person has become the voices of the tournament in the United States and a twitter hero, Ian Darke. For years Darke has been one of the voices of the Premier League for Sky Sports, this summer he joined ESPN to help with their World Cup coverage and has been hit.

Here are some of the tweets from some of Darke's new fans:

• ArashMarkaz: I can't help but think of ESPN's Ian Darke while watching this NBA free agency madness. "This is stranger than fiction."
• tyduffy: Can we trade Joe Buck for Ian Darke? If England won't accept that, can we just give them Joe Buck?
• JakeAppleman I'll watch the LeBron thing if ESPN incorporates both Ian Darke and horse placenta references into the proceedings.
• illiniman14: I wish Ian Darke would commentate my life