Tony Dungy on impact of King’s speech in sports: “We’ve made a lot of progress; not quite there yet, but it’s coming”

Posted on by

Tony Dungy ranks among top people in all of sports when it comes to making an impact that goes beyond games. So it is quite fitting to hear his comments about the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s famous speech.

Turns it out made quite an impression on a 7-year-old boy in Michigan.

Here is what Dungy said during an interview with Carolyn Manno today on Sports Dash With Yahoo! on NBC SN:

******

Carolyn Manno: “We are celebrating the 50-year anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech, a moment in history that helped shape modern America. Super Bowl-winning coach and current NBC NFL analyst Tony Dungy joins us now on the phone. Tony, what do you remember about that moment?”

Tony Dungy: “Carolyn, I remember it like it was yesterday. I was 7 years old, and I just remember sitting there watching on television, black and white TV, and seeing an African-American man captivate the whole country. For me, growing up in a little small town in Michigan, it was a thrill, but it also got me to think about dreaming.”

CM: “What do you remember about your father’s reaction, Tony?”

TD: “My dad was a schoolteacher who had fought in World War II. He had taught in segregated schools before I was born. I think there was a pride factor in him, too, and a sense that we were making progress and that maybe his children would get some of the benefits that he didn’t have growing up. I know he was thrilled by it.”

CM: “It’s been 50 years since Dr. King’s speech, Tony, and 10 years since the NFL imposed what is known as the Rooney Rule — essentially Steelers chairman Dan Rooney pushing the league to require teams to interview minority candidates every time there’s a coaching or GM vacancy. As you look at the landscape, what are your thoughts on where things stand right now?”

TD: “Well, I think we have made a lot of progress in sports in general, and in the NFL in particular. My first encounter with the NFL was with the Steelers; I played there and Dan Rooney was the chairman at that time. I just remember Dan being at the forefront of trying to make things right, and telling me as a young coach, ‘We want you to be yourself. Be who you are. We want you to climb the ladder.’ He just gave me a lot of help throughout my career. I think that was Dr. King’s dream, that we get to the point where we don’t need the Rooney Rule, where things just flow naturally and we are judged by how well you do the job. That’s coming, and we’ve made a lot of progress; not quite there yet, but it’s coming.”

CM: “You mention everyone who has influenced you, and you have certainly been a mentor to many in the league. You met with Michael Vick in prison after he pleaded guilty to dog-fighting charges, you reached out to Chip Kelly after Riley Cooper used a racial slur; how has what Dr. King stood for impacted your ability to counsel others?

TD: “I was blessed to come up at a time where I had so many people helping me. I look back and Dan Rooney and Chuck Noll jumpstarting my career and being able to dream as a young coach in the league now about being a head coach. When I got to that position in 1996 in Tampa, that was one of the things I wanted to do, to help other young minorities get that opportunity, and to me it’s been really fun watching the careers of these guys take off. It’s been a blessing to me to be able to help Mike Tomlin, Leslie Frazier, Jim Caldwell, Lovie Smith, Herm Edwards get to that head coaching pinnacle. It’s been great for me, something to give back and to keep that vision of Dr. King alive.”

CM: “Still there were head coaching vacancies and GM vacancies at the end of last season that weren’t filled, only filled by white candidates. What progress should we expect in the next 10 years; where do we need to go from here, in your opinion?”

TD: “I think in all of the areas – coaching, general managers, staff, high-ranking positions – we just have to live up to what Dr. King was saying — judge by the content, the character, what guys have done through experience. That’s what we are hoping for and we have made tons of progress in that area. We just have to keep going.”

Chris Russo signs new deal with SiriusXM; includes show on MLB Network

Posted on by

This just in: Chris Russo has a new three-year deal with SiriusXM.

The interesting part is that the deal also includes him doing a new show for MLB Network that will be simulcast on MLB Network Radio, beginning in the spring of 2014.

All in all, a pretty good outcome for Russo, who has been candid about the challenges he has encountered in trying to launch his own radio station. Last year, Talkers.com ranked his show 39th out of the top 100 sports talk radio shows in the U.S. His former partner, Mike Francessa of WFAN in New York, was No. 1.

Now 39th is way too low for a national show of Russo’s scale. But it does underscore that it hasn’t been smooth sailing for Russo.

However, SiriusXM wants him back, and Russo will expand his reach with the MLB Network duties.

The official rundown.

******

Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) today announced that it has signed renowned sports talk personality Chris “Mad Dog” Russo to a new three-year contract that will keep his daily all-sports radio show exclusively on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio channel.  Russo’s on-air role will be expanded to include a significant presence on the MLB Network Radio channel on SiriusXM.

Russo will continue to host his daily show, Mad Dog Unleashed, weekday afternoons on Mad Dog Sports Radio, SiriusXM channel 86.  Starting in September, with the beginning of NFL season, the show will air daily from 3:00-6:00pm ET/12:00-3:00pm PT.  The show is also available to subscribers through the SiriusXM Internet Radio App and online at SiriusXM.com.

MLB Network today also announced that Russo will join its roster of on-air talent to host a new weekday baseball show launching in the spring of 2014, in addition to appearing across its studio programming. The show will be produced by MLB Network and simulcast on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM. MLB Network’s Emmy Award-winning studio show “MLB Tonight” is currently simulcast on MLB Network Radio on weekdays at 6:00 p.m. ET.

In addition to hosting Mad Dog Unleashed daily, Russo will take on an expanded role that will feature him prominently on the MLB Network Radio channel on SiriusXM (channel 89 on XM, channel 209 on Sirius Premier and on the SiriusXM App).  He will serve as SiriusXM’s “baseball ambassador,” hosting shows and specials and appearing regularly on the channel to comment on MLB news and issues.

“I’ve always loved the on-air freedom that comes with being on SiriusXM,” said Russo.  “I can do the kind of show here that I wouldn’t be able to do anywhere else and I’m fortunate to be able to continue to give my listeners my kind of sports talk radio each and every day on Mad Dog Unleashed.  I’ll also get to emphasize my passion for baseball with my new role on MLB Network Radio and MLB Network, where I’ll be talking to dyed-in-the-wool baseball fans like me throughout the year.  This is a terrific opportunity that allows me to do what I do best, while also reaching new audiences.”

“Chris is a one-of-a-kind sports radio talent, one of the best in the history of the medium, and we’re very pleased to keep him on SiriusXM for years to come,” said Scott Greenstein, SiriusXM’s President and Chief Content Officer.  “Our listeners will continue to get his unique style of sports talk – the biting commentary, the high profile interviews, the great rants – on a daily basis.  And by expanding his role to the MLB Network Radio channel, we can better showcase his passion for baseball and his extraordinary knowledge of the sport.  This will enhance our overall sports programming and increase his reach, and will be a benefit to both Chris and our listeners.”

“Chris Russo is one of the top sports voices in the country and he will be a terrific addition to our unparalleled roster of on-air talent,” said Tony Petitti, President and CEO of MLB Network. “Expanding MLB Network’s live programming has been a continued goal since our launch in 2009, and we look forward to bringing his refreshing take on baseball to MLB Network’s weekday lineup in 2014.”

Dan Hicks on NBC losing U.S. Open: ‘A kick to the stomach’; Will Miller retire?

Posted on by

Earlier today, I posted my Chicago Tribune column on Dan Hicks taking over as NBC’s voice for Notre Dame football.

Here are some more excerpts from my interview:

How do you feel about NBC losing the U.S. Open to Fox?

I was shocked. I’ll be honest with you. It was a kick to the stomach. It’s a business. I know that. I knew the USGA was going to take it out to market. It was the right thing to do.

But it is tough to take. The U.S. Open gets in your blood. It becomes a part of who you are. I’m still coming to terms with knowing that next year will be our last U.S. Open. I probably won’t absorb it until 2015 when we’re on the outside looking in. It’s going to be tough.

I feel worse for (Johnny Miller) than anyone. He gives so much emotion to that championship. After I talked to (producer Tommy Roy), I called Johnny. You could hear the emotion in his voice.

Miller will be 67 next year. Is there any chance he does one final Open in 2014 and rides off into the sunset?

I don’t know. I don’t think so. I think Johnny is too good to just walk away because we’re not doing the Open anymore. He still wants to do some golf. Our team is tight. If the crew was breaking up, then I could see him leaving.

We still a lot of good golf at NBC; the Florida swing; the Players; the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup. I think Johnny will want to be part of that.

How did the Notre Dame job come about for you?

I missed doing football. When I first got to NBC, I did 50-60 NFL games (in the 90s). I did express some interest. Any play-by-play guy wants to be at the games. I didn’t want to look back on my career and say, “Boy, I think I could have done more.”

When the Notre Dame announcement was made, there was some speculation NBC is making you the heir apparent to Al Michaels on Sunday Night Football. Michaels is 68.

Al is the best football play-by-play announcer in history. I’m not saying that because we work at the same network. I’ve always believed that.

The speculation is beyond flattering, but Al is as good as he’s ever been. You never know how things will change–certainly learned that when we lost the USGA rights. But Al isn’t going anywhere.

 

 

Posted in NBC

Dan Hicks expects scrutiny as new voice of Notre Dame for NBC

Posted on by

My latest Chicago Tribune column is on Dan Hicks, who assumes the full-time play-by-play role for NBC’s telecasts of Notre Dame games this fall. You also can access the column here via my Twitter feed.

From the column:

***********

Dan Hicks knows he will be subjected to intense scrutiny as NBC’s new play-by-play voice for Notre Dame football.

And that will be from within his own home.

His wife, ESPN’s Hannah Storm, and members of her family are avid Notre Dame alums.

“Her dad, Mike Storen, (a one-time ABA commissioner) watches every second of every game,” Hicks said. “I’ve got to make sure I keep the family happy before I worry about everyone else.”

Hicks, though, likely will hear from everyone else at some point, starting with Notre Dame’s season opener Saturday against Temple (WMAQ-Ch. 5, 2:30 p.m.).

While he has done fill-in work on three Irish games previously, he assumes the full-time duties this year, taking over for Tom Hammond, 68, who said his leaving the broadcast was a mutual decision and that he wanted to cut back on his NBC duties.

Hicks walks into a rare position for a broadcaster. He will be doing a national telecast focused on one team. Earlier this year, NBC extended its contract to air Notre Dame home games through 2025.

“You know you’re going to be watched closely,” Hicks said. “People are going to say, ‘Who is this Dan Hicks and why is he covering our team now?’ The sensitivity level of Notre Dame people runs high.”

*******

The dynamic will have Hicks being accused of being pro-Notre Dame from viewers outside of the school and anti-Notre Dame from Irish fans who will bristle at any criticism of the school. Such are the love-’em, hate-’em passions that surround the Irish.

Hicks knows the drill. He insists he is going to do a down-the-middle, objective broadcast. To wit, he plans to detail Notre Dame’s rocky off-season during the opener.

“We have a responsibility to tell people what happened,” Hicks said. “It hasn’t been a fantasy world here since the (BCS title game against Alabama). We can’t ignore those things. … I am going to try to do a fair job of putting the school and the game in perspective.”

*******

And there’s more on Hicks and a look at the first big weekend of college football in the column.

 

New York Times special report: ESPN at a crossroads; Skipper says “complicated” environment

Posted on by

This is either a case of burying the lede or saving the best for the last.

The New York Times completed its massive three-part series on ESPN today. Written and reported by Richard Sandomir, James Andrew Miller and Steve Eder, the first two parts provided interesting insights into how the network runs college football and how Louisville used ESPN to become a sports powerhouse. Both pieces are highly recommended.

However, part 3 gets to the heart of the matter: The battleground for ESPN’s future.

For all of the network’s success and power, it is possible that the money machine in Bristol could be put on a much slower speed.

The opponents/obstacles are considerable: legislators who want to do away with bundling for cable networks; new network competitors such as Fox Sports 1; and a changing media landscape.

From the story:

So it may be hard to imagine that the sports media conglomerate has arrived at one of the most precarious moments in its nearly 34-year life.

The more than $6 billion in cable fees flowing annually to ESPN from almost 100 million homes is threatened as growing numbers of consumers cut ties with cable providers to avoid rising bills for pay TV, turning instead to video streaming services. In Washington, a renewed push to undo the bundling of channels into cable packages and allow viewers to simply pay for those they want has even drawn the support of Senator Richard Blumenthal, who represents ESPN’s home state.

ESPN’s viewership numbers plunged earlier this year, and that was before the debut this month of Fox Sports 1, a 24-hour network funded lavishly by Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox. Fox Sports 1 is likely to shape up as ESPN’s most formidable head-to-head rival.

All of this, particularly consumers’ move away from pay TV, is reverberating in Bristol. “This is the most complicated environment we’ve faced in a long time,” said John Skipper, the president of ESPN.

It turns out ESPN also is good at lobbying:

One focus of ESPN and Disney’s largess was Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican and the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which had purview over television legislation.

In 2004, Mr. Barton had helped derail a legislative move aimed at breaking up bundles. On Super Bowl weekend in February 2005, with the cable controversy bubbling, Disney paid to bring Mr. Barton and his wife to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., records show. ESPN did not carry the game, which was played in Jacksonville, Fla. But in Orlando, Disney was busy entertaining advertisers.

ESPN gathered some of its executives to talk to Mr. Barton about the absence of a college football playoff, an issue that the congressman would eventually explore in hearings.

“It was Preston Padden’s show and Joe Barton’s agenda,” one participant in the meeting said. Mr. Barton’s travel disclosure form for Feb. 5 to 7, 2005, shows that Disney spent $3,354 on the Bartons’ lodging, $1,616 for airfare and $1,200 for meals. He recorded the purpose of the trip as “Speak to executives and fact finding.”

A spokesman for Mr. Barton declined to comment beyond saying that the report “speaks for itself.”

Yep, sure does.

And the unknown looms in the future:

Meanwhile, companies like Google, Sony and Intel are planning virtual cable services that would be delivered on the Internet. They could lure consumers from traditional pay television as low-cost alternatives to traditional pay TV while also competing for major sports properties when ESPN’s contracts eventually expire. Mr. Skipper said he would make deals with these upstarts, but only on ESPN’s terms: they must take all of ESPN’s offerings, not just the ones they want.

With the rise of new competition come questions about the fate of existing customers.

Consumers are fleeing pay TV at a quickening pace: 898,000 in the past year, nearly twice the number in the previous year, the analyst Craig Moffett said. And in the past two years, ESPN has lost more than one million subscribers.

What’s more, ESPN ratings plunged 32 percent in the quarter that ended in June.

Mr. Skipper’s task — very different from that of predecessors who built ESPN into a powerhouse — is to negotiate a deeply uncertain future.

“It’s a high-class problem,” he said.

The stories aren’t as long as Miller’s ESPN book, but they are hefty. So set aside some time to read them. Well worth it.

 

What is unusual about today’s New York Daily News front page?

Posted on by

Answer: Three headlines, all on sports.

Did I miss something? Has the New York Daily News become a sports daily?

Of the three headlines, probably only one deserved banner treatment: Matt Harvey’s devastating injury.

But hey, this is the NY Daily News, so let’s run crazy with a fat governor sounding off on the paper’s beat reporter. And since it is U.S. Open time in the Big A, the mob and tennis always makes a good combination.

Interesting to note that Manish Metha, the Jets beat writer who first was roasted by Gov. Christie and then by Keith Olbermann last night, has not mentioned a thing about it on his Twitter feed. If you go to his link, you’ll see he’s a big Don Mattingly fan.

Also, no mention on his Jets blog for the News.

If I missed something, please let me know.

 

 

 

 

Olbermann’s first show: Did he really spend first 13 minutes on Jets? Did Whitlock really praise Deadspin on ESPN?

Posted on by

Please somebody wake me up.

I’m having a dream that Keith Olbermann spent the first 13 minutes of his new show on the New York Jets. And that his rant included the takedown of a New York Daily News sports reporter who dared to suggest the coach could get fired after his No. 1 (or 2) QB got hurt in the final quarter of a meaningless preseason game.

And then, and this is where my dream really got bad, I saw Jason Whitlock with Olbermann, and Whitlock is praising Deadspin, which has made a name for itself by assaulting ESPN.

I figure Rick Reilly, and probably countless other ESPN staffers, didn’t see the rest of Olbermann’s show, because they destroyed their TVs after hearing Whitlock’s comment.

But of course, it didn’t happen because it was just a dream, right?

Oh my goodness.

I mean, really 13 minutes on the Jets? This is what happens when you live in New York and do a show from New York. The problem is, nobody outside of Manhattan besides Mike Greenberg cares about the Jets. We have had enough with that goofy franchise and its goofy coach.

Would Olbermann have gone on the same rant if a similar situation had occurred with the Jacksonville Jaguars? How about if Cam Newton got hurt in the fourth quarter of a Carolina preseason game he had no business playing in? Would that have warranted 13 minutes? You know the answer.

Then Olbermann extended his target to Manish Mehta, the Jets beat writer for the New York Daily News. He jumped all over Mehta for daring to suggest that Rex Ryan could get fired as a result of his bonehead decision. Was that really such a stretch for a coach who probably will get canned sooner than later?

“Reporting is dead,” Olbermann said. “Long live making something out of nothing.”

What? Are you kidding me? Keith, have you seen what your old/new network is pumping out these days? It’s all about making something out of nothing.

Also, to say Mehta and the New York Daily News represents all of sports newspaper journalism is ludicrous. And a reminder, Keith: Your new/old network currently is hiring reporters to staff all 32 NFL teams. The majority of those new hires are newspaper beat reporters. So by extension, you just insulted your new teammates at ESPN.com.

And speaking of sports journalism, Dave Zirin of Edge on Sports asks in a tweet:

How does @ESPNOlbermann not do a full segment on NFL/PBS/Frontline doc this week? Keith was made to cover this story.

Indeed, remember what they say about glass houses, or in your case, big glass picture windows overlooking Times Square.

The Whitlock segment went off the rails when he praised Deadspin. “We need somebody to watch the watchdogs,” he said.

OK, thankfully I didn’t destroy my television.

As for the rest of the show, I thought Olbermann had a good interview with Mark Cuban and I enjoyed his Worst Person in Sports segment. And nobody does sports highlights like Olbermann. Obviously, there’s plenty of potential for a compelling program.

However, I never make it to those segments if I wasn’t reviewing the show. I would have tuned out two minutes into that Jets stuff. And I have to think a significant number of viewers did.

As I have written previously, I am a big fan of Olbermann and have high hopes for the new show. So I’ll admit I was disappointed in show No. 1, especially the first half.

I’ll tune in again with the hope that Olbermann reports on the sports world beyond the Hudson River.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final Nine for IX: ‘Branded’ examines the marketing of women athletes

Posted on by

The grand finale is tonight in the excellent Nine for IX series. Branded airs at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.

An excerpt about Lolo Jones, who took it upon herself to do her own marketing.

The official rundown from ESPN:

Sports is supposed to be the ultimate level playing field, but in the media and on Madison Avenue, sometimes looks matter more than accomplishments. This film explores the double standard placed on female athletes to be the best players on the field and the sexiest off of it. Through stories of the women who have faced and tackled this question in very different ways, “Branded” explores the question: can women’s sports ever gain an equal footing with their male counterparts, or will sex appeal always override achievement?

Directors’ bios: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady are Academy Award-nominated filmmakers who have been lauded for gaining unprecedented access into unknown worlds and for their intimate approach to subject matter.

In 2007, Ewing and Grady released “Jesus Camp,” a candid look at the new generation of the Christian right. It was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary film. Their new film “Detropia” is a cinematic tapestry that looks at Detroit as America’s “canary in the coal mine.” The film premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and won a best editing award. It opened nationwide in September 2012.

In 2010, they also debuted their Peabody Award-winning documentary “12th & Delaware” at Sundance. The work, a collaboration with HBO, was described by the Los Angeles Times as “the finest documentary film ever made about the abortion issue.” Previously, the team was nominated for an Emmy for “The Boys of Baraka,” a film about preteens struggling to make it in Baltimore. They recently co-directed an adaptation of “Freakonomics” for the big screen, as well as a rare documentary on Saudi Arabian teenagers for the MTV Network.

Ewing and Grady are the co-owners of Loki Films, based in New York City.

Ewing and Grady: Personal statement
When we were small girls growing up in Michigan and Washington, D.C., women’s sports would really come to our attention only every four years during Olympic coverage. During the Summer Games, women’s gymnastics were suddenly the rage, Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci bringing with them an intriguing aura of the severe Eastern-bloc training regime.

We were transfixed by their beautiful and muscular physiques, and often unsmiling faces. When it was the Winter Olympics’ turn, figure skating took over as the female sport du jour — briefly embraced by the American public who obsessed over Oksana Baiul and Katarina Witt as they dramatically stormed the Games, won gold and then faded away for another four years.

Today, a handful of women in sports loom large in our culture, and the marketing of these female athletes is big business. The Williams sisters are a powerhouse and veritable brand. Two of the most popular names in sports — tennis star Anna Kournikova and auto racer Danica Patrick — have worked in equal parts talent and sex appeal, and turned them into lucrative sponsorship opportunities.

Progress? Sure. But clearly, winning or being the best is not enough for a woman to rise to the top of the high-stakes world of sports marketing. We will take a look deep inside what it takes for a woman today to make it as an international sports icon.

A Good Read: ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr.’s story asking if Bobby Riggs threw match against Billie Jean King?

Posted on by

Highlighting stories that go above and beyond:

********

ESPN has been taking a pounding for the ESPN-Frontline fiasco. However, Don Van Natta Jr.’s story on Bobby Riggs shows the journalism the network is capable of producing.

The post includes a 14-minute report on ESPN’s Outside The Lines. It’s fascinating how a story could come alive 40 years later.

Van Natta writes:

Riggs relished playing the impish, gambling-mad chauvinistic court jester for enthralled members of the national media. On its cover, Time magazine called Riggs “The Happy Hustler.” Sports Illustrated warned, “Don’t Bet Against This Man.” A recording artist named Lyle “Slats” McPheeters recorded “The Ballad of Bobby Riggs,” for Artco Records. On “60 Minutes,” Riggs tossed playing cards at a wastebasket for money, played tennis with eight chairs on his side of the court and ran around Las Vegas looking for action on anything, from tennis and golf to backgammon and card tosses, with everyone he met.

“All of the running, all of the chasing, all of the betting, all of the playing — what’s it all about?” Mike Wallace asked Riggs. “Do you do it for money, Bobby?”

“No,” said Riggs with a smirk. “I do it for fun, the sport, it’s the thing to do. When I can’t play for big money, I play for little money. And if I can’t play for little money, I stay in bed that day.”

This wasn’t a midlife crisis. This was a midlife Mardi Gras.

Suspicions from those who knew him:

Across nearly 40 years, some of the men who knew Riggs best have wondered: Was “The Battle of the Sexes” nothing more than a cultural con job?

“A lot of my tennis friends immediately suspected something was up, and many of us still believe something was up,” says John Barrett, the longtime BBC tennis broadcaster. “It wasn’t so much that Bobby lost. It was that he looked as if he had almost capitulated. He just made it too easy for Billie Jean King. We all wondered if the old fox had done it again.”

“Everything was different,” says Adler. “If you were a tennis person that knew Bobby Riggs, the first thing that comes to your mind is he threw the match.”

Steve Powers, who owned the guest house where Riggs stayed prior to the match, says “If Bobby had an opportunity to fix the match, he would have jumped at it. Ethics wouldn’t have stopped him.”

Tennis great Gene Mako, who died in June, had insisted for years that Riggs had thrown the match. “You have to know Bobby,” Mako told author Tom LeCompte in the 2003 Riggs biography, “The Last Sure Thing.” Mako believed Riggs was so vain that his play was just awful enough to demonstrate to smart tennis people that he had tanked the match.

Even from his son:

However, Larry Riggs did not dismiss Shaw’s story outright because, after all, his father knew and gambled with a lot of mob guys all over the country. Bobby Riggs was also a longtime member of the La Costa Country Club in Carlsbad, Calif., a reputed mob-built country club where mob leader and Riggs’ acquaintance Moe Dalitz was a member. And Larry Riggs had never understood why those Chicago pals of hit man Jackie Cerone had visited his father several times prior to the King match.

“Did he know mafia guys? Absolutely,” Larry Riggs says. “Is it possible these guys were talking some s—? Yes, it is possible. They talked to him about doing it? Possible.” However, Riggs says, it was more likely his father purposefully lost with an eye toward setting up a bigger payday rematch — and a continuation of the national publicity that he so craved — than throw the match for mob money. Larry Riggs also says he remains baffled by the fact his father did not prepare for the King match — the only match in Bobby Riggs’ life for which he had failed to train. “Never understood it,” Larry Riggs says.

And there’s more. You make your own conclusion.

 

 

ESPN fallout to Frontline pullout: Not even own staffers are buying ‘branding’ story

Posted on by

The ESPN-Frontline is generating considerable reaction. I thought I would try to provide a sample of what people are saying.

And for what it is worth, I have yet to find a single person who is buying that ESPN pulled out so late in the project because of “branding” reasons. And that includes journalists within ESPN.

From Dave Zirin at Edge of Sports:

I spoke to several of the biggest names in journalism at ESPN this weekend and their thoughts on ESPN’s official comments and reasoning for dropping out of the project ranged from “mystifying” to “deeply depressing” to “palpable bullshit.” No one I spoke to believes that ESPN looked up after 15 months and discovered to their collective shock that they didn’t have final editorial control of the League of Denial.

None of the ESPN journalists with whom I spoke wanted to go on the record, with several describing such an action with the same phrase: “career suicide”, but the fact that they wanted to talk at all tells a story of its own. The collective picture they paint is one of a disheartened newsroom that feels disrespected, dismissed, and demoralized

One leading columnist and television personality at the network said to me, “Generally, ESPN’s business interests will always be at odds with its journalism. It is not a journalism company. It’s an entertainment company. This is the age of journalism we live in, not just at ESPN, but everywhere. Journalism is increasingly more corporate. When you get in bed with the devil, sooner or later you start growing your own horns.”

Richard Deitsch at SI.com spoke with Raney Aronson-Rath, the film’s producer:

Aronson-Rath said there was no hint of discord between ESPN and Frontline. The two companies had worked together on multiple projects including a tough story on NFL doctor Elliot Pellman that was posted on ESPN.com on Aug. 18 and given collaboration language at both places. Frontline and ESPN had collaborated on nine different published projects prior to ESPN ending the marriage, according to Aronson.

Staffers at ESPN had let this column know over the past month that they were fearful something like this could happen with the Frontline-ESPN collaboration. They suggested pressure was being exerted by the NFL at levels well above Outside The Lines management. Said one ESPN staffer last week: “I’m hearing of stuff I never thought I’d see at our place.”

“We had collaboration credit in two different places in their broadcast,” Aronson-Rath said of the Pellman story. “My feeling is, and I can’t verify this, it appears to me that it was not their [OTL management’s] decision. Nobody confirmed that for me but clearly [ESPN senior coordinating producer] Dwayne Bray was with us at the press tour a couple of weeks ago. That is as public as you can go with the TV critics announcing this and being asked all these same questions that are emerging right now.”

Rick Morrissey in the Chicago Sun-Times draws a Watergate parallel:

It’s nice when journalists know they have the support of their bosses, the way Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein did with the late Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham during the Watergate scandal. At one point, Bernstein told attorney general John Mitchell he had proof of Mitchell’s involvement in a fund used to obtain information about Democrats.

“Katie Graham’s going to get her [breast] caught in a big, fat wringer if that’s published,’’ Mitchell said.

Graham didn’t budge.

It sounds as if ESPN president John Skipper was concerned something of his was going to get caught in a big, fat wringer.

Viv Bernstein of Jersey Slant writes about her experiences during her short stay at ESPN:

So I have to admit I was a bit surprised when ESPN’s journalistic integrity was questioned last week after it pulled out of a collaboration with PBS’s “Frontline” on a critical look at the NFL’s handling of concussions. Why was there even a question? I thought most people understood that ESPN’s financial connection to sports leagues and dual role of promotion inevitably affected coverage decisions by the network. I even had a conversation about that with an ESPN.com writer. We both agreed that writing for ESPN was not like writing for a newspaper. It was an unspoken truth.

That’s not meant as a criticism of the network, merely an observation. And it’s one I’ve made before about all media outlets that have a financial connection to the sports leagues and athletes they cover. It’s inevitable that the connection will alter the tone of coverage.

Jason McIntyre of Big Lead had a few thoughts:

*So Skipper was cool with 15 months of joint work, but then, as soon as the trailer came out, he got skittish A few images from a trailer were more moving to him than a 15-month body of work?
* How did Lipsyte not ask the ESPN President, “why didn’t you just go to PBS and see if you could work things out?”
* Here’s how bad of a PR disaster this was for ESPN – first, a statement from PR. Then, as the story gets worse, Skipper trots out a weak statement that didn’t mention the NFL. Now, the Ombudsman’s column will have people talking about this again today.

Marc Tracy of New Republic believes it isn’t case of black and white:

It seems hard to believe that ESPN simply decided this was an unacceptable disservice to its partner league and therefore was shutting it down—even speaking of the massive company as a single agent betrays the oversimplified nature of this theory. The Pellman story and the others can still be viewed on ESPN’s website. The Fainuru brothers are still ESPN employees.

But it is equally hard to believe that a media organization with the kind of commitment to no-matter-where-it-goes journalism that ESPN professes to have would let the question of editorial control trip up such a fruitful partnership, particularly when their “brand” (however important that would even be) would be in the hands of “Frontline,” whose unimpeachable credentials ESPN was the first to brag about. The fact that ESPN did not even try (if futilely) to seek some sort of arrangement with “Frontline” in order to protect itself suggests an extreme abundance of caution.

In other words, I do not sense flagrantly foul play. What I sense is more morally benign, but also more practically worrying, because more systemic: A general overcarefulness at the media outlet sports fans depend upon the most.

Kalyn Kahler of the Chicago Sun-Times writes about documentary filmmaker who alleges ESPN also withdrew support for his new film about concussions and football:

ESPN originally supported the film, but Pamphilon said it withdrew support because of pressure from the NFL.

“When they saw the final cut, they wouldn’t endorse it,” Pamphilon said. “They told us they were concerned about what the NFL would say. They didn’t give a [bleep] about what the NFL Players Association said.”