This makes too much sense.
Stephen A. Smith will join First Take on a permanent basis. USA Today reports the deal isn’t finalized, but host Jay Crawford disclosed the new set-up on the air.
Smith and Bayless know the drill for the show better than anyone. Crawford should look into increasing his health insurance.
It’s a big week for the Manning franchise. Eli Manning will host this week’s edition of Saturday Night Live.
Unlike his brother, Peyton, Eli had to win a second Super Bowl before being awarded the hosting duties.
NBC has released the series of promos for this week’s show. Manning does one with Jason Sudeikis and then several with Kenan Thompson.
Judging from the promos, Eli likely won’t rival Peyton’s performance on SNL, which might have been the best ever for an athlete.
But as Seth Meyers noted on David Letterman Tuesday, it doesn’t matter how Eli does Saturday.
That’s the best thing about athlete hosts is they don’t stress out because nothing on our show is like harder than being chased around by a 300-pound man. And you can’t lose your day job. Like you can’t go back to camp and Tom Coughlin’s not going to be like, ‘Hey, we saw you on ‘SNL.’ We’re going another direction. We found a younger quarterback who’s better at accents.
Only a few years ago, it would have been inconceivable for ESPN to knock out afternoon programming on the Mother Ship to air a soccer game from Europe.
ESPN did it Monday, and the result is yet another sign of how the sport is growing in this country.
Monday’s Manchester derby, a 1-0 home win for Manchester City over Manchester United in a 2011-2012 Premier League showdown, was seen on ESPN by an average of 1.033 million viewers (832,000 television homes), based on a 0.8 rating, making it the most-watched Premiership telecast on U.S. cable television, according to Nielsen.
The Manchester derby telecast out-delivered the previous high, an ESPN2 telecast of Arsenal vs. Chelsea, seen by an average of 610,000 viewers on Monday, Dec. 27, 2010.
To attract that large of an audience on a Monday afternoon is a huge deal for soccer. And for the networks who continue to track the rising numbers.
Here is a list of the top-rated PL games in the U.S.
| Date | Matchup | Viewers – P2+ | Network |
| Mon, April 30, 2012 | Manchester City vs. Manchester United | 1,033,000 | ESPN |
| Mon., Dec. 27, 2010 | Chelsea vs. Arsenal | 610,000 | ESPN2 |
| Sat., Feb. 11, 2012 | Liverpool vs. Manchester United | 588,000 | ESPN2 |
| Sun., Feb. 6, 2011 | Liverpool vs. Chelsea | 579,000 | FOX Soccer |
| Mon., Dec. 13, 2010 | Arsenal vs. Manchester United | 570,000 | ESPN2 |
The news definitely is encouraging to Fox Sports. On May 13, its networks will show nine games simutaneously from the PL’s “Survival Sunday.”
Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch channeled his inner Peter King. He wrote a 4,000-plus word analysis of the networks’ coverage of the NFL draft.
Imagine if the draft was 17 rounds like it was in the good old days. He’d be the Leo Tolstoy of the NFL draft.
Deitsch started his treatise by dumping on ESPN’s Chris Berman:
The bellowing never stops. It pummels you over the head like a hard rain, and it’s forever accompanied by outdated references (“Mel Kiper, to quote Stan Laurel, ‘Here’s another mess you have gotten me into, Ollie.’ “) and long-winded intros that last nearly as long as a Presidential campaign. Mostly, there is Chris Berman simply talking and talking and talking.
It’s a shame, really, that Berman remains the ringmaster for ESPN during the first two days of the NFL Draft, because the network has terrific draft assets and a first-rate production.
Berman obviously is getting touchy by the criticism. Later, Deitsch detailed this weird exchange:
I think, during a discussion on Memphis nose tackle Dontari Poe prior to the Chiefs selecting him at No. 11 overall, this exchange happened on ESPN:
Berman: “Maybe they are reading Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories. I don’t know. There are some good ones, you know.
Gruden: He’s got a lot of Poe-tential
Berman: See, now if I had said that, I’d be ripped for about three years. You can go with it. You are a rising star.
Gruden: I learn quick from you, Chris.
Why was the exchange particularly amusing? Because last week Berman told USA Today that he doesn’t pay attention to criticism. Show me a person in sports television who doesn’t read stuff about them and I’ll show you a Kardashian who can act.
Deitsch also got into the whole impact of Twitter on the draft coverage, with picks being tipped in advance by the networks’ reports. He had this passage:
I think it’s interesting that NFL Network executive producer Eric Weinberger told La Canfora to back off tweeting picks during the draft. “Mike Lombardi and Jason could have tweeted every pick Thursday night but they didn’t,” Weinberger told SI.com in an interview Sunday. “We sort of unleashed Jason on Friday and he was doing it, he was picking off picks on Twitter. And the reason we were able to do it is the picks were coming in so fast that there were backups of three picks at some times. So there was more time to get the information out there.
“But after following him on Twitter and me watching the show, we told Jason to pull back. And I don’t think at this juncture it’s as simple as saying, ‘Don’t follow him on Twitter.’ It’s what people do. It’s hard to say turn your tablet off. Everyone is watching TV with a tablet. We have to find ways to continue to grow these sporting events and this is becoming an obvious one: The viewer wants it to be a TV show and the way they like it now is they want to see it on the podium.”
New Sun-Times editor Jim Kirk has weighed in on Joe Cowley.
Cowley has been under considerable fire since a series of offensive tweets about women went viral on Sunday. He is getting pounded from many points on the Internet.
Kirk, who was named editor last week, is quoted in a Chicago Tribune story:
“Recently, a reporter in our newsroom, Joe Cowley, made offensive comments on his Twitter account. The Chicago Sun-Times is an institution with important social responsibilities, and we expect those who represent our paper to act with the respect and sensitivity that our readers deserve. Mr. Cowley’s remarks were offensive and he has been reprimanded appropriately.”
Cowley continues to write for the Sun-Times.. He has done three stories since Sunday. He still is listed as a columnist on the Sun-Times’ site. His last column in his archive is from April 22.
Deadspin did an original post on Cowley’s twitter exchange with a woman sportswriter Sunday. It has followed up with two more posts.
Various other outlets have weighed in, blasting Cowley.
This thing was so, so unnecessary. It still is mind-boggling to me that Tiger Woods and his camp put him in position to look bad again.
As I noted yesterday, Woods did a 14-minute video on his site, reading and answering questions from his followers. The idea is for Woods to have more of a direct connection with his fans. Great.
Here’s the kicker: His social media session will serve as Woods’ only pre-tournament comments prior to this week’s Wells Fargo Championship. He won’t be meeting with the golf media in Charlotte until after he plays the first round Thursday.
The weird media strategy has ignited a firestorm. The frosty relationship between Woods and the golf media has gone further in the deep freeze.
Here’s more reaction:
Robert Lusetich of Foxsports.com writes:
It’s disturbing that Steinberg and Woods have seen fit to substitute their homemade, modern-day homage to the old Soviet TASS news broadcasts for an independent press conference.
It’s a decision that reeks of paranoia; a clumsy attempt at controlling the message. It also gives the impression — rightly or wrongly — that Woods wants to dodge tough questions, perhaps about his implosion at Augusta or about revelations in “The Big Miss,” the tell-all written by his estranged coach, Hank Haney.
Randall Mell of Golfchannel.com writes:
The Tiger Woods fan presser Monday wasn’t exactly riveting fare.
You could call it a clinic on “The Art of the 2-Foot Putt.”
Or maybe just “The Big Miss II.”
As questions go, they were all 2-footers. It was about as much fun as watching Woods line up gimmes all day on the practice putting green. It must have been easier than shooting reporters in a barrel, uh, I mean fish in a barrel.
Shane Bacon of CBSsportline.com writes:
Woods can do whatever he wants, and he almost always does, but if the guy really wants to reach the public in a different way, maybe he should work on his ability to answer a question properly in the media room and not what to say to a camera on questions you and your team are able to choose. It just seems that a move made for public relations isn’t going to help, but actually hurt his image in the long run.
Jeff Rude of Golfweek offered his unique twist as only he can. He did a version of the Q/A he wished had taken place.
Q: Considering you won 51 percent of your PGA Tour starts from July 2006 to the day you hit that hydrant in 2009, what was so bad about that “wipey” swing anyway? – H. Haney, Dallas
TW: I’m afraid whatever I say here will end up in a book somewhere.
• • •
• Q: Can you please watch the kids June 14-17? – E. Nordegren, North Palm Beach, Fla.
TW: Maybe on Saturday and Sunday.
• • •
• Q: Is it possible I can pick the movies the next time we room together? – Z. Johnson, Sea Island, Ga.
TW: What would they be rated?
• • •
• Q: Are you still mad at me? – S. Williams, Auckland, New Zealand.
TW: Yes.
Unfortunately, I had a family emergency Monday morning and never made it to New York for the Sports Emmy Awards. Too bad, because I was looking forward to seeing everybody.
Anyway, here are some of the highlights. Fang’s Bites has the complete list.
NBC was the big winner, collecting nine awards, the most of any media company. And the network won in the most recognizable categories.
Outstanding Live Sports Series — Sunday Night Football (four straight for producer Fred Gaudelli and the gang).
Outstanding Sports Personality – Studio Host, Bob Costas (23rd; requires a separate wing).
Outstanding Sports Personality – Sports Event Analyst, Cris Collinsworth (four straight).
Outstanding Sports Personality – Sports Reporter, Michele Tafoya.
Outstanding Playoff Coverage — Wild Card Saturday.
Other winners:
Outstanding sports personality – Play-by-Play, Joe Buck, Fox.
Outstanding Live Sports Special — The World Series, Fox.
Outstanding Sports Journalism — Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel: The college game money trail (outstanding piece).
Outstanding Studio Show — MLB Tonight, MLB Network (Big award for that network, given that show is its staple.)
Outstanding Sports Personality — Studio Analyst, Charles Barkley, TNT (of course).
Outstanding Studio Show — Weekly, Inside the NBA, TNT (nice recognition here).
Outstanding Sports Documentary — A Game of Honor, Showtime (big win in loaded category).
Outstanding Short Feature (tie) — “Together”-E:60 — ESPN “Time Out of Mind”-Outside The Lines, ESPN
Outstanding Long Feature — Outside The Lines: The Man in the Red Bandana, ESPN
Yell fore, Tiger Woods, because you just hit–to quote the title of a certain book–a Big Miss.
This time, it comes in the form of the former No. 1 doing a Q/A with fans on his website Monday rather than meeting with the media in advance of this week’s Quail Hollow Championship in Charlotte.
Here is a link to the so-called press conference.
Basically, it is Woods first reading the question and then supplying the answer. The difficult (not!) queries include:
How many practice rounds do you play before a tournament?
What do you think is the coolest trophy among the four majors? (A: Claret Jug)
Do you have a good chance of winning?
The video session lasted 14 minutes, and surprise, surprise, it included two sponsor-related questions that produced nice plugs. His public just has to know about Fuze.
Naturally, Woods’ critics pounced. Geoff Shackelford wrote:
Love the minimalist hostage video and echoey (sound)…The only thing missing is Tiger holding up today’s paper.
Stina Sternberg of Golf Digest did this tweet:
Downloading Tiger’s video for those sleepless nights when counting sheep doesn’t work.
Jason Sobel of GolfChannel.com said.
Boy, that Tiger Woods is a swell guy.
He obviously knows how overworked we in the golf media are on a week-in, week-out basis. He undoubtedly understands our difficulties in trying to ask and re-ask new, exciting interview questions in hopes of writing and rewriting new, exciting pieces about him.
(Your sarcasm detector should be beeping feverishly by now…)
And so what has Tiger done for all of the hardworking members of the press focused on his every move? He gave us the day off.
Prior to most tournaments, Woods usually meets with the media in an interview area just off the green following Wednesday’s pro-am. It usually lasts 10 minutes tops.
Why couldn’t he have done both the fan Q/A and his media Q/A this week? I don’t think it would have been that taxing.
And it would have saved him from taking more shots from his critics.
This is going to be a big day for me. I’m traveling to New York to cover the 33rd Annual Sports Emmy Awards.
I can’t wait to see the Red Carpet with thousands of fans cheering wildly for their sports media favorites. And then there’s the fashion component. Wonder what Joan Rivers will say about Jim Nantz’s tie?
Oh, the glitz and glamor of it all.
OK, so maybe not so much glitz and glamor. I’m going because it is the one night that brings together virtually everyone in sports TV. It’ll be a one-stop shop for me to make the rounds.
I can’t say that I am a big awards guy. They are way too subjective, although I am looking forward to seeing who wins for best supporting analyst in soccer.
However, awards shows thrive because society demands we need to have a best in something. That includes sports on television. And let’s not forget, they are important to the nominees.
And there will be plenty of nominees: 175 in 33 categories. Really, 33 categories? This thing could last longer than a Yankees-Red Sox game.
If you’re a Sports Emmys junkie (there’s got to be someone out there), here’s a link with all the nominees. Here are a few that captured my attention.
Outstanding Sports Personality ‑ Studio Analyst: Al Leiter, MLB Network; Charles Barkley, CBS/NBA/TNT; Cris Collinsworth, Showtime; Harold Reynolds, MLB Network; Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN; Skip Bayless, ESPN2; Trent Dilfer, ESPN.
And the winner: Skip Bayless! Probably not, but I just want to see the explosion from his critics if he wins the award. Bayless always is controversial, and his mere inclusion in this category had some people going ballistic. Twitter might blow up if walks away with an Emmy. The nomination shows how far my old Tribune colleague has come.
Outstanding Studio host: Bob Costas, NBC/MLB Network; Bryant Gumbel, Real Sports, Dan Patrick, NBC/DirecTV; James Brown, CBS/Showtime; Ernie Johnson, TNT.
And the winner: Feeling like JB here, but perhaps the always entertaining Ernie Johnson could sneak in.
Outstanding Sports Personality-Play-by-play: Al Michaels, NBC; Jim Nantz, CBS, Joe Buck, Fox, Marv Albert, CBS/TBS/TNT, Mike Emrick, NBC/Versus.
And the winner: Hey, they’re all solid. Emrick is amazing. His call of the last few minutes of the Rangers-Ottawa in Game 7 was epic.
Outstanding Sports Personality — Game Analyst: Cris Collinsworth, NBC; Gary Danielson, CBS; Jim Kaat, MLB Network; Jon Gruden, ESPN; Mike Maycock, NBC/NFL Network.
And the winner: A lot of guys left out of this category: Troy Aikman, Tim McCarver, Jeff Van Gundy, Dick Vitale, etc. The nod likely goes to Collinsworth. He did the Super Bowl.
Outstanding Live Sports Series: Monday Night Football, ESPN; WCB/PPV Boxing, HBO; MLB on Fox, Fox; NBA on TNT, TNT; Sunday Night Football, NBC.
And the winner: Sunday Night Football on NBC. It does the biggest ratings, and producer Fred Gaudelli’s crew always delivers.
Outstanding Studio Show–Weekly: College GameDay, ESPN; Football Night in America, NBC; Inside the NBA on TNT, TNT; Inside the NFL, Showtime/CBS Sports; Sunday NFL Countdown, ESPN.
And the winner: No nomination for Fox NFL Sunday? Interesting. Tony Dungy’s presence really lifts Football Night. Could be a winner.
Outstanding Sports Documentary: A Game of Honor, Showtime/CBS; Catching Hell, ESPN; McEnroe/Borg: Fire & Ice, HBO; Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV, HBO; The Marinovich Project, ESPN; and Unguarded, ESPN.
And the winner: They all were excellent. Usually, a fair amount of pathos is required to win in this category. While Todd Marinovich had more than his share, it’s hard to beat what Chris Herren went through. Unguarded gets the nod.
Outstanding Sports Journalism: E:60, Nightmare, ESPN2; E:60, Stranger than Fiction, ESPN2; E: 60, The Athletes of Bahrain, ESPN2; Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Tennis coach/child molester, HBO; Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, College bowl game money trail, HBO.
And the winner: Again, all strong. It’ll be tough to beat Real Sports’ story on the tennis coach/child molester.
Not a good day for Joe Cowley, a columnist for the Sun-Times.
Apparently, his plane was delayed this morning, and instead of reading a good book, he did some tweets that weren’t nice to women. His tweets questioning the capabilities of a “Chick pilot” started an exchange with sport reporter Sloane Martin that I’m guessing he now regrets.
As a result, Cowley’s tweets have become a Sunday afternoon topic for Deadspin. And that’s not a good thing. The site did an original post and two follow-ups, including a report that Cowley de-activated his Twitter account.
As folks in Chicago know, Cowley is very active on Twitter. He enjoys being edgy, and ticking off people.
However, there’s always that line in everything, and it looks as if Cowley might have crossed it.
I’m more likely to see a Squatch before I see a hot flight attendant. Then again, I think the airlines are hiring Squatch’s to do that job.
Chick pilot. Should I be OK with that or am I just a sexist caveman?
@SloaneMartin And when you come back, hottie up that pic a bit more. You look like the Russian icy villain from a 70s Bond movie. XOXO.