What will ESPN do with Keyshawn Johnson? NFL analyst arrested in domestic violence incident

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ESPN has another situation on its hands.

Yesterday, it was disclosed that Keyshawn Johnson was arrested for misdemeanor spousal battery. Here’s the report.

Obviously, this is a major problem for the analyst on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown. ESPN has strict “zero tolerance” policies in place. In 2010, the network first suspended and then severed ties with Around The Horn panelist Jay Mariotti when he was arrested on domestic violence charges.

It should be stressed that no two situations are the same. That also goes for the people involved.

First things first, the network has to sort out the details of exactly what happened and let the legal process play out. At some point, though, ESPN will have to make a decision on Johnson’s fate with the network.

Obviously, more to come.

 

 

NBC rooting for Blackhawks: Would hate to lose strong following in huge Chicago market

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Not to wave the hometown flag too much, but Chicago Blackhawks fans aren’t the only people upset that they trail 2-0 in their playoff series with St. Louis. NBC also is a bit anxious.

In all sports, the networks always root for the team that delivers the most viewers. That’s the Blackhawks in the NHL.

Not only do the Blackhawks have a big national following as an Original 6 team, their local numbers in the nation’s third largest market usually make up a significant portion of NBC’s overall rating.

Saturday’s game 2 did a 1.6 rating on NBC, up 33 percent from the game that aired in that window in 2013. The game did a 9.5 rating in Chicago, which means it was seen in an estimated 332,500 households.

St. Louis actually had a higher local rating at 11.2. However, since St. Louis is the nation’s 21st highest market for Nielsen, that means the game was seen in an estimated 134,000 homes in that area, roughly 60 percent less than the viewership level in Chicago.

Just do the math, and it is easy to see why NBC is pulling for the Blackhawks to turn things around, beginning with Game 3 tonight.

Chicago power, with some considerable help from Boston, helped NBC and NBCSN average 5.76 million viewers per game in 2013, making it the most-watched Stanley Cup Final on record. Game 6 pulled in 8.16 million viewers, with nearly a million homes watching in Chicago.

NBC is realistic. The networks knows it isn’t going to have Chicago go deep in the playoffs every year.

However, no offense to St. Louis, but NBC would at least like to see the Blackhawks make the conference finals, if that’s not too much to ask.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicago Tribune: Profile of White Sox marketing chief Brooks Boyer; Challenging environment coming off rough ’13

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This isn’t exactly sports media, but I wanted to share my Chicago Tribune profile of Brooks Boyer, the head of marketing for the White Sox.

You also can access the story via my Twitter feed at Sherman_Report.

Actually, Boyer is heavily involved with sports media with the White Sox TV and radio deals. With the Sox coming off their worst season in 43, the environment is challenging.

From the story:

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Brooks Boyer’s business is baseball, but he goes back to his basketball days to describe his approach to the job.

The Chicago White Sox vice president and chief marketing officer preaches “wanting the ball in the fourth quarter.” It stems from the way he played the game as an all-state high school shooting guard from Concord, Mich., and as a two-year captain at Notre Dame.

Boyer reflects on a disappointing loss against his high school’s big rival to start his junior year. He was horrible, he said, scoring one point while going 0-for-14 from the floor.

“I couldn’t hit the ocean,” Boyer said.

Boyer vowed to his teammates that things would be different when the two teams played again. Sure enough, with his team trailing by one point with 15 seconds left, he canned a 3-point shot to pull out the victory.

“If I got the ball, there was no chance anyone else was going to take that shot,” Boyer said.

Boyer’s game is different now, but his philosophy is the same.

“Wanting the ball in the fourth quarter is about how are you going to (make an) impact, force yourself on the outcome of a game or a situation?” Boyer said. “Nobody wants to be on the bench in the fourth quarter. You want the ball. I’d rather lose with me taking responsibility for shooting the ball.”

Now, it seems as if Boyer, 42, is going into the fourth quarter with a 20-point deficit in his situation with the White Sox.

The flush of winning the World Series in 2005, spiking attendance to an all-time high of 2,957,414 in 2006, quickly evaporated with the Sox making only one postseason appearance since then. It bottomed out last year with the Sox losing 99 games, their worst showing since 1970. Fans responded by staying away from U.S. Cellular Field, with attendance plummeting to 1,768,413, the lowest since 2002.

While the Sox received some raves for adding young players during the offseason, fan apathy likely will be entrenched until positive results are seen on the field. Meanwhile, Boyer continues to hear constant comparisons with what occurs on the North Side, where the Chicago Cubs still draw a crowd to beloved Wrigley Field despite a string of terrible teams.

Yet, Boyer still wants the ball.

“I can’t control what happens between the lines,” Boyer said. “I can control the experience fans have when they come to the ballpark. Our job is to make winning and losing as moot an issue as possible.”

 

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Frank Shorter: Last year’s Boston Marathon felt like Munich in ’72

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The Boston Marathon is today, and hopefully as it has been every year but one, it will be a wonderful day for all who participate, from runners to spectators to volunteers.

Frank Shorter will be on hand to be an analyst for the race with the Universal Sports Network. In a Q/A with Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News, he describes his feeling about what happened last year.

Q: You’ve compared the experience of last year’s Boston Marathon bombings to what you heard and saw during the terrorist attacks at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, days before you were to go out and win your gold. How do you make that connection?

 A: When the second bomb went off across the street behind me in Boston, I was trying to get to the TV truck for our afternoon show and ended up cutting through Lord & Taylor (dress shop on Boylston Street) because there was a people jam. I just went through the first door when I heard the first bomb. I knew what that was — I also heard the shots in the early morning in Munich. I happened to be sleeping outside on the balcony in the Olympic Village while my roommate, Dave Wottle, was inside our room with his new wife, Nan.

So I heard the shots go off at 4 a.m. and I knew. That morning there wasn’t a sound in the Olympic Village. We spent the day with a little black-and-white TV and we could see the terrorist across the courtyard — that classic picture of the man with the sub-machine gun. We went through that whole day, and the next day and the memorial service in that psychosocial process that they now have labels for — shock, depression, the resolution stage.

It’s the same kind of way they’ve been doing things in Boston over the last year, except we did it all in a short time.

Coming back from the memorial service, I turned to my marathon teammate Kenny Moore and said, “The only other place the terrorists could do anything is out on the marathon course. But I’m not going to think about it, because if I do, then they win.” I ran the entire race and never thought about it.

So if you fast-forward 42 years, all of the sudden I’m kind of back, in a way, in that same situation. I’ve already seen such a transformation in how it has been handled by the people around me, but it’s hard to describe. Munich was just confusion.

On why this year’s race will be so important.

A: It’s completing a cycle. Even the elite athletes want to get back here. I think the men’s and women’s winners from the past three years are here, and that doesn’t happen unless they’re making it a point to be here. It’s going to be an incredible athletic event from that standpoint.

There will be 35,000 people out there running, I think like what I experienced in Munich — they’re not going to let any acts of terrorism affect them. That’s sort of their collective statement. It’s kind of like closure, but it’s more like closure of an initial chapter. Then everything will go forward from there.

Good retort: Yes ESPN, there is a kid named Fox Sports 1

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Fortunately, the trash talking between ESPN and Fox Sports 1 continues. Earlier this week during a Disney investors meeting, Artie Bulgrin, a Senior VP of Analytics for ESPN noted there have been parents who have named their kids ESPN. Beyond weird, but….

“Let’s face it, nobody’s naming their kid ‘Fox Sports One.’” Bulgrin said.

Give credit to Fox Sports 1 for a pretty good comeback. Jay Onrait does the honors.

Wrigley Field at 100: Documentary chronicles good times (OK, and some bad) at old ballpark

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If you look at this preview for Wrigley 100: A Century Celebration, you might think the Cubs celebrated many World Series titles at the old ballpark.

OK, you’re not going to pump up a film about Wrigley by highlighting Willie Stargell’s homer off Phil Regan that broke the backs of the Cubs in ’69. Even though the Cubs never experienced a World Series victory in the old ballpark, there were plenty of memorable moments provided by Ernie, Ronnie, Billy, and Ryno and more. Sammy Sosa had a few too, but given what we now know, don’t expect an extensive review of his feats at Wrigley.

Actually, there were championships won at Wrigley–by the Bears. Their history in the park is featured in the film.

The two-hour documentary airs Sunday at 7 p.m. (Central) on WGN-Ch. 9 in Chicago and then on Saturday, April 26 at 5 p.m. ET on WGN America.

You might even see a familiar face: Me. Producer Bob Vorwald interviewed me for a segment on Babe Ruth’s Called Shot, the No. 1 moment in the history of Wrigley Field.

Vorwald tried to interview everyone and anyone who had made an impact at Wrigley. Featured are Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins, Ron Santo, Andre Dawson, Greg Maddux and Ryne Sandberg; as well as Kerry Wood, Rick Monday, Rick Sutcliffe, and Derrek Lee.  Visiting greats such as Hank Aaron, Vin Scully, Mike Schmidt, Albert Pujols, Bob Uecker and Paul Konerko add their thoughts as well.  Other segments include Mike Ditka and Gale Sayers on playing for the Chicago Bears at Wrigley, fun and crazy moments at the park described by Harry Caray and Jack Brickhouse, and an in-depth look at some of Wrigley’s greatest games.

All in all, it’s a fun trip down memory lane.

 

Jeff Van Gundy on Howard Stern slam: ‘I didn’t even know he was still on’

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A few weeks ago, Jeff Van Gundy remarked during a telecast that Howard Stern was leaving early during a Knicks game. He jokingly said Stern shouldn’t be given tickets if he isn’t going to stay for the entire game.

Stern, who doesn’t like criticism, used the opportunity to go off on Van Gundy during his show. He went off on a 10-minute rant, calling him every name in the book from “douche bag” to “midget” and even “schlub.”

During a teleconference yesterday, Van Gundy had an amusing response when asked about Stern’s comment.

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Yeah, you know what’s funny is I was sitting in a movie theater watching this movie, it was an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, “Sabotage” or something like that. I don’t know.  It’s a new action film.  And a friend of mine texted me and said, can you believe what Stern said about you.  And so I’m sitting in the theater saying, why would David Stern be talking about me now?
So I was like perplexed. I said, what did he say, so he came back with what he said, and I’m like, man, that is not like the commissioner to call me a douchebag.  I’m like, come on.  I didn’t know what it was about.
So then when I got out of the theater where I was one of two people actually at the movie and called this guy, he told me it was Howard Stern and I didn’t know why he had been upset or he was talking about me.  So I didn’t really think about it and then someone told me later that it was about me – I guess I said something jokingly about him leaving a game early.  I didn’t really even know too much about it.  I didn’t even know he was still on.  I guess he’s on Sirius.  I didn’t know.  So it was funny.

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Van Gundy’s response likely will trigger another barrage from Stern. Funny thing is, Stern actually would like Van Gundy if they ever got together.