I really like Jeff Van Gundy on ESPN/ABC. I think he's witty, knows the game of Basketball and works well with Breen and Jackson. I've had some issues with his comedic timing in the past, but each year he gets better. That's why I thought that his issues with his brother being in the Finals wouldn't be a problem. Boy, was I wrong.

Richard Sandomir, of the NY Times, talked with Breen following the Lakers Game Five win, and the play-by-play man all but said that JVG was depressed during the whole broadcast....

“I think this was harder for him than he thought it would be,” said Mike Breen, whose command as the play-by-play voice of the finals continues to grow. “This was uncharted waters. I didn’t know how he would do it.”

You sensed Jeff’s reticence in his silence at tough moments for the Magic during Game 5.

“Will they fold their tent or fight?” asked Mark Jackson, Van Gundy’s partner in analysis. (Jeff said nothing.)

“Anxious moments at Amway Arena,” Breen said, as the camera cut to a shot of Stan. (Jeff said nothing.)

“At one point, during an incredible Lakers roll, maybe in Game 1,” Breen said during a telephone interview Monday, “I was making some loud, juiced-up calls about some Lakers baskets. I saw him sitting next to me, and he’s down. His brother’s team is getting shellacked. I hated to sound so enthused, and I told him I was sorry. He’s a longtime friend, he’s my partner, and you feel for what he’s going through.”

While I understand the ties to your family, there is still a job that you have to do, and I thought Van Gundy would realize that. Instead, he sulked and was audibly missing from the broadcast during the fourth quarter of Game Five. As Sandomir pointed out, he could have been analyzing what changes his brother could/should be making, but instead he checked out. Obviously the chances of this scenario happening again are unlikely, but ABC should really consider benching JVG if it does again.

ABC’s Van Gundy Remained Mum About His Brother (NY Times)

ESPN held its annual NBA Finals conference call today, and the topic of discussion was mostly about Jeff and Stan Van Gundy. The first question of the call came from the NY Times' Richard Sandomir, who asked JVG about his plans, and here was his response. Via ESPN PR....

Obviously I was a little bit leery of doing the games, and I remember speaking to Mike [Breen] and Mark [Jackson] about it, and I said maybe I shouldn't do the games because I'm not sure I could be critical of Stan. And Mark said, "Well that's no different, you're never critical of any coaches," so that made a lot of sense to me because I know how hard the job is, and I think Mark and I both try to say what we may do, but we don't spend a lot of time second guessing. So, I think once the game starts, I'll try to be as objective as possible. If they're fortunate enough to win, you know the Championship, I may have my bottle of champagne I pour over myself, and Mark and Mike. I definitely want him to win, no doubt, but during the games I'm going to try to be objective as possible.

I really think Jeff will be fine, and this whole thing wouldn't have an issue if he didn't make it one to begin with. I'm sure it won't be easy, but he's been around the booth long enough to handle himself in a situation like this.

A couple of emails popped into the inbox, over the weekend when Orlando clinched, and asked if ABC/ESPN are considering benching Jeff Van Gundy for the Finals. Even though his brother coaches the Magic, I responded that it wasn't likely and that JVG would know what to say and how to say it when asked about Stan and the Magic. Well apparently I was wrong. Jeff Van Gundy told Newsday that he's absolutely rooting for the Magic, and even asked ABC brass if they wanted him to take the Finals off....

Spoke to former Knicks coach and current ESPN/ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy Sunday about the presence of a certain coach on the bench of one of the teams for the NBA Finals.

"I'm going to try to be as objective as possible," he said, "but I want my brother’s team to win; there’s no question about that."

When Stan Van Gundy's Magic took a 2-1 series lead over the Cavaliers, his younger brother discussed the looming potential conflict with his coordinating producer, Tim Corrigan.

“I said, ‘Hey, listen, if you guys don’t think it’s best for me to call the Finals, I’m fine with that, and I understand,’’’ he said. “I don’t want to compromise anything. They said they wanted me to do it.’’

Now I understand that you'd want your brother to succeed, but don't just go blurt it out for everyone to read. I think Van Gundy secretly wants to be fired so he can go take that 76ers job, that every former coach turned analyst is rumored to be interested in.

Jeff Van Gundy would like the Magic to win the Finals (Watchdog)

Two of the more interesting angles that the MLB Network has to deal with, were discussed today by network Pres and CEO, Tony Petitti. Petitti went on Bloomberg News yesterday and addressed not only the plans for covering live games, and how the network learned from the NFL Network, but more importantly how a channel which is owned by Major League Baseball can be critical of the Commissioner and league itself.

Here's the clip....

It's amazing to me just how more successful the MLB Network is when compared to the NFL Network. Obviously the MLB-N had the benefit of learning from the NFL-N, but you would think that the NFL-N could do so in-turn now. In fact, there's word today that with the loss of a deal with Comcast, the NFL could lose almost 2 million viewers (more on that a bit later today). They just simply can't let that happen, if they want to survive.

I promise this is the last story on this whole "feud". Well at least until Owens, or another Cowboy, goes all "Bobby Bonilla" on Ed Werder in the locker room. Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News actually got a hold of Werder, and this is what the ESPN reporter had to say about the situation....

"I was shocked," Werder said. "I've been covering the Cowboys since 1989 and I have never been put in a position like that. It was a first."

When the two saw each other in the post-game news conference, Werder reports, "He called me a name but it wasn't a profanity."

Werder, it should be pointed out, was not the only reporter to deal with last week's series of Owens-related events. In fact, he wasn't the first to report the Owens-Roy Williams-Patrick Crayton trip to Jason Garrett's office. Nor was he the first to report on the alleged skirmish between T.O. and Witten. Werder's Thursday report was primarily on T.O.'s effect on Romo. In that report, he quoted Bradie James on his role in mediating and relied on unnamed sources.

Werder thinks what T.O. really wants is to know who Werder's sources are. "I think that's his frustration in all of this. He wants to know who in the locker room I talked to who obviously doesn't respect him and I won't ever tell him that."

I'm still inclined to believe Werder in all of this, and he should never give up his sources if he doesn't want to, but it was ultimately a questionable decision on his and ESPN's part to go with the story. Especially when you consider all of the hype the "Leader" fed into Dallas right before, and at the start of the season. Werder made a few thousand enemies in the state of Texas, and if the Cowboys are such a huge ratings draw, it definitely wasn't the best idea to go with a story that is based on rumor.

But then again, Jerry Jones basically said that any press is good press, so this rift will probably not be an issue going forward.

T.O. talked to NBC; Ed Werder talks here (DMN: Sports Media Blog)

Troy Aikman made an appearance on Boomer Esiason's MSG show last night and the two former QBs wasted no time in addressing the topic of their feud over the past few weeks. Via Barry Horn at the Dallas Morning News....

Boomer: "All right, joining us now is my new bias, I mean best friend, Troy Aikman from Dallas. First let me say this publicly Troy, in front of everybody: I do apologize for our little tiff about two weeks ago. I'm sure your week has been a little calmer than it was two weeks ago."

Aikman: "Yeah, you know it was a bit calmer and hey, I appreciate it. We both know we've been in the business long enough, we say things we regret, maybe wish we hadn't have. I will tell you though, for a couple of old, washed-up, has-been quarterbacks, it was kind of nice being back in the headlines again."

Boomer: "Yeah, it made us relevant, for all the wrong reasons, though."

Well isn't that special? See how boring things are when people are nice to each other??? Get back to talking trash and the accusations you two! Seriously though, I'm surprised that Aikman isn't holding a bit of a grudge because in the broadcasting world, the homerism claim is about as serious as it gets. He's a bigger man than I.

I'll also try and find the video at some point to see if there was actual kissing. Glad that's over....I can finally get some sleep.

Esiason to Aikman: "I do apologize" (Sports Media Blog)

I honestly thought that Troy Aikman did a pretty good job of keeping the pro-Cowboys talk down during the Redskins game, and maybe it's because he knows people are paying attention, but last Sunday's call was just way heavy with praise for Dallas. You wouldn't have even known the Cardinals were playing if it was just the audio of the game, and apparently I'm not the only person who thought so.

Boomer Esiason was on WEEI's Dennis and Callahan Show yesterday to talk all things Football, and he pulled no punches with bringing up the FOX analyst....

I couldn't agree more, but there are two really interesting things that this little tiff brings up. First, is that you rarely here two ex-players from the same position ever call each other out. As if that wasn't enough, it's almost equally as rare that an analyst would even bring up another analyst's name up. Nevermind the fact that he works for a rival network.

With that said, I'm all for people holding each other accountable in the Sports Media World. Buck and Aikman have honestly improved as a team, but they seem to regress every time they call a Cowboys' game. Another Cowboy, Daryl Johnston, is calling the Dallas-Rams this week, but he'll more than likely be on the call for weeks 8 (TB-DAL) and 9 (DAL-NYG).

Dennis and Callahan: Boomer Esiason (WEEI)

(Thanks to AJ for the link)

This comes up every year when one fanbase decides that so and so announcer didn't treat their team with respect during a blowout or an upset win. The notion that an announcer or journalist should immediately drop their allegiances with a school or Sports team is something that has always bugged me.

Well recently two of ESPN's more highly profiled employees felt the need to defend themselves in the press after allegations of bias littered the Internet. Via the Florida Times-Union comes Erin Andrews' defense and via the USA Today comes Kirk Herbsreit's rebuttal....

Erin Andrews: "I was upset when I heard this was an issue," Andrews said in a phone interview with the Times-Union. "I'm no dummy. I know people look at me in a different way. I know there's people when I go back to Florida, they say, 'Aha, she's biased [toward UF].' But there's an absolute separation between my feeling for the school and my reporting. If I once showed favoritism [on the air] or acted out in a biased way, [ESPN] would get rid of me in a minute." (Editor's Note: I seriously doubt that)

Kirk Herbstreit: "But I'm paid to have an objective viewpoint," he says. "I work so hard, I work so hard during games that I don't have a rooting interest."

He realizes that "you can't please everybody" but is understandably proud that he manages to do that even with fans of archrival Michigan: "I can't tell you have often I hear from Michigan fans — it's probably 100-1 — that even though I'm a Buckeye, they say they appreciate my objectivity."

Still, Herbstreit acknowledges the obvious, that he can't escape being "human." He doesn't make on-air pregame picks on games he's calling. (In the wake of Ohio State's lackluster win against Ohio last week, he will say that the "Buckeyes have been bored the past two weeks. If they lose against USC, it won't be because of how they played Ohio.")

It has to be extremely hard to not root for a team you actually played for, but I think most broadcasters do a great job of not going over-the-top with it. As long as someone is professional on-air, I could care less what they do off the clock. Now if we're talking about Al Michaels and his penchant for rooting for teams he's presumably wagered on....that's a completely different story.

Herbstreit puts aside Buckeye pride (USA Today)
Andrews' objective: Silence accusations about bias (Florida Times-Union)
Erin Andrews Quells Rumors of Florida Favoritism (Sports By Brooks)

Everyone in the world knows that ESPN is infatuated with Tim Tebow and Florida, and this little nugget from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution makes the "relationship" between the two seem even odder than we thought it was. If you missed the Georgia game last Friday, Knowshon Moreno had what will probably be one of the plays of the year by scaling over a Central Michigan defender.

Well apparently you weren't the only one who missed it because according to the AJC is saying that ESPN refused to show it during any recaps, and it didn't even make the Top Ten on Sports Center. Well Mark Richt, the AJC and others had some fun with ESPN during a a conference call the other day and here was what transpired....

Richt: “Yeah. They missed the boat or didn’t do their homework or whatever. I don’t know how they couldn’t have noticed that as thorough as it seems like that are most of the time. But it’s going to make our highlights for a long time.”

Then Brett Jensen of “TotalUGA.com,” a website that covers Georgia athletics for ESPN, piped in.

Jensen: “I spoke to some people up in Connecticut about that today. They said Fox, who had control of the game, didn’t put that in that highlight in the highlight package they sent up to the satellite.”

Richt: “You’re kidding me? [Starts laughing] Oh, so you throw Fox under the bus? I threw you under the bus and now you throw Fox under the bus. That’s the way it works.”

Then Dean Legge, whose website georgia.scout.com is in the Fox family, chimes in? “They had cameras there. They could have pulled it off the satellite.”

Richt: “Maybe it just wasn’t that good of a play. I don’t know. I thought it was pretty good.”

That's pretty odd right? I don't know how someone for Georgia would have failed to add that to a highlight package, but I guess it's possible. The only thing I know for sure, is that if Tim Tebow did that (below) during a game, ESPN would have flown someone to Florida and picked up the tape themselves. Maybe it had something to with the Florida game being on that night, but for them to avoid it just makes no sense. Here's the video via TBL and you tell me that the play shouldn't have a spot on an outlet that dubs itself "The Worldwide Leader In Sports"....



Richt: ESPN ‘didn’t do their homework’
Knowshown’s Nice Hurdle (TBL)