Chris Cooley has been in Wyoming, burning horses, for what seems like months. Well, now he has company. Rachel Nichols showed up in the northern state to do a piece on the Redskins tight end, and here is Cooley's account, in which he tries to start a sideline reporter fight! Via the Cooley Zone....

A couple months earlier Tanner, an undisclosed reporter divulging phone numbers, and myself were having a few beers and making prank calls. After a few calls Andrea Kramer's number came up and we had a great plan. The message that was left went something like this. "Hey this is Chris Cooley, I just left the bar where I was sitting next to Rachel Nichols, she was talking crazy shit about you. Rachel says your the worst, manliest reporter she's ever seen and she can't stand to work with you another day! Hiccup! Laugh, laugh, laugh." Click. It was a call that we found funny enough to repeat every couple weeks. Actually it's still funny while I'm writing this and Andrea will probably be getting a call in the next couple days.

So I was guessing she had talked with Andrea and figured out who was making the nonsense calls and was coming to confront me about it. But to my surprise she came to talk about E60 coming to my house to do a segment for their show. I was a little relieved. Actually, I was pretty excited about the whole deal and after some of the details, thought it would be pretty cool and easy to get done. In April they came over to my house in Virginia and spent some time with us trying to get everything together. They filmed interviews with Christy, Tanner and myself. We spent a couple hours talking to them on camera, then they wanted to film me painting in my art room. They also filmed me pretending to work at the computer, like I was doing a blog. All was fine and for the last couple months we have been recording every E60 on TV, never to see our episode.

Then a few weeks ago I got a call from the producer saying they wanted to come to Wyoming and I could take Rachel fishing and we could do some more stuff. We met in Cody Wyoming and I had a great plan to take them up to the spot where I caught all the fish the other day. They said they didn't have enough time so we had to arrange going back to my property and fishing on the river there. I guaranteed no fish, but they said it would still look cool and no one would care, whatever.

What didn't get explained to them was that it was a hell of a hike to get from the spot where you drop off the four wheelers. They had to drag their asses and the camera shit about a half a mile over the rocky hillside to get down to the river. So much for not enough time! I then proceeded to untangle Rachel's line for the next 30 minutes while we pretended to be fishing. Sorry Rachel, I know you did get better at it, but you casted like a seven year old girl with an arm full of barbies.

That is just flat out hilarious, on multiple levels. I can't wait to see that episode of E60! Be sure to read the rest of Cooley's adventures with Nichols, that include: Riding with her on a 4-wheeler, painting, making pottery and making Rachel run to Subway for lunch (is it really roughing it when there's a Subway nearby, Chris?)!

E:60 With Rachel Nichols (Cooley Zone)

Well then. That headline got your attention didn't it? It was clear on Wednesday, when I labeled Glazer the "Media Winner", that I was impressed with the FOX reporter, but today he took that to another level. In a brief interview with Newsday's Neil Best, Jay gave some insight into the biggest NFL story in years was scooped in an Orlando airport and even threw a potential jab at ESPN....

Fox's Jay Glazer has compiled a string of NFL-related scoops, but he had to go beyond the usual call of duty to win the Brett Favre-to-the-Jets sweepstakes late Wednesday night.

He spent nearly 24 hours in the Orlando airport waiting for the news to come down.

"I never wanted to kick Mickey Mouse's -- -- so much in my life," he said Thursday from the office of Panthers coach John Fox, whom he originally was to visit Wednesday.

"Dude, you get real creative when you spend an entire day waiting for a huge scoop in a damn airport," he said. "I felt like Tom Hanks in 'The Terminal.' I started making friends in the stores."

So the story goes like this (allegedly)....

1) ESPN's reporters are all over Favre. They suck up to him early on basically laying all their eggs in one basket. Text messages fly and the reports start rolling out all in Brett Favre's favor.
2) GM Ted Thompson isn't happy that he is getting dumped on by the biggest Sports Media entity on the planet.
3) Rachel Nichols ends up with Brett Favre on a tarmac in Green Bay (there's really no reason for this here besides the fact it was funny to write).
4) Glazer wisely chooses Thompson for information knowing that a GM would know that his OWN DAMN TEAM would know about a trade before a player would (crazy I know).
5) Glazer is told from "sources unknown" to not board a plane to Charlotte that day, and sat in the airport all day waiting for word.
6) Glazer gets the call from his "sources unknown" and goes live with the biggest NFL trade story in the history of the game at 10:45pm.
7. ESPN is still talking about Tampa Bay's plans up until about 11:25pm.
8) ESPN catches on at around 11:30 or so and scrambles to verify. They credit Glazer for a good 30 minutes before changing, "as reported by FOX Sports" to "as confirmed by Michael Smith".
9) End scene.

Arguably one of the biggest trades in Sports History was found, scooped, and written, all in an Orlando airport over 1,300 miles from the scene. How awesome is that? Healthy competition is something ESPN hasn't had for awhile now and I'm stoked to see new ideas and new people getting to things first these days. It's about damn time and someone needs to start the slow clap for Jay, immediately.

Update: As SOTG pointed out in the comments that "Mickey Mouse" comment could have been in reference to being in Orlando. I'll see if I can't get a confirmation one way or another.

Fox's Glazer spends day in airport, gets Favre scoop (Newsday)

(Oh and having someone [*ahem*MichaelSmith*ahem*] verify a story through a press release doesn't mean shouldn't continue to give credit where credit's due.)

Here's your look into what ESPN is putting on the Countdowns this Sunday and Monday. There's always a special segment or two.

Sunday NFL Countdown:

- Rachel Nichols reporting from London!
- How the Patriots Defense Has Linebackers over 30 years old!
- Soundtracks with Mike Tomlin!
- The Mayne Event is in London too!
- "Ten-year-old Jason Krause knows he has the perfect costume for Halloween, but who in the NFL is giving him “tricks” and who is giving him “treats?”" (Via ESPN PR)

Monday Night Countdown:

- Soundtracks with Brett Farve (who else?)
- A piece on Donald Driver done by Donald Driver
- Boiling Points with Parcells and Ditka
- Read and React with Parcells and Keyshawn

___________________________________________

Sounds fun right? I can't wait for Kenny Mayne in London! Did you know in London that Football is actually Futbol?!?!?! Crazy right?

A quick post to break up the day of awfulness. It seems ESPN has tabbed a few writers and reporters to create an "Primetime Magazine" coming to you in April.....

ESPN introduced several new programming initiatives at today’s presentation, including the tentatively titled “ESPN Reports,” a primetime news magazine featuring Tom Farrey, Rachel Nichols, Lisa Salters, Jeremy Schaap, Michael Smith, Bill Simmons and Chuck Klosterman that will debut October 16.

With that said, I have no idea what a Primetime Mag is, or what form it comes in. ESPN also announced that it's carrying the 2008 Moto-X Championships and that they wrote 1.8 Billion Dollars in TV deals. So basically nothing is really new.

Bodenheimer Discusses ESPN’s Upfront Strategy With Ad Age (SBD $)
ESPN Makes Jump to Major League (Ad Age)

Well I had to head into work. Took an hour so I'm a little late posting today. Most of the videos mentioned in the last post hinged on me being at home and spending the time to put them together. You will only get a couple today, but don't fret.....more to come. Here's the first.

For some reason the CAA has allowed students of the conference's schools to be sideline reporters for a game. Someone needs to tell this kid to stop blinking. Maybe he can go to the Rachel Nichols school of starring. He really scares me for some reason. I have nightmares of him and his deep "on-air" voice standing over top of me while I sleep.