For years, I never understood how Mariotti kept a job in Chicago. He bashed the teams, the fans and mailed in articles for the better part of the last two years. He was really the epitome of everything negative in mainstream media, but worry not Chicago, you don't have to deal with Jay the Joke any longer.

Mariotti, whose public battles with fellow staffers, team owners, and rival columnists are legendary, didn't disclose any specific plans except to say he will continue doing his regular stint on ESPN's "Around the Horn.''

He said that he "is talking with a lot of Web sites'' and added that the future of his business "sadly is not in newspapers.'' Mariotti said that he sent a resignation letter to Cyrus Freidheim, Sun-Times Media Group Chief Executive and Sun-Times Publisher. When asked via email by the Tribune whether Mariotti had resigned, Sun-Times Editor Michael Cooke responded, "You're kidding?''

"They accepted it,'' Mariotti said of his resignation. "It was my call entirely.''

"I'm a competitor and I get the sense this marketplace doesn't compete,'' he said. "Everyone is hanging on for dear life at both papers. I think probably the days of high stakes competition in Chicago are over.

"To see what's happened in this business...I don't want to go down with it.''

It's probably a relief for most Chicagoans to see him go, but dammit if the guy isn't dead on in his reason for leaving. All this ultimately means is that he'll be on ATH more and coming to a podcast/webisode near you in the not so distant future. Chicago wins but America loses.

Now if we could only get him to jump off that ledge in the photo above (I kid, I kid).

Sun-Times columinst Jay Mariotti resigns (Chicago Tribune)

Mort's reporting has been well documented on this site as extremely suspect and now you can officially add another to his resume. On Sunday, Chris Mortensen had the breaking news that the Arizona Cardinals were choosing veteran Kurt Warner as their starting quarterback. Well that had every beat writer in the Grand Canyon State perplexed and scrambling for a statement from Cards' Coach Ken Whisenhunt. The coach refuted the item early yesterday morning and by the end of the day the AZ Central had the news that Mort's report was completely off-base.

ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, however, citing a team source, said Warner would be named the starter ahead of Leinart, who threw three interceptions against the Raiders.

“I haven’t read the paper today or seen the Internet,” Whisenhunt said. “Do we have a quarterback? … It seems like Chris Mortensen is making the decision on our quarterback for our football team. … But nothing has changed.”

Update: Leinart remains Cardinals starting QB

Matt Leinart remains the Cardinals starting quarterback, despite a news report on Sunday that coach Ken Whisenhunt had decided to replace him with Kurt Warner.
Whisenhunt denied that was his plan and said today that the evaluation process at quarterback is continuing. He met with Leinart this morning to talk about the reports, assuring the young quarterback that the information didn't come from the Cardinals.

Leinart took snaps with the first team in Monday's short practice but so did Warner. That has been the norm this off-season.

In the past two years alone Mort has been responsible for a laundry list of false reports. First, it was that Michael Vick unlikely to get indicted, we all know how that turned out. After that came the guarantee that Ron Rivera was the next Cowboys Coach, and when that didn't pan out he was chided by colleague Greg Easterbrook online. Next, it was Mortensen saying that Eli Manning would "officially" miss a month to start last season, Eli played every game. THEN it was Jon Gruden put him on blast. If you add to that this Cardinals story, the Parcells to Atlanta guarantee, and the lock that Brett Favre WAS NOT going to come back this season, you have grand total of eight....EIGHT!....breaking news items that Mortensen was dead wrong about.

Look, I'm not denying that Mort has sources or that he works his tail off, but good lord! How many times is ESPN going to go all-in with one of his guesses just to have it blow up in their face? It's not the fact that he gets reports wrong, that happens to everyone (obviously not that many times), but every damn show on ESPN then talks about them like they are gospel. Yesterday alone PTI, ATH, NFL Live, First Take and Sports Center all spent a good two to five minutes on the item when Whisenhunt had already refuted the claim. Hell, he said that wasn't the case at around 9am Monday morning! Anybody can make guesses like this, but if he was a reporter for a local newspaper, he would long been fired for so many errors.

The guy is obviously there to say, but can we please just tone down all the "Breaking News" reports the next time he happens upon some news, ESPN? I'm just looking out for you.

Whisenhunt says no decision yet (AZ Central)
Still No Named QB in Arizona ... Mort Guessed Wrong Again (Fanhouse)
Chris Mortensen is back in the game, baby (PaxArcana)

I've never believed that Sports writers should lose their allegiances once they are on a national level, but that certainly seems to be an unwritten rule. I think Wilbon's love for all things Chicago is clearly documented almost daily on PTI, but he almost considered not singing "Take Me Out...." because of potential backlash. The Chicago Tribune even said it, "raised issues."

"If I live 40 more years," he said, "it will still be the coolest and most bizarre thing I have ever done."

Cool for obvious reasons: Wilbon grew up idolizing Ernie Banks and wearing Ran Santo's No. 10 jersey on his South Side Little League team. The Northwestern alum has hit Wrigley more than 100 times as a fan. And bizarre because of the ethical line he seemingly had crossed. No, this wasn't cheering in the press box. It was wearing a team's uniform on its home field before 40,000 fans.

"When they asked me to do it," Wilbon said, "I thought: No. Sportswriters, journalists don't do that."

Then Wilbon remembered: He's not just a sportswriter. He estimates that no more than 20 percent of his "PTI" audience would even realize he writes a sports column for the Washington Post.

"There's fairness but no objectivity," he said. "I'm not going to pretend I don't root for the Bulls. The people we cover are much cooler with that then this false pretense of objectivity."

Man, the fraternity that is sports writing is just wacky. I love how you have to immediately cut all ties to any team you ever loved as soon as you get to a certain level. That has to be borderline impossible for some people. Obviously you need to be somewhat objective, but this really shouldn't be that big of a deal.

Wilbon at Wrigley raises issues (Chicago Tribune)

(FYI- Sorry for the delay in postings this morning. I had to run errands and Auto Publish failed me.)

I think Levy finally got his dream guest on the podcast in Wilbon yesterday (I'm sure I come in a close second) and the result was a fifty minute chat on just about everything. Wilbon talked blogs of course, but there are really much more interesting conversations about Tony, his health and not wearing pants on set.

Here's a quick glimpse. You can either click on the topic below to listen to that particular topic, or just listen to the whole thing via the link below....

Michael Wilbon Full Interview

On Stephen A. Smith: "I think they thought here's a different voice. It's different, there are people who connect with it and we love this voice. It sounds different......Nobody's voice sounds like Stephen A's. So for better or worse, depending on your point of view, that was his calling card."

On Blogs: “I know there are some great bloggers. But how do we know what that blogger knows. Of course, I’m giving you the cynicism of people who have cut their teeth in this business and had to, sort of pass an exam every day for years and years and years when readers would ask, ‘how do you know this.’

“Reading habits are very difficult to form and even more difficult to break. We’d like to think we’ve built up some trust, so before I believe this blogger, this person’s got to build up some trust. Again, you’re getting this point of view from someone 49 years old.”

“When it’s in good fun, I’m not that serious a guy. When it isn’t, I’m real serious. When it becomes admonishing and sanctimonious, then I come back with Fire and Brimstone. That’s the way I combat stuff. When these things are treated as they should be, in my opinion, which is with some sense that it is hilarious and some context, then it is what it is. But when people get sanctimonious, I come out swinging.”

On the "No Pants" Situation: "I wear shorts starting the moment I come home from the NBA Finals. I wear shorts virtually everyday. Virtually. So let's say 95% of the time. Until Labor Day or so. Probably late September, when the temperature gets back in the 70s. That's what I've do. I've done it for seven years. I'm going to continue to do it. I told PTI, don't put the camera done there then! We don't need to see my legs."

On hanging with Porn Stars: "They're adult film star. Oh boy. What reaction should I have had other than it's funny? People who would suggest I would have another reaction, you know, I would love for somebody to say that to my face."

On Kornheiser: "We're old and we're friends."

The whole interview is very eye opening, and while I understand Wilbon's issues with trusting the "Web", he still seems to come across as defensive for no reason. In almost every answer he says he understands but then gets combative. At one point he even says, "If you come at me with sanctimony, I will verbally try to cut you, deep." And he meant it as seriously as that reads.

I've learned by now that there are just some people who will just never understand or accept what is happening in Sports Media, and Wilbon is certainly one of them. There's also really nothing wrong with that. No one is going to convince him differently and he has every right to not like something and fight back if he feels the need to. He also should feel really proud of all of the work that he's put in because he's damn good at what he does and is an example of what's right in the business.

The other side of this that he, and others, need to understand (and they don't) is A) It's not going away, and B) There's a reason that the online movement came on so fast and so big. It wasn't by accident. Some people were tired with lazy and cookie-cutter reporting and we're looking for something new. Wilbon has certainly never really fallen into that category, but sticking up for people who do is just counterproductive to any medium or industry growing. That's something that Sports Blogs are just now figuring out, and we've been in existence for what, five to six years?

The thing that Michael needs to really understand (and everyone for that matter) is that taking all of this stuff so damn seriously is only going to make you to go crazy. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you, but you have to learn to laugh it off. The pants thing was just downright hilarious and Porn Star stuff was harmless. They way it was handled on PTI was perfect and the reason why everyone connect with the show.

In the end, if you can't make fun of yourself.....who can you make fun of?

Michael Wilbon Joins the DL (On The DL)
Mike Wilbon Is Not A Fan Of Long Pants (Awful Announcing)
The PTI Guys Have A Little Fun With Wilbon's "Night Out" (Awful Announcing)

An Anon commenter sent this in yesterday and it was just about the funniest thing I've seen in quite some time. He/She noted that this is everything that's wrong with the newspaper industry but I'm hoping it's just some sort of joke.


I know people in New York take their teams seriously, but that seems like a waste of ink, er web space. In the end I think it's important that our good friend Jason's allegiance has been duly noted in a major publication. The world is safe once again.

P.S.- There are still Shawn Green fans? You learn something new everyday and in this case....two things!

Thursday, Jul. 10, 2008 (Newsday)

So Rick Reilly made his writing debut yesterday on ESPN and a ton of people posted about it and I could have cared less. It was the same column he's written over a million times, and while I appreciate his love for his Father...it wasn't really newsworthy. This however is.

Apparently a writer for the Province in Canada to plagiarize one of the most popular Sports writers on the Planet....

The most striking was a passage in Reilly's piece: "They say he was born 72 years ago last Thursday, but don't believe it. McGuire dropped straight out of Guys and Dolls with a martini in one hand and a basketball in the other."

Pratt wrote in Tuesday's column in The Province: "Cole was born 75 years ago, but it's more likely he dropped straight out of Guys and Dolls with a martini in one hand and a puck in the other."

"I did it, no question," said Pratt. "It was a mistake. In our [radio] business, lines get used back and forth all the time. That particular line is a pretty famous line and I should have credited Reilly with it and I didn't. It was a stupid mistake and something I regret and I'll make damn sure I'll never do it again.

"I'm looking for stuff from everywhere," added Pratt. "We recycle everything. The sheer amount of volume we produce forces you to constantly be looking for different people's ideas."

Yeah, we all are dude, but you copied that s**t word for word. I know blogging doesn't take much writing per post, but hell if With Leather posts something about a dude getting hit in the "nuts", I'll at least say it he got hit in the "junk". I kid, I kid.

But seriously, if you're going to plagiarize you might want to go a little lower on the totem pole. Like blogs!

For the record (The Province)

Mainstream Media is already back peddling these days but their recent practice of throwing each under the bus is getting ugly. The newest fight amongst the bigwigs isn't a new one but the topic is. I give you Round One of the Bob Ryan-Bill Simmons Fight....Ding!

Beware of False Prophets.

Beware of clever people who know what they know, but don't know what they don't know, which is far more important.

There is a younger writer of great renown who loves the Boston Celtics, which is fine. He commands an enormous national audience, who have come to regard him as The Authority on all things Celtic. And he has an exhaustive knowledge of the current team. No problem there.

But he has over-stepped his bounds. He is trying to sum up the whole Celtics-Lakers thing in his dot.com forum, and he starts off by saying that it wasn't really a rivalry because the Celtics won the first eight times the two played in the Finals. He completely dismissed the six series of the 60s because the Celtics won all six, as if this somehow means by definition the two teams did not have a viable rivalry.

Oooooooh! 60s talk. Let the man speak!!!!!!

I'd tend to forgive him on the basis of him not being there, but that would mean that history requires that you had to be there. I wasn't present for the Gettysburg Address or the Bobby Thomson home run, but that doesn't mean I can't have a good idea of what it must have been like to be there. That's what being an historian entails. You do your homework.

Ummm okay. Old people are talking history. Everyone sit in a circle Indian-style and listen.....

So in order to become the 1962 NBA champions Boston had to win Game 6 in LA (119-105) and then return home for a Game 7 in the Garden. And that game was one of the greatest NBA seventh games ever, with the Lakers actually having the last shot with the score tied in regulation. But Frank Selvy, a good jump shooter whose 41 points a game senior year at Furman had included a 100-point game, missed a 10 or 12-foot left baseline jumper at the buzzer. Bill Russell took over in the OT, leading the Celtics to a 110-107 victory. By the way, Russ finished with 30 points and 40 rebounds.

Crap. The old man is right. You know....there could be a whole thing to MSM and New School working together. But until then....I eagerly await your response Mr. Simmons.

Tinseltown Boys (Boston Globe)

(Thanks to Nick from Boston for the link)

Here's yet another humorous story to add to the vault and it again shows that MSMers have no idea how blogs work. Will Leitch wrote an article for Sporting News that goes into another interesting interaction he had at the Costas Now show. Not only did Buzz Bissinger lay into him, so did ESPN analyst Cris Carter....

“Hello, I’m Will.”

Cris frowned, and even sneaked in a scowl. “Are you the blog guy?”

I smiled. The best way, I’ve learned, to deal with the hostility is just to smile. They’re not expecting that. I suspect they all think we look like the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons or, more sinister, like a member of the thrash metal group GWAR. “Yes, sir, I do write a blog.”

Cris’ scowl was no longer sneaky. “You know, I got a problem with you,” the Ohio State grad said, through gritted teeth. “Some Michigan blog said I was an a--hole. Better nobody say that to my face.”

Smiling, trying to look calm, I said, “Well, sir, you know, I didn’t write that.”

Cris took a step closer to me. “You damn well better not of, ’cause if you had, I’d take you out right here.”

Once again.....Geez people in Sports are sensitive! One random guy said you were an asshole and you want to beat up everyone on the Internet. Cris Carter always seemed like a nice guy to me, but now he really does seem like an asshole. Go figure.

Bloggers, Or Anyone Associated With a Blog, Is Gonna Want to Steer Clear of Cris Carter (The Sporting Blog)

The Boston Herald writer who broke the (false) news that the Patriots taped a Rams walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI has issued an apology. John Tomase basically claims that he published a rumor because he heard it from "various" people and solidified it when he heard that Walsh's assertion of skeletons in the Pats' closet. Here's a snippet....

Late in the 2006 season, I was having a casual conversation about the Patriots [team stats] when someone I trust threw out the following tidbit.

“I heard the Patriots filmed the Rams’ final walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI,” he said.

It was just a rumor, and certainly not actionable intelligence, as they say. He had heard it from a friend of a friend. I filed it away, and then forgot about it. Reporters hear stuff like that all the time.

Little did I know that comment would resurface from a much stronger source in the days after the Patriots had been caught filming the Jets’ defensive signals in September 2007.

Turns out I could not have been more wrong. I regret it, and that’s something I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life.

He probably should have just ended it there, but he keeps going for another two pages of back story and standing by his original source. I really had never heard of John Tomase until this whole Rams walkthrough thing, and the guy seems genuinely sorry for the story, but seriously.....come on. I really just can't believe that a newspaper published a story based on one unsubstantiated rumor. Especially an allegation this huge. It blows my actually. You are not only gambling with your own career by going ahead with a piece like this, but you're gambling with the whole Newspaper's validity.

If you read the over three hundred comments attached to the apology I think you can find how Bostonians really feel, and as Robert Kraft has explained over the past few days, this is almost unforgivable from the team's standpoint. To lose the trust of a team in the most winning town in the Country is a death sentence, and who's to say the Celtics and Sox are going to trust them either?

There's no way the Pats will give the access back to Tomase he once had, and I'm extremely surprised he still has a job. Everyone deserves a second chance, but some people need a long break to think about what they've done before they get it.

The story behind Herald walkthrough article (Boston Herald)

Finally, after a week of nothing the Boston Herald has come out and apologized for the whole walkthrough mess, and it's a doozy. Here it is in it's entirety....

On Feb. 2, 2008, the Boston Herald reported that a member of the New England Patriots video staff taped the St. Louis Rams’ walkthrough on the day before Super Bowl XXXVI. While the Boston Herald based its Feb. 2, 2008, report on sources that it believed to be credible, we now know that this report was false, and that no tape of the walkthrough ever existed.

Prior to the publication of its Feb. 2, 2008, article, the Boston Herald neither possessed nor viewed a tape of the Rams’ walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI, nor did we speak to anyone who had. We should not have published the allegation in the absence of firmer verification.

The Boston Herald regrets the damage done to the team by publication of the allegation, and sincerely apologizes to its readers and to the New England Patriots owners, players, employees and fans for our error.

Couple of thoughts and I'll move on for good. I really thought that they had just gone on the word of Walsh who ultimately lied, but apparently I was wrong about that. Also, you almost (I said almost) have to commend them for finally being honest. It would have been much easier to just say they were standing by their story and we'd be none the wiser.

With that said....NO MORE SPYGATE! Thank god.

Apology (Boston Herald)

It's been almost a week since I posted that ESPN was all over the Boston Herald after the news came out the Pats didn't tape the Rams walk-through, and the Herald has yet to address the validity of the story. After Goodell held a press conference this afternoon (which solved nothing), NFL Live had BH Columnist Mike Felger on to discuss the story and tapes and he of course diverted all questions regarding it.

Good times! If I was Trey Wingo, I would have hung up on him (I think he was close) because that guy provided absolutely nothing. It appears that the Herald is just hoping this will go away, and it probably will, but seriously it's not that hard to say you're sticking by the story or you're retracting it.

I thought ESPN was going after them unfairly last Thursday (some of the reports did), but after that showing I'm on ESPN's side (for once) and I want answers too. Also, to say you don't represent your employer is pretty ridiculous if you ask me. Especially to someone who works for ESPN, the Leader in employees representing their company.

ESPN Is All Over The Boston Herald Today (Awful Announcing)

Tirico Suave has a great video today of one of ESPN's newest employees Rick Reilly explaining what he thought about the network back in 2004 and it couldn't be more telling about Reilly's motives these days.....

The countdown is on for Reilly's debut at ESPN, and there hasn't been a debut I've dreaded more in my entire Sports' life. It's amazing how money solves most issues people seem to have, and how quickly their tune changes. Stupid sellouts (loved the Less Than Jake that accompanied that video btw).

Johnny Quest Thinks Rick Reilly Is A Sellout (Tirico Suave)

(Pssst! ESPN....it would take significantly less money than you gave Reilly to make me go away. Just email me a price. Thx Bai!)

I always wondered if reporters on the beat of different teams had gotten into it before, and I guess this finally answers that question. Two reporters, one from Detroit and one from Orlando, got into it over the weekend. Actually "got into it" might be an overstatement because it seems to be very one sided. In this corner "hulking" Detroit News Reporter Chris McCosky and the other corner "undersized" Orlando sports radio host Jerry O’Neill your referee is Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi. Via the OS.....

The Pistons have the killer instinct of a pack of pitbulls; the Magic have the killer instinct of poodle puppies playing on linoleum.

Arf. Arf. Arf.

Yip. Yip. Yip.

That was the sound of the Magic pups trying to fight off the Pistons pitbulls and protect their home turf Saturday. But when the Magic pups had the Pistons down by 15, they didn’t go for the jugular; they went for the pants leg.

Many of us in the press room before the game could see this coming.

That’s when a hulking Pistons beat writer for the Detroit News nearly beat up undersized Orlando sports radio host Jerry O’Neill before the game. Even the Magic media came up small.

Well then. It's always good when people of the same ilk stick up for you. Let's go to the "Hulk" for the rest of the story. Via DetNews.com....

Well, after I was off the air, this clown ripped on me for a good 15 minutes, I was told. I guess he went on and on about how I talked down to him and how all the Detroit people have this arrogant attitude, or some such garbage.

So, I see him skulking around the press room before the game and I confront him. That's sort of what I do. Not real good at letting things slide off me. I am working on it.

Anyway, I walk up to him and I said, "You always rip on your guests once they are off the air and can't respond?" He said something about how it was his show and for me not to tell him how to run his show. I questioned his courage and some other things and we went back and forth. I was holding my laptop, so it wasn't like I was about to strike him. But I was up in his face, and I suppose I might have cursed a bit. Again, sort of what I do. I remember him saying that I talked down to him, and I said something like, I only talk down to stupid people. I suppose that wasn't very nice.

Fight Fight! Laptop fight!!! Sounds like a good time if you ask me.

One of the worst days in Orlando history (Orlando Sentinel)
Here's what happened (DetNews.com)

(P.S.- I figured you'd rather see to attractive females pillow fighting than two "hulking" males going at it. You're welcome.)

Update: Sorry for the delay, but here's the rest....

I know you're all chomping at the bit eagerly awaiting....the Bissinger part, but I had to break them up. Enjoy the intro first and the rest should be up shortly.

About a month back I passed on the bit of information that Bob Costas was going to hold a live "Town Hall Meeting" and Deadspin's Will Leitch was going to be a guest. Well that special is airing on HBO tonight at 10pm. There's a collection of interesting guests (Wilbon, Mad Dog, Joe Buck, Dan Patrick) and they'll cover everything from Blogging to Athletes and the Media. You can view the whole rundown here, but I wanted to point out an interview that Costas did today with the Orlando Sentinel...

WW: Yes, we're struggling a bit at the newspaper getting used to issues such as this.

BC: Look, everyone has a right to this technology. But if you're just a blogger -- just a get-a-life type -- no one's going to pay much attention to it because it's not going to have much merit. That's not all bloggers, but that's the hypothetical guy who's just posting comments after your column. This was misinterpreted as saying all bloggers are losers. . . . Now, I won't back off. A huge percentage of bloggers adhere to little of no standards and do little or no reporting and engage in personal attacks. But do all? No.

WW: Does the ESPN-zation of sports bother you? For example, does it bother you that ESPN seems to have every columnist on the country on its payroll and that these journalists seem to take a black or white position on every topic?

BC: Well, it's not like I'm losing sleep over it, but I think any reasonable person rolls their eyes to a certain extent about that. It's just not possible for a reasonable person to be that stoked up about 15 different sports topics every day -- to have a passionate black-and white, thumbs up-thumbs-down opinion on every single sports topic. That just defies common sense. And yet if that's the fuel on which this engine runs, then if you want to be on the air you have to come with a "take" on these topics that doesn't allow for much subtlety or shades of gray. So everything is buy-sell, true-false, fact or fiction. But very, very few people I know view many topics that way.

WW: And does that bother you, in terms of the journalism?

BC: It's just entertainment. At its best it's just informed conversation.

Those are just small chunks of a very interesting interview, but I still can't for the life of me get past the fact that neither of them know what they're talking about. I love how it's only bloggers who do "personal attacks" (Jay Mariotti, Skip Bayless) and how commenters=bloggers. I know I've been riled about this topic in the past, but I think it's just a joke at this point. I hope Will portrays this tonight, and I don't know how many times we (bloggers) have to say this, but bloggers aren't replacing a "dying medium". It's just another option in the ever-growing evolution of Sports Media.

It should be a great program tonight, and hopefully this will be the first step towards everyone realizing they need option, but I have a feeling it won't. Someday people will just settle down and give Sports Blogging the same attention that Tech, Entertainment, and Political Blogs (just not today and I'm fine with that).

Update: Thanks to an Anon commenter we now know that Mose Schrute will be attending as well....

Shameless Program Note (FJM)

Costas to explore state of sports media in HBO town hall meeting (Orlando Sentinel)
Rundown of the Next Costas Now on HBO (Fang's Bites)

I haven't watched Hockey close in years and I knew as soon as the Pens threw the last game of the season (so they could play the Sens in the First Round), that the Capitals were likely not making it out of the first round. See the Capitals and Flyers had epic battles in the 80s before moving their rivalry to Pittsburgh.

Philadelphia fans are already f'ing nuts to begin with, but now Washington Post columnist Mike Wise is giving them, and Flyers players, ammo to use against them. Not only will every Philly fan mericilessly boo Alex Ovechkin tonight they will also have this Wise column printed out and handed to them beforehand. Via The 700 Level....

By now you've probably already seen Mike Wise's column from yesterday's Washington Post. Several of our fine readers sent it our way yesterday, and we heard 610 and 950 attack its merits with due fervor. But the Flyers have apparently taken it up a notch...

Rhea Hughes reported on today's WIP Morning Show that along with various orange accoutrement, the Flyers will be handing each fan who walks through the door tonight a copy of Wise's column, along with a thank you for being the most intimidating fans in hockey. Well played, Flyers!

Just genius. See the problem with Wise's column isn't that he's wrong in his assessment of both teams, but the fact that people in DC just don't remember what Playoff Hockey is all about. I watched both loses in the Series and the Flyers are just destroying the Capitals in every facet of the game.

Pretty sure they didn't need anymore motivation, and I'm sure Caps fans are thankful Mike! Just a great idea for the Flyers to print out the article.

Flyers Get Wise to Whiny Washington Post Column (The 700 Level)

A few people in Kansas City emailed me a story from TV Critic Aaron Barnhart and it appears he has either decided to come up with a cruelest of all jokes or he has never watched Sports before. See Mr. Barnhart has a way that NFL Network could make history AND get a great new hire as a replacement for Bryant Gumbel. Hire Pam Ward. Seriously......

After that debacle, the NFL should be looking for an upgrade. Problem is, the league presumably can't go cherry-pick talent from its broadcast partners at NBC, CBS and ESPN. But what if it could have a talented non-NFL announcer from one of those networks, make it broadcasts network-quality ... and score a PR coup in the process?

Gentlemen of the jury, I give you ... Pam Ward.

Not just because she used to toil at a station where I now contribute (WBAL), but because Pam Ward is the best play-by-play talent not calling games for either MLB or the NFL. And because if you're going to make history, you'd better make it with somebody who won't embarrass you, will work hard and keep her head down and make her critics seem like very small-minded (and membered) people.

Wow....just wow. Normally I stay away from opinion based pieces like these but this is the dumbest idea I've heard in....well ever. This is dumber than Duel, Who's Now, and Chris Berman at the Masters combined. Since I'm responsible for the Deadspin link that he added above let me explain something to you Mr. Barnhart. It's very simple in fact....

People who don't know the rules of Football shouldn't be calling games (which is clearly evident in that clip and throughout her calls last season).

See it's not that Pam Ward isn't good at calling certain games (WNBA), it's that she's always terrible calling Football games. She gets names wrong, plays wrong, and comes across as never having seen a Football game. Sort of like Mr. Barnhart.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and likes who they like, but Pam Ward can't call College games right and you want her on Pro ones? Okaaaaay. Joe Buck and Joe Morgan always come up on this site as individuals people can't stand, but there's always one or two that comes to their defense. Out of the tens of thousands of comments and emails I've received not one person has ever defended Pam Ward as a College Football announcer. Oh and you can add to that the million plus people who voted her into the Semifinals of the AOL Worst Announcer Tournament.

Also, making an uninformed statements like....

Scanning the blogs brought me no relief, either, as I uncovered only cheerfully sexist sites, like the one that claimed to chronicle the foibles of announcer regardless of gender, so what if all the names in big type were women's?

...Just makes you look uninformed and dumb. This site's editor is so sexist that he said on the radio in Houston last week that Erin Andrews and Stacey Dales should get a chance as analysts in the booth. Not just because they are attractive but because they care about the Sports they cover and are extremely intelligent. Which is more than I could say for some of the current ESPN announcers.

I'm not going to start a "Blogging War" with a random TV reporter, but if you want to tell him why he's wrong in the comments....I'm sure he's reading.

Update: Thanks to App Fan for reminding me of this video as well.....



How the NFL Network could make history (TV Barn)
Do You Understand The Words That Are Coming Out Of My Mouth? (App Fan)

Everyone knows how I feel about crediting people for the information that they find and how uppity I get when it doesn't happen. Well how about taking something that ESPN's most popular writer created years ago, renaming it (not very cleverly), and publishing it on a major website?

I give you San Antonio Express-News' Gaylon Krizak and his "Tee Martin Principle"....

There are lots of reasons, and it's not a one-size-fits-all deal. But high on the list is a little something I like to call the "Tee Martin Principle."

Remember Martin? Don't worry — I'll wait (sometimes Google takes a while).

Martin is best known as the relatively nondescript guy who succeeded Peyton Manning as Tennessee's quarterback — and promptly won the national championship Manning's teams never even sniffed.

The principle? Sometimes, talented players like nothing better than the challenge of proving doubters wrong — especially when the doubt is caused by the absence or departure of an über-talented player.

To an extent, the TMP also is on display about 150 miles west of Houston, where the Texas Longhorns are faring quite nicely without Kevin Durant, last season's one-and-done national player of the year as a freshman.

Umm....that sounds vaguely familiar to me. Oh that's right....it's Bill Simmons' Ewing Theory! This is from a 2001 column explaining the whole thing....

Dave introduced me to the Ewing Theory three years ago, and we've been tinkering with it like Voltaire and Thoreau ever since. Eventually, we decided that two crucial elements needed to be in place for any situation to qualify for "Ewing" status:

1. A star athlete receives an inordinate amount of media attention and fan interest, and yet his teams never win anything substantial with him (other than maybe some early-round playoff series).

2. That same athlete leaves his team (either by injury, trade, graduation, free agency or retirement) -- and both the media and fans immediately write off the team for the following season.

When those elements collide, you have the Ewing Theory.

Well that's good Bill and I think I can follow that, but can you give me an example?

2. Tennessee Volunteers, 1998: Even more ballyhooed than Van Horn during his college career, Peyton Manning leaves UT without either winning a national title or beating Florida -- and the Vols win the national title nine months later.

Oh okay...good. Just checking. Seriously people, if you're going to "borrow" material at least try to get a little creative and not just change a few words around. This isn't even trying.

I have no idea who Mr. Krizak is, but he might want to try stealing from lower profile writers before he takes on Simmons.

Ewing Theory 101 (ESPN: May 2001)
Don't forget 'Tee Martin Principle' (SA Express-News: March 2008)

(Thanks to SMF for sending the link along)

Update: Okay so Simmons has already commented on this. Thanks to Leezy for the quote....
"First we had the Ewing Theory ... now, we have the Tee Martin Principle! Oh, wait, they're the exact same thing! My bad. Even Scott Templeton would have handled this more discreetly. Although my buddy JackO is now rooting for this guy to rank sports and pop culture events on the "Not Purposely Humorous Scale"

Another large side order of links (Page 2)

Now that Sunday's Selection show is past us and we're in the midst of the guessing and Bracketology of the Tournament, I wanted to take the time to bring up something that's been bothering me. No one really cares what the "experts" say in the grand scheme of things, but this years collection of talking heads is just annoying the crap out of me. No not because Bobby Knight is inexplicably picking Pittsburgh to win it all (I guess they could), but because none of them have any idea what an "Upset" is or what defines a "Sleeper Team".

Let's start with sleeper teams. The first "expert" that brought up his sleepers was Clark Kellogg on Selection Sunday when he picked Notre Dame, Clemson, Michigan State, and WVU. I'm sorry, but those are not sleepers. If you're scoring at home that's three 5 seeds and a 7 seed. If Indiana is an 8 seed don't you think you would have to pick someone lower than them. They're not really sneaking up on anyone this year are they? Since 1979, out of the 116 teams that made the Final Four....nineteen of them were a 5 seed or lower. That's 16%!

We need a number and I submit that the number is 10 or lower.

Okay now onto upsets. A 9 seed beating an 8 seed is NOT an upset! Hell I'm sure most people are picking Davison (10 Seed) to knock off Gonzaga (7 seed) in the Midwest. That's not an upset either. If you go out to the 11 Seeds would you really be shocked if Kentucky beat Marquette or St. Joes beat Oklahoma? Of course you wouldn't. That's why a win can only be considered an upset if it comes from a 12 Seed or lower.

I guess all of this is debatable, but there are two things I know......A 5 seed is not a sleeper (*ahem* Clark) and Gonzaga beating Davidson is NOT an upset (*AHEM* Skip Bayless!)....

Come on! Arkansas beating Indiana is NOT an upset either. Is it really that hard to get people to talk about Sports that they actually watch?

P.S.- Anyone know when Skip Bayless' contract is up???

P.P.S.- I'm thinking about Live-Blogging/Open Threading the Play-in game tonight. Anyone with me???