Say what you will about ESPN's 60 Minutes copy, E:60, but they certainly are getting some high profile interviews as of late. It was Donte Stallworth last week, and this week Jeremy Schapp will be sitting down with recently sentenced, Plaxico Burress. Via ESPN PR....

Former N.Y. Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress, will talk in detail with correspondent Jeremy Schaap in an exclusive E:60 interview, Tuesday, Aug. 25, at 7 p.m. ET, about the early morning hours of Nov. 29, when he accidentally shot himself in the leg with his own gun at the Latin Quarter nightclub in Midtown N.Y., and about the two-year jail sentence he now faces.

Burress pleaded guilty Thursday, Aug. 20, to the weapons charge and avoided what would have been a mandatory minimum sentence of three years for second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. He will head to prison when he is officially sentenced Sept. 22, and will be eligible for release after serving a little more than 20 months. The NFL has suspended Burress but will reinstate him once he completes his sentence.

Excerpts from the interview will debut Monday, Aug. 24, on SportsCenter at 6 p.m. ET and in subsequent editions of the show. The interview will air in full on E:60.

Another interesting get for ESPN, and the fact that they are choosing to air it on E:60 is even more interesting. I don't know if they're trying to improve ratings on the show, but given the show's actually numbers, it's probably not going to hurt. If there's anything exciting said, I will be sure to have the video up.

I honestly haven't watched an episode of E:60 in over a year, but this might get me to actually tune in. Michael Smith will be interviewing Donte Stallworth, on the heels of his recent jailing, as a part of tonight's airing of the news show on ESPN....

Suspended Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte Stallworth, in an exclusive E:60 interview, will talk in detail with correspondent Michael Smith on Tuesday, Aug. 11 at 7 p.m. ET, about the early morning hours of March 14, when Stallworth killed a man while driving under the influence in Miami.

A plea deal was reached in June, and Stallworth was sentenced to 30 days in jail for DUI manslaughter. After serving 24 days of his sentence, Stallworth was released and is under an indefinite suspension from the NFL after meeting with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Aug. 5. It is not known when Goodell will rule on Stallworth’s request to return to the NFL.

Critics have expressed outrage that Stallworth is just another example of a rich athlete buying his way out of hard time. E:60 will air the complete interview with Smith on Tuesday. Stallworth talks for the first time about the morning he killed 59-year-old Mario Reyes, lessons learned while in jail and how he hopes to make a positive impact in the future, on and off the football field.

Outside of Mike Vick, there hasn't been a case that has stirred up more controversy than this one, and it will be interesting to see the angle ESPN takes. Do they go the easy route, or do they go straight to Stallworth and ask him if a man's life is worth 30 days in jail? Tune in tonight at 7pm to find out.

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)

This past Summer, E:60 got some attention for railroading Miguel Tejada about his real age, and the Astro walked off set. Well yesterday the show featured an interview with UFC fighter and ex-Pro Wrestler, Brock Lesner, and he also decided to end things early. The show did an entire piece on the guy and then during the one-on-one portion, ESPN correspondent Tom Farrey decides to delve into steroid talk. Watch what goes down at around the :20 mark....

I still think E:60 is a bit cheesy, but they are definitely throwing out some interesting stories as of late. The problem with the Tejada interview was that it was a complete setup. Lesnar on the other hand should have at least been expecting this line of questioning, and to walk out when he could have just said he'd never tested positive is a bit sketchy.

Brock Lesnar Storms Out of ESPN Interview When Subject Turns to Steroids (Fanhouse)

I still don't understand what the heck ESPN is trying to do with E:60. The first episode got pretty good reviews and the whole thing seemed like a shrewd move by the "Leader". The Jason Ray piece was moving and the round table discussions were an inside look at the reporting process.

Well almost immediately after that first episode there were rumors of E:60's "Exclusives" not actually being exclusive, a racial controversy, a four month break, a railroading of Miguel Tejada and then another four month break. For a show that only has about eight total episodes, that's a heck of a lot of hiccups.

Well, the show is back tonight after that second hiatus and they're bringing you more ground breaking reporting. Just kidding, they're tackling stories that you first learned about months ago....

Highlights of tomorrow’s show:

-Dara Torres talks to E:60 about her record fifth Olympics as a swimmer at age 41
-Eventing: the most dangerous Olympic competition and also considered the world’s deadliest sport
-The story of an English mixed-martial arts fighter implicated in the biggest cash heist in history
-A behind-the-scenes look at New England Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss and his foray into NASCAR team ownership.

Eventing is just a piece on the dangers of Horse Jumping and the Dana Torres story is how old now ? Don't even get me started on the MMA Fighter that robbed the bank....that guy was arrested back in June of 2006! The only new and interesting piece is the Randy Moss one, but that story is about a month and a half old as well.

The whole show just seems to be in the midst of an identity crisis, and with OTL producing daily shows now at 3pm, it's odd that they can't figure anything out. Maybe the should send Bill Simmons back to EA Sports to get people to watch?

When the first E:60 press release came out and I remember thinking that the incarnation of this show meant the end of the road for Outside The Lines. Contrary to my thoughts ESPN decided to keep OTL and even added a time slot during the day for Outside The Lines: First Report. As E:60 went through it's first run of shows and the Lisa Salter's Parkour controversy went down, it was clear that E:60 wasn't going to be run by the same standards as OTL. When the second set of shows kicked off with the Miguel Tejada ambush we found out just how bad those standards were.

Le Anne Scrieber (the ESPN Ombudsman) decided to make her latest article about these two shows and the different way they tackled two important stories. I don't want it to seem like I link to everything she writes (I don't), but this seemed especially important to pass along.

When "E:60: segments, "Outside the Lines" reports or ESPN Film documentaries work, it is because the weaving of individual cases within the larger context of issues that surround them is tight. Several segments in the latest round of "E:60" reports accomplished that. Several did not. It is crucial that E:60's management team place as much emphasis on perspective and thoroughness of reporting as they do on packaging.

The enterprise unit that worked on the "Outside the Lines" report on O.J. Mayo faced the opposite challenge. The density of reporting and research that went into the piece made it difficult to shoehorn so much complicated information into a lucid, compelling TV story. More emphasis was placed on core evidence and its corroboration than on context or dramatic storytelling.

I still find it questionable that ESPN would pit two of it's reporting shows against each other in such a fashion when HBO can do it perfectly fine with Real Sports and Costas Now. At the end of the day controversy and rumor still sells (see: TMZ) just as much (sometimes more) than great reporting like the OJ Mayo story. With that said, I don't think E:60 is going anywhere and we should just get used to it (or just ignore it).

ESPN journalism: The ups and downs of coloring outside the lines (ESPN Ombudsman)

I don't even know how to intro this, so I'll just let you watch and enjoy....

That was pretty dead on if you ask me, and outside of the Jason Ray piece it's the best piece E:60 has ever done.

(FYI- This hasn't and won't air on E:60. Unfortunately.)

I would call for a boycott of ESPN's E:60 tonight given the nature in which they ambushed Miguel Tejada, but I don't think many people will be watching anyway. I don't mean that in a bad way, but there's just too much going on tonight (Game 7s, NBA Playoffs) to take the time to watch the show. The one thing I'm (sort of) looking forward to though is Bill Simmons' trip to North Dakota to hang with Yahoo Sports blogger Rod Benson.

One of Simmons' best storylines in his career was the exchange he started with another up-and-coming player by the name of Paul Shirley, and I'd love for this to blossom into one of those relationships. Here's the info on the piece tonight if you care via Too Much Rod Benson.....

I'm pretty sure that there will be a ridiculous amount of hype for the movement coming soon. This is what I've been holding onto for the past few days. Last week, Bill Simmons came out to North Dakota to visit me. With him came Jamie Horowitz, a senior producer with ESPN Original Entertainment, two cameramen, one sound guy, and one video editor.

We spent two days going around my favorite North Dakota hot spots like Wal-Mart and the Capitol building. We watched the NCAA title game and played various games, most of which I dominated Bill in. While filming, I discovered that the sound and cameramen could always hear me because I was mic'd up. So, instead of talking to other people around me, I would talk trash about the camera and sound guys into my mic. In case you couldn't tell, I really enjoy being mic'd up.

Bill Simmons in a Wal-Mart?!?! He hasn't had to shop since Jimmy Kimmel lent him his personal assistant to go buy his groceries and clothes for him! I kid, I kid. Sounds like an interesting look into an interesting person. The EXACT opposite of the Miguel Tejada piece!

Too much Rod Benson: Boom Tho movement gains momentum (Ball Don't Lie: Too Much Rod Benson)

Many entities touched on Miguel Tejada's age today with the conclusion that he is actually 33 instead of the MLB reported age of 31. The story actually came to light via an ESPN E:60 interview that was supposed to air next week. Well since the AP picked up the story this afternoon ESPN decided to air part of the interview on Sports Center tonight.

Trust me when I say that I have no sympathy (on multiple levels) for Miguel Tejada, but it's really got to suck getting railroaded like this. I understand that ESPN thinks this is a big deal, but do you know how many cases like this have probably taken place over the years in Major League Baseball? I think this is the last of a team's worries.

I really think E:60 could be good if they'd stick to moving and important stories like Jason Ray over pointless witch hunts like this. I think Steve Phillips summed it up best when asked if the Astros should be concerned (and I'm paraphrasing here until I get the actual quote)......

"This has happened before and it will happen again. One Spring Training we had a player Timo Perez that aged four years. We brought him four cakes in the clubhouse and moved on."

This Man Is Not What He Claims To Be! (The Sporting Blog)
Miguel Tejada tells Astros he's actually 33, not 31 (Associated Press)

E:60 got mixed reviews it's first go around and even sparked some controversy when Lisa Salters called Parkour as "something white people do." For the most part the series was a success though and had some of the best Sports pieces of the year. Well it's back next Tuesday after a four month absence....

ESPN's critically acclaimed primetime newsmagazine E:60, on hiatus since Dec. 11, 2008, will return for five weekly episodes beginning Tuesday, April 15 at 7 p.m. ET. Nominated for two Sports Emmy Awards following its first five episodes last fall, E:60’s first show back from its scheduled break will include profiles of Tiger Woods’ caddy, Steve Williams, NFL Draft prospect and former Arkansas running back Darren McFadden, and Oscar Pistorius, the South African amputee petitioning to compete against able-bodied athletes in the upcoming Summer Olympics.

I'm pretty sure they meant December 2007 in the release but I could be wrong. Salters is on the Tiger Woods' Story, Jeremey Schaap is on the Pistorius piece, and Michael Smith is on the Run DMC one. I enjoyed the show for the most part last go around and if any of these are close to the Jason Ray story from the first run, it will be worth a watch.

There's also no word on whether the Bill Simmons segment is coming back or not. If it means no more views of him in spandex then I'm good with that decision.

(Via ESPN PR)

Great work by Pop Jocks finding this video. This is a clip from the Bucks-Clippers game on December 4th and is of ESPN's Bill Simmons trying to win a lady a car. Go for it Bill!

Ohhhh! So close!!! The funny part about this is that this is actually his feature for the next E:60 show on Tuesday. Umm, running out of show ideas already folks?

The Sport's Guy Bill Simmons Taking a Half-Court Shot at a Clippers Game (Pop Jocks)

Richard Sandomir is obviously much more involved in stories like the ones ESPN produced for its first airing of E:60 this last Tuesday. Well according to him......they've been done before.....

Sandomir on Farrey's Florida High School Sexual Assault Piece.....

Farrey’s grim story, heavily covered by The Miami Herald, examined the case of an 18-year-old high school running back in Miami, who had sex with a 14-year-old freshman in a school bathroom. The segment followed the school’s bungled handling of the case, the long delay before the police were brought in to investigate and the eventual indictment of the principal. Farrey’s significant contribution was a tearful interview with the girl’s mother, her identity withheld, who said her daughter had twice tried to commit suicide since the incident and was in a psychiatric hospital.

The accused player, Antwain Easterling, was arrested but never served time in prison. He attends the University of Southern Mississippi on a football scholarship.

Whoops. On Jeremy Schapp's Cecil Fielder piece (which a commenter noted had already been done by SI)....

Schaap’s interview with the former slugger Cecil Fielder was billed as an exclusive and detailed his angry estrangement from his son, Prince, who hit 50 home runs for the Milwaukee Brewers this season. It served as a valuable bookend to the 2004 examination of the family’s estrangement by “Real Sports” from the side of Prince and his mother, Stacey, who discussed the huge debts incurred by Cecil.

On Rachel Nichols Vegas Piece....

Nichols’s piece, the flashiest in the bunch because it was shot partly in Las Vegas, looked at the influence of a statistician in San Francisco, Bob Stoll, whose uncanny ability to handicap college football games forced casinos to try to retaliate against him to stanch their losses. The story, which ended without a satisfying dramatic resolution, was reported at length in January by The Wall Street Journal.

On Bill Simmons' EA Sports Segment....

The final segment found Bill Simmons, the “Sports Guy” columnist for ESPN.com and ESPN the Magazine, donning a motion capture suit to record his physical movements so he could play himself as a Boston Celtic in a video game. Funny idea — what would Andy Rooney do? — until the camera showed an enormous EA sign in the background. The merger of journalism and product placement is not amusing.

Just about the only piece he didn't trash was the Jason Ray piece, and went so far as to copare the 4 major reporters to NYPD Blue's cast. It's a great read that sheds some light on items that were reported locally before making it to the ESPN Monolith. It's never bad to revisit items, but ESPN failed to mention any other publications that covered these stories and almost made them out to be exclusives.

I think the show has potential, but let's not call these things exclusives unless they are....like the Ray Piece.

Debut of ESPN’s ‘E:60’: Been There, Seen That (NY Times)

Not that I was expecting for it to be groundbreaking television (considering it's actually what SportsCenter was and what Outside the Lines is now), but the debut of E:60 went pretty splendidly last evening. I had numerous people write in to agree, but the best (and most touching of all) was the following email from reader Pam.....

I saw the debut of E:60 tonight and was particularly touched by the Jason Ray segment. My son, Joseph McCormick, actually attended UNC-Chapel Hill with Jason. Jason was my son's bible study leader. Jason and my son were very close, and Jason helped Joseph grow significantly in his knowledge of Christ. In fact, Joseph became a bible study leader after Jason's death. My son is studying abroad this semester in Italy and missed your program.

Is there any way I could get a DVD of that portion of the program??? I would be most appreciative.- PM

Now I don't know how or why PM thinks that this site is an ESPN suggestion box, or if he/she just forwarded me the email she sent to them, but I agree....great piece by ESPN. As for the overall show, I thought the production was a little cheesy and shaky at times, but those are things you can hammer out as you move along. I think E:60 has a place alone amongst the chaos, randomness and generally crappy ESPN programming. Now if you can only do something with Lou Holtz' Pep Talk and make us forget the ESPNHollywoodWho'sNowStuScott'sPoetrySlamSkipBaylessKornheiserOn
MondayNightFootballTheMovie3ChristianSlater's of your network....I'll be happy.

Oh, and get Bill Simmons out of that damn spandex!



P.S.- If that was actually an ESPN employee posing as a reader you know you're going to hell right? And also, let me know if you can get a DVD to PM....I'll be glad to put you in contact.

I'm not sure where Jeremy Schapp's Bull Fighting Story falls into this lineup because its not in the release (perhaps it's another episode), but here's the rundown for the first episode of ESPN's Newsmagazine E:60....

Ray of Hope: A story on the UNC student who dressed as the Mascot for Basketball games and was killed during the NCAA Tournament last year.

In "Ray of Hope," E:60 correspondent Lisa Salters and ESPN.com reporter Wayne Drehs accompany Ray's parents as they travel from North Carolina to New Jersey to meet four recipients of their son's organs and try to come to terms with Jason's gift.

Justice Intercepted: A story about a sex scandal involving Nation High School Football Powerhouse Miami Northwestern.

E:60 correspondent Tom Farrey examines how the reputation of a powerhouse football team may have led adults to look the other way. The story includes the first media interview with the girl’s mother.

Fielders Choice: A piece on Cecil Fielder and his relationship with his son Prince.

In a revealing exclusive interview with correspondent Jeremy Schaap for E:60, the older Fielder divulges why he is estranged from his son and how, in turn, it has affected his relationship with his grand kids – Prince’s children.

“I will never, ever go to a baseball game to see my son play. I ain’t going. I will watch him play, but I ain’t going. Because, that was probably the worst thing that I have ever dealt with on the baseball field or at a ballpark. My son, this kid that I raised in baseball, telling me to leave the ballpark. I ain’t never going. Until he grows up enough to talk to me like a man, I ain’t going.” (ESPN Press Release)

Wow those are some harsh words there. Don't forget to check out Bill Simmons' "Andy Rooney Like" spot most likely at the end of the show as well. Tonight at 7pm.

(P.S.- Is anyone else upset that Rachel Nichols isn't involved in the premier?)

An anonymous tipster "pointed me" towards the first clip of ESPN's E:60 show that debuts tomorrow night. The first story as I mentioned a week or so ago, is a piece by Jeremy Schapp on young bullfighters. Not something I'd normally care about , but hell I'll watch anything if it's entertaining enough. Here's the clip.....

I could have done without the crazy dramatization of the trip to the hospital for the kid, but overall I was pretty riveted. Good lord that was a lot of blood. If E:60 can get me interested in bullfighting, I might just watch the show every week.

To tell you the truth.....I'm actually really excited about this show. Anything that's not "Who's Now" is good thing at this point. I'll be watching tomorrow night, and hope Michael Smith's piece on Chad Johnson is just as interesting.

ESPN's E:60 Reveals Some Of Its First Reports (Awful Announcing)

I think when the story first broke that ESPN was doing News Magazine type show Bill Simmons name was linked to it, but for some reason when ESPN released the information on the show they left him out of it. Until today. ESPN announced (in a separate release) that Simmons will be a "special" contibutor for the show.

Makes sense and hopefully he can add something to the show. Especially for those who read his columns. Oh I forgot one thing......via MDS at Fanhouse comes the greatest part of all....he'll be their Andy Rooney!

"Simmons’ E:60 segments will clearly bring his perspective to the television newsmagazine genre, complementing the show’s content with his witty and insightful observations about the intersecting worlds of sports and pop culture.”

Oh boy this is going to be a fun show!

ESPN Turns Bill Simmons Into Andy Rooney (Fanhouse)

The Primetime News Magazine that ESPN is calling E:60 will be debuting on October 16th. As I mentioned before, the major players for the show are going to be Jeremy Schaap, Lisa Salters, Tom Farrey, Rachel Nichols and Michael Smith, but now moredetails surrounding the show are being released.

As mentioned before on this site the show will be a behind the scenes look at reporting. It will take the viewer from conception to pitch to approval to production for each of the above reporters. Sounds like fun right? Right, and AA has the first two pitched ideas that the show will feature.....

- Jeremy Schaap on underage bullfighting in Mexico.
- A Michael Smith profile of Bengals WR Chad Johnson that will focus on how the flamboyant player spends little time with his family so he can focus on his career.

If you have other ideas for the folks at ESPN (they're always watching) feel free to add them in the comments.

(Source: SBD)