The Failures of NBC Sports

What is Wrong With NBC Sports?

With only one weekly football game, no baseball, and no basketball, how has NBC Sports managed to become the worst national broadcaster of sports in the country?

DirecTV, Extra Innings Update for 2009

For the last few seasons, the most popular post on this Website during baseball season seems to be my take on the Major League Baseball blackout policy, and how it affects us DIRECTV Extra Innings users.
So since I first wrote that piece, here are the updates.

Good:
Home and away feeds are now available (since 2008 season) [...]

What’s Frank Caliendo Going to Do Now?

What do you do when as a comedian, you build your career around your impression of a broadcaster, focusing on that broadcaster’s mythical love affair with a single player, then both leave the game at the same time? Just ask Frank Caliendo what he’s going to do without John Madden and Brett Favre to [...]

Sports Guy and Rick Reilly Talk it Up

The latest edition of the B.S. Report features Bill Simmons interviewing his “bitter rival” Rick Reilly. Simmons and Reilly talk about golf, their contrasting writing style, the blogosphere and much, much more in a 45 minute podcast.
The only moment of friction seemed to be when Reilly called out Simmons on his criticism of traditional [...]

Why Sports Needs Newspapers to Survive

Another week, another newspaper is putting an end to its print publication. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is putting an end to its 146-year run of providing a physical newspaper to its subscribers. This comes just a few weeks after Denver’s Rocky Mountain News shut down operations completely.
In today’s digital world, the P-I’s switch to [...]

Murray Chass BLOGS About Mike Piazza’s Bacne

Longtime baseball writer Murray Chass takes an interesting look at Mike Piazza over at murraychass.com (NOT A BLOG [more on that below]), examining, of all things, the acne on the back of Piazza.
Chass said that he wanted to write about it back in the day, when Piazza was still active, but since he had never [...]

Detroit Sports Media Fails Again

Remember Rob Parker? No? That’s OK, most people don’t. Well he’s the idiot who asked Detroit Lions coach Rod Marinelli if he wished his daughter had married a better defensive coordinator. Parker was the punching bag and laughing stock of everyone for a few days, until he finally resigned from the [...]

Doug Gottlieb: “Game, Blouses.”

Doug Gottlieb put the announcing world on notice with his gem of a call at the end of Texas A&M’s buzzer-beating victory over Nebraska on the road.
Channeling his inner Chappelle-doing-Prince, Gottlieb unleashed a quality quote that was far-and-above the call of duty.
In light of Randy Moller revolutionizing the hockey goal call (see below), perhaps there [...]

Favre to Replace Emmitt as ESPN Talking Head?

Now that ESPN has chosen to not renew the contract of language expert Emmitt Smith, there is speculation as to just who will fill that chair. Well, with Emmitt out, USA Today is speculating that Brett Favre might be the newest employee at the Worldwide Leader.
According to USA Today’s Michael Hiestand:
Signing the supposedly retired [...]

ESPNChicago.com To Launch in April

ESPN.com is expecting a baby brother.
Arriving in April will be ESPNChicago.com, ESPN’s first venture into a locals devoted Web site. The site will cater to Chicago sports fans, and provide a “24/7 Chicago sports news operation.”
Currently, MillerCoors is the first advertiser on the site, and ESPN said that if this venture is successful, expect [...]