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All his rowdy friends are done on Monday night

October 6, 2011 By 1 Comment
hwj

ESPN did the right thing by cutting the cord with Hank Williams Jr. and killing his "Monday Night Football" musical intro after the singer made an analogy to Adolf Hitler while discussing Barack Obama "the enemy" on Fox News earlier this week. Williams' politics and disregard for Obama have been well documented since the 2008 campaign when he ripped the future president at every opportunity while stumping for the opposition. Appearing Monday on the program "Fox & Friends," the son of country legend Hank Williams compared a golf game between Obama and Republican Rep. John Boehner to an outing with Hitler and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. When asked to elaborate, Williams said, "They're the enemy," adding that by "they" he meant Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Williams' song "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight," a staple on "MNF" first on ABC and … [Read more...]

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Sports Couch Potato returns with new, broader format

June 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Howard Burns

Sports Couch Potato returns today with a new and expanded format. For those of you who were regular visitors to the original site, we will continue to monitor the comings and goings of the sports media. New to this version will be news and commentary on breaking developments throughout the sports world. Join the Spud each day for our perspectives and those of others we will be linking to. We also invite you to comment on our posts and let us know what's on your mind. You can also follow us on Twitter (@sports_spud) and soon on Facebook as well. Thanks for visiting the new and improved Sports Couch Potato. … [Read more...]

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Michael before the ‘Machine’: A booming voice on the radio

December 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I've been reading some of the coverage of the death of longtime D.C. sportscaster George Michael and regrettably these stories don't tell the whole story of this man's career. Sure, Michael, who died Thursday at 70 after a two-year battle with cancer, is best known for his syndicated sports show "The George Michael Sports Machine," a weekly highlights show produced out of NBC's Washington O&O WRC-TV for some 25 years. He was also WRC's sports director during that time. What people are failing to mention (or even remember) is that Michael was a disc jockey in the '70s on WABC, the legendary rock 'n' roll radio station in New York. His booming voice was tailor-made for AM radio and he was as good spinning discs as he was spinning yarns about sports personalities. Our sympathies to the Michael family. … [Read more...]

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Gammons jumps ESPN ship, signs as MLB Network analyst

December 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

MLB Network made the biggest free-agent splash at baseball's Winter Meetings Tuesday when it signed longtime ESPN stalwart Peter Gammons to a multi-year deal. Gammons had been with ESPN for 20 years. Gammons also signed a separate deal with NESN, the cable home of the Boston Red Sox. "After 40 years covering baseball, the opportunity to move on to MLB Network is a great and daunting opportunity,"  Gammons said. "My journalistic life has revolved around baseball, and to be involved with people whose network is devoted to baseball, and baseball only, is something I look forward to with excitement. We all wish pitchers and catchers reported tomorrow. One of the greatest things about baseball is that it is held to a higher standard than any other sport, which holds those of us who care about it to a higher standard. I hope I can contribute to that standard." In 2006, … [Read more...]

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ESPN needs to do right thing and give Phillips the boot

October 22, 2009 By 1 Comment

There's got to be something in the water at ESPN. Testosterone, maybe? What is it about working in Bristol, Conn., that brings out the worst in guys? Allegations of sexual misconduct have dogged the Worldwide Leader for years. Mike Tirico, Harold Reynolds, Sean Salisbury and now Steve Phillips are among the network faces who have each had to deal with messy accusations about their treatment of female co-workers. This week's revelations about Phillips' scandalous "Fatal Attraction" affair with 22-year-old production assistant Brooke Hundley makes us wonder how the baseball analyst and former New York Mets general manager can keep his job. Our condolences go out to Phillips' wife (and mother of his four boys) Marni, who's had to endure the horrific embarrassment of her husband's indiscretion and the bizarre, desperate and downright scary behavior of his mistress. (You can read all … [Read more...]

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ESPN platforms put full-court press on college hoops

October 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

If you think ESPN is omnipresent on the college gridiron — and it is — contemplate its reach on the basketball court: The Worldwide Leader will broadcast about 1,100 college hoops games this season over its multiple platforms. Things get going in earnest on Nov. 9 with the annual 2K Sports Classic Benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer. Then comes the College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon on Nov. 16 with games scheduled every two hours starting at 6 a.m. ET. This is the first year of a 15-year agreement with the SEC featuring every conference home game not on  a broadcast network to be televised on an ESPN platform. It is also the first season of a new agreement with the WAC, with games on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPU. For the ninth straight year ESPN will show the NCAA tournament's opening-round game from Dayton, Ohio. The network's platforms include ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ABC, ESPN360.com, … [Read more...]

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Record audience watches Favre pick old team apart

October 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

ESPN's "Monday Night Football" telecast of Brett Favre's epic performance for the Minnesota Vikings against his former Green Bay Packer team landed the biggest audience in cable television history. The 15.3 rating was the largest in ESPN's 30-year existence. According to Nielsen Media Research, the game — won by the Vikings 30-23 — was on in 15.1 million households, and 21.8 million viewers watched. In the Twin Cities, the game produced a combined rating of 58.3 on both ESPN and KSTP, StarTribune.com reported. That means 1.009 million households tuned in, a stunning number given there are slightly more than 1.7 million households in the market area. KSTP, the local ABC affiliate which carried a simulcast of ESPN's telecast, had a 40.8 rating and ESPN had a 17.5 rating in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market. … [Read more...]

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NFL needs to scrap antiquated blackout rule

September 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Kudos to Mike Francesa for blasting the NFL's blackout rule on his weekly "Mike'd Up" show Sunday on New York's WNBC-TV. Francesa's comments came hours after the Detroit Lions beat the Washington Redskins 19-14 for their first regular-season win since Dec. 23, 2007. The game was not televised in Detroit, where it was attended by only 40,896 fans — the smallest crowd to see a Lions game in 20 years. Sunday's games in Detroit and Oakland were not broadcast locally while another in San Diego narrowly avoided a similar fate. According to league rules, a game not sold out 72 hours in advance of kickoff is required to be blacked out in home television markets, theoretically to protect eleventh-hour ticket sales. Times being as tough as they are, fewer fans are able to afford the price of an average NFL game ticket, which at $75 a pop is up 4 percent from a year ago. Not too … [Read more...]

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Cablevision, NHL still at odds as opening day looms

September 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Thanks to reader Antonio Ponzi for reminding us that after almost nine months, the NHL and Cablevision remain at an impasse in a bitter contract dispute involving high-definition telecasts of games in the league's subscription TV package. Effective Jan. 22, all HD telecasts emanating from the Cablevision-owned MSG networks were yanked from the league's NHL Center Ice digital package on satellite and cable. The action affected telecasts of the New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils, Buffalo Sabres and Cablevision-owned New York Rangers. Bad blood has existed between the NHL and Cablevision since the league attempted to wrest control of the Rangers' Web site. The NHL took charge of each of its teams' sites in 2007. MSG objected and sued the league, alleging it was acting as "an illegal cartel." In response, the NHL filed a disciplinary letter with the Manhattan court saying … [Read more...]

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Sundays not quite the same without Madden in booth

September 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

It was indeed strange not to hear John Madden call an NFL game on TV this weekend for the first time in 30 years. Instead of being alongside Al Michaels in NBC's "Sunday Night Football" booth, Madden was camped out at his Pleasanton, Calif., office building where, according to the San Jose Mercury News, he and his guests watched games on nine 63-inch plasma screens (donated by DirecTV) and a 9-by-12-foot projection screen. Madden, 73, is still doing some commentary for Sirius Satellite Radio and this past week became an unpaid consultant to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Despite the notable absence of the greatest NFL TV analyst ever, NBC didn't miss a beat with its "SNF" opener between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers. Al Michaels was solid as always and new partner Cris Collinsworth demonstrated why he was the obvious replacement for Madden. In his second tour of … [Read more...]

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