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Viewing Picks for November 14, 2018

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This NBA season has seen more debate about what's next for Kevin Durant and LeBron James than what they can do this year.

All Times Eastern

Baseball
Japan All-Star Series, Nagoya Dome, Nagoya, Japan
Samurai Japan vs. MLB All-Stars — MLB Network, 4 a.m. (Thursday)

College Basketball
Men’s
St. Francis (NY) at Richmond — ESPN+, 11 a.m.
Michigan at Villanova — FS1, 6:30 p.m.
Eastern Michigan at Duke — ACC Regional/Fox Sports Net, 7 p.m.
IUPUI at Boston College — ACC Network Extra, 7 p.m.
Radford at Notre Dame — ACC Network Extra, 7 p.m.
Sam Houston State at Clemson — ACC Network Extra, 7 p.m.
Louisiana-Monroe at Michigan State — BTN Plus, 7 p.m.
Bryn Athyn at Drexel — CAA.TV, 7 p.m.
North Carolina A&T at Hofstra — CAA.TV, 7 p.m.
Johnson (FL) at The Citadel — ESPN3, 7 p.m.
McKendree at Indiana State — ESPN3, 7 p.m.
Edward Waters at Northern Florida — ESPN+, 7 p.m.
Kean at New Jersey Institute of Technology — ESPN+, 7 p.m.
Mount St. Mary’s at Marshall — ESPN+, 7 p.m.
Northern Vermont University-Lyndon at Vermont — ESPN+, 7 p.m.
Toledo at Wright State — ESPN+, 7 p.m.
USC Upstate — Virginia Military Institute — ESPN+, 7 p.m.
La Salle at Florida — SEC Network Plus, 7 p.m.
Seton Hall at Nebraska — Big Ten Network, 7:30 p.m.
Miles at Samford — ESPN3, 7:30 p.m.
Boston University at Albany — ESPN+, 7:30 p.m.
Rice at Houston — ESPN3, 8 p.m.
Jacksonville State at Bradley — ESPN+, 8 p.m.
Niagara at Loyola (Chicago) — ESPN+, 8 p.m.
Texas-San Antonio at Oklahoma State — Fox College Sports Central, 7 p.m.
Texas-El Paso at Arizona — Pac-12 Network/Pac-12 Arizona, 8 p.m.
Mississippi College at Auburn — SEC Network Plus, 8 p.m.
Marquette at Indiana — FS1, 8:30 p.m.
St. Mary’s at New Mexico State — Eleven Sports, 9 p.m.
Grambling at Wyoming — Mountain West Network, 9 p.m.
Montana State at Colorado State — Mountain West Network, 9 p.m.
North Dakota at Kentucky — SEC Network, 9 p.m.
Stetson at USC — Pac-12 Network/Pac-12 Los Angeles, 10 p.m.

FS1 College Hoops Tip-Off — FS1, 6 p.m.
The B1G Show — Big Ten Network, 10:30 p.m.

Women’s
Georgia at UCLA — Pac-12 Network/Pac-12 Los Angeles, 2 p.m.

College Football
MACtion
Buffalo at Ohio — ESPN2, 7 p.m.
Miami (OH) at Northern Illinois — ESPNU, 8 p.m.

College Football Live — ESPN2, 5 p.m.
B1G Football & Beyond — Big Ten Network, 5 p.m.
BTN Inside the Game — Big Ten Network, 6 p.m.

College Volleyball
Women’s
Kentucky at Arkansas — ESPNU, 6 p.m.
Tennessee at Missouri — SEC Network, 7 p.m.
Utah at Oregon — Pac-12 Mountain/Pac-12 Oregon, 10 p.m.

Golf
PGA Tour of Australasia
Australian Open, The Lakes Golf Club, Eastlakes, New South Wales, Australia

1st Round — Golf Channel, 8 p.m.

European Tour
World Tour Championship, Jumeirah Golf Estates, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

1st Round — Golf Channel, 3 a.m. (Thursday)

Golfing World — Golf Channel, 5:30 p.m.
Champions Tour Learning Center — Golf Channel, 7 p.m.
Inside the PGA Tour — Golf Channel, 7:30 p.m.

Mixed Martial Arts
UFC Top Ten: Personalities — FS1, 10:30 p.m.
The Ultimate Fighter: Heavy Hitters: Made for This — FS1, 11 p.m.

MLB
Hot Stove — MLB Network, 9 a.m.
MLB Now — MLB Network, 2 p.m.
Baseball Writers’ Association of America Awards: Cy Young Award — MLB Network, 6 p.m.
MLB Tonight: Cy Young Award — MLB Network, 7 p.m.

NASCAR
NASCAR America: Wednesdays with Dale Jr. — NBCSN, 5 p.m.

NBA
New Orleans at Minnesota — ESPN, 8 p.m.
Portland at Los Angeles Lakers — ESPN, 10:30 p.m.

The Jump — ESPN, 3 p.m.
The Starters — NBA TV, 6 p.m.
10 Before Tip — NBA TV, 6:30 p.m.
NBA Countdown — ESPN, 7 p.m.
NBA GameTime — NBA TV, 7 p.m.
NBA CrunchTime — NBA TV, 9 p.m.
NBA GameTime — NBA TV, 10:30 p.m.
NBA GameTime — NBA TV, 1 a.m. (Thursday)

NFL
Good Morning Football — NFL Network, 7 a.m.
NFL Up to the Minute — NFL Network, 1 p.m.
NFL Live — ESPN, 1:30 p.m.
NFL Fantasy Live — NFL Network, 5 p.m.
NFL Mic’d Up: 2018 Week 10 — NFL Network, 6 p.m.
NFL Playbook — NFL Network, 6:30 p.m.

NHL
Wednesday Night Hockey
St. Louis at Chicago — NBCSN, 8 p.m.
Anaheim at Vegas — NBCSN, 10:30 p.m.

Hockey Central @ noon — NHL Network, noon
NHL Now — NHL Network, 4 p.m.
NHL Tonight: Pre-Game Skate — NHL Network, 6 p.m.
NHL Rivals: Chicago Blackhawks vs. St. Louis Blues — NBCSN, 6:30 p.m.
NHL Live — NBCSN, 7 p.m.
NHL Tonight — NHL Network, 7 p.m.
NHL Tonight — NHL Network, 10:30 p.m.
On the Fly — NHL Network, 11:30 p.m.

Soccer
Women’s
FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup

Group C, Estadio Alberto Suppici,
Colonia Del Sacramento, Uruguay
United States vs. Cameroon — FS2, 11:50 a.m.
Democratic Republic of Korea vs. Germany — FS2, 2:50 p.m.

Group D,  Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo, Uruguay
Republic of Korea vs. Spain — Fox Soccer Plus, 1:50 p.m.
Canada vs. Colombia — Universo, 4:55 p.m./FS2, 5 p.m.

Ligue 1 Highlight Show — beIN Sports, 6 p.m.
La Liga World — beIN Sports, 6:30 p.m.
The Xtra — beIN Sports, 7 p.m.

Sports Talk
SportsCenter:AM — ESPN, 7 a.m.
Morning Drive — Golf Channel, 7 a.m.
Get Up — ESPN, 8 a.m.
The Dan Patrick Show — Audience (AT&T U-Verse/DirecTV)/NBCSN, 9 a.m.
The Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz — ESPNews, 10 a.m.
The Rich Eisen Show — Audience (AT&T U-Verse/DirecTV)/AT&T SportsNet (Pittsburgh/Rocky Mountain)/Root Sports, noon
BYU Sports Nation — BYUtv, noon
The Jim Rome Show — CBS Sports Network, noon
SportsCenter — ESPN, noon
Jalen & Jacoby — ESPN2, 2 p.m.
Tiki & Tierney — CBS Sports Network, 3 p.m.
The Will Cain Show — ESPNews, 3 p.m.
The Paul Finebaum Show — SEC Network, 3 p.m.
Sport Today — BBC World News, 3:30 p.m.
High Noon — ESPN, 4 p.m.
Highly Questionable — ESPN, 4:30 p.m.
Around the Horn — ESPN, 5 p.m.
Pardon the Interruption — ESPN, 5:30 p.m.
Time to Schein — CBS Sports Network, 6 p.m.
SportsCenter — ESPN, 6 p.m.
Courage in Sports — CBS Sports Network, 8 p.m.
Sport Today — BBC World News, 8:45 p.m.
Sport Today — BBC World News, 9:45 p.m.
SportsCenter at Night — ESPN2, 10 p.m.
SportsCenter at Night — ESPN2, 11 p.m.
Titulares y Más — Telemundo, 11:35 p.m.
TMZ Sports — FS1, midnight
SportsCenter at Night — ESPN2, midnight
Contacto Deportivo — Univision/Univision Deportes, midnight
Boomer & Gio — CBS Sports Network, 6 a.m. (Thursday)
Golic & Wingo — ESPNews/ESPN2, 6 a.m. (Thursday)
Sport Today — BBC World News, 6:45 a.m. (Thursday)

Tennis
ATP Tour
ATP Finals, O2 Arena, London, England, United Kingdom
Doubles Round Robin: Group Knowles/Nestor
Oliver Marach/Mate Pavic vs. Mike Bryan/Jack Sock — Tennis Channel, 7 a.m.
Lukasz Kubot/Marcelo Melo vs. Pierre-Hugues Herbert/Nicolas Mahut — Tennis Channel, 1 p.m.

Singles Round Robin: Group Guga Kuertin
Novak Djokovic vs. Alexander Zverev — Tennis Channel, 9 a.m.
Marin Cilic vs. John Isner — Tennis Channel, 3 p.m.

Tennis Channel Live at the ATP Finals — Tennis Channel, 5 p.m.

The post Viewing Picks for November 14, 2018 appeared first on Awful Announcing.


The neverending Nationals-Orioles slapfest over MASN and rights fees could end this week (but probably won’t)

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For years now, the Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles have been sparring over Nationals rights fees on MASN, the RSN owned primarily by the Orioles that airs both teams’ games.

The TLDR summary of the situation is this – the Nationals felt they weren’t earning proper rights fees from MASN, starting way back from the 2012 season, when both the Orioles and Nationals were supposed to agree to a rights fee for Washington. That didn’t happen, and in June of 2014, an independent committee ruled in favor of the Nationals. The Orioles appealed to not pay the increased rights fees (dating back to 2012, mind you), dragged the Commissioner’s Office into the mess as well, the original ruling was vacated, and the two teams were directed back to the same damn independent committee (now made up of three different people) to search for a resolution.

(yes, somehow, the full version of events is far more complicated)

What’s changing this week? The case is going to be heard again by the committee (the Revenue Sharing Definitions Committee, which I’ll just refer to as the RSDC from here on out) and the Nationals and Orioles could finally have a resolution in this dispute that’s been raging on for over six years now.

According to the Washington Post, the RSDC will hear be determining the rights fees owed to the Nationals for the five season period from 2012 through 2016 and for the five season period from 2017 through 2021, meaning that MASN and the Orioles will owe the Nationals money for no fewer than seven seasons that have already been played.

That panel will hear the dispute Thursday and Friday, as far as anyone with the Nationals knows, in a process that has been rather hush-hush — to the point that even league spokesmen would not provide information about the timing of the hearing. It will be asked to determine the rights for the first five-year period (2012-2016) and the current five-year period (2017-2021), at which point the Nationals will be owed those sums immediately.

The Post also reports that the Orioles are expected to appeal (duh), meaning that no matter what the decision from the RSDC, the Nationals probably won’t get their money in the near future. Furthermore, because of loans from MLB and revenue sharing payments that weren’t made, the Nationals will have a nice chunk of their seven seasons of past TV revenue immediately taken from them.

But the Orioles and MASN can appeal this decision, too. If they do, the money will remain tied up indefinitely, as it has for years, until courts can finally shut down every Orioles avenue of inquiry. The Nationals have changed counsel, and were most recently represented by Stephen Neuwirth of Quinn Emmanuel. The conflict of interest should be gone. As for the solvency of the network, some considered that argument specious in 2014, though perhaps it will come up again.

Even if the Orioles do not appeal the decision made later this week, the Nationals will not necessarily experience the kind of windfall everyone might expect. Because they have not had full television revenue for years, they have not been able to participate fully in revenue sharing. Once a sum is awarded, the league will distribute the amount the Nationals would have been paying annually in one lump sum. They will also need to pay back Major League Baseball, which loaned them money to help the team operate while the revenue in question remained in limbo.

MASN is a weird entity, because the only teams it has the rights for in the Maryland/DC area are the Orioles and Nationals. The Wizards and Capitals both air on NBC Sports Washington, who also air programming featuring the Redskins, DC United (for now, at least), and the Washington Mystics. MASN airs the region’s two MLB teams and uh…a whole lot of college sports and nationally syndicated programming.

Having to pay a nine figure settlement to the Nationals in one lump sum, along with increased rights fees in the future, could be a critical blow for the network (which, not coincidentally, is one of the many reasons argued in the appeal back in 2014). We’ll see what the RSDC’s eventual decision is this week, but I highly doubt we’ve heard the last of this saga.

[Washington Post]

The post The neverending Nationals-Orioles slapfest over MASN and rights fees could end this week (but probably won’t) appeared first on Awful Announcing.

Takeaways from an explosive WWE Smackdown, with Daniel Bryan as WWE Champion and Becky Lynch’s injury fallout

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It was a very interesting edition of Smackdown Live last night in St. Louis, as World Wrestling Entertainment finalized the lineup for Sunday’s Survivor Series pay-per-view event. The longstanding phrase in pro wrestling “card subject to change” certainly holds true for WWE this year.

Going into Survivor Series, the two biggest singles matches on the card were supposed feature Raw’s Universal Champion Brock Lesnar facing Smackdown’s WWE Champion AJ Styles in a rematch from last year and Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey facing off with Smackdown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch for the first time. You may recall that last week I wrote about how I thought Rousey and Lynch should be the main event of Survivor Series. A lot of people supported that opinion, so I was excited to see the match. Sorry fans, but it’s not happening for now. I’ll get to the Bryan story later, but first let’s look at Becky Lynch’s interesting couple of days.

Becky Lynch is out of Survivor Series, and Charlotte Flair is in

This past Monday on Raw, the main event saw the women of Smackdown invade the show to destroy the Raw women. Becky Lynch looked like a huge superstar, attacking Ronda Rousey backstage and slapping the DisArmHer armbar submission on her in the backstage area. Lynch went out to the ring where she was joined by the other Smackdown women, who dominated the Raw superstars. Rousey came back out while selling a left arm injury and Lynch destroyed her with multiple chair shots to the ribs, back, and arm. As an angle, it was outstanding. It ended Raw on a very good note after a mostly boring show.

The bad thing about the Raw invasion is that Lynch was a bloody mess. On Twitter, Lynch called it “Irish war paint” to show how tough she is.

On Tuesday afternoon, the news was revealed that Lynch likely had a broken nose and that she wouldn’t be cleared to wrestle at Survivor Series. On Smackdown, they said that Lynch had a “broken face” while adding that she had a severe concussion as well.

What caused the Lynch injury? A very stiff punch to the from Nia Jax, who probably doesn’t realize how strong she is as a bigger woman. I don’t think Jax intentionally tried to hurt Lynch, but I sure wish Jax opted to go with a much lighter worked punch instead of crushing Lynch’s face the way she did. They showed a clip of the Jax punch during Smackdown this week as well.

It will be interesting to see if WWE decides to work that real-life accident into a storyline of Lynch getting revenge on Jax at a future date, but Lynch didn’t even mention Jax when she did a promo on Smackdown. Jax has hurt other wrestlers the past as well. I’m sure she’s taking a beating from fans on social media too.

The Lynch promo on Smackdown took place with the other Smackdown women superstars in the ring with her. Lynch, who stood proudly in the ring with her title along with a huge shiner around her left eye, spoke about how she was hoping somebody would let her fight, but they were not going to clear her before Sunday. Lynch spoke about how happy she was making Rousey scream in pain. Lynch spoke confidently and said that even with a broken face and a severe concussion, she could still kick “Ronnie’s” ass (Ronnie is the name Lynch uses for Rousey). Lynch told Rousey that she isn’t the baddest bitch on the planet, she’s the luckiest. I loved seeing how confident Lynch was in this promo, because it makes her look like such a badass and it’s why fans love her so much right now.

Lynch had to pick a replacement to face Rousey, so she stared at all the other women on Smackdown that were in the ring with her. Only Charlotte Flair and Asuka got big reactions from the fans. Lynch picked Flair, who seemed happy about it. Lynch told Flair to beat Rousey like Lynch was going to do. Lynch also hugged Flair, which shows that WWE might think of both women as faces now after their epic feud in the last few months. Lynch also whispered something into her best friend’s ear although we couldn’t hear that part. I know some people didn’t like the hug, but I think it was fine as a sign of respect after the great matches they had, particularly the classic match at Evolution last month.

If there’s good news in this whole situation, it’s that Lynch is still the Smackdown Women’s Champion. She was not stripped of the championship, so hopefully she can recover over the next month or so.

When should WWE do Rousey vs. Lynch? WrestleMania. I think that’s a no brainer and if WWE doesn’t do that, then they are making a big mistake. That’s a money match that fans want to see as much as any other match WWE could think of right now. It’s possible that Rousey vs. Lynch will happen at the Royal Rumble, and while that is a big stage, I think WrestleMania is the best spot for the match. It may be tricky to do at WrestleMania because of the stipulation that the Royal Rumble winner gets a title shot, so one of the women would have to lose their title and then win the Rumble match. Anyway, there’s a lot of time between now and then. I just hope WWE is smart enough to save Rousey vs. Lynch for WrestleMania. That’s the right time for it.

I’ll save my prediction for Rousey vs. Flair for the Survivor Series predictions column on Friday. For now, I’ll just add that I am looking forward to the match, even though it’s taking place much sooner than I would have expected.

Daniel Bryan is the new WWE Champion, and he’s a heel too!

That’s a headline I didn’t expect to write this week. Daniel Bryan is the WWE Champion again, and he’s a heel? Yes, yes, yes! It happened in the main event of Smackdown this week.

Ever since Daniel Bryan was cleared to return to the ring after three years on the shelf with concussion issues, most people thought the story would see him regain the WWE Title at WrestleMania as a good guy. The fans would love it, do the “yes” chants for him and it would be an awesome moment. Sorry WWE Universe, but that’s not going to happen now.

AJ Styles started Smackdown with a promo talking about his match with Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series and he was interrupted by Paul Heyman, who is Lesnar’s advocate. Heyman complimented Styles as one of the greatest wrestlers ever, but he also said he was number two on Smackdown behind Daniel Bryan…or at least that was the insinuation. Styles didn’t like that, pointed out he made Bryan tap out in their title match two weeks ago, and that brought out Bryan. When Bryan entered the ring, he felt disrespected and told Styles not to trash him again. Styles said Bryan’s name right to his face, so that led to a Styles/Bryan brawl that was broken up by officials as well as Smackdown Commissioner Shane McMahon. Shortly after that, Shane made the WWE Title match. As soon as they did that, I knew a title change was coming.

The match between Styles and Bryan was great just like two weeks ago. They were given about 19 minutes, with Bryan working over Styles’ left arm (to set up for the Yes Lock submission) and Styles working on Bryan’s knee to set up for the Calf Crusher. It featured plenty of high-risk moves, technical wrestling, and moments where it looked like either man could win. These are two of the best in-ring performers of the last twenty years and they are so good at working with eachother.

I thought the finish was brilliant. Styles went for the Phenomenal Forearm off the top rope, Bryan moved and Styles went crashing into the referee Charles Robinson. The classic ref bump led to Bryan kicking Styles in the groin, which nobody saw that coming since Bryan has been a good guy for the past five years and would never do such a thing. The fans reacted to that with boos. As the referee recovered, Bryan set up in the corner and hit a running knee to the face leading to the pinfall win at the 19-minute mark. The fans booed the surprising win by Bryan that ended the 371-day WWE Title reign of Styles, who won the title from Jinder Mahal last year (also on Smackdown).

After the match, Bryan stomped away on Styles and continued to piss off the fans by letting us know that he’s a bad guy now. It was a shocking turn that I didn’t see coming, but the more I think about it, the more I like it.

As the new WWE Champion, Bryan will now face the Universal Champion Brock Lesnar in a first time ever match at Survivor Series. I think that’s why they did the turn – because WWE wanted to do Bryan vs. Lesnar for the first time rather than do Lesnar vs. Styles for the second time. If you have a first time ever “dream match” for a lot of people, that’s more interesting as far as Survivor Series is concerned.

Bryan’s heel turn was apparently his idea, according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer. Bryan pitched the idea to Vince McMahon weeks ago, likely because Bryan realized his popularity was declining a bit, even though the crowd still chanted “yes” for him. You could tell by watching the shows that the crowd reactions for Bryan in 2018 were not nearly as loud as the 2014 crowds were. Bryan knew that as well as anybody, so turning heel is the right call. It was Vince McMahon’s call (like most things are) to turn Bryan heel on the same night where he won the WWE Title as well. Obviously, Bryan was not punished for skipping out on WWE’s Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia two weeks ago since he won the WWE Title just 11 days after that show.

The win by Bryan means that he is a heel just like The Miz, so that rivalry is over for now. That’s okay with me, because I think it has lost a lot of steam. Long term, I’d rather see Bryan as the heel dealing with AJ Styles seeking revenge. If WWE is smart about it, they will save the next Bryan vs. Styles televised match until WrestleMania, but I’m not sure if they are patient enough to wait that long. I would assume they do a WWE Title rematch at the TLC PPV next month.

Congrats to Daniel Bryan on being WWE Champion again. He is my favorite wrestler on the active roster and his return to the ring put a huge smile on my face earlier this year. After all he’s been through, especially in the last few years where he lost three years of his career due to concussions, he deserves it…even as a heel. He was a very good heel earlier this decade in 2011 and 2012, so I have a lot of faith in him being able to pull it off.

As for Styles, he is no longer a part of the Survivor Series pay-per-view in terms of a match, but I can see him attacking Bryan during his match or after it’s over. It’s just weird that we are having a PPV on Sunday and there’s no AJ Styles match, yet lowly tag teams like The Colons and The Ascension are on there.

That’s all for now. I’ll be back tomorrow with a look at some important moments in Survivor Series history and then on Friday, I’ll return with some predictions for this year’s Survivor Series event.

The post Takeaways from an explosive WWE Smackdown, with Daniel Bryan as WWE Champion and Becky Lynch’s injury fallout appeared first on Awful Announcing.

Your NBA announcing schedule for 11/14-11/19

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Wednesday, November 14
New Orleans at Minnesota (ESPN 8 pm) Ryan Ruocco, Jeff Van Gundy
Portland at LA Lakers (ESPN 10:30 pm) Dave Pasch, Mark Jackson

Thursday, November 15
Golden State at Houston (TNT 8 pm) Marv Albert, Chris Webber
San Antonio at LA Clippers (TNT 10:30 pm) Kevin Harlan, Grant Hill

Friday, November 16
Toronto at Boston (ESPN 7 pm) Mike Breen, Hubie Brown
Chicago at Milwaukee (ESPN 9:30 pm) Ryan Ruocco, Doris Burke

Saturday, November 17
Utah at Boston (NBA 7:30 pm) RSN Simulcast

Sunday, November 18
Golden State at San Antonio (NBA 7 pm) RSN Simulcast

Monday, November 19
Phoenix at Philadelphia (NBA 7 pm) Greg Anthony, Candace Parker, Steve Smith (in studio)
Oklahoma City at Sacramento (NBA 10 pm) Greg Anthony, Candace Parker, Steve Smith (in studio)

h/t Sammy!

The post Your NBA announcing schedule for 11/14-11/19 appeared first on Awful Announcing.

Golf Channel accidentally spoiled their own Driver vs. Driver series finale

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Golf Channel’s Driver vs. Driver is a reality series where designers pitch their concepts for driver to judges (including, randomly, Jeremy Roenick) and Wilson Sports, with the winner receiving $250,000 and their club as the next Wilson driver.

Season two concluded last night, the last of seven episodes. It’s not exactly essential viewing, but it can be entertaining if you’re a golf fan looking for weeknight primetime viewing, and especially if you’re really into the world of golf equipment. Some of the most interesting aspects of this season involved the behind-the-scenes looks at what goes into actually producing and testing prototypes, and the real numbers the clubs were offering testers.

Last night’s finale, though, would be familiar to just about anyone who’s watched a reality series from start to finish. With the final two contestants already locked in and the big reveal not coming until the end of the hour, it was essentially a clip show. Then, near the end of the hour and at the beginning of the final segment, right as Roenick launched into a monologue praising the accomplishments of one of the contestants, a graphic popped up naming one of the designs as the winner, and announcing it was available for purchase.

This was about three minutes before the reveal of the actual winner, and about ten minutes before the end of the show. Not the way they wanted to reveal the winner after nearly seven weeks of build.

Golf Channel apologized and scrubbed the moment from replays:

Driver vs. Driver is perhaps a slightly cursed production; after season 1, the winning design was briefly ruled non-conforming by the USGA. It also overshadowed an interesting deviation from reality show form, as the show essentially bent their own rules to pay for the runner-up’s senior year at Oregon State, while also offering him a job when he graduated. That was nice! (He ended up taking a job at Nike.)

Twitter, predictably, was not as nice:

Given how quickly shows like this attempt to capitalize on the winner, it’s surprising this kind of thing doesn’t happen more often. It’s unfortunate it happened to Golf Channel here, too. But it is funny. And hey, we’re talking about Wilson products! That has to be a win.

The post Golf Channel accidentally spoiled their own Driver vs. Driver series finale appeared first on Awful Announcing.

One of the few good games this college football Saturday is on Longhorn Network

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This weekend’s slate of college football games is, quite frankly, terrible. There are only three matchups between two ranked teams. The featured game on CBS this weekend fits a 6-4 Missouri team against a 5-5 Tennessee squad. Fox is actually choosing to air games featuring a 3-7 Nebraska team and a 3-7 Kansas side, while ABC is giving the national spotlight to 5-5 Maryland and 5-5 Oklahoma State against teams with higher aspirations.

The three “good” games between two ranked teams are all airing on different networks, though two are in the same timeslot, which sucks. At 2:30 PM, #12 Syracuse plays #3 Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium. At 8 PM, in the day’s featured window on ABC, #24 Cincinnati takes on #11 UCF in Orlando.

And then there’s the third game, also airing at 8 PM. It features #16 Iowa State and #15 Texas, and airs on…Longhorn Network.

ESPN actually released a guide on where to watch the game (which is wild to see in 2018), and it’s pretty sad – the only over the top streaming services that carry LHN are DirecTV Now (in select markets only, apparently) and PlayStation Vue (if you pay the additional $10 for the sports package). A bunch of Dish Network packages carry it, and it’s also available on DirecTV’s sports pack. A bunch of cable companies also carry Longhorn Network, but again, whether or not you get it depends on your market – I live in southern California and pay approximately $Texas for my Cox cable bundle each month, and it’s not offered on any tier.

So that’s where we are in 2018 – Longhorn Network actually has a good Texas football game instead of a terrible Texas football game, and that’s arguably a bad thing because of how poor this Saturday’s schedule is.

But hey, I guess that’s good news for Cincinnati-UCF, Duke-Clemson, and uh…Kansas-Oklahoma, right? This might be a good Saturday night to not worry about college football instead of stressing yourself out trying to figure out how you can watch Longhorn Network for one of the handful of times each year you need to.

[ESPN]

The post One of the few good games this college football Saturday is on Longhorn Network appeared first on Awful Announcing.

Your 2018 NFL Week 11 announcing schedule

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Thursday, November 15
Green Bay at Seattle, FOX|NFL|Amazon 8:20 pm – Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Erin Andrews & Kristina Pink
Amazon Prime – Hannah Storm, Andrea Kremer, Brian Billick, Andrew Brandt
Amazon Prime UK – Derek Rae, Tommy Smyth
Westwood One  – Tom McCarthy, Mike Holmgren

Sunday, November 18
Dallas at Atlanta, FOX 1 pm – Kevin Burkhardt, Charles Davis & Pam Oliver

Cincinnati at Baltimore, CBS 1 pm – Kevin Harlan, Rich Gannon & Steve Tasker

Carolina at Detroit, FOX 1 pm – Kenny Albert, Ronde Barber & Jennifer Hale

Tennessee at Indianapolis, CBS 1 pm – Andrew Catalon, James Lofton

Pittsburgh at Jacksonville, CBS 1 pm – Jim Nantz, Tony Romo & Tracy Wolfson

Tampa Bay at N.Y. Giants, FOX 1 pm – Thom Brennaman, Chris Spielman & Shannon Spake

Houston at Washington, CBS 1 pm – Greg Gumbel, Trent Green, Bruce Arians & Melanie Collins

Oakland at Arizona, CBS 4:05 pm – Spero Dedes, Adam Archuleta

Denver at L.A. Chargers, CBS 4:05 pm – Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts & Evan Washburn

Philadelphia at New Orleans, FOX 4:25 pm – Joe Buck, Troy Aikman & Erin Andrews

Minnesota at Chicago, NBC 8:20 pm – Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth & Michelle Tafoya
Westwood One – Kevin Kugler, Jason Taylor

Monday, November 19
Kansas City at L.A. Rams, ESPN 8:15 pm – Joe Tessitore, Jason Witten, Booger McFarland & Lisa Salters
Westwood One – Kevin Harlan, Kurt Warner & Ed Werder

Byes: Buffalo, Cleveland, Miami, New England, N.Y. Jets, San Francisco

h/t Sammy!

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NFL flexes Chargers-Steelers and Rams-Bears to Sunday Night Football in early December

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The inclusion of flex scheduling has been perhaps an underrated boon to viewers, with no better example than today’s news that the country won’t have to watch the 49ers and Raiders play Sunday Night Football games back-to-back.

The league announced that the Week 13 Seahawks-49ers game has been replaced by Steelers-Chargers, while the Week 14 Steelers-Raiders matchup has been bumped for Bears-Rams. Both of these moves make sense, of course; Week 13 is, well, weak overall, but both Pittsburgh and the Chargers are battling for playoff spots, and the 49ers are very much not doing that.

But it’s the Week 14 matchup that provides the biggest disparity; Jon Gruden’s Raiders are a disaster right now, and while there’s certainly some curiosity to watching a franchise fall apart on a grand stage, Bears-Rams is a game not only between two of the leagues top markets, but between two of the league’s most entertaining teams. The Rams are in year two of their post-Jeff Fisher renaissance, and at 9-1 they look every bit a Super Bowl contender.

The Bears, meanwhile, are one of the more interesting stories of the league this year, and they’ve already been flexed once, for this weekend’s pivotal NFC North game against the Vikings. In many ways they mirror the Rams success turnaround, going from a mediocre, generation-behind coach to a younger, offensive-minded one to help unlock the potential of a young quarterback. That’s not to say that Matt Nagy is Sean McVay, or Mitchell Trubisky is going to continue to play fairly high-level football (albeit with some understandable growing pains tossed in), but that’s what’s happened so far this season.

The Bears defense, meanwhile, is for real; if they can stay mostly healthy (and especially if Khalil Mack continues to recover from an ankle injury) watching them try to slow down the Rams at Soldier Field in December is a very enticing prospect, much moreso than watching the Steelers sit on the Raiders for three hours.

It’s a bit surprising the Bears-Rams game wasn’t slated for Sunday Night Football from the start of the year, although it’s easy to forget now just how bad Chicago has been for a years. It’s actually comforting in a way that the league didn’t just throw it up there for ratings purposes, and now we’re going to get a game that should, theoretically, be good both for fans and for NBC.

The Bears originally had just two primetime games on the schedule, their opening night collapse against Green Bay and their Week 2 Monday Night Football win over Seattle. Now, though, with this weekend’s flex game, the Thanksgiving Day game at Detroit, and the Rams contest, they’ll be in a national slot for three out of four weeks, and it’s not impossible they get flexed once more before the end of the year.

That’s a sign the system is working. The NFL is so difficult to project year-to-year for a variety of reasons (injuries, sample size, roster and coaching turnover, and more), and flex scheduling is a nice way around that problem. Football fans only get so many weeks a year, and when the national slots are clogged with bad teams it can be brutal, and that’s the last thing the NFL should want as the playoff race heats up.

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The first month of the NBA season has shown us many media care more about the next offseason

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Kevin Durant and LeBron James.

What’s perhaps most remarkable about this NBA season to date is how little of the discussion around the league has actually centered on it. Yes, there’s a ton of NBA talk daily on national TV and radio and in print outlets, but a whole lot of that isn’t about the 2018-19 campaign itself, but rather the approaching summer of free agency.

This was particularly evident in coverage of the Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green-Kevin Durant blowup this week, where a lot of the discussion revolved around what this meant for the summer of 2019, with Durant as a pending free agent and/or Green as potentially expendable. For example, here’s ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith’s take on it:

And Smith is far from alone. So much of the discussion around the Green-Durant saga has not been about what it could mean for this year’s Warriors, but what it could mean for the team going forward. We’ve seen both pieces that feel more sympathetic to Green (like one from Marcus Thompson of The Athletic) and ones that feel more sympathetic to  Durant (like one from Ray Ratto of NBC Sports Bay Area), but both flavors have really focused on what this fight could mean for the 2019-20 season, not what it means for this year. ESPN’s The Jump also focused on the down-the-road implications in a segment Wednesday. Reading, listening to, or watching these pieces, it sure doesn’t feel like there are almost six full months ahead until the 2018-19 regular season ends on April 10, or eight until the Larry O’Brien Trophy is awarded in June after the playoffs.

It’s not just the Warriors, either. Much of the current coverage of LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers is focusing on this as a building year, with LeBron’s tenure there really only starting after they get another top free agent or too this sumer. Much of the coverage of teams like the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers isn’t about how good they currently are, but about how well they can position themselves as compelling free-agent destinations. And even discussions about what’s next for Carmelo Anthony following a projected cut in Houston aren’t just about this year, but if he can add anything to teams in the coming years. It’s as if much of the NBA media is playing NBA 2K19 and has decided to simulate the 2018-19 season to end before picking up their general manager duties in the offseason.

Yes, there’s some logic to discussing the modern NBA this way. The Warriors are 12-3 after a win over the Atlanta Hawks last night (only by seven points, though, so sound the alarm!), which puts them two, three and four wins respectively ahead of the Portland TrailBlazers, the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Clippers in the Western Conference. There aren’t a whole lot of people currently opining that any of those teams will give Golden State a real run for their money in the playoffs. And out east, the current top-four of the Toronto Raptors, Milwaukee Bucks, 76ers and Indiana Pacers also isn’t inspiring a whole lot of “they can beat the Warriors!” conversation.

Maybe teams currently outside the top four like Boston, Oklahoma City or even the Lakers or Rockets (10th and 12th in the West at the moment, respectively) will improve over the rest of the season, or maybe the current top-four teams will look like more of an actual threat as time marches on. But there is some support for the idea of 2018-19 as an inevitable outcome. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that all media discussion of the current season should be punted. And it’s interesting to compare what’s going on with the NBA to how things are in other sports.

In the NFL, for example, there’s almost no offseason talk at the moment. Instead, much of the discussion is focused on who will win this year. Some of that’s thanks to a wider field (teams like the Chiefs and Rams have done very well so far, but perennial contenders like the Patriots are still looming, and there are lots of other teams in the mix too), and some of it’s thanks to a limited-by-design offseason (franchise and transition tags mean it’s harder for players to move in the NFL). There’s also a looming draft class without a lot of hot-button prospects (Mel Kiper Jr.’s latest ESPN rankings have three offensive skill players in the top 25, including only one quarterback (Oregon’s Justin Herbert at #5), and it’s much harder for debate shows to argue the merits of defensive ends or offensive linemen instead of quarterbacks), and that’s all adding up to keeping the focus on the game on the field.

But college football is perhaps an even more interesting comparison. There, there’s a team (the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide) that’s the closest analogy you’ll find to the Warriors in North American sports, with a whole lot of people already assuming they’ll be the champions at the end of this year. And yet, that hasn’t really killed the discussion of this season; there’s still interest in if anyone can knock off Alabama (especially in the SEC championship game or in the playoff), there’s interest in who the other three playoff teams will be, and there’s interest in who’s going to be picked for the New Year’s Six (non-playoff) bowls. And Alabama’s dominance has been anything but bad for college football as a whole from a ratings perspective so far, with their 29-0 blowout win over LSU two weeks ago coming in as the highest-rated game of the season.

So what’s up with the NBA? Some of it may be an overabundance of national debate shows, and those shows overwhelmingly focusing on the NBA because of the talking points it’s seen to produce. And that particular format both encourages strong opinions and encourages a wide-as-possible focus; Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith aren’t talking about a seven-point win for the Warriors and what particular plays they ran when they have the chance to discuss a possible locker-room soap opera with implications for 2019-20 and beyond. (Going as far down the road as this is also beneficial for hot-take pundits, as they can’t be proven wrong for nine months or so, and many will have forgotten what they said by then.)

The NBA also has a remarkable degree of player agency compared to leagues like MLB and the NFL, with more player movement allowed and players more easily able to make a major difference at a new team, and that’s helped boost the focus on the offseason. And it’s also interesting that as compared to college football, where there’s a similar consensus on who’s going to win, the spotlight has remained with the Warriors in the NBA. In college football, a lot of the discussion is about who will be the #2 to #4 playoff teams, and no one seems to particularly care about that in basketball. Maybe that’s because of a larger playoff (with 16 teams making it, there really isn’t much question of a potential title contender being left out) or a results-based system as opposed to one determined by a committee vote, but it’s really notable that there’s so little discussion of an ongoing season.

And maybe this approach will be proven right. Maybe it’s more worthwhile for Stephen A. and Max Kellerman or Skip and Shannon Sharpe to debate the ins and outs of the Warriors’ locker room and what that means for 2019; for one, that’s a story with a larger base potential audience (fans of all teams players like Durant could conceivably go to) than if they were just discussing the Warriors’ lineup this year, and for another, they can drop all the hot takes they want without being proven wrong any time soon.

And that doesn’t require extensive film study of the Warriors or their potential playoff opponents; it’s all just opinions on where someone like Durant might wind up, and strong opinions are what these personalities focus on. But it sure makes for odd media discussion around the NBA. If someone with no knowledge of the league was reading about it, they might think it’s actually the offseason, rather than a season with almost six full months of regular-season play and then a couple of months of playoffs left.

 

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The Match coverage to include Charles Barkley and Samuel L. Jackson on preview show, Ernie Johnson and Darren Clarke on call

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Charles Barkley and Samuel L. Jackson in a Capital One March Madness ad.

Thursday saw Turner unveil the announcing lineup for the Nov. 23 The Match pay-per-view golf event between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, and there were a couple of surprises. One of the most major ones may be the presence of NBA on TNT analyst Charles Barkley, a famously bad golfer. Barkley will be joining actor Samuel L. Jackson, golfer Pat Perez and special guests on the Adam Lefkoe-hosted pre-match show (beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern), and the pre-match team will also appear “at select moments” during the main broadcast (which begins at 3 p.m. Eastern). Here’s more from Turner’s release, which also details the more-standard broadcast team for the event itself.

Turner Sports’ live PPV coverage of Capital One’s The Match: Tiger vs. Phil, the highly-anticipated showdown between the iconic Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, will be led by Sports Emmy Award-winning broadcaster Ernie Johnson providing play-by-play, alongside analysts Darren Clarke – 2011 Open Championship winner – and NBC Sports/Golf Channel’s Peter Jacobsen, and reporters Shane Bacon and LPGA veteran Natalie Gulbis. The broadcast team will provide commentary throughout the winner-take-all $9 million match play competition, to be held Friday, Nov. 23, at Noon PT / 3 p.m. ET (suggested retail price of $19.99) from the exclusive Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.

…Bleacher Report’s Adam Lefkoe will host the one-hour, pre-match show with three-time PGA Tour winner Pat Perez, along with Samuel L. Jackson and Charles Barkley, among other special guests. The pre-show commentator team will also be integrated into the live event coverage at select moments during the competition.

Much of the discussion about The Match has been about trying to bring in unique elements to convince golf fans to buy a pay-per-view event, including tech (live drone coverage, real-time shot-tracing, mics on Woods, Mickelson and their caddies, 4K HDR coverage on DirecTV and more) and multiplatform coverage (including shoulder programming on HBO, Bleacher Report, and House of Highlights, plus a later Dec. 8 TNT broadcast of select content from the event). Adding Barkley and Jackson feels like another step there, and something that will certainly make this stand out. (And it’s appropriate that this is a Capital One-sponsored event, as that’s where we’ve usually seen Barkley and Jackson together, as in the commercial series that produced the above screengrab. Was Spike Lee tied up this time?)

However, there are also some risks to this unconventional approach, and some of that depends on just who ends up watching this and how they feel about unusual golf coverage. If it’s mostly hardcore golf fans who buy this, and they get Barkley joking around when they’re expecting serious analysis, there could be some backlash. (It seems smart to only specifically put Barkley on the pre-match show and then hint at the possibility of using him later; that lets them work him in if it’s going well and his segments are well-received, or take a different approach if it isn’t going well.) But a lighter approach here might be interesting to general sports fans who aren’t as particular about their golf coverage.

At any rate, plenty of people will have the opportunity to watch Barkley, Jackson, Lefkoe, Perez and their guests. Turner’s release notes that “The Pre-Match Show Presented by Capital One will be available across all pay-per-view carrier platforms, along with wide-ranging distribution through simulcasts on the Bleacher Report and B/R Live Facebook (B/R, B/R Live), Twitter (B/R, B/R Live) and YouTube (B/RB/R Live) social platforms.” So it won’t be hard to find this. We’ll see how it goes.

 

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Fox officially extends MLB rights through 2028, and DAZN is also getting into the MLB streaming game

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Major League Baseball has been a staple for Fox since 1996. Given Fox’s new approach to devote more programming to live events like Thursday Night Football and WWE SmackDown, Fox would naturally be interested in continuing their MLB partnership.

According to SBJ’s John Ourand, Fox’s extension to their current deal means that games will be shown on both Fox and FS1 through 2028. Fox will also retain the rights to show the World Series (as reported last week), All-Star Game, and an LCS series (alternating between AL and NL each year). The network will expand their “digital, streaming, social media and highlight rights, as well as the right to produce more games.”

In their announcement, Fox also noted that starting in 2022, “the amount of regular season and postseason games televised by the Fox broadcast network will increase,” which essentially means that one or two more LCS/LDS games will be on broadcast.

Fox’s current contract runs through 2021 and cost the network $525 million for eight years. Ourand reported that Fox’s rights fee will be increasing by double digits in the new deal, and Bloomberg’s Scott Soshnick reported that the deal would cost Fox a cool $5 billion over seven years.

Also in the deal, starting in 2022, there is the added prospect of weekly primetime games on the Fox broadcast network. Simply speculating, a logical place for this primetime game would be Thursday nights during the NFL offseason, similar to what ABC did when they had Monday Night Football, in addition as baseball in the 70s and 80s.

In addition to the new Fox deal, MLB and DAZN are set to announce an agreement for streaming rights. The three-year deal won’t include live games, but the emerging streaming service will be able to have live cut-ins coinciding with a studio show (which is incredibly ironic, given that DAZN president John Skipper killed Baseball Tonight during his final year at ESPN). For DAZN, it’s a way to get their foot in the door among the big four American sports leagues and grow in the United States, but it’s not an agreement that will hook someone into signing up for the service, given the similar options already on cable (including MLB Network’s flagship MLB Tonight).

[Sports Business Daily]

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Awful Announcing podcast: Bleacher Report’s Adam Lefkoe talks The Match, going viral, Simms & Lefkoe, and more

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We’re back with another edition of the Awful Announcing Podcast, featuring Bleacher Report’s Adam Lefkoe.

Subscribe on iTunes!

Here’s what Lefkoe and host Ben Heisler chatted about.

  • 4:01 – The star panel he’ll be a part of for “The Match” Tiger vs Phil
  • 5:58 – Embracing the unknown and throwing out the rundown/staying in the moment
  • 7:28 – Starting in local news and changing how content gets delivered over the last 10 years
  • 10:13 – On making mistakes early and whether “going viral” is possible anymore
  • 12:55 – How Awful Announcing played a role in his rise in the industry / the Seinfeldcast & Rapcast
  • 19:00 – The feeling of watching his sportscasts go viral
  • 20:50 – Any current/past influences on his work
  • 23:35 – Describing what the Simms & Lefkoe show is
  • 26:45 – Why hasn’t the rest of the media focused on NFL personality driven content & why their show works because they’re not in bed with the NFL
  • 27:57 – How the origin and initial pitch of the show transformed over time
  • 31:25 – On golf finally taking a risk and doing something genuinely cool with Tiger vs Phil
  • 34:50 – The sports wagering rise in coverage of our favorite sports

Thanks for listening, and make sure to subscribe on iTunes and leave us a review.

The post Awful Announcing podcast: Bleacher Report’s Adam Lefkoe talks The Match, going viral, Simms & Lefkoe, and more appeared first on Awful Announcing.

Former NFL on Fox analyst Tim Green has been diagnosed with ALS

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Joe Buck and Tim Green.

There’s a big struggle ahead for former NFL on Fox analyst Tim Green. Green, a first-round pick out of Syracuse in 1986, played defensive end/linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons from 1986-93 and then called games on Fox from the beginnings of the NFL on Fox in 1994 through 2005, working alongside Joe Buck, Kenny Albert, Sam Rosen, Drew Goodman, Curt Menefee, Dan Miller, Ron Pitts, Thom Brennaman, and Matt Vasgersian. He’s also worked as a NPR commentator, a TV host of news, sports and reality programs, a commentator on some Falcons’ pre-season games, a prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction (including many sports books), and a lawyer.

But he announced on his Facebook page Wednesday night that he has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS:

Green says in that post that he has “a slow-progressing version of the disease,” and that he has one of the top ALS specialists in the world, Dr. Merit Cudkowicz at Massachusetts General Hospital, as his doctor. But he also makes it clear that he wants to use this diagnosis to advance fundraising for ALS research and treatment, and he already has a 60 Minutes appearance planned Sunday to discuss that.

ALS research is grossly underfunded and together, with friends like you, we can make a huge difference to those with the disease and those who will have it in the future.

…For the complete story, tune in this Sunday, 11/18, at 7pm to watch 60 Minutes. Please share this post to help raise awareness and learn about the fundraiser I am doing to help Tackle ALS in the episode! On Sunday the fundraiser will go live! Don’t be sorry, let’s beat this!

Many media figures, including former broadcasting partners, offered tributes to Green Thursday:

Green joins the ranks of former NFL players and broadcasters who have faced ALS, which stretched to at least 17 earlier this year, from Steve Gleason to O.J. Brigance to Dwight Clark. And there have been a lot in the CFL too, with at least eight of the league’s around 15,000 former players diagnosed with the disease by 2008. A 2012 U.S. study found retired NFL players were four times more likely to die from ALS than the general U.S. population, which at that time had five cases per 100,000 people, and connections to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) have been found.

Questions remain about the specific links between football, head trauma, and ALS (and in some cases, like that of Kevin Turner, it’s actually been CTE affecting players rather than ALS), but the numbers of former players who have wound up with ALS are certainly remarkable. And as Chris Nowinski of the Concussion Legacy Foundation noted, they keep rising:

And it sounds like Green sees a link there too. Nate Mink of The Syracuse Post-Standard interviewed 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft, another Syracuse grad, and got a preview of his interview with Green that will air on 60 Minutes Sunday:

Green and his family were interviewed last month at his Skaneateles home by Steve Kroft, a Syracuse University graduate who had worked with Green in the past on a 1996 piece for 60 Minutes around the release of his best-selling book, “The Dark Side of the Game.”

Sunday’s show will include audio from that 1996 piece, according to 60 Minutes, when he discussed the occupational hazards of football and how he loved the game too much to quit playing, even as he suspected it might take decades off his life.

…”Those dots are pretty well-connected by him,” said Kroft, the 60 Minutes correspondent.

“He says he thinks it has a lot to do with him getting ALS and maybe everything to do with him getting ALS.”

But Kroft added that Green said he “doesn’t have any regrets,” and that he thinks the NFL has significantly improved safety policies since his playing days:

“He says the NFL has made [football] a lot safer and that he thinks if he started playing the game later, under these new conditions, he wouldn’t be fighting for his life.”

This is a tough diagnosis for Green, as there is no known cure for ALS. And even if the form of ALS he has is slower-progressing, it’s still going to drastically affect his life; he mentions that he’s already had neurological problems with his hands and with his voice. But he says in his Facebook post he’s determined to focus on the time he does have:

As always, I will spend the coming days and years counting the blessings I have instead of pining for the things I don’t. Today I will take a walk. I will work and write and kiss each of my kids as well as my beautiful wife. That’s a great day. As good as it gets…

[Tim Green on Facebook]

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AA Q&A: ESPN’s Paul Finebaum talks his new expanded role at the network, the SEC and biases, and more

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Paul Finebaum, the popular SEC Network host, recently signed a contract extension at ESPN that’s given him more responsibilities and exposure, including more SportsCenter appearances and weekly trips to New York for “Get Up!” and “First Take.” In a lengthy phone conversation with Awful Announcing, Finebaum, 63, talked about how close he really was to leaving ESPN last summer, the perceived bias ESPN has towards the SEC, how college football has become more zero sum in the playoff era and the next huge change he thinks is coming to the sport.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

You’ve been doing this a long time. What keeps you motivated? Because even if you love what you do, there’s some point where you’re feeling a little burnt out in a sense.

I think with me, I spent the majority of my career in Alabama, first as a sportswriter and on radio. So five years ago, joining ESPN was like a totally new world. I felt like I didn’t just hit reboot, I started all over again. And even though that’s not really the way it was, that’s how I looked at it. I just kind of went through that with bright eyes and every experience was really unique. And of course I just recently signed a new deal, so I’m doing different things.

I think the key is, it’s almost like a template for every facet of life, by doing different things. My first year at ESPN, I did College Gameday and I was like in awe. And this year is like the second stanza of my run at ESPN. I’m going to New York every week and doing “Get Up!” and “First Take” and go to Bristol on the weekends and do SportsCenter. Even in my early 60s, these are still pretty exciting things for me. So I think that would be the long answer to a pretty simple question.

That’s what keeps you driven…

I haven’t lived in that many places, but going to New York, I walked in there for the first time three months ago and I was like wow, this is pretty cool. Doing the morning show with Mike Greenberg, then I’m doing Stephen A., I’m looking out at the Brooklyn Bridge right across to the borough where my mother grew up…I know this sounds kind of goofy from someone who’s occasionally been pretty cynical, but it still gets to me. And that’s hard to do. I’ve been to pretty much every football game you could go to, basketball game. And after a while, you’ve seen it all. But because this happened to me late in life, it probably means more than had I done this at an earlier age.

Definitely. Everything in life that you have to work and toil for, you end up appreciating it more.

You do. And I think because I had been told not even that long ago that this wasn’t probably happening. “You’re a local guy, you’re a regional guy.” I think even that probably has made this more meaningful. Look, I’m not gonna come off like I’m in a “Miss Congeniality” contest. There’s good with the bad, but it still means a lot to me, I will put it that way.

You see people out there who say that ESPN is kind of biased towards the SEC. Do you agree?

I don’t believe it. I just don’t see any evidence of it. I understand the arrangements. Of all people I would certainly understand that, having a daily show on the SEC Network. But I would like to know how that is so.

A caller called in yesterday [Monday] and asked “why does Gary Danielson hate Alabama so much?” I go, “well, please give me one degree of specificity on what you’re talking about.” “Well, he just is,” he said. And I respond the same way to the general question with where is the bias?

If you look at College Gameday, this is week 12, they’ve been to three SEC sites, Clemson-Texas A&M, Georgia-Florida and Alabama-LSU. I don’t see it, and if I did I’d say it. What do I care?

It’s like somebody saying is Fox biased towards the Big 10? I watched the Big 10 championship last year and the announcers said the winner of this game is going to the playoffs. Well, that’s not true. And they didn’t go. So I would dispute that, and I’d want to have people show me the evidence.

With you locked in to the SEC every week, what’s your process like in keeping track of the other conferences?

Certainly five days a week in the afternoon, the show primarily deals with the SEC. But I’m following college football as broadly as I can with other appearances, whether it’s SportsCenter during the week or on the weekends or whatever else I do. And really after about the 4th or 5th week of the season, it’s not so much conference dominated as it is College Football Playoff dominated.

So yeah, if you’re conversing on college football for any network, you have to know what’s going on elsewhere. And I watch the games like everyone else. No, I’m not going to Michigan games or Notre Dame games, but I certainly keep up with it as much as humanly possible.

So you watch all these games, since we’re Awful Announcing I have to ask a broadcasting related question: Which announcers routinely tell you things that you don’t know, and which announcers make you want to press the mute button?

[Laughs] This is going to sound like a cliche answer, but [Kirk] Herbstreit I think will tell me things I don’t know, as will Gary Danielson. In terms of people who make me want to mute the TV, what bothers me, what irritates me the most of any television announcer is to be disingenuous and not authentic. And what I mean by that is don’t tell me so-and-so is doing a great job when you know he’s about to be fired. That personally offends me and it should offend the viewer. I think there is too much of that, covering for coaches. Every coach is not that good. Look, I’m not expecting a broadcaster to come on and just unload on a coach, but be truthful. And I’ve seen this over the years, if a coach is doing a lousy job don’t act like he’s going to save mankind. He’s not.

I think that’s what separates me probably from a lot of people who do games. I’ve never done games and it’s highly unlikely I ever will, and I think they’re in a more awkward position, keeping relationships. I don’t have to. I mean yeah, I try to get along with everyone that I can, but I’m not going to Michigan next week to do Ohio State-Michigan and need Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh to sit down and talk to me. If they don’t want to talk to me then that’s great, that’s their problem, not mine.

I don’t think Urban Meyer wants to talk to anybody right now  

No, I agree. But I think even during the Urban Meyer situation, there was a lot of soft-pedaling about Urban Meyer when it was pretty obvious to me what was going on and anyone who could understand the circumstances.

What are the main differences in talking about college football during the playoff era as opposed to the BCS era?

I think it’s still pretty dictated by the end, but I think it’s more obsessive now. In the BCS era, I don’t remember week one, two, and three people saying “who’s your top four?” Now it’s almost just a cliche. And it’s way too soon, but I think the playoff has put us in that position where it’s all about the top four and the rest of the schools seem diminished.

How can that really be solved? Are we talking about college football becoming more zero sum?

I don’t think you really can, because that’s what you get with a playoff. And by the way, I’m not unhappy with it. I’m just simply stating that, by week two we’re talking Heisman candidates, who’s your top four, and we tend to rush it. But that’s the nature of the industry now. I don’t have an alternative of what we should spend time doing something else, I’m just saying that’s probably the most stark difference. I just don’t remember that in the BCS era, you only had two. And even though four is only double two, it just seems like we get to it a lot faster.

You re-signed with ESPN over the summer. How close were you to leaving?

I was very close to leaving. I had pretty well decided to leave. I just felt like it was maybe a good time for me to try something else, and I’m sure you’re gonna ask me what happened [laughs]

That is my job

I had a conversation with Jimmy Pitaro after he took over and one or two other people. I went up with Lee Fitting to dinner, and I think those conversations played a big role in me changing my perspective, that I wanted to continue what I was doing. But I think that happens. You have to remember, as I’m sure you do, John [Skipper] left in December and we were suspended in air for a couple of months and that happened to come at a time when I was nearing the end of my agreement, so you start probably to think too much about those things, and you look around. And I certainly did what anyone would’ve done in that predicament. But I think finally sitting down with Lee, and ultimately talking to Jimmy convinced me this was the right thing to do.

And you have an agent who plays a big role as well, so that was probably the final chapter. Nick Khan came to town and he sat down with my wife and I. As I walked into that dinner on that July Friday night, I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. But by the end of it, he had laid it out and laid out the alternatives and my wife and I together made that decision. She’s a big part of what I do and where I am.

You said you were pretty close to leaving. Was there a preferred destination you had in mind if ESPN wasn’t going to work out?

There were a couple of places that I’d looked at pretty seriously. I’m not saying that I’d made a final determination, but yeah, I was certainly looking at other things. I’m not being coy, I’m just stating the obvious here.

There were reports about Big Ten Network, Fox…

[Laughs] Let me say this: As someone who has been a writer and a reporter for a long time, I found some of the stories to be pretty entertaining. I’m not exactly sure where they came from. And the Big Ten was probably the one I got the biggest chuckle over. I wasn’t going to the Big Ten Network. That was not going to happen. But you look at everything else. The world’s pretty big out there, and I think I just had to do it. I just had to take a look. That’s the kind of person I am, and I wanted to make sure that I covered all the bases. I look back at it now a couple of months later, and I’m going why did I go down that path? I wanted to make sure I had covered every base.

Last question: What do you think the next huge change that comes to college football?

I think there are many issues, but I think the biggest issue that could prompt change is attendance. I go to stadiums, I watch games, I see more empty seats, even at the biggest games. And whether that’s television, students wanting to be more interactive. Whatever it is, I think it’s a major, major problem for college sports. And I talk to athletic directors and they talk about “the gameday experience is so much better.” Well that’s not really the issue. The issue is getting students to the games, which I see fewer and fewer students go into the games, and making it attractive versus sitting at home or sitting with your buddies at a sports bar and keeping up with all the other games. I’m hearing this from athletic directors privately, nobody wants to talk about it too loudly, but I think it’s a freight train that’s racing right toward the college football landscape. And it’s not far from getting here.

The post AA Q&A: ESPN’s Paul Finebaum talks his new expanded role at the network, the SEC and biases, and more appeared first on Awful Announcing.

Kirk Minihane won’t return to WEEI, will shift to Entercom’s Radio.com and launch a new national show

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Kirk Minihane

After a long saga involving leave for mental health, and battles with management after expressing a desire to return, Kirk Minihane is moving on from WEEI to corporate parent Entercom’s Radio.com platform. In August, Minihane took some leave from Boston-based WEEI and checked himself into a hospital after experiencing suicidal thoughts. He tweeted about the situation then, and returned to work the next week, but in September, he said he came back too fast and went on an indefinite leave of absence from the show, where he was replaced by Mike Mutansky. Since then, there’s been a lot of public back-and-forth about what’s next for him.

Late last month, Minihane sent some tweets about less-than-stellar correspondence with management. He then tweeted about being ready to come back, but then said “Or maybe not. Eye-opening day.” Afterwards, he added “It’s not my show – they are welcome to do what they want. Or what others tell them to do,” and then offered this tweet summarizing the situation:

After that, Barstool’s Dave Portnoy tweeted that he’d welcome Minihane and also gave an interview to The Big Lead’s Henry McKenna where he praised Minihane and said Barstool was interested in hiring him. On the other side, Deadspin’s Samer Kalaf wrote a piece titled “Despite His Insistence, Kirk Minihane Does Not Seem Ready To Return To His Radio Show,” and Minihane bashed that as coming from “a biased, talentless asshole.”

Since then, Minihane’s continued to take some swipes at WEEI and other Boston media members. And now, it turns out he’s getting a new job, but one still within the Entercom (WEEI’s parent company) family. As per AllAccess.com, Minihane will be moving over to Entercom’s Radio.com, launching a column and a podcast in January, then a new national radio show with a new co-host.

The answer to the question of when Kirk Minihane would return to the air at Entercom Sports WEEI-F/BOSTON is that he will instead move to Entercom’s national Radio.com platform, where he will relaunch his column and podcast in January and will launch a new national daily radio show with a new co-host early in 2019. Minihane had been off the air from WEEI’s “Kirk and Callahan” morning show since suicidal thoughts led him to take time off to recover (NET NEWS 9/6), and in recent weeks, Minihane had complained on social media that he was ready to return but that the station was keeping him off the air.

“As an industry leader in compelling, proprietary content, Entercom is making sure Radio.com is populated with the very best programming available. Kirk Minihane fits this model perfectly,” said Entercom President of Programming Pat Paxton. “His ability to entertain and engage is second to none, and there is no question KIRK will become a highly successful national audio personality. He already conquered Boston. Now on to the rest of the world!”

“I’m extremely excited to return to the air and reach a national audience, with greater autonomy to focus on a variety of topics, and even more digital platforms to connect with my fans,” said Minihane. “It’s been awesome to be part of WEEI and I know Gerry (Callahan) and Mut (Mike Mutnansky, who has replaced Minihane on the WEEI show) will continue to put on a great show. I want to thank the listeners for their patience and loyalty over the past several weeks, and I can’t wait to get started on Radio.com.”

Minihane also did have some praise for Callahan on Twitter Thursday.

We’ll see how this new gig goes for Minihane, especially in regards to who his co-host will be and where and when his show will air (he did say he’ll “be on 11-2 every day soon“). But this is certainly an interesting resolution to the public drama here.

[AllAccess.com]

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20 Most Memorable Moments in WWE Survivor Series History

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Survivor Series is the second oldest World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view spectacular. It debuted in 1987 following the third WrestleMania and it became a tradition around American Thanksgiving. Some Survivor Series events took place on the actual Thursday Thanksgiving date, other years it was on Thanksgiving Eve on Wednesday, and then it settled in on Sunday like every other WWE PPV.

The concept of Survivor Series in the early days was unique, with teams of four or five people on one side facing off against their rivals in matches where you are eliminated. As the years went by, WWE has gone away from that. These days, the show is about Raw vs. Smackdown and this year’s show has three elimination matches to keep the tradition alive.

Survivor Series is also the event where some WWE legends made their debut. Names like The Undertaker (1990), The Rock as Rocky Maivia (1996), Kurt Angle (1999), and The Shield (2012) come to mind. Even the Gobbledy Gooker debuted at the 1990 Survivor Series.

What this article is about is a look at the 20 most memorable moments in the history of Survivor Series. The main reason this is about memorable moments is because if I did “greatest” moments, then some of the ones at the end of the list may not even be on here. With that in mind, the focus is on the moments that we think about the most during Survivor Series season.

A lot of the moments on here will focus on major WWF/E Championship moments because those are the things fans remember. As I put the list together, I realized that a lot of cheap heel wins have taken place at Survivor Series, which makes sense because it allows the faces to come back to get the titles back a few months later at WrestleMania. Let’s get to it.

20. Edge steals the WWE Title at Survivor Series 2008

If you followed the WWE product in the era of Vickie Guerrero and Edge as the top couple on Smackdown in the late 2000s, you know that there always changes that took place without any notice. The WWE Championship match at Survivor Series 2008 was supposed to be Triple H vs. Vladimir Kozlov in what was a slow-paced and boring match. However, Vickie brought back Edge to join the match (Edge was out for about three months after losing to Undertaker at SummerSlam 2008) and Edge ended up leaving with the WWE Title after Jeff Hardy showed up with a steel chair to attack everybody that was in his way.

It was a clever way to get the WWE Title onto Edge, who did a great job as an opportunistic heel that used people and capitalized on situations to become a very successful Hall of Fame wrestler.

19. The Undertaker wins his first WWF Championship thanks to Ric Flair at Survivor Series 1991

The Undertaker was in his second year in WWE as a 26-year-old that was on the rise and set up to face the WWF Champion Hulk Hogan in a match that was called “The Gravest Challenge.” The match saw The Undertaker, who was a heel at the time, become the WWF Champion when Ric Flair held a chair under the bottom rope and Undertaker hit Hogan with a Tombstone onto the chair. It didn’t even come close to hitting the chair, but that was the idea.

This match isn’t on here because it was a great match. Trust me, if you watch it again, you might fall asleep because of how boring it was. It’s here because of the names involved as well as the way the title changed hands. The title reign of The Undertaker didn’t last that long due to the controversy, but we will always remember his first time.

18. Mr. Fuji sets up a double turn at Survivor Series 1988

There weren’t a lot of great moments in the early years of Survivor Series, but the eight-year-old me will never forget Mr. Fuji’s evil actions at the second Survivor Series in 1988.

Mr. Fuji was the manager of the heel tag team Demolition, who were in a tag team elimination match. When Smash of Demolition ran the ropes, Fuji opened the ropes and Smash went crashing to the floor, which led to a countout loss. Smash and Ax yelled at Fuji about it, and Fuji told them he was the boss. They beat up Fuji with a body slam on the floor, which the crowd loved because the fans hated Fuji.

The match continued with Fuji helping the Powers of Pain (Warlord and Barbarian) get the win over Los Conquistadors and the Powers of Pain celebrated with Fuji. It was an example of how to effectively do a double turn with Demolition becoming faces and the Powers of Pain becoming heels all thanks to one of the best managers ever, Mr. Fuji. You can watch it on WWE.com here.

17. Sycho Sid ends the boyhood dream at Survivor Series 1996

The main event of Survivor Series 1996 saw Shawn Michaels defend the WWF Title against a former ally in Sycho Sid. The crowd in Madison Square Garden was rooting for Sid to win even though he was the heel and Michaels was the babyface champion. I thought the finish was clever with Shawn’s manager/mentor Jose Lothario getting hit by a camera from Sid. That distracted Michaels, so when there was a ref bump shortly after, Sid hit Michaels in the back with a camera. Fans cheered that too. Sid hit a Powerbomb and became the WWF Champion for the first time in his career. It was actually a pretty good match, which is rare for Sid, but also showed how awesome Michaels was to be able to carry Sid like that.

Years later, this match also provided us with this wonderful meme.

Another note about this match is that it was originally going to be Vader in this spot, but Michaels hated working with him (Vader had a rep for being too stiff in the ring), so Sid won his first WWF Title because of it. Vader passed away earlier this year, and Lothario also died about a week ago.

16. Bob Backlund beats Bret Hart for the WWF Title thanks to Owen Hart at Survivor Series 1994

The match was Bret defending the WWF Title against the crazy heel Bob Backlund, who was 45 years old and former WWF Champion. Owen was in Backlund’s corner while Bret had his brother-in-law the “British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith in his corner. After about 30 minutes, Davey chased Owen outside the ring, Owen moved, and Davey went face first into the steel steps. With Davey out of the way, Backlund applied his Crossface Chickenwing submission on Bret. Owen capitalized on the situation by trying to convince his parents Helen & Stu Hart to toss in the towel for Bret. Backlund had Hart in the hold for several minutes, so Helen eventually tossed in the towel even though Stu tried to stop it.

It’s not a great match and shouldn’t be remembered as such, but I thought it was a such a creative finish that fit Owen’s character perfectly. Backlund lost the WWF Title three days later when he dropped it to Diesel at a live event at Madison Square Garden. That’s the true definition of being a transitional champion.

15. Sheamus cashes in Money in the Bank on Roman Reigns at Survivor Series 2015

There’s only been one Money in the Bank cash-in at a Survivor Series, so I felt like it was worthy of being on this list. Roman Reigns beat Dean Ambrose to win the vacant WWE Championship and he celebrated for a few moments, but that celebration didn’t last long.

When Triple H walked out to the ring to congratulate Reigns, the new WWE Champion didn’t want anything to do with that and he hit a Spear on Hunter. When Reigns turned around, Sheamus showed up with a Brogue Kick followed by a Money in the Bank cash-in. Sheamus covered, only got a two count, and hit another Brogue Kick to win the WWE Title in less than one minute. It was good booking to screw over Reigns and when Reigns won the WWE Title again shortly after this, the fans did support him a lot more. It didn’t last, but I think this angle worked at least in the short term.

14. Goldberg beats Brock Lesnar in 1:26 at Survivor Series 2016

I was at this show in Toronto two years ago. I remember there were about 30 minutes until the top of the hour, so I was wondering how much time the 49-year-old Bill Goldberg would get for this match. Goldberg dominated the match with two Spears and a Jackhammer. Goldberg won the match officially in 1:26 much to the surprise of everybody watching. Lesnar dominated nearly every opponent he has been in the ring with this decade, yet here he was losing in under two minutes.

I thought Lesnar would win the match easily. There was just no way WWE was going to have him lose, right? Well, they did. Going into the show, Goldberg was only going to wrestle one match. However, WWE was so happy with the response to him, and he loved being back in the ring, that he agreed to do more. He ended up working the Royal Rumble, Fastlane (where he won the Universal Title), and then he lost the Universal Title back to Lesnar to end the feud.

13. Edge costing The Undertaker the World Championship inside Hell in a Cell at Survivor Series 2007

There’s only been one Hell in a Cell match at Survivor Series with Batista defending the World Title against The Undertaker in 2007. They wrestled several times that year and had great matches every time, so this match was considered the end of the rivalry between the two most popular guys on Smackdown.

It looked like The Undertaker was going to win at around the 20 minute mark when he hit a Tombstone on the steel steps. Just as he went to cover Batista, Edge (dressed as a camera guy) pulled the referee out of the ring. Edge took the camera and hit Undertaker in the head with it, and followed it up with a Conchairto chair shot with a chair to the steps into Undertaker’s head. Edge put Batista’s hand on Undertaker’s chest and the ref counted the pinfall to keep the title on Batista. We didn’t know it at the time, but it was the perfect way to set the stage for Edge vs. Undertaker at WrestleMania 24 about five months later.

12. Randy Savage got very upset with Hulk Hogan at Survivor Series 1988

Here’s another moment from Survivor Series 1988, which is hardly a great show, but at least they gave us some things to remember. The WWF Champion Randy Savage and good friend Hulk Hogan formed the Mega Powers team that main evented the show that year. It was a 4 on 2 advantage for the bad guys, but Savage and Hogan managed to eliminate Ted Dibiase, Big Boss Man, Akeem (the African Dream!), and Haku to win the 30 minute match.

The big story was what happened after the match. Hogan did his flexing routine that he always did after a big win and he picked up Savage’s manager Elizabeth, who was Savage’s real life wife at the time (their TV wedding was in 1991). When Savage saw Hogan holding Liz, Savage was furious and had an angry look on his face. Hogan had no idea that Savage was mad about it and that’s how the show went off the air.

It was a subtle way to tease what eventually happened between them. Savage attacked Hogan backstage a few months later and that set up the WrestleMania 5 main event between them. The build to that match was incredible and their actions at Survivor Series played a huge part in that.

11. Bret Hart ends the WWF Title reign of Diesel at Survivor Series 1995

This was one of my favorite matches in Survivor Series history because it was the end of Diesel’s boring reign as WWF Champion and everything felt right again with Bret Hart as the champ. The two things I’ll always remember are the big bump that Bret took and the creative finish.

The big bump happened when Bret was on the apron, Diesel charged at him and Bret bumped off the apron through a table at ringside. It was the biggest table bump in WWF history at the time. Years later, those things happened all the time, so credit them for being innovative.

The finish was great because they told the perfect story (no surprise in a Bret Hart match) with Diesel using his size to dominate most of the match. They went just under 25 minutes, and Diesel set up for the Powerbomb (his finisher) after the table spot. Hart collapsed to the mat, though, so it looked like he was done. When Diesel tried to pick him up again, Bret did a small package and got the pinfall win. The crowd loved it. Post match, Diesel was swearing in the ring, he hit Hart with a Powerbomb, and he beat up referees. It was a heel turn for Diesel after the title loss, and the whole thing was booked brilliantly. I recommend it if you haven’t watched it in a long time.

10. The best losing effort in an elimination tag match goes to Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series 2003

It’s tough to pick one Survivor Series elimination style match as the best of all time. The one that stands out to me is the Raw match from Survivor Series 2003 with Steve Austin’s team of faces facing Eric Bischoff’s heel squad. The reason it’s the best is because of the performance of Shawn Michaels, who was on Austin’s team.

The match was built around Michaels finding a way to survive as the last man on his team going up against Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, and Christian. It was Orton’s second year on the main roster and it was obvious that WWE had big plans for him as a main eventer, which he became less than a year later. Michaels eliminated Christian with Sweet Chin Music. Michaels managed to get rid of Jericho with a rollup counter to the Walls of Jericho, so Jericho hit him with a chair to the face. Michaels was a bloody mess after that. Bischoff kicked Michaels, so Steve Austin got rid of Bischoff and hit a Stunner on Orton. The fans were going crazy for this stuff. It looked like Michaels would win, but Batista came in through the crowd and hit a Powerbomb on Michaels, and Orton crawled over to cover for the win.

It’s an outstanding match thanks to Michaels, while also putting over Orton and Batista in a big way. It was a smart way to do the match because not only are you getting a great performance from Michaels, but it put over Orton and Batista as future top guys as well.

9. The Undertaker’s debut at Survivor Series 1990

Ted Dibiase introduced The Undertaker, managed by Brother Love, at Survivor Series 1990. Some of us knew The Undertaker as Mean Mark in WCW, but he didn’t get very far as that character. It was smart of WWE to sign the 25-year-old and give him a gimmick that would last nearly 30 years later. The Undertaker had a dominant performance, eliminating both Koko B Ware and Dusty Rhodes. Shortly after he got rid of Dusty, Undertaker was eliminated by countout, probably because WWE’s creative minds didn’t want him to take a pinfall loss, which is understandable.

The Undertaker’s actual debut was at a TV taping before this as “Cain The Undertaker” (watch it here if you want) although most of us had no idea about that at the time. Survivor Series 1990 is always going to be considered the show where he made his debut.

8. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin gets run over by a car at Survivor Series 1999

In the intro to this article, I mentioned why I didn’t call this the “greatest” moments in Survivor Series history is because there are a few things that happened that were memorable, but not great in terms of happy moments. This would fall into that category.

It was known at the time that Steve Austin had a serious neck injury, yet he was still advertised for a triple threat main event with WWF Champion Triple H and The Rock. During the show, Austin was shown in the parking lot when somebody hit him with a car and a stunt double took the bump for Austin. It was a way to write Austin out of storylines so he could have major neck surgery. Austin, who was the top guy in the WWF at the time, missed nearly one year of action because of the surgery. When he came back, Rikishi (“I DID IT FOR DA ROCK!”) was revealed as the driver, which was the company’s way of turning him heel. It should have been Triple H, who basically took the blame for it.

I don’t think anybody is ever going to forget this angle. Could it have been booked better in terms of the reveal and who it was? Absolutely. I’m sure WWE wishes they could go back to fix that.

7. The Rock beats Steve Austin to win for Team WWF at Survivor Series 2001

This is another candidate for best elimination match in Survivor Series history and probably the match that I would rank first. I know that some people frown upon it because WWE rushed through the Invasion angle way too quickly (it should have taken years, not six months), but if you watch the match again and listen to the crowd, it was such a huge moment in the company’s history.

There was a WWF face team with The Rock, The Undertaker, Chris Jericho, Kane, and Big Show taking on The Alliance (WCW and ECW) heel team of Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Shane McMahon, and Booker T. To nobody’s surprise, the match came down to Rock and Austin with Jericho trying to cost his team the win, but The Undertaker stopped that. After a crazy few minutes of action, Kurt Angle hit Austin in the head with the WWF Title much to the delight of that fans and Rock hit a Rock Bottom to pin Austin to give Team WWF the win. That led to a smiling Vince McMahon on the stage looking like a proud papa.

It’s such a fun match that was booked well with a very creative finish. The match holds up very well and at 45 minutes, it doesn’t feel that long either. I like this match a lot.

6. Sting finally shows up in a WWE ring at Survivor Series 2014

One of the biggest names in the history of pro wrestling finally made his WWE debut at Survivor Series 2014 when 54-year-old Sting showed up to confront Triple H. The former NWA/WCW legend spent most of the 2000s working for TNA/Impact Wrestling, but in 2014 he became part of WWE’s 2K video game series. When WWE officials heard the crowd response for the commercial for the game, they decided to bring him into the company.

The main event of Survivor Series 2014 with a Triple H-led Authority heel team taking on Team John Cena, which was trying to stop Triple H. It came down to Seth Rollins for the Authority team and Dolph Ziggler for the Cena team. Triple H got involved, hit Ziggler with a Pedigree, and shortly after that, Sting’s music it. The legendary Stinger walked down to the ring, fans chanted “this is awesome,” and Sting hit Hunter with a Scorpion Death Drop. Sting ended up putting Ziggler on top of Rollins to give Ziggler’s team the win. It was such a cool moment to see the Stinger finally in WWE, although we all wished it happened a decade or two earlier. Better late than ever, I guess.

The stipulation meant that Triple H and Stephanie were no longer in control of the company, but that only lasted a few weeks because this is WWE. They aren’t good at sticking to stipulations.

5. Bret Hart beats Steve Austin in the best match in Survivor Series history at Survivor Series 1996

The best match in Survivor Series history? I would go with Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin in 1996. I loved the build to it with Austin as a cocky heel that called out Bret Hart, who was off for about six months post-WrestleMania and returned to face Austin in this show at MSG.

The match was incredible with Austin wanting to prove he was on Hart’s level, while the veteran Hart was trying to show that he still had it. It was great that they were given 29 minutes to tell a story with so many different submission moves being used, a lot of believable nearfalls, and a clever finish. Austin had Hart trapped in the Million Dollar Dream sleeper, Hart walked towards the turnbuckle, pushed himself off against that, and covered Austin while he was on the hold, so Austin lost because he didn’t release the hold. It’s like what Bret did to beat Roddy Piper at WrestleMania 8.

This was the true breakout match for Austin. King of the Ring 1996 earlier in the year helped get his character over thanks to the infamous “Austin 3:16” promo, but it was this match that really elevated to that near main event level. They did the match again at WrestleMania 13 about five months later and that match was even better than this one. I rated both matches at five stars out of five on the five-star scale if you’re into that sort of thing. Go out of your way to watch this one before this year’s Survivor Series, because you’ll love it as much as I do.

4. The Shield’s debut at Survivor Series 2012

Here’s another example of a moment that nobody saw coming, yet looking back on it all I can do is smile about how brilliant it was.

CM Punk was the heel WWE Champion defending against two face rivals in perennial top guy John Cena and star on the rise, Ryback. The assumption was that Punk would retain, but we didn’t now how. After Ryback was about to win the match, the trio of Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Roman Reigns (later to be known as The Shield) showed up in all black attire. They attacked Ryback around ringside and gave him a three man Powerbomb through the announce table. All three guys were identified by announcer Michael Cole with most of us “smart” fans knowing Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose due to being indy wrestling stars under different names, but Reigns was mostly an unknown at that point.

While The Shield’s debut was legendary, I had a problem with the finish. Ryback hit Cena with the Shellshock finishing move and Cena just laid there for about three minutes while The Shield attacked. Earlier in the match, Cena kicked out of Punk’s GTS easily, yet he can’t move after Ryback’s finisher? I think another GTS from Punk should have happened for the finish. Instead, Punk just covered Cena and won. It’s still a very memorable moment. It would have been even cooler if it was booked better. Initially, the group was going to b aligned with Punk, but that was scrapped and they became their own entity.

3. Shawn Michaels wins the first Elimination Chamber and the World Title at Survivor Series 2002

It’s never easy to do the “first” of any match type, but if you’re going to do it then you might as well call on the man that was in the first Ladder Match in WWE history (on PPV anyway because there were taped ones) and the first Hell in a Cell match. That man was Shawn Michaels, who was wrestling in just his second match in four years since retiring (for the first time) due to back surgery.

The World Heavyweight Title, which was held by evil Triple H, was on the line in the Elimination Chamber match concept at Survivor Series 2002. In storyline, they said it was Raw GM Eric Bischoff’s idea, but it was Triple H’s idea along with other smart minds in the company. The others in the match were Chris Jericho, Rob Van Dam, Booker T, and Kane. Everybody watching at home knew it was really about Hunter and Shawn.

There was a scary moment in the match as RVD hit a Frog Splash off a pod onto Triple H in the ring, which led to RVD’s leg crushing the throat of Hunter. I don’t know how Triple H got through it, but he did and then he spent the night in the hospital due to the injury. After disposing of RVD, Booker, Kane, and Jericho in that order, it was down to Hunter and Shawn.

It was a very dramatic closing scene with a bloody Triple H (it only took him two minutes to blade in the match!) hitting a Pedigree and a slow cover that only got a two count. The crowd at MSG was so into this match. Michaels hit a back body drop to get out of a Pedigree attempt and Michaels hit the Sweet Chin Music superkick for the pinfall win. The match went 40 minutes and is arguably the best Elimination Chamber match in WWE history after 16 years of doing these matches regularly.

2. The Rock joins the McMahons to win the WWF Title at Survivor Series 1998

The 1998 Survivor Series pay-per-view is one of my favorite WWE shows ever. It’s not ranked that highly because of the match quality, and there are only one or two matches on there that are above average. The reason I rate it so highly is because of the story told throughout the night in the “Deadly Games” tournament for the vacant WWF Title. It looked like Mick Foley aka Mankind would be the hand-picked WWF Champion by Vince McMahon, but then in the finals, there was a major twist that most people didn’t see coming.

Before getting to the finals, it’s important to note that there was a big heel turn in the semifinals when Steve Austin was about to pin Mankind, but Shane McMahon showed up in a referee’s shirt to count the pin and just before the three count, Shane gave Austin the double middle fingers as if to say “f**k you, pal.” Mankind ended up winning after a chair shot to Austin’s head with Shane counting the pin.

In the main event, The Rock had the crowd behind him because he was a popular face for about two months going into this match. The fans just loved the guy. When Rock went to apply the Sharpshooter, Vince McMahon (who was at ringside with son Shane) told the timekeeper to ring the bell and The Rock was announced as the winner. It was a Survivor Series screwjob for the second year in a row.

The whole tournament was booked so well with other heels on the show “accidentally” helping Rock win matches leading up to the finals performance where Rock won thanks to Vince. It elevated Rock from young midcarder with a bright future to 26-year-old (youngest ever at that time) WWF Champion that the WWF could build around. The show ended with Austin going out there to seek revenge, which was a nice tease of their WrestleMania 15 main event match.

If you have never seen this show or haven’t watched in a while, give it another watch before this year’s Survivor Series. It was the kind of creative booking we all wish WWE could do on a consistent basis. At least they got it right 20 years ago.

1. Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels screw Bret Hart out of the WWF Title at Survivor Series 1997

Vince screwed Bret? Bret screwed Bret? It’s all up to you to decide what you believe, but if you are a fan of World Wrestling Entertainment, then you probably lean one way or the other on those questions. It’s an incident that is famously known as “The Montreal Screwjob” or simply the screwjob. If you mention Montreal to most WWE fans, I bet you that the first thing they’ll think of is Survivor Series 1997 because of what happened that night.

Bret Hart was the WWF Champion, and he was leaving the company to join WCW because Vince McMahon told him that he couldn’t afford to pay him anymore. Before Bret left, Vince wanted Bret to put over Shawn Michaels. The problem with that is that earlier that summer, Hart and Michaels got into a legit fight backstage where they had to be separated. Michaels was basically benched by the company for a month or two while Hart went on to win the WWF Title at SummerSlam 1997. Bret was reluctant to put over Michaels at Survivor Series because he didn’t want to lose in Canada (Bret is a Canadian hero) and also because Shawn said that he would never put over Bret, so that infuriated Bret. Since Bret had creative control in his WWF deal, he could nix Vince’s plans if he wanted.

As documented in the excellent Wrestling with Shadows documentary, the agreed upon planned finish was for something to happen where Bret’s allies Owen Hart (brother), British Bulldog, and Jim Neidhart (both brothers-in-law) would partake in a “schmozz” ending, meaning they all go in the ring leading to a disqualification. They would figure out the plan to drop the title on another note, perhaps on Raw in Ottawa or later down the road, and Bret was fine with it as long as it wasn’t Shawn.

The match between Bret and Shawn was pretty good for the 13 minutes that it took place. Vince McMahon showed up at ringside, which was rare because there was no reason for him to be out there. When Shawn Michaels went for Bret’s own Sharpshooter, referee Earl Hebner called for the bell while Vince McMahon told the timekeeper to “ring the f**king bell” and Michaels was awarded the WWF Title. Michaels acted like he had no idea what was happening, but years later he revealed that he knew. Bret was furious about it, turned to Vince, and spit right in his face. The show ended with Bret making “WCW” hand gestures and destroying monitors at ringside. Backstage after the show, Bret decked Vince with one punch and gave Vince a black eye.

I wrote a lot more about this story last year on the 20 year anniversary of the Montreal Screwjob including the backstage stories. To the people that think it was all some giant plan (or work as they say in wrestling), you are very wrong.

There have been many people over the years that have taken credit for the idea of who came up with it. I think only Vince McMahon can answer that question, but he’s not the type of guy to talk about that stuff publicly. Vince Russo, who was a WWF writer at the time, takes credit. Others have cited longtime WWE employee Gerald Brisco for it, and some people even credited Triple H. What I believe is that it was a team effort with Vince McMahon making the final call.

Here’s an interview with Bret talking about Survivor Series 1997 and saying he’ll never forget what happened. I can’t say I blame him either.

Looking back on it now, I think in hindsight they could have come up with something better than what actually happened. It took Bret over a decade to return to the company when in reality, he should have never worked for WCW. Bret could have been used a legend for a few more years and retired in his mid-40s. Instead, this incident became the moment that defined him even

As for Vince McMahon, he did what he had to do. He was paranoid about Bret possibly taking the WWF World Title to WCW and felt that he had to do whatever he could to prevent that from happening. That’s why they took the title off Bret that night. Could it have been handled differently? Absolutely, but in Vince’s eyes he had to do it that night and that they couldn’t wait to do it.

You could also say that this incident changed wrestling forever. Vince McMahon soon became the biggest heel in the wrestling business as the evil Mr. McMahon character and the fans became more passionate about the WWF product. Six months later, they passed WCW as the number one wrestling company in the world again. Without this incident, who knows if the WWF would have gained the kind of momentum needed to pass WCW in the Monday Night Wars.

My take is that Vince screwed Bret and he should have handled it differently. I understand why Vince did what he did, but he should have been more respectful to Bret, who was one of the most loyal employees he had for over a decade. Vince could have handled it better.

When it comes to Survivor Series, the first things any WWE fan is going to think about is Bret, Shawn, Vince, Montreal and 1997. That’s why it is the most memorable moment in Survivor Series history. Thanks for reading.

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Mike Tirico, Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison to call Thanksgiving Falcons-Saints game, following Emeril/Trombone Shorty pregame

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Mike Tirico, Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison on Football Night In America.

On Thanksgiving night, NBC’s studio crew will be headed to the broadcast booth. The network has the Falcons-Saints game next Thursday (with pre-game coverage starting at 8 p.m. Eastern, and the game itself starting around 8:20 p.m.), and they announced Thursday that it will be the Football Night In America cast of  Mike Tirico, Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison on the call. (Michele Tafoya retains her sideline reporter role, and “will award the traditional postgame turkey legs and game balls,” as per NBC’s release.) That’s a change from their Thanksgiving game last year, where it was usual Sunday Night Football announcers Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth. And NBC’s also doing some atypical pre-game coverage with a New Orleans flair:

New Orleans-based master chef Emeril Lagasse and famed voodoo rocker Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews headline NBC Sports’ show open for the Sunday Night Football “Thanksgiving Special” as the Atlanta Falcons visit the New Orleans Saints. Coverage begins next Thursday night, Nov. 22 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, with kickoff at 8:20 p.m. ET, from Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

…Set at Emeril’s New Orleans, the special show open is highlighted by Emeril setting the table for Falcons-Saints by creating NFL-themed fare that could only be part of a Thanksgiving feast in the Big Easy. And as dinner is being prepared, Trombone Shorty gets into the act with his distinctive brand of New Orleans music capped by his own rendition of the Sunday Night Football theme song backed by New Breed Brass Band.

“What better place to celebrate Thanksgiving than in a city that perpetually revels in food, family, and football,” Emeril said. “We’re so happy to be a part of this Thanksgiving special and bring our traditions home to you. Who Dat?!”

“To me, food and music are the heartbeats of New Orleans,” Trombone Shorty said. “To experience one of the best chefs in the world live and up close while he is creating his unique dishes and to be the soundtrack to that was really incredible.”

So that will certainly set the tone. But the more interesting part of this may be the studio cast heading into the broadcast booth. Tirico obviously has called plenty of NFL play-by-play, both at Monday Night Football during his ESPN days and on some Thursday and Sunday games since joining NBC, but Harrison and Dungy are newer to that role. (Dungy has worked the second half of the Hall of Fame Game for the last 4 years, so he has some experience there, but this still isn’t a regular thing for him.) And while both are experienced TV studio analysts at this point (both have been on FNIA since 2009), color commentary on a broadcast is quite different; there’s less time to prepare what you’re going to say, the expectation of chiming in more regularly, and often less chance to use particular video clips to make your points. We’ll see how they do on this one.

At any rate, Tirico, Dungy and Harrison should have a significant audience for this. Saints-Falcons is always a big rivalry, and with the Saints currently 8-1, there’s a fair bit on the line for them. (And while the 4-5 Falcons are unlikely to make the playoffs this year, they’d certainly love to dampen things for one of their rivals.) It should be a pretty great Thanksgiving night matchup. But we’ll see how the broadcast goes.

[NBC Sports Group Pressbox]

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DAZN pivots to Jamie Horowitz, who reportedly advised the company and John Skipper on their $300 million MLB deal

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The Jamie Horowitz Era at Fox Sports was full of sound, fury, and video content, ultimately signifying nothing. After bringing the “Embrace Debate” mantra to FS1, he infamously led the “pivot to video” movement that saw so many writers lose their jobs over statistics we later learned were pretty much bullshit. The Horowitz Era came to an abrupt end in July 2017 when he was fired in the midst of an investigation into sexual misconduct. Specifically, he was accused of trying to kiss one of his subordinates without consent and against her will.

Afterward, while Fox pushed forward with the remnants of Horowitz’s vision, the embattled former wunderkind denied the charges levied against him through his lawyer but has never publicly commented, explained, or apologized for any actions. So it comes as a bit of a surprise to some (and perhaps not a surprise at all to others) that Horowitz appears to have found a new high-profile gig a little over a year later.

It’s unclear exactly what kind of role Horowitz has with the rising sports media company. Without context, it’s not uncommon to see former executives pop up in advisory roles such as this for other companies given the experience and contacts he can provide. Of course, it’s impossible to set context aside in reality, because by all accounts the accusations against Horowitz have never been resolved or explained personally on his part. There’s a line of demarcation between how things worked before the #MeToo movement and how it works since, and powerful men accused of sexual assault can’t just jump back into cushy gigs without having to account for their alleged actions anymore.

Furthermore, DAZN’s Executive Chairman, former ESPN boss John Skipper, who has been front and center as the company has positioned itself as a real player in the coming sports media landscape, is presumably an “ally” to women who work for him. He was given the 2016 WISE Champion Award, meant to celebrate ‘a male executive who has championed women in the workplace.” According to Skipper’s colleague and friend, ESPN CFO and Executive Vice President Christine Driessen,  “John has created an environment at ESPN where groundbreaking and first-time opportunities for women and minorities are not a surprise but rather business as usual.”

Laura Wagner at Deadspin reached out to Skipper to get his side of the story, but he pushed her request to a DAZN spokesperson who didn’t immediately comment on the topic, rather focusing on the company’s MLB streaming deal that dropped Thursday. (That deal is reportedly for three years and $300 million, and is for a nightly highlights/whiparound show.) She then reached out to a Fox Sports spokeswoman after it was noted Fox Sports’ president Eric Shanks was buddy-buddy with Horowitz and got no-commented. Then, unprompted, Wagner says she received a letter from Horowitz’s lawyer Patricia Glaser threatening legal action over any “defamatory” allegations.

For now, it remains to be seen just what kind of capacity Horowitz is working with DAZN and what kind of relationship he has with his former employer. Given the nature of the allegations, you’d imagine that an upstart sports media company would want to avoid any kind of potentially bad PR it can avoid, but then again a quick scan of DAZN’s key executives reveals a room full of dudes. Perhaps the more things change, the more they still stay the same.

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ESPN’s Michael Wilbon goes off on Jacob deGrom’s Cy Young, ranting “I value winning the damn game more than the ERA!”

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Michael Wilbon weighing in on Jacob deGrom.

The almost-unanimous (29 of 30 votes) selection of Mets’ pitcher Jacob deGrom as the recipient of the 2018 NL CY Young award has rattled some feathers amongst the traditionalist “Pitchers are evaluated by wins and losses!” folk, as deGrom posted a 10-9 record thanks to the Mets’ struggles (but had a 1.70 ERA, a 1.98 FIP, and a 216 ERA+). And one of the media personalities most annoyed about this appears to be Pardon The Interruption co-host Michael Wilbon (known for some hot takes), who went on a remarkable rant about it on that show Thursday:

“You know, Tony, I’m not with these people. I don’t respect their judgment, actually, because I don’t value what they value. I value winning the damn game more than the ERA! And therefore, it is analytical hijacking. These people have hijacked baseball, they want to impose their will and tell you what’s important. I don’t share most of, maybe none of, their values, and it’s absurd.”

Congratulations on being The Last Angry (About W-L Records) Man, Mike. This is just yet more proof that the 59-year-old Wilbon is in full “get off my lawn” mode these days.

[Amy on Twitter]

The post ESPN’s Michael Wilbon goes off on Jacob deGrom’s Cy Young, ranting “I value winning the damn game more than the ERA!” appeared first on Awful Announcing.

Roanoke Times and reporter Andy Bitter settle lawsuits over Twitter account he took with him to The Athletic

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Andy Bitter's Twitter account.

The Athletic’s impressive additions of writers, experts, and local reporters over the last few years have drained many newspapers of some of their top talent. That was always part of the plan, but you can’t blame local outlets for wanting to hold on to whatever they can in the fight to remain relevant and in business. That includes not just actual reporters, but also intellectual property they feel belongs to them.

That was what was at the heart of a lawsuit filed by BH Media Group, owner of the Roanoke Times, in August. The company wasn’t suing The Athletic for snagging Virginia Tech beat reporter Andy Bitter from them, but rather they were suing Bitter himself over ownership of the @AndyBitterVT Twitter account and its followers.

According to the lawsuit, Bitter had inherited the handle from previous Roanoke Times reporter Kyle Tucker and had acknowledged at the time that the company maintained ownership over the handle. The account had since accumulated over 27,000 followers from Bitter and his predecessor’s reporting and coverage. According to the lawsuit, BH Media said it would take them $150,000 and seven years (which just so happens to be how long Bitter was with the paper) for a new reporter to create a similar Twitter account with the same number of followers.

Bitter countersued later that month, alleging defamation and asking for $150,000 in damages. In his suit, Bitter noted that Tucker was contacted by the Roanoke Times to sign a sworn statement backing up their account of the situation, which he did not do.

Can a separate company “own” a username on a different company’s platform? And does it have the right to tell an employee to give it up when they leave the company even though they have been the one in charge of it the whole time? It also made a lot of reporters wonder if they needed to rethink the way they disseminated information on social media. Would you have to get an entirely new Twitter handle every time you change employers? What if you started the Twitter handle first, then joined a company, but later left for a rival company. Does that original employer have any rights to the account?

All of these questions and more were swirling around the outcome. The decision would echo through the halls of media companies across the nation. And in the end, that outcome was revealed to be…let’s just forget about it and move on.

“The Roanoke Times and I have agreed to drop our claims against each other and get on with our lives. I’ll continue to tweet from my account as I always have since I started covering Virginia Tech. If you’re inclined, consider following my successor at the Roanoke Times, Mike Niziolek, at @VTSportsRT. I look forward to continuing to report Virginia Tech football for The Athletic.”

It looks like Bitter just needed to give his replacement a #FF (on a Thursday) and that was that. Cooler heads prevailed and it looks like that murky grey legal area between social media, reporters, and their media companies will remain just that for the foreseeable future.

[Andy Bitter]

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