It’s the early evening on the East Coast, but I do have time to bring you some linkage. Lots of stuff to get to.
We’ll begin with John Ourand of Sports Business Journal who reviews ESPN’s new NFL studio shows which came as a result of its new Monday Night Football $2 billion rights fee.
Michael Hiestand of USA Today notes that the NFL has put the Detroit Lions in the Week 13 Sunday night window in place of the lowly Indianapolis Colts.
Michael talks with ESPN College GameDay’s Lee Corso who threw an “F” bomb on Saturday’s show.
Sports Illustrated’s Grand Wahl says ESPN is removing John Harkes as its main soccer analyst and also looks at the moves NBC and Fox Soccer will make for next year.
Michael O’Connor at the Hollywood Reporter notes that Sunday Night Football on NBC drew modest ratings over the American Music Awards on ABC.
Dan Hirschhorn of Advertising Age says Spike TV is looking to stay in the mixed martial arts arena despite losing UFC to Fox.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes that NFL Commish Roger Goodell is considering starting the Sunday Night flex earlier in the season.
Dave Scott from ESPN’s Front Row has a recap of the best tweets from the weekend regarding some ESPN broadcasts.
Barry Janoff at The Big Lead speaks with officials from NBC Sports and the NHL about the new Black Friday game that both companies hope will become a tradition like the NHL Winter Classic.
CNN’s Howard Kurtz speaks with Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News reporter Sarah Ganim about breaking stories on the Penn State scandal.
Glenn Davis of SportsGrid has video of Cris Collinsworth saying what we were all thinking when a promo for the new edition of Fear Factor popped up during Sunday Night Football.
Sports Video Group looks at the numbers for NASCAR.com’s RaceBuddy feature for the Sprint Cup.
In SBNation Boston, Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch looks back at a busy week in local sports media.
Phil Mushnick of the New York Post wants ESPN to stop with the crowd cutaways on its college football broadcasts.
Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call notes that WFAN’s Mike Francesa wasn’t happy with Philadelphia Eagles’ running back Desean Jackson.
The Baltimore Sun’s David Zurawik could no longer stand listening to CBS’ Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf and decided to listen to the Ravens Radio Network.
Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has some amusing exchanges between DC NFL team radio announcers Larry Michael, Sam Huff and Sonny Jorgensen during yesterday’s Dallas-Washington game.
Pat Dooley of the Gainesville (FL) Sun has ESPN college football analyst Urban Meyer denying reports that he interviewed for the Ohio State coaching job.
Sad news from Georgia as legendary Georgia Bulldogs football announcer Larry Munson died Sunday at the age of 89. Munson had retired a couple of years ago after numerous health problems, but is still revered by UGA fans. Munson had began as Voice of the Bulldogs in 1966 and remained until 2008. To many, he typified the love for college football in the South. Some of his calls were homerish, but Munson truly bled Georgia football. Fans loved him for it. But he could be fair as well.
Munson not only called the Bulldogs football team, he called the Atlanta Braves, the Falcons, and the Georgia basketball program.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an obituary written mainly by former staffer Tony Barnhart and Chip Towers.
Towers says Munson’s calls are forever linked with the players.
The AJC’s Mark Bradley says Munson will never be forgotten among Bulldog fans.
The AJC has reaction from fellow broadcasters to Munson’s passing.
Atlanta TV station WSB has a special section devoted to Munson.
In the Athens (GA) Banner-Herald, Marc Weiszer says Munson’s voice has finally been silenced.
The Banner-Herald’s Andrea Griffth conducted a video interview with Munson about his career.
And here are the raw unedited interviews between Ms. Griffith and Munson.
If you’re not from the South and don’t understand the love for college football, try to think about the love for your local team and multiply it by 1,000,000 and you’ll see the passion for the sport. Munson was part of that passion that remains today.
David Barron from the Houston Chronicle has some local overnight ratings from college football and the MLS Cup.
Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown crew wondered if Green Bay could go perfect this season.
Bob notes that NBC’s Tony Dungy feels the Packers are vulnerable.
Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post talks about Bob Costas’ interview with Jerry Sandusky.
Rob Davis from the Voice of San Diego writes about some interesting changes coming to the San Diego Union-Tribune sports section.
Tom Hoffarth at the Los Angeles Daily News has the sports calendar for this week.
Bob’s Blitz has video of ESPN’s Erin Andrews getting the Gatorade bath after the Oklahoma-Baylor game and her reaction afterwards.
Tony Manfred at the Business Insider Sports Page has the programming ESPN is using to replace NBA games in December.
And that will do it for us.
