With this being Patriots Day in Massachusetts and Maine, it’s time to give some links. It’s a day off for some in Massachusetts and Boston has the Marathon plus the 11 a.m. Red Sox game. Both of which are traditions I have come to enjoy.
Some interesting links today. We start with John Ourand and Michael Smith of Sports Business Journal who report that ESPN and the Big East Conference are talking contract extension a year before renewal talks were to begin.
John and David Broughton of the Sports Business Journal note that the Pittsburgh Penguins are on top of the local NHL TV ratings heap.
Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy crunches the NHL’s local TV numbers.
Sports Illustrated’s Peter King in his Monday Morning Quarterback column has some interesting sports media notes. One, he talks with NFL Films President Steve Sabol about his treatment for a brain tumor. Steve is touched by the outreach of support from you.
Next, Peter talks with ESPN’s Jon Gruden about several quarterback prospects and yes, there’s even a “this guy” quote.
Also, Peter takes NFL Network to task for making Bob Papa audition for the job he currently has.
And if you would rather see the entire MMQB column on one page instead of clicking through five pages, you can go here.
Michael Hiestand of USA Today speaks with TNT’s Reggie Miller about his former broadcast partner Doug Collins and his own front office aspirations.
Hiestands notes the very good overnight ratings for six of the eight NBA playoff games over the weekend.
Tom Weir of USA Today says Michael Strahan will get his first opportunity to guest host for Regis Philbin tomorrow on “Live with Regis & Kelly”.
USA Today and Tennis Channel have announced a new online feature that will run exclusively on USAToday.com.
ESPN has published the list of announcers and analysts who have endorsement deals. A couple of names noticeably absent are Chris Berman who has deals with Applebees and Nutrisystem and Chris Fowler who has one with Nike.
ESPN Executive Vice President for Production, Norby Williamson wrote the new endorsement guidelines and they were posted on ESPN’s Front Row.
Marisa Guthrie of the Hollywood Reporter says the NBA Playoffs took ratings away from primetime on Sunday.
Jon Lafayette of Broadcasting & Cable advises you to enjoy the NBA while you can before the inevitable lockout occurs in the summer.
Tom Conroy of Media Life Magazine reviews the new “Sports Show with Norm Macdonald”.
Marc Watts of the new Sports PR Blog which is headed by Pro Sports Communications lists the top five NBA television analysts.
CNBC’s Darren Rovell gives us his observations about purposely staying away from Twitter for just under a week.
Darren has estimates of fan attendance at various spring college football games.
Craig Calcaterra from Hardball Talk has a picture of ESPN’s Wendi Nix trying to get some answers from Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington.
At Deadline, the mysterious Nikki Finke wonders if it’s time to end live sports TV coverage to prevent occasional swear words from slipping through the cracks. It doesn’t happen all of the time and sports fans won’t stand for delays.
Glen Johnson of the Boston Globe says Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown visited the NESN booth today and said other members of Congress are jealous of the Bay State’s sports teams.
From Claire Atkinson of the New York Post, there’s a power struggle between NBC Sports Emperor Dick Ebersol and NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke over the bid for the 2014/2016 Olympics and don’t forget bids are due in a month in a half.
Also from the Post, Phil Mushnick is amazed that an MLB team used common sense.
In the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg notes that Capitals coach used a radio appearance to insult the venerable Madison Square Garden.
Dan says the Capitals’ TV ratings are far outpacing the Wizards’.
Doug Miles of the Tampa Bay Examiner wants to know why NBC dumped coverage of golf on Sunday in favor of the NHL.
Tom Jones at the St. Petersburg Times reviews the weekend that was on sports television.
The Tennessean notes that ESPN has set the date and time for this year’s Music City Bowl.
In the Houston Chronicle, David Barron says he’s going to be away for a couple of weeks.
Tom Brew of the Indianapolis Star says Chris Denari, the TV voice of the Indiana Pacers, will finally get to call his first NBA Playoff game this week.
At Crain’s Chicago Business, Ed Sherman talks with ESPN’s Michael Wilbon about making a move back to the Windy City.
Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post loved the opening weekend of the NBA Playoffs.
Tom Hoffarth at the Los Angeles Daily News has the Southern California sports calendar for this week.
Randy Starkman of the Toronto Star does not like Canada’s public funding for CBC when Don Cherry makes fun of concussions.
Raju Mudhar of the Star talks with the new head of CBC Sports.
Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail wonders if TSN had not paid close scrutiny to an uncalled penalty, would a suspension have followed?
To the Canadian Sports Media Blog where it also tackles the controversial concussion comments by Don Cherry on Saturday.
Over to Steve Lepore at Puck The Media who says NBC did not get the job done by not producing a clear-cut replay during yesterday’s Washington Capitals-New York Rangers game during a goal review.
Steve also looks at the local ratings for this weekend’s NHL on NBC double dip.
Mocksession, headed up by the great Timothy Burke a.k.a. @bubbaprog, has a comparison of Bobby Valentine’s and Marv Albert’s very similar hairstyles. Thanks to The Big Lead for the link.
Sports Media Watch says TNT’s NBA tripleheader really did well on Sunday.
And this is where we’ll end it for now.
