It’s Friday and it’s the day when the contracts for WEEI’s John Dennis and Gerry Callahan expire. So what happens now? Today, it was Bob Halloran and Steve Burton co-hosting in D&C’s place. Will Dennis and Callahan return on Monday in time for the first regular season Patriots Monday? Or will we hear another rotation of substitute co-hosts? Your guess is as good as mine. Dave Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch speculates on life without D&C for WEEI.
Let’s get to some other links, shall we? Today is megalink day so without further delay, here we go.
USA Today’s Michael Hiestand has a story on NBC’s Tiki Barber breaking an unwritten TV analyst’s rule which is not to criticize your old coach.
Normally I go from East Coast to West Coast, but today, I’ll go the other way, West to East this morning.
Starting with the Los Angeles market, Larry Stewart of the Times is back to writing two stories on Fridays. His first is on the networks pulling out all the stops for the NFL season. Story #2 is on Tiki Barber taking shots at his old team, the New York Football Giants.
In the LA Daily News, Tom Hoffarth discusses some issues with each of the four TV networks televising the NFL this Sunday. He reports that tomorrow’s UCLA-BYU game will be on the barely seen Versus. And in his Farther Off the Wall blog, Hoffarth says the LA Kings-Anaheim Ducks game will be picked up by FSN Prime Ticket.
The Ventura County Star’s Jim Carlisle writes about the networks shuffling their various NFL announcing and studio lineups.
John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News says Bay Area fans can rest assured now. The Raiders game on Sunday will be televised locally.
John Maffei of the North County Times talks with Fox’ Troy Aikman about his former offensive coordinator, Norv Turner who’s now the coach of the San Diego Chargers.
Jay Posner in today’s San Diego Union-Tribune also talks to Aikman who says he won’t pull punches on Turner on Sunday’s game against the Bears (which will be on Fox at 4:15 p.m. ET).
David Barron who announced this week that he’ll be doing less work on the sports media beat for the Houston Chronicle, has a story on the Austin CBS affiliate deciding to air the Tennessee-Jacksonville game over the Texas opener against the Chiefs.
Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News says the Spurs have announced their TV schedule.
Judd Zulgad of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune writes that Timberwolves radio announcer Brian Sieman got an offer he couldn’t refuse and accepted the LA Clippers job.
In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bob Wolfey discusses the great Brett Favre with the great Emmitt Smith who joins ESPN this season.
From the Chicago Tribune, Teddy Greenstein writes about the Dish Network signing with the Big Ten Network.
Dave Darling in the Orlando Sentinel is not a fan of the NFL Thursday opener.
Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes that Joe Rose is ready to join Jimmy Cefalo and Jim Mandich in the Dolphins’ radio booth.
The State’s Doug Nye says DirecTV and the NFL are directly snubbing cable TV customers. And Nye has his TV notes for this weekend.
Laura Nachman of the Bucks County Courier Times has your primer for Eagles programming this season.
In the New York Daily News, Bob Raissman says NBC is hoping Tiki Barber will give the “Football Night in America” show some heat.
The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick says SNY’s Keith Hernandez should stop drawing attention to himself. The Post’s Justin Terranova talks with NBC’s John Madden about the Giants’ Eli Manning. And Terranova has five questions for CBS’ Phil Simms.
To Canada and Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star who warns readers that they may have to pay more to watch their beloved Maple Leafs.
In the Toronto Globe and Mail, William Houston reports that CBC will have a daily Hockey Night in Canada show on Sirius Satellite Radio. And in Houston’s regular media column, he says rugby and women’s soccer will vie for Canadian viewers’ attention.
And here’s the CBC/Sirius story from CBC Sports.
Those are your links for now.
