This being a holiday week, posting will be to a minimum. I don’t expect to be posting on Christmas Day so I’ll have the Christmas Primetime Viewing Picks coming later tonight. Let’s get to the links now.
Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times writes about ESPN and Yahoo! poaching newspapers and magazines to hire prominent sportswriters for their respective sites. And Felix Salmon of the Conde Nast Portfolio.com site has reaction to the article.
Michael Hiestand of USA Today writes that there will be plenty of pregame hype of the Patriots-Giants game this Saturday as the NFL Network also attempts to get the game on a wider distribution.
CNBC’s Darren Rovell has two good gift ideas for children in the final hours of the Christmas shopping season.
Phil Mushnick in today’s New York Post comes out swinging at Bryant Gumbel.
Last night, Newsday’s Neil Best blogged as soon as NBC and the NFL announced that next Sunday’s primetime game would be Tennessee at Indianapolis, once a 1 p.m. ET game, now forcing fans who bought tickets to stay up late. And Neil says he’ll be rooting against Alabama coach Nick Saban on Christmas Day.
Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes in his Farther Off the Wall blog about the Final Flex game for NBC’s Sunday Night Football.
Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says he should consider CBC’s Coach’s Corner segment on Hockey Night in Canada as a comedy act instead of serious analysis. And Zelkovich has his Good, Bad and the Ugly feature.
Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe writes in his Reiss’s Pieces Patriots blog about Senator John Kerry writing another letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in hopes of getting the Pats-Giants game to a wider audience. Matthew Hay Brown of the Tribune newspapers’ “The Swamp” blog covering DC, says Kerry will call for Congressional hearings unless the Pats-Giants game is placed on NBC. There’s a threat for you.
Mike Sullivan of the Portsmouth (NH) Herald News reports that local TV station, WMUR will also carry the Pats-Giants game this Saturday in addition to Boston station, WCVB. Here’s the announcement from WMUR itself. MSNBC’s Mike Celizic says it’s too bad most of you won’t be able to see this Saturday’s game.
Jeremy Muck of the Pine Bluff (AR) Commercial says Cowboys fans in Arkansas were not able to watch Saturday’s game against the Panthers on the NFL Network.
Gil LeBreton of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram warns readers to be ready for plenty of T.O. TV this week as the media covers Terrell Owens’ ankle injury ad nauseum.
Greg Johnson and Larry Stewart have teamed up on an article for the Los Angeles Times on UCLA and USC shoveling more sporting events online to feed their fans’ growing viewing appetite.
Dusty Saunders writes in the Rocky Mountain News about NBC’s efforts to broadcast the NHL Winter Classic on New Year’s Day.
That will do it for now.
