Fang's Bites

Dana Jacobsen Leaves ESPN

This is developing this evening. First, The Big Lead and SportsbyBrooks both learned that long-time ESPN’er Dana Jacobsen is leaving the network. Dana first joined ESPNews in 2002 then in 2005 became a co-host of ESPN2′s morning show, called Cold Pizza produced in New York, then First Take produced out of Bristol, CT.

At the end of last year, Dana announced that she was leaving First Take to pursue different opportunities at ESPN which included co-anchoring SportsCenter and subbing on the daily edition of Outside the Lines.

Breaking News:I’m leaving @ESPN_FirstTake! Last day, Friday.Ready 2 get back 2 intvws/breakin news.SportsCenter/other shows here I come! : )

— Dana Jacobson (@djacobsonespn) December 26, 2011

But today, it was learned that Jacobsen has left ESPN and it’s speculated that she could be joining NFL Network as a host.

ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys put out this 23 word tweet confirming that Dana has left the Alleged Worldwide Leader.

ESPN offered Dana Jacobson an extension and she decided to pursue new opportunities. Thanks for 10 years and we wish her the best.

— Mike Soltys (@espnmikes) March 28, 2012

Jacobsen becomes the first of this year’s free agent crop to leave ESPN. The network still has to sign Scott Van Pelt, Erin Andrews and Michelle Beadle.

Some thoughts on this will come later tonight.

A Friday Night Update Just for You

Time for some links tonight.

Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated gives his Media Power Rankings for January. Paul Zimmerman gives his annual NFL TV Commentator ratings and he jabs Ron Jaworski and Tony Kornheiser for their work on Monday Night Football. And SI picks up an Associated Press profile of Duquense basketball announcer Ray Goss who’s been on the job for 40 years.

Doug Nye of The State tells us that there are a bunch of significant 50th anniversaries in sports that will be touched upon either by ESPN or other sports networks.

Paul Christian of the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin has a story about FSN North’s extensive production for Hockey Day in Minnesota tomorrow.

Neil Best of Newsday says covering Super Bowl XLII was an unexpected pleasure. Also from Newsday, Mark Herrmann has a story about Dick Enberg’s play about the late Al McGuire.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer talks with Cris Collinsworth who says he was shocked to find out HBO was dumping Inside the NFL.

Rob Pegoraro of the Washington Post blogs that it appears that MASN will carry at least 60 Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals games in HD this season. And Phil Swann of the TV Predictions website goes further into detail about the story.

The Chicago Daily Herald says Comcast SportsNet will remember the late Cubs announcer Harry Carey with a full day of programming on February 18.

Laith Agha of the San Jose Mercury News writes that producing golf can sometimes become a circus for the CBS Sports PGA unit at Pebble Beach this weekend. Dennis Taylor of the Monterey County (CA) Herald caught up with NBC’s Al Michaels who’s playing at Pebble Beach in the AT&T Pro-Am.

Michael David Smith of the AOL Fanhouse Blog wonders if in the wake of the rumors of Microsoft buying Yahoo, would the company would sell its sports unit to let’s say, ESPN?

Luke Decock of the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer writes about a new five year deal between FSN South and the Carolina Hurricanes. And Decock went behind the scenes with FSN South during one particular Hurricane game.

The Tennis-X blog tells us that ESPN2 is dropping the Indian Wells and Miami tennis tournaments while FSN will pick them up.

More fuel to the Dana Jacobsen fire. Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis says he was offended at Jacobsen’s remarks during the Mike & Mike roast in Atlantic City last month.

Broadcasting & Cable reports that WWE Smackdown is leaving the CW after this season.

A couple of things from Multichannel News. Mike Reynolds reports that TNT is doing a promotion with 162 pizzerias in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Boston to hype the NBA All Star Game. And Reynolds writes that Versus and Tennis Channel have teamed up to televise the Davis Cup this weekend.

Sergio Ibarra of TV Week lists the national sports ratings for the week ending February 3. Also from TV Week, Daisy Whitney says MySpace’s Super Bowl ads section is very popular.

Fox Sports is getting ready for another NASCAR season. Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun looks into NASCAR on Fox and other things in his Medium Well blog.

CBS Sports will cover two college basketball games this weekend.

Former Fox NFL analyst Bill Maas and his girlfriend will serve two years probation stemming from gun and drug charges during a routine traffic stop in Peoria, IL last year.

Former CBS Sports host and current host of The Insider, Pat O’Brien is back in rehab.

You have a lot of links to look through. Enjoy. I’ll be back Saturday with a few more links.

It’s a Thursday Link Thang

Let’s give you some links today.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette writes about Dick Vitale’s return and his use of a Massachusetts General Hospital throat specialist for his vocal cord surgery. Rhiannon Potkey of the Salt Lake Tribune also writes about the return of Dickie V.

Emily Steel of the Wall Street Journal says CBS and the social networking site Facebook have teamed up so fans can share their brackets for the NCAA Tournament. Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel also has a story about the CBS/Facebook cross-promotion. And Walker says FSN Wisconsin and the Brewers have announced a 150 game TV schedule for this season.

Fred Girard of the Detroit News reports about former All Star pitcher and Tigers announcer Lary Sorensen being arrested on drunk driving charges over the weekend.

KPNX-TV reporter Joe Dana writes for the Arizona Republic about how he managed to get into the Manning family suite at University of Phoenix Stadium to see the winning touchdown at the Super Bowl.

The BBC’s Assistant Editor of TV Sport (I love how the Brits have creative job titles) Ron Chakraborty talks about the network’s decision to carry the world feed of the Super Bowl instead of Fox’s coverage.

Jeffrey Flanagan of the Kansas City Star has a story about last night’s series finale of Inside the NFL. Newsday’s Neil Best writes about Inside the NFL as well.

Robert Howes of the Old Colony Memorial and Plymouth (MA) Bulletin has a profile of Cris Carter, most recently of Inside the NFL and coach of his son’s football team.

Phil Sheridan of the Philadelphia Inquirer talks about watching National Signing Day coverage yesterday.

The Chicago Tribune’s Ed Sherman writes about White Sox TV voice Ken “Hawk” Harrelson signing a new three year contract extension to keep him in the booth through the 2011 season.

David Barron in the Houston Chronicle has some sports notes in his general TV column today. You’ll have to scroll down.

The Boston Herald’s Jessica Heslam reports that Channel 7 in Boston has hired former Miss Florida USA Julie Donaldson to its sports staff. Her picture in the story is quite stunning.

I guess the Christian Anti-Defamation Coalition is not done with the Dana Jacobsen story because it plans to protest ESPN once again next week.

That will do it for now.

The Thursday Link Thing

Time to give you some links today.

The Worcester Telegram’s Bill Doyle says Fox Sports’ Joe Buck and Troy Aikman have been boning up on the Patriots the last two weeks.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman says Fox is ready to cover the Super Bowl from every angle. Bracht also has his weekly media notebook. And here are his viewing picks for the weekend.

Neil Best of Newsday writes about his meeting with WFAN’s Craig Carton. Neil also sampled the new G2 drink being pushed by Gatorade. Neil has a column today talking about Fox’s unconventional Super Bowl pregame show.

Bill Goodykoontz of the Arizona Republic talks with Will Leitch of Deadspin. Also from the Republic, Scott Wong writes about the exclusive sponsors of the NFL seeing some big bucks this week.

Chad Jorgenson of Tailgate Crashers.com recaps the Fox Sports Super Bowl conference call from Wednesday.

Mike Mitchell of the Naperville (IL) Sun says if you’re bored with the Big Game, there’s always the commercials. Stuart Elliot of the New York Times previews this year’s Super Bowl ads.

The lovely Jessica Heslam from the Boston Herald talks about the battle between the Boston TV stations at the Super Bowl.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner writes that WBAL has renewed the radio rights for the Baltimore Ravens and that the radio team will simulcast preseason games on TV.

Jeff Richgels of the Capital (WI) Times writes that there is no clear cut winner in the Big Ten/NFL Network vs. Charter battle.

The Right Field Bleachers blog talks with new FSN Wisconsin reporter Trenni Kusnierek who comes home after being on FSN Pittsburgh.

The New York Times’ Charles Bagli with contributions from Richard Sandomir writes about Major League Baseball planning to build a new office tower in Harlem for its MLB Network which will debut next year.

Laura Nachman says sports radio station WPEN will not have the Tony Bruno show from Sporting News Radio any more.

ESPN has announced the lineup for the 2008 Big East/SEC Invitational.

Gary Cass, the chairman of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, jumps on the Dana Jacobsen bashing train in the New York Metro.

Guard Parfait Bitee from my 18-3 URI Rams will be part of an ESPN chat today.

Rich Hoffman of the Philadelphia Daily News talks to Flyers owner Ed Snider who praises NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and says, “Screw ESPN.”

Dan Patrick’s website has relaunched today as part of the Sports Illustrated network.

Cleeve Dheenshaw of the Victoria (Canada) Times Colonist says the proposed Canadian Olympic Committee amateur sports channel is an idea whose time has come.

That’s it for now.

It’s a Wednesday Night Update

Checking out the links for you tonight.

Newsday’s Neil Best wonders how Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer got his hands on the Patriots’ Spygate tape. Neil has some ammunition for Patriots fans. He writes that Fox’s Joe Buck has done a whole slew of Giants games this season while not doing a single Pats game. Neil says ESPN’s Dick Vitale will return to work next week during the Duke-North Carolina game.

The New York Post’s Justin Terranova writes in his NYP TV Sports blog that WFAN’s Mike & the Mad Dog were correct today when they said the Mets need to sign Johan Santana.

The Sports Media Watch tells us that the NBA is a prime target for advertisers.

John Consoli of Mediaweek says Fox will take in a total of $260 million in ad revenue for Super Bowl Sunday.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News tells us that the Big Ten Network has signed an agreement with Massillon Cable in Ohio.

The Hillsdale (MI) Daily News reports that Comcast has moved ESPN from the limited basic tier.

An editorial in Thursday’s Hartford Courant calls for forgiveness for ESPN’s Dana Jacobsen.

Thomas Harding of MLB.com writes that the Colorado Rockies will have its first nationally televised regular season game on ESPN in six years.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail writes that CTV is really promoting the Super Bowl in its first year as an NFL rights holder. CTV has its own Super Bowl website.

That will do it for tonight. See you on Thursday.

Another Late Tuesday Night Update

I just can’t seem to stop blogging today.

By the way, I’ve been watching the re-broadcast of Super Bowl XXXVI, the game which started the Patriots Dynasty. Besides seeing what is in essence the start of the Patriots’ rise in the NFL over the last 7 years, the highlight for me was watching the performance of U2 in the halftime show. To me, it’s the best musical performance in a Super Bowl ever. I’ve seen most of them including Up with People, the creepy Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Janet Jackson (who didn’t see that?), Paul McCartney, etc., etc., etc. The banner of those who died in 9/11 was emotional just seeing it unfurl over the stage and all of the songs from Beautiful Day to The Streets Have No Name were done brilliantly. It was tremendous to watch.

If you missed any part of Super Bowl Media Day, you can read the live blog done by SI.com which includes the comments of Richard Deitsch.

Steven Zeitchik of the Hollywood Reporter writes that cable will have plenty of options for you to watch opposite the Super Bowl halftime show.

The Daily News Tribune (MA) reports that a church in Pembroke, MA will not air the Super Bowl on a 55 inch TV screen as planned due to potential copyright violations. No NFL game can be aired in public on a screen larger than 50 inches. This is true. And a very silly rule.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that the NHL All Star Game on Versus saw a slight uptick in the ratings as compared to last year.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail reports that a proposed CBC amateur sports channel in Canada faces several hurdles including objections from TSN and Rogers Sportsnet.

Joe Favorito has some thoughts on the Kelly Tilghman, Dana Jacobsen and Rick Majerus incidents.

Awful Announcing has a look at funny censorship over at Foxsports.com.

The 38Cliches blog laments the end of the Glenn Geffner era in Boston (kidding!).

CBS Sports gives us a preview of the PGA FBR Open which it will cover this weekend. And CBS tells us what college basketball games it’ll be airing.

Here’s ESPN’s press release on its partnership with Domino’s Pizza.

If you’re wondering what games the NHL Network will carry next month in the US, you can click here.

That’s it. Good night.

A Late Tuesday Night Update

Time to give you an update after all that blogging during Super Bowl Media Day.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell hands out his first annual awards to the best Super Bowl appetizers. They do look tasty.

The Sports Media Watch Blog looks at the ratings from the weekend.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star has a new blog called Slightly Askew and today, he looks at the circus that is known as Super Bowl Media Day.

Leonard Shapiro of the Washington Post wants Fox to dig up Spygate during the Super Bowl.

John Consoli of Mediaweek says Fox has sold out its spots for the Super Bowl.

Roger Catlin of the Hartford Courant looks at the plans of Hartford/New Haven TV stations to cover the Super Bowl.

Ryan Corazza of Chicago Sports Weekly wonders what the fuss over Dana Jacobsen was all about.

Barry Janoff of Brandweek says Domino’s Pizza and ESPN are teaming up for a SportsCenter marketing campaign.

Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel looks inside the battle between ESPN.com and Yahoo Sports.

Matt Egan of Fox Business writes that the NHL appears to have fallen below NASCAR in terms of popularity.

Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette says the NHL All Star Game was hardly a hit on TV or to the broadcasters calling the game.

That will do it until tomorrow.

It’s a Tuesday Link Thing

Time for some links now.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand looks at the ratings from the weekend.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says David Cone is close to hashing out a deal with the YES Network to work as an analyst.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News pokes fun at Super Bowl Media Day.

Newsday’s Neil Best is with his newspaper’s large contingent in Arizona and he writes that this Super Bowl has set a record for media credentials. And Neil writes that with HDTV, he could see the stubble on Sal Paolantonio.

Jon Friedman of Marketwatch.com writes that the Giants have shut out former teammate Tiki Barber.

Stuart Crosby of the Times-Herald in Georgia writes about the circus that is known as Super Bowl Media Day.

Mark Purdy of the San Jose Mercury News laments that Fox won’t accept political ads for the Super Bowl.

George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal says Fox is going to have a long tailgate party before the Super Bowl.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says FSN has sold out its sponsorships for the Super Bowl-themed Best Damn Sports Show Period.

Diego Vasquez of Media Life magazine talks to a Seton Hall professor about why Super Bowl ads use humor.

ESPN gives us the entire list of Super Bowl programming for TV and Radio from Arizona today.

The Oakland Tribune’s Dave Del Grande writes that last week’s report of Lane Kiffin’s refusal to resign as Raiders coach should have come with the words “as told by Lane Kiffin”.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Brett Favre has been chosen as one of the 10 Best QB’s of all time by the Cold Hard Football Facts website.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call writes that the Dana Jacobsen incident may be a blessing for disguise.

By the way, here’s her apology on First Take yesterday morning. I hope this is the last time I reference this story.

Gary Eastwick of the Fresno Bee says coaches in the WAC aren’t happy with the change in format for ESPN’s BracketBuster weekend.

Ron Higgins of the Memphis Commercial Appeal says the Liberty Bowl was the 4th most watched bowl game of the 2007-08 bowl season.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail says TV analysts did not fall in love with the NHL All Star Weekend.

That’s it for now.

Trying to Catch Up After Being Out for the Morning

It’s already been a long morning and as I’m multitasking, doing links and some paperwork at the same time, I provide some links while I can.

First, Michael David Smith of the AOL Fanhouse Blog chronicles the return of Dana Jacobsen to ESPN’s First Take today. However, the Christian Defense Coalition will not let the matter die.

USA Today’s Michael McCarthy goes after the common cliches spouted during NFL broadcasts.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick reviews a new documentary on the great boxer Rocky Marciano.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner in his Watch This! blog give us the entire schedule Super Bowl Week schedule for the NFL Network.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union tells us that NHL Center Ice is giving a free preview of its pay per view service this week.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says the NHL All Stars Skills Competition did not translate well to TV.

ESPN Radio has launched an “ESPN Xtra” channel on XM Satellite Radio.

Emily Steel of the Wall Street Journal writes that Super Bowl ads are now heading online. Mike Branom of the East Valley (AZ) Tribune writes that ESPN has set up an outdoor studio in Scottsdale, AZ as its Super Bowl headquarters. Marisa Guthrie of Broadcasting & Cable gives us an overview of the Super Bowl on Fox. And Glen Dickson of B&C talks about Fox’s production plans for the Big Game.

Carolyn Sackariason from the Aspen Times says the X Games have become a big franchise for ESPN.

NBC says ratings for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships for the Ladies Free Skate on Saturday night were 65% higher than last year when it was aired on a Sunday afternoon on ABC.

Mark Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the Brewers have had four games selected for Fox regional broadcasts.

That’s it for now.

More Saturday Links

First, watching NBC’s first effort for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, it’s been given a “Big Event” feel with Bob Costas and Dick Button as co-hosts. Former Olympics pairs co-champions Jamie Salé and David Pelletier who were so good on Olympic Ice last year with Mary Carillo have added a nice touch with their humor. We’ll see how the ratings are for this event which have been down recently. Tom Hammond, Scott Hamilton and Sandra Bezic have been good calling the event. Tracy Wilson is good at explaining how the judges score the jumps and lifts. In hosting his first figure skating event, Costas is trying to make sense out of everything but having him there gives NBC some credibility in the the first year of televising this event. Even though NBC is not paying a rights fee, it has pulled out some heavy hitters. We’ll see how it goes for the last year of its three year contract with U.S. Figure Skating.

Giving you some links now.

Chris Pursell of TV Week writes in his Pressbox blog that ESPN and NFL Network will go all out in their Super Bowl coverage.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says Eli Manning needs a personality transfusion if he’s to get commercial endorsements like his brother, Peyton.

Bruce Allen of the Boston Sports Media Watch blog has an interesting exchange between Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel and 890ESPN Radio host and Boston Herald writer Mike Felger yesterday.

John Consoli of Mediaweek has the revised schedule for Fox on Super Bowl Sunday. Mike Shields of Mediaweek writes that Verizon will be the sponsor for AOL’s annual Super Sunday ad poll which will have fans rate the best and worst of the Super Bowl commercials.

Michael Malone of Broadcasting & Cable writes that Fox-owned stations in Boston and New York are experiencing an ad windfall for the Super Bowl.

The Sports Media Watch blog talks about whether the NHL is a hot television property. And Paulsen has his weekend ratings predictions.

The Los Angeles Times’ Helene Elliot talks with Paul Kelly, the new Executive Director of the NHL Players Association, who wants the league to have games on ESPN now.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union wonders in his Best Seat in My House blog if the NHL renewing with Versus is a mistake.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News reports that Versus President Gavin Harvey won’t be moving to Philadelphia when the network consolidates its headquarters with parent Comcast later this year.

The New York Post’s Justin Terranova talks about the ESPN series on Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in his NYP TV Sports blog.

Jonathan Landreth of the Hollywood Reporter reports that Major League Baseball plans to play its first games in Communist China this March and hopes to have them televised on government-controlled TV in an attempt to grow the sport there.

Dania Bogle of the Jamaica Observer (yes, I’ll even link to Jamaican newspapers) writes that former Olympic bronze medalist Ato Bolton will be doing analysis work for NBC during the Summer Olympics in Beijing in August.

Anne Marie Somma of the Hartford Courant reports on the protest at ESPN over Dana Jacobsen.

Do you want another ESPN suspension? Rick Reeno of Boxingscene.com tells us that analyst Teddy Atlas was suspended for a week following an argument with a network executive.

Karen Lyon of the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald says next year’s Women’s Final of the Australian Open will be played at night local time which means that it will be shown at 3:30 a.m., Saturday here on the East Coast of the US. You get links to Jamaica and Australia, truly an international edition of the links tonight.

That’s it for now.

Dana Jacobsen Drinking at Roast

Friday megalinks will be coming up in the next few hours, but we have the picture of Dana Jacobsen swigging vodka at the Mike & Mike Celebrity Roast in Atlantic City earlier this month. It’s not pretty.

If the tape of her performance comes out, we’ll have it here.

Thursday Night Linkage

I was out at a job site all day preventing me from giving you links today. I’ll give them to you tonight. I did get back in time to give you video of the Kelly Tilghman apology on the Golf Channel and I just saw the re-air as the 1st Round of the Buick Invitational and it’s contrite and short. Hopefully, that will be the end of the story. But as Kelly returns, we find the Dana Jacobsen controversy just won’t go away.

The Big Lead blog contacted Scott Cronick of the Atlantic City Press who covered the Mike & Mike Celebrity Roast earlier this month. He tells the blog that Jacobsen never said “F*ck Jesus!” as the Catholic League and Christian Defense Coalition have said. The Sports Media Watch blog reports that the Christian Defense Coalition will hold a demonstration and prayer vigil outside ESPN headquarters demanding that Jacobsen be fired. Here’s the press release from the Christian Defense Coalition on the protest. The Albany Times Union’s Pete Dougherty writes in his Best Seat in My House blog that Jacobsen’s suspension should be longer than a week. Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes in his Farther Off the Wall blog that Jacobsen is paying the price in more ways than one. Michael Hiestand of USA Today in a rare Thursday column chimes in on the Jacobsen controversy.

Moving onto other subjects, Hoffarth has the text of Kelly Tilghman’s apology. In his golf blog, the Chicago Tribune’s Ed Sherman says there was an audio glitch when Tilghman was stating her apology (which was corrected in the primetime airing). World Golf News has a press release from Golfweek announcing a new editor replacing David Seanor who was fired after the noose cover controversy last week.

Newsday’s Neil Best writes in his blog that WFAN’s Mike Francesca has signed a long term deal with the station.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner writes in his blog that the NFL has 13 of the 15 most watched TV shows this season. That’s impressive.

Joanne C. Gerstner of the Detroit News is bored with the Big Ten Network/Comcast dispute.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman talks with ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla who will call the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State game with Ron Franklin on Monday night. Bracht has his weekly media notebook. He also lists the TV ratings for the past week. And Bracht gives his viewing picks for the next few days.

Shawn Courchesne of the Hartford Courant says ESPN will run a five part series on Dale Earnhardt, Jr. moving to a new racing team for the upcoming NASCAR season.

Robert Crow from the Southern Illinoisan writes that ESPN’s College Gameday will be broadcasting live from the SIU Arena in advance of the game against Creighton Saturday night.

John Eggerton from Broadcasting & Cable magazine reports that CSTV.com and USAToday.com are teaming up to form an online alliance.

The NCAA is proud of TV ratings and attendance for college football during the regular season and college bowls.

Greg Stiles of the Mail Tribune (OR) writes that a new sports radio station will pop up in the local area and will include Dan Patrick in its programming.

That will do it for tonight. Friday megalinks coming up in the morning.

More Reaction to Dana Jacobsen

In a story that first came out on January 13 from Scott Cronick of the Atlantic City Press, then suddenly mushroomed this week, we learned that ESPN First Take co-host Dana Jacobsen was suspended for her comments made at the Mike & Mike Celebrity Roast.

In a paragraph that was 4th from the bottom of the story, Cronick wrote the following:

ESPN anchor Dana Jacobson made an absolute fool of herself, swilling vodka from a Belvedere bottle, mumbling along and cursing like a sailor as Mike & Mike rested their heads in their hands in embarrassment. Griffin came to the podium to defend her after she was booed by the crowd. Ross eventually had to pull her off stage, too.

I linked to the story the following day, January 14. Then later, I linked to the Deadspin blog which noticed that Jacobsen had misbehaved at the event.

It appeared that was the end of the story, however, the Catholic League got a hold of the story and began to inundate ESPN about the comments made by Jacobsen at the roast which apparently were disparaging towards Notre Dame University and Touchdown Jesus. And it apparently is not letting go at this point.

And similar to what Al Sharpton did with the Kelly Tilghman story in not letting go until the Golf Channel suspended the anchor, the Catholic League did the same with Jacobsen.

Religion writer for the Chicago Tribune, Manya Brachear writes in her blog about the story without passing judgment.

The Baltimore Sun’s Bill Ordine writes in his blog about the Jacobsen incident and another involving St. Louis University basketball coach Rick Majerus.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Judd Zulgad has more on the suspension which has not been confirmed by ESPN by the way.

USA Today’s On Deadline blog notes that Jacobsen defended Kelly Tilghman in an Orlando Sentinel story.

Justin Terranova writes in his NYP TV Sports blog about the Jacobsen suspension.

Michael David Smith from the AOL Fanhouse blog notes that Jacobsen may be anti-Notre Dame, but she’s not anti-Catholic as the Catholic League wants you to believe.

Jeff Carroll of the South Bend Tribune says when it comes to religion, it’s best to think before one speaks. But at the same time, Carroll says the Catholic League went a bit far in characterizing Jacobsen.

Now the Christian Defense Coalition is calling for ESPN to fire Jacobsen.

The story grew legs this week. It will be interesting to see if Jacobsen actually returns this week. The Catholic League is known for being very militant when it comes to issues like these. You may remember what happened to Opie & Anthony in 2002 in the infamous “Sex for Sam” incident when the League would not let go until CBS Radio fired the pair.

We’ll continue to monitor.