Fang's Bites

Jenn Sterger Takes Shots At ESPN For Hiring Hot Blonds

Ever since this whole Brett Favre sexting incident, Jenn Sterger has been trying to find her niche. Her show at Versus was canceled. Then she’s been doing various freelance gigs plus an interview with Good Morning, America, but really hasn’t found that signature role that she call her own.

Then I happen to find through Twitter that she presented a video on BroBible and in the process, fired shots at ESPN for hiring hot blond chicks. And Jenn Sterger then takes a shot at Jenn Brown. Do you find it ironic that hot chick Jenn Sterger is taking shots at ESPN for hiring hot chicks? Is this the pot calling the kettle black? As they used to say on the old Batman show, “What do we have here?” Watch the video and see what you think.

And Jenn Sterger’s delivery is so bad that you have to turn up your speakers to understand the jokes. In this type of feature, you have to have a voice to carry the jokes and she speaks so softly that any humor is lost. I originally had no problem with Jenn Sterger when people took shots at her for getting gigs at Sports Illustrated and I want to like her, but it’s tough. This video doesn’t help. It makes her look petty.

The Friday Megalinks Are Here! Hurray!

Time for some megalink action. This is turning out to be a busy day, but let me try to give you as many as I can. This being Memorial Day weekend, there’s plenty of sports action. Primetime viewing is kind of slim, but you can check out my Weekend Viewing Picks for the action.

Let’s get to the links. I’ll do as many as I can. I do have to leave early.

National

From yesterday’s Sports Business Daily, John Ourand speaks with outgoing NBC Sports President Ken Schanzer who is retiring at the end of the summer.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News and Broadcasting & Cable also writes about Ken Schanzer’s retirement from NBC Sports.

Multichannel notes that Time Warner Cable will have a presence to promote the Speed 2 channel at the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race in Charlotte this weekend.

USA Today’s Mike McCarthy and Michael Hiestand debate whether LeBron James as a villain is good for the NBA.

Mike McCarthy writes that former Chicago Bull Scottie Pippen caused an uproar on ESPN Radio this morning by saying LeBron James could be better than Michael Jordan.

Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center delves into the ESPN book.

Fox Sports notes that this week, Ken Rosenthal’s bowtie will honor our troops during this Memorial Day Weekend.

The Big Lead interviews New York Times NFL beat writer Judy Battista and talks about how she covers the lockout.

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid notes that Nike tried to put the screws on TNT’s Charles Barkley to be nicer to LeBron James.

SportsbyBrooks says ESPN management told its hosts what to ask James Andrew Miller about the book he co-authored on the Alleged Worldwide Leader.

Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing has a review of “Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside the World of ESPN”.

Alyson Shontell of the Business Insider Sports Page says former Versus host Jenn Sterger is now working for an internet TV startup company.

Sports Media Watch says the NHL on Versus saw a ratings high for Boston-Tampa Bay on Wednesday.

SMW notes that the NBA Finals gets its earliest start in 25 years.

And SMW says the NHL Stanley Cup Final avoided conflicting with the NBA Finals.

Dave Kohl at Major League Programs has some complaints on broadcasters not providing the starting lineups when they’re supposed to.

Len Berman has his Top 5 stories of the day.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Mark Blaudshun of the Boston Globe reports that the Big East Conference has rejected ESPN’s “Best offer” to continue their 32 year relationship.

Chad Finn of the Globe says Bruins fans are finally getting the media coverage they’ve been yearning for.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette notes that the local minor league baseball team gets a new media distribution to fans and it’s not what you might think.

Fred Contrada at the Springfield (MA) Republican reports that ESPN.com writer Howard Bryant has been sentenced to probation stemming from a domestic assault case back in February.

New York Magazine talks with YES analyst David Cone about his use of advanced statistics on Yankees games.

Phil Mushnick from the New York Post wants to know what Mets owner Fred Wilpon knew about Ponzi scheme scumbag Bernie Madoff and when did he know it.

The Post has five questions for Fox Soccer Channel analyst Eric Wynalda about Saturday’s UEFA Champions League Final.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says soccer continues to try to gain a foothold in the American psyche.

DCRTV’s Dave Hughes has his latest Baltimore-DC media roundup in Press Box.

In the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg finds an interesting Tony Kornheiser-John Feinstein tidbit from the ESPN tome.

Dan also recaps a couple of interviews DC NFL team owner Daniel Snyder conducted on Thursday.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks about the retirement of NBC Sports President Ken Schanzer a week after his boss, Dick Ebersol resigned.

Jim speaks with Fox Sports’ Curt Menefee about hosting the UEFA Champions League Final on Saturday.

South

The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson goes over some of the more interesting tidbits from the ESPN book.

Greg Augman of the St. Petersburg Times writes about ESPN’s Desmond Howard blasting black college athletes for a sense of entitlement.

Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel laments the probable end of the long-term relationship between Florida State University and Sun Sports.

Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says Texas Rangers TV voice John Rhadigan was replaced Thursday and will return to hosting the pregame show on Fox Sports Southwest.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle has his take on the ESPN book that has had the sports media talking.

In the Daily Oklahoman, Mel Bracht talks with ousted Rangers voice John Rhadigan.

Mel notes the local ratings for the series-clinching Game 5 of the NBA Western Conference Finals.

Mel despite losing the series, the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook impressed ESPN’s Jeff Van Gundy.

Midwest

Cincinnati Enquirer media writer John Kiesewetter says local sports talk show host Andy Furman is on the fast track for a possible new national gig.

John has a few more things on Furman in his blog.

The Waiting For Next Year blog loves Cleveland Browns voice Jim Donovan as do I.

Michael Zuidema at the Grand Rapids (MI) Press says ESPN/ABC is hoping some extra pomp and circumstance at the Centennial Indy 500 will draw viewers this year.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that the Indianapolis 500 just ain’t what it used to be.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business has his usual winners and losers today.

Ed explains what Tiger Woods’ agent split from powerful IMG means for Tiger.

Dan Caesar from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that ESPN/ABC is hopeful that the Indy 500 can finally beat NASCAR outright for the first time in over five years.

West

Jim Carlisle in the Ventura County Star talks with ESPN/ABC IndyCar analyst Scott Goodyear about Danica Patrick’s impact on this year’s Indy 500.

Jim reflects on Dick Ebersol’s tenure as Chairman of NBC Sports.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says Jim Rome’s hiring in inaugural days of ESPN2 almost caused one network exec to quit.

Tom explains how ESPN/ABC will attempt to keep the Indianapolis 500 relevant with viewers.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail looks at how Gary Bettman decided to buck ESPN.

That’s going to do it. Finished it all in one shot!

Some Monday Night Linkage Which Goes Into Tuesday Linkage

I was trying to post links last night and was making really good progress when, you guessed it, I fell asleep with the computer on again. That’s not good. So I’ll combine the full set of links that I found last night with this edition so you have a pretty good set of stories to sift through. That’s good for you. So let’s give you a lot of links today.

Joe Posnanski has a very thoughtful post on Tara Sullivan’s ordeal at The Masters, plus the really sexist and ignorant comments left at her story at NorthJersey.com.

Glenn Davis of SportsGrid notes that former Boston Globe columnist Jackie MacMullen weighed in on the Tara Sullivan controversy during ESPN’s Around the Horn.

Mike McCarthy of USA Today reports that Charlie Rymer of Westwood One was kicked out of Augusta National Golf Club while he was covering The Masters for violating a rule on cell phone usage.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says the NFL Network will have extensive coverage of the NFL Draft later this month.

To John Ourand at Sports Business Journal who writes that the NHL has three strong bids for the US TV rights including a surprising one from Turner Sports.

At MediaPost, David Goetzl writes that ESPN was wise to take a wait-and-see attitude on iPad advertising for its app.

Toni Fitzgerald from Media Life says The Masters pulled decent ratings despite having a no-name winner.

Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk says Fox NFL Sunday co-host Terry Bradshaw says he is feeling the effects of the six concussions and numerous blows to the head from his playing days in the 1970′s.

Mike goes over the Jenn Sterger interview on Good Morning America and she doesn’t come off too well.

Mike talks about how a potential owner of a Los Angeles NFL team is predicting a huge TV rights windfall for the league in the next network negotiation.

To Yahoo’s Puck Daddy and Greg Wyshynski who writes that NBC/Versus have some heavy competition for the NHL TV contract.

Sports TV Jobs interviews YES Network host Nancy Newman about her experiences moving from Canada’s TSN to CNN Sports to YES.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell wonders if golf’s popularity has truly returned with Tiger Woods out of contention of many tournaments.

Ian R. Rapoport of the Boston Herald says Tom Brady cries over the memory of his sixth round pick by the New England Patriots in a new ESPN/NFL Films documentary.

Newsday’s Neil Best says YES will produce postgame shows for all Yankees games no matter which network airs them.

Neil writes that the NBA’s TV partners are happy to see the Knicks in the playoffs.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times notes that The Masters saw some ratings slippage.

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union says MSG Network has set its studio and game announcers for Knicks playoff games.

Ken Schott at the Schenectady Gazette talks about The Masters’ TV ratings.

Shelly Anderson of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes that Root Sports will have the entire Penguins-Lightning series.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog notes that Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic has chosen its top story in the last ten years of local sports reporting.

Dan with the help of Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic recaps the last Capitals-Rangers playoff series in 2009.

Dan says one local DC radio personality is mocking the Washington Nationals’ radio deal.

Rusty Ray from the Pee Dee (SC) Morning News says a big crowd turned out for a live appearance by ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike.

David Barron and Joseph Duarte from the Houston Chronicle report that the Texas Bowl has a new sponsor.

Blair Kerkhoff from the Kansas City Star talks about a few college sports issues including the NCAA Tournament on CBS/Turner and the new Big 12 TV contract.

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune says a local sports anchor doesn’t understand the distinction of an event airing on a local CBS affiliate while not being a network program.

Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News says once the Pac 12 TV contract is done, Commissioner Larry Scott will look to sign deals overseas, especially in Asia.

At Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, Matt Maiocco says new 49ers radio analyst Eric Davis will have big shoes to fill.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says TSN Radio is debuting with guns locked and loaded.

Bruce Dowbiggin from the Toronto Globe and Mail also talks about TSN Radio’s debut.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog notes that TSN received good ratings for curling.

Sports Media Watch says NASCAR in primetime on Fox scored well.

To Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says NBC ended the NHL regular season on an upnote.

Steve also has the local rightsholders which will carry first round NHL Playoff games.

Joe Favorito says cricket is gaining in popularity not just worldwide, but also in the US.

Plenty of links today. Lots of good stuff. I hope you have time to look over all of the links.

Providing The Monday Links

Having already gone to a jobsite early this morning and having returned to the office already, I have some time to provide you with the Monday links. There’s a lot of stuff out there already so without further delay, here are your media links for today.

From USA Today, Michael Hiestand writes that CBS certainly benefited from a dramatically close final round of The Masters^®.

Mike McCarthy at USA Today has a short preview of tomorrow’s Good Morning America interview with former Versus “The Daily Line” co-host Jenn Sterger.

Sports Illustrated’s Peter King has what is basically a throwaway line in his “Ten Things…” that NFL Network is thinking of bringing in its draft guru Mike Mayock into the Thursday Night Football booth. After enduring Joe Theismann and Matt Millen last season, the quicker this move is made, the better off fans will be.

And Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk expounds on the potential Mayock move to the booth.

PJ Bednarski of TV Newscheck reports that ABC affiliates are on board with helping to fund ESPN’s bid for the 2014/2016 Olympics.

Sports TV Jobs has an interview with ESPN’s Steve Berthiaume about how former President Jimmy Carter helped him get his big break.

Sports TV Jobs has a column from a former NFL Films intern explaining her work for the company last fall.

One of the most ridiculous stories coming out from The Masters last night was the barring of Bergen (NJ) columnist Tara Sullivan from the locker room after Charl Schwartzel’s win. She writes about the experience and says Augusta National Golf Club apologized to her afterwards admitting it was a mistake. I was ready to stop blogging about The Masters had Augusta officials not come forward immediately after she tweeted about the incident. It’s bad enough Augusta National has exclusionary policies towards women, but you can’t bar a female sportswriter from the locker room. And I can’t believe people still get angry over this issue.

At SportsGrid, Glenn Davis says Sullivan should come out of this ok.

Glenn also discusses the upcoming boring Jenn Sterger “woe is me” interview on Good Morning America.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Jason Fry takes a look at Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban’s idea to ban internet writers from the covering his team.

Wayne Friedman of MediaPost writes that if the NFL lockout goes long, expect the ad dollars for games to go to network primetime spending.

Steve Smith of MediaPost’s VidBlog focuses on ESPN’s new iPhone app that allows Time Warner, Bright House and Verizon FiOS subscribers to see what’s on ESPN, for the most part.

A sad day for the sports blogosphere. Free Darko has announced it will cease operation as of today. Great blog, talented writers. It will be missed.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post says CBS followed Tiger Woods too much yesterday.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union talks about The Masters^® overall ratings which were down from last year, but still higher than normal.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record discusses the start of the NHL Playoffs and the network coverage.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has your first look at Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin’s new Capital One ad.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner notes that CBS’ overnight ratings for The Masters^® were the 2nd highest in 10 years.

Tom Jones from the St. Petersburg Times has his take on the weekend in sports television.

Kyle Veazey of the Jackson (MS) Clarion-Ledger has a fascinating look at the finances of the Southeastern Conference taking the CBS and ESPN contracts into account.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle shares his thoughts on CBS’ Masters broadcast.

At Crain’s Chicago Business, Ed Sherman talks with a Comcast SportsNet news director about the channel’s hyperlocal mission.

And Ed says April is a really busy month for Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

Dusty Saunders from the Denver Post says Tiger Woods was a big part of CBS’ Masters coverage yesterday.

From the Los Angeles Daily News, Tom Hoffarth has your SoCal sports calendar for the week.

Raju Mudhar of the Toronto Star says video games bring out the inner athlete in us.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog says TSN will be going head-to-head with CBC during the NHL playoffs.

Sports Media Watch discusses the ratings for the final round of The Masters^®.

Awful Announcing has the first of a two part interview with the great Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media is angry with MSG Network for putting the meaningless Knicks regular season finale on over the Rangers playoff game.

And we’re going to end it there. I have a couple of press releases to post.

Coming Back For Sunday Links

After not being able to bring you the Friday megalinks or even Saturday linkage, I have some time to provide the Sunday linkage. Some good stuff here and don’t forget to read my Sunday thoughts.

USA Today’s Mike McCarthy breaks news that former co-host of Versus’ The Daily Line, Jenn Sterger will give her first interview on the Brett Favre scandal to Good Morning America this week.

Mike notes that Jim Gray is not part of Golf Channel’s coverage of The Masters^® this year.

Rachel Cohen from the Associated Press says TV networks are trying to work out the kinks of shooting sports in 3-D.

From Yahoo’s The PostGame, Eric Adelson talks to former CBS golf announcer Ben Wright whose “Yes Sir!” call of Jack Nicklaus win in the 1986 Masters has been overshadowed and ignored by Verne Lundquist’s.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News notes that ESPN’s ratings for its opening round coverage of The Masters^® were down from the year before.

Mike says the ratings for The Masters^® did go up Friday when Tiger Woods got back into contention.

R. Thomas Umstead at Multichannel says UFC has signed a multiyear sponsorship deal with Bud Light.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek says when you take bar and hotel viewing into account, the ratings for the NCAA Tournament goes up 20%.

Dan Fogarty from SportsGrid writes that the Joe Buck hate reached a fever pitch on Twitter during yesterday’s Yankees-Red Sox game on Fox.

Mohammed Rahman of SportsGrid says ESPN’s Jon Gruden hasn’t met a player he hasn’t liked.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick goes after EA Sports for not toning down the violence in the Madden NFL 12 video game.

Annie Karni of the Post talks with Jenn Sterger’s ex-manager (not Jenn herself?) about how it’s all Brett Favre’s fault that she can’t get her career off the ground. If you read the story in full, you’ll see that apparently Sterger’s interview with Good Morning America could lead into her working for ABC. In what capacity, I have no idea.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says ESPN’s ratings for the 2nd round of The Masters^® were down from last year.

Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post has former Nationals President Stan Kasten denying that former MASN TV analyst Rob Dibble was let go following an e-mail from the father of pitcher Stephen Strasburg.

At the WaPo’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg has Dibble responding to Kasten.

Mike Frandsen of the Washington Examiner says Dan Snyder’s Red Zebra DC radio station is defending its policy to pick up Baltimore Orioles games.

Greg Hardwig of the Naples (FL) Daily News talks with former CBS golf analyst Ken Venturi about watching The Masters without his good friend, the late golf producer Frank Chirkinian.

Mel Bracht from the Daily Oklahoman says 60 Minutes will profile St. Louis Cardinals 1st baseman Albert Pujols today.

Evan Binns from the St. Louis Business Journal says Fox Sports Midwest has added some familiar names to its Cardinals games.

The Kirksville (MO) Daily Express reports that a local cable provider won’t be airing 20 Cardinals games this season over a rights fee dispute with Fox Sports Midwest.

David Southorn of the Idaho Press-Tribune has the complete 2011 Mountain West football TV schedule.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media notes that NHL Network will reveal all of the playoff matchups tonight.

Awful Announcing says St. John’s basketball coach and former ESPN analyst Steve Lavin has prostate cancer. Our best wishes to Steve.

That’s going to do it for today.

The NFL’s Statement On Brett Favre

Well, since this was also a sports media story as well as an NFL story, we are presenting you with the complete statement from the National Football League in regards to the Brett Favre/Jenn Sterger situation. It’s not the punishment or suspension that Sterger nor her lawyer are looking for. Favre will not be suspended, but he will be fined. The NFL says it could not determine if the schlong shots that were texted to Sterger were from Favre. This all stems from when both Favre and Sterger were with the New York Jets and she claimed she was harassed by the quarterback. Commissioner Roger Goodell says based on the evidence, he could not determine if Favre violated workplace conduct policies.

In addition, the league said any additional claims of alleged harassment by Favre of other female Jets employees could not be substantiated. So Favre won’t lose any playing time, and may play if physically able on Sunday. Sterger’s lawyers did not file a lawsuit yesterday which was the two year anniversary of the first alleged sexting incident. The New Jersey Statute of Limitations on sexual harassment claims is two years. That deadline has apparently passed, but as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk notes, Sterger’s lawyers may be looking at another date to possibly file a lawsuit.

It’s all sticky, not to make a pun here. This is the statement in full from the National Football League. Thanks to the NFL public relations for sending this over.

NO VIOLATION OF LEAGUE POLICY ESTABLISHED IN FAVRE INVESTIGATION;

FAVRE FINED $50,000 FOR LACK OF COOPERATION

The NFL issued the following statement today regarding the Brett Favre-Jenn Sterger matter:

          

The NFL office conducted an investigation to determine whether Brett Favre’s interaction with New York Jets game-day employee Jenn Sterger in 2008 violated the NFL Personal Conduct Policy.

In reviewing the matter, the sole focus was on whether there was a violation of league policies regarding conduct in the workplace.  NFL policies do not extend to private conduct or make judgments about the appropriateness of personal relationships, except where that conduct or those relationships raise issues under the law or league policies.

The investigation included an analysis of publicly available reports; a series of interviews with knowledgeable individuals, including Sterger and Favre; a review of communications between the two furnished to our office; and independent forensic analysis of electronically stored material. The investigation was limited in several respects because the conduct occurred in 2008 but was not brought to our attention until this fall.  As a result, certain records and individuals were unavailable to the NFL.

The investigation also reviewed a second media report about allegations involving other women who worked at the Jets’ facility in 2008.  Misconduct by Favre regarding that claim was unable to be substantiated because individuals with potentially relevant information declined to be interviewed or otherwise cooperate with the investigation. In addition, our investigation took longer than might ordinarily have been the case due to difficulties in arranging to speak with certain key individuals, the time required to retrieve and review stored electronic records, and Commissioner Roger Goodell’s decision to meet personally with both Favre and Sterger before making a decision. 

On the basis of the evidence currently available to him, Commissioner Goodell could not conclude that Favre violated league policies relating to workplace conduct. The forensic analysis could not establish that Favre sent the objectionable photographs to Sterger. The review found no evidence to contradict the statements of both Favre and Sterger that they never met in person, nor was there anything to suggest that Sterger engaged in any inappropriate conduct.

However, Commissioner Goodell also determined that Favre was not candid in several respects during the investigation, resulting in a longer review and additional negative public attention for Favre, Sterger, and the NFL. The commissioner notified Favre that he has been fined $50,000 for his failure to cooperate with the investigation in a forthcoming manner. Commissioner Goodell stated to Favre that if he had found a violation of the league’s workplace conduct policies, he would have imposed a substantially higher level of discipline.

In a memo to clubs today, Commissioner Goodell reminded them of the serious nature of this matter and stated that NFL policies make no excuses for improper or potentially unlawful conduct in the workplace. “Every member of every club’s staff should be able to work in an environment free of harassment or hostility, and one in which every employee is valued, respected, and given a full opportunity to contribute to the goals of the club and the NFL,” Commissioner Goodell said. “Our new training program on workplace conduct will help all of us to promote the right kind of environment for all employees and I intend to dedicate the fine I have imposed on Favre to help fund that training program.”

And that will do it. While I hope this is the end of this story, me thinks we haven’t heard the last for a while.

Providing Some Wednesday Links

Yesterday, my attempts at providing links kept getting interrupted. I hope today is going to be more stable.

Today has been a strange day. People on Twitter and the sports blogosphere are abuzz about the foot fetish videos that may or may not have come from Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets coach Rex Ryan. Deadspin broke it. The New York Daily News for some reason picked it up. Since this morning, people have been tweeting and blogging away on the story. Rex Ryan himself may or may not have shot one of the videos in question. This is not a sports media story so unless we discover that a reporter somehow got involved in the videos or has a foot fetish him or herself, then we’re not going to be pursuing it. I’ve never had a foot fetish. I’ve always felt feet are disgusting, but I’m not judging those who like them. I’m acknowledging story and letting you know I’ve seen the story. Let’s move on.

Starting with this week’s Sports Illustrated issue, Jon Wertheim takes a look at the effects of a possible NFL lockout including those on the networks and surrounding businesses that depend on professional football.

To Pro Football Talk and Mike Florio who says yesterday’s meeting between NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and former Florida State Cowgirl Jenn Sterger got heated at times.

Marisa Guthrie of the Hollywood Reporter notes that ESPN’s Monday Night Football topped all programming on both broadcast and cable.

Some bad news for MASN and baseball fans in North Carolina, the FCC has reversed a decision that required Time Warner Cable to pick up the regional sports network in the Tobacco State as John Eggerton of Multichannel News reports.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel looks at the stellar Monday Night Football ratings for ESPN.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel says ESPN and ABC will provide five, count ‘em, five NBA games on Christmas Day.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid has the first of the Top Ten Sports Gaffes of 2010 and it begins with Chris McKendry of ESPN.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes about Michael Vick signing an autograph endorsement deal. 

Michael O’Keefe of the New York Daily News has a story on the contentious meeting between NFL Commish Roger Goodell and former Playboy bombshell Jenn Sterger.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette tells us that CBS College Sports college hockey analyst and NHL Network analyst for the IIHF World Junior Championships Dave Starman will be his guest on his radio show in New York’s Capital Region.

Evan Weiner in the New Jersey Newsroom says the NBA’s TV partners could be subsidizing a lockout next season.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner talks with a Texas Tech beat reporter on former coach Mike Leach who’s a candidate to take the Maryland job.

Sarah Talalay at the South Florida Sun Sentinel says a new Charles Barkley/Dwayne Wade ad will be unveiled on Christmas Day.

John Kiesewetter from the Cincinnati Enquirer discusses the departure of Steven A. Smith from Fox Sports Radio.

And I was interrupted again. I’ll try to provide more links later.

It’s the Sunday Links

Ok, been a crazy morning. Now that everything with New York Giants-Minnesota has been worked out, I can move on to other things. Let’s do your linkage.

At ESPN.com, Greg Garber looks back at NBC’s experiment of an announcerless NFL game 30 years ago. 

Tim Graham at ESPN.com also has a story on the experiment.

Phil Swann of TV Predictions says DirecTV could pull 30 Hearst TV stations including ones in Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Hawaii, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and several other markets if the two sides don’t come to an agreement.

The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn takes a close look at the city’s sports radio war between 98.5 The Sports Hub and long-time incumbent WEEI.

Alan Schwarz of the New York Times says the NFL has an advocate on helmet-to-helmet hits in NBC’s Cris Collinsworth.

Also from the Times, Richard Sandomir says some recent film and audio finds helped to augment the new HBO Sports/NFL Films documentary on the late Vince Lombardi.

Bob Raissman from the New York Daily News says the NHL is hopeful that HBO’s 24/7 series will bring new fans to the sport.

Ralph Vacchiano of the Daily News describes how the New York Giants-Minnesota Vikings game got moved from Sunday to Monday then from Minneapolis to Detroit.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick has plenty of bluster today.

Newsday’s Neil Best who’s traveling to the New York Giants-Minnesota game today, breaks news that Jenn Sterger will finally break her silence to ESPN/ABC.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union notees that Giants-Vikings will be aired in New York, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Rochester, MN, but what about the Capital Region?

Pete explains why he didn’t vote for Auburn quarterback Cam Newton for the Heisman Trophy.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says the Giants-Vikings game won’t be seen in Albany upsetting many fans in the Capital Region.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner talks with the vice president of espnW on whether the network can appeal to women.

Jerry Garcia from the San Antonio Express-News notes that there have been times when the NFL has had to move games to Monday night.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes that ESPN assigns Brent Musberger and Kirk Herbstreit to the Rose Bowl and BCS National Championship Game.

Bob wonders if Brett Favre will play in tomorrow’s Giants-Vikings game with extra time to heal.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has a photo gallery showing the Metrodome’s collapsed roof.

Dennis McGrath from the Star Tribune has a story on Giants-Vikings moving to Detroit from the Twin Cities. 

Tom Hoffarth at the Los Angeles Daily news writes that college football might be running out of sponsors for its bowl games.

Geoff Baker at the Seattle Times writes about the memorial service for original Mariners announcer Dave Niehaus.

Sports Media Watch has its Weekend Ratings Predictions.

And that will end our links for today.

Providing Some Thursday Linkage

Doing my best to continue to provide linkage while I’m still locked in a nightmarish work schedule. And for some reason, I can’t access the Fang’s Bites at Boston Sports Media Watch page so if you access my links there, I can’t provide new ones for now. Trying to get that resolved and once we do, the links will be over there as well. In the meantime, let’s continue to do what we do here.

This comes from Multichannel News. John Eggerton writes that the president of the National Association of Broadcasters is warning the FCC that the Super Bowl might go to pay TV if the agency goes through on changing the rules for over the air retransmission disputes.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel writes that Golf Channel will air January’s Sony Open in Hawaii in full 3-D.

David Goetzl of Mediapost notes that ESPN is looking to get four marquee college basketball programs to play each other on a rotating basis over a three year period.

At Pro Football Talk, Michael David Smith writes that the Jacksonville Jaguars received an extension from the NFL to avoid a blackout this weekend.

Mike Florio at PFT notes that Jenn Sterger is trying to force the NFL to discipline Brett Favre over his alleged sexting. Sterger’s manager appeared on the Dan Patrick Show earlier today.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell notes that seven weeks into its run, the Broadway play on Vince Lombardi is still going strong.

Marcus Vanderberg of SportsNewser lectures WNBA star Lisa Leslie for blaming the media for not covering women’s basketball.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says the Ravens and the DC NFL Team cleaned up in the local ratings in Week 13.

Jim notices that there are plenty of gift bags and items for players to take home from various college bowl games.

Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun Sentinel says fans were upset when they found out that the Florida Panthers had revised a planned yarmulke promotion.

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle says there’s a lineup change at one local sports radio station.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business writes that Cubs fans’ love for Ron Santo was heightened when he entered the broadcast booth.

Ed writes that Michael Wilbon will be contributing to ESPN Chicago and ESPN Radio Chicago.

Frank Sennett of Time Out Chicago writes that noted Windy City media critic Robert Feder will be joining the publication as of January 3. This is a good move and I’m a fan of Feder so we’ll be linking to Time Out Chicago a lot.

Cecil Conley of the Roseville (CA) Press Tribune says Dish Network isn’t making any friends by keeping Comcast SportsNet California off their systems and preventing Sacramento Kings fans from watching the games.

Sports Media Watch notes that the Miami Heat’s TV ratings are up almost 100% this season.

Friend of Fang’s Bites Maury Brown at the Biz of Baseball discusses MLB Network’s showing of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series next week. It’ll be the first time the game has been aired since 1960.

And we will end it there for now. If I can finish doing the Friday features early tonight, I’ll do some additional links.

Quick Monday Links

I’m traveling in between two offices this morning and I want to get some linkage in while I can. Let’s get it started.

First, a rare moment when Sports Business Daily opens up its Morning Fix feature and it has a couple of sports media notes including what’s happening at the new Comcast/NBC Sports division and a new Sports Science promo for SportsCenter.

Sports Business Journal’s Liz Mullen speaks with NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith who’s not optimistic about a new collective bargaining agreement with the NFL.

John Ourand at the SBJ notes that a survey of college students finds that ESPN’s NBA coverage is catching up with TNT’s. 

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand says the NFL TV analysts were singing the praises of Michael Vick on Sunday.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says NASCAR has too many problems for it to return to national prominence. 

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Jason Fry has his take on the New York Islanders revoking the media credentials of noted hockey blogger Chris Botta.

Adam Gretz of Fanhouse has the video of Islanders TV voice Howie Rose getting frustrated during a commercial timeout.

Todd Spangler of Multichannel News asks if Time Warner Cable will be charging extra for ESPN3D.

Jim Romanesko at the Poynter Institute notes that the Washington Times is bringing its sports section back. This after the sports section was cut down a year ago.

Staci D. Kramer at paidContent looks at NBC Sports putting an app that puts its “Talk” blogs on the iPad.

Bill Carter at the New York Times looks at the new NBC corporate structure under Comcast.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post asks who’s holding the TV analysts accountable? Wouldn’t that be you, Dr. Doom and Gloom?

Ginger Adam Otis from the Post looks at the NFL going high-tech to try and solve the alleged Brett Favre pictures to Jenn Sterger.

John Gonzalez of the Philadelphia Inquirer says Michael Vick has caught the attention of the national media.

Patrick Berkery at the Philly Burbs papers notes that Comcast SportsNet will air the live demolition of the Spectrum on Tuesday. 

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun wasn’t thrilled with CBS’ work during the Ravens-Carolina game yesterday.

Tom Jones at the St. Petersburg Times has a look at the weekend on sports TV.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel recaps ESPN’s Mark Schereth’s comments about last Thursday’s Chicago Bears-Miami Dolphins game. 

Pete Alfano from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says ESPN will make downtown Fort Worth its center of operations for Super Bowl XLV.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle says the Texans are making it easy for the Football Night in America crew.

Brandon Chatmon of the Daily Oklahoman writes about College Gameday coming to Stillwater, OK this Saturday. 

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel talks about the carnival sideshow that is Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings.

Ed Sherman at Crain’s Chicago Business says despite the 11th hour change for the Illinois-Northwestern game, the Cubs still want more football games at Wrigley Field.

Paul Banks writing for Chicago Now has a recap of College Gameday’s stop at Wrigley Field.

Dusty Saunders at the Denver Post notes that the Broncos are a big part of the history of Monday Night Football.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has your SoCal sports calendar for this week.

Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times profiles local sports talker Joe McDonnell who’s lost a lot of weight, but can’t find a full-time gig. 

Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle says Giants voice Jon Miller appears to be leaning against accepting ESPN’s offer to call Sunday Night Baseball on radio. 

Bruce Dowbiggin in the Toronto Globe and Mail says Montreal Canadiens rookie defenseman P.K. Subban is drawing the attention of CBC for various reasons.

Dave Kohl at the Major League Programs blog says reporters who speculate without the facts should have their media credentials revoked.

We will end it there.

Quick Sunday Links

Let’s do some linkage on this Sunday.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News mentions that Tennis Channel has begun coverage of the year-ending ATP World Tour Finals this week.

Stu Hackel of Sports Illustrated looks at the New York Islanders’ silly ban of blogger Chris Botta.

Doug Farrar of Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner blog says NFL Network’s Matt Millen is not winning any popularity contests among viewers.

Martin Peers of the Wall Street Journal writes about Time Warner Cable’s plans to offer a cheaper cable tier without mainstay ESPN.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News says the NFL pregame shows will devote plenty of time to canonizing Michael Vick.

Ethan Sacks of the Daily News writes that the NFL is using electronic forensics in the Brett Favre-Jenn Sterger case. 

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post feels the NFL is still promoting violence.

In SB Nation New York, Puck The Media’s Steve Lepore talks about the Islanders revoking Chris Botta’s media credentials.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman notes that ESPN2′s crew tried to keep its audience interested in the Oklahoma-Baylor blowout. 

The Tulsa World says ESPN’s College Gameday is headed to Stillwater, OK this Saturday. 

Steve Daniels of Crain’s Chicago Business says the stalker convicted of secretly taping Erin Andrews is being sued by another woman.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the NFL is going high-tech on its investigation into Brett Favre’s alleged sexting to Jenn Sterger.

Sports Media Watch has its Weekend Ratings Predictions.

SMW has some NBA ratings notes.

SMW has more ratings news and notes.

Joe Favorito looks at college football hitting some non-traditional sites yesterday.

And we’ll end it there.

Bringing Back Some Megalinks, Part I

Since I’ll be away from any wireless technology this afternoon, I’m doing the megalinks now and will try to get as many as I can in before leaving the office for the day.

Let’s start now and I’ll provide some links I could not get to over the last couple of days.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand has the ESPN announcing teams for the BCS games coming in January.

Mike McCarthy of USA Today notes that Versus will be rolling out a new daily NHL studio show to replace The Daily Line which went off the air last week.

Mike also talks with ESPN public relations executive Keri Potts who had to fight off a sexual assault while vacationing in Italy.

And Keri’s blog, A Fight Back Woman, which describes how she escaped is must reading not only for women, but for men as well.

From the Wall Street Journal, Aditi Kinkhabwala profiles one of the New York Giants employees who has become a giant part of the team and owner’s family. Thanks to Newsday’s Neil Best for the link.

Joe Posnanski of Sports Illustrated has some thoughts of Joe Morgan’s firing from ESPN. 

Jon Lafayette of Broadcasting & Cable notes that lower revenues from ESPN caused parent company Disney’s fourth quarter-earnings to drop.

Fox Sports’ Brian Lowry is already fed up of seeing and hearing about the Miami Heat.

Marcus Vanderberg of SportsNewser speaks with Screamin’ Gus Johnson.

The Big Lead wonders if the upcoming ESPN book has already cost someone his job.

Sports Media Watch notes that ABC’s Saturday Night Football ratings tied a record low.

SMW has some news and notes.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says Americans aren’t too enthralled about 3-D TV and to be honest, I’m not rushing out to buy a $5,000 TV set to wear glasses over my regular pair of glasses to watch an NFL game.

Darren notes that MLB now has an official cookie.

Joe Favorito says the New Jersey Devils’ work in the community off the ice is beginning to pay off for their brand.

Ben Koo at Awful Announcing notes that ESPN’s Lou Holtz has brought his quirky Dr. Lou character to a new Discover Card ad.

At Press Coverage, Dan Levy felt NFL Network’s Bob Papa deserved a medal for enduring a night with Joe Theismann and Matt Millen. 

I also have a post on Joe Theismann’s pitiful performance on Thursday Night Football.

East and Mid-Atlantic

The always lovely Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe announced this week that she’ll no longer be covering the Red Sox for the newspaper, but remain with the Globe.

Chad Finn of the Globe says NESN has ended the Uri Berenguer experiment as co-host of NESN Daily.

At the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Bill Doyle notes that WEEI’s morning team of John Dennis & Gerry Callahan are getting ready for their TV closeup starting on Tuesday.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times wonders why it took so long for ESPN to jettison Joe Morgan from the Sunday Night Baseball booth.

Richard gets a rather terse statement from Morgan over ESPN dropping him.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks with Fox Sports’ Troy Aikman about the Cowboys’ new interim coach.

Dan Mangan of the New York Post notes that former Versus “Daily Line” co-host Jen Sterger finally met with the NFL regarding the Brett Favre sexting situation.

Phil Mushnick of the Post feels ESPN is wrong for trying to make us care about the Steelers’ James Harrison.

Justin Terranova of the Post speaks with ESPN’s Dick Vitale about St. John’s coach Steve Lavin.

Justin also has five questions for CBS’ NFL Today analyst Bill Cowher.

The New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman feels Jets coach Rex Ryan knows how to manipulate the media.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union has SNY’s college basketball schedule for this season.

Pete says Siena College has no qualms about putting its home basketball games on TV.

Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record says SNY has made a couple of hires.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun wasn’t a fan of Matt Millen and Joe Theismann in the NFL Network booth. 

Dan Steinberg in the DC Sports Bog at the Washington Post notes that ESPN Radio hack Colon Cowherd did a character assassination on rookie Wizards guard John Wall.

Dan noticed that the NFL Network took on writer John Feinstein over the Donovan McNabb benching from two weeks ago?

I’ll end it here for now as I have to leave the office for a bit. I wanted to bring these to you now. I’ll have more coming later. Hopefully.

Monday’s Links

Plenty of things going on as we have hit November. In addition, we’re getting reports on the ratings from last night’s head-to-head matchup between Sunday Night Football and the World Series. For the night, Fox won the overall ratings, but with the NFL up directly against the World Series, it appears NBC has won that battle. Both Fox and MLB are claiming victory, but I’m sure I’ll receive dueling press releases from both NBC and Fox about this later today. When I do, you’ll see them here.

Ok, to the links.

From Mike McCarthy of USA Today, he writes that the Sunday NFL pregame shows were full of vitriol towards Brett Favre.

Mike also looks at the World Series ratings from Saturday and Sunday.

Fox Sports’ Jason Whitlock wants to know where’s the outrage surrounding Notre Dame student Declan Sullivan’s death. He’s the student told to go up in a scissor lift last week in the midst of heavy winds to video tape a football practice and died when the lift came crashing down.

To the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center where Jason Fry has a few suggestions where newspaper websites can continue to lead the way in innovation and experimentation.

Georg Szalai of the Hollywood Reporter has several analysts saying that Fox won in the dispute over Cablevision.

John Eggerton at Multichannel News writes that U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) is happy over the resolution of the Cablevision/Fox dispute, but says government intervention may be needed in future carriage fights.

In The Sports Commentary, Melinda Travis gives us some of the reasons why sports public relations works for athletes and clients.

Noah Davis at SportsNewser shoots down a theory that ESPN is getting out of the 3-D business. 

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid has video from CBS’ The NFL Today of insider Charley Casserly talking about Jenn Sterger ready to file lawsuits over the Brett Favre affair.

Phil Mushnick from the New York Post says Fox’s NFL analysts speak out of both sides of their mouths.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union has the NFL Week 9 TV schedule for the New York Capital Region.

Pete also provides the college football TV schedule for Week 10. Week 10!

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says DC NFL team coach Mike Shanahan’s decision to bench QB Donovan McNabb during yesterday’s game against Detroit drew plenty of criticism from local analysts.

Tom Jones from the St. Petersburg Times shares his thoughts on the weekend in sports television.

Barry Horn at the Dallas Morning News writes that San Francisco is not only beating the Texas Rangers on the field, but also beating Dallas in the head-to-head ratings battle.

John Kiesewetter at the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that Fox Sports Ohio returned to Dish Network over the weekend.

John notes that a Kentucky exhibition basketball game will be aired locally tonight.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel likes Fox’s hiring of Mike Pereira as an NFL rules analyst.

Bob also talks about Jenn Sterger ready to file a lawsuit against anyone who has a living pulse.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business talks with the Sun-Times’ Rick Telander about his new book with former Bears coach Mike Ditka to commemorate the 1985 Super Bowl team.

Ed says the 1985 Bears will get together this week to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of winning Super Bowl XX.

Dusty Saunders from the Denver Post says Brett Favre had a rather tumultuous week. 

Tom Hoffarth at the Los Angeles Daily News has your SoCal sports calendar.

Awful Announcing notes that Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal doesn’t need to be told that he’s diminutive.

Sports Media Watch looks inside the first time the NFL has beaten the World Series head-to-head.

SMW says ESPN got good numbers for the Miami Heat home opener on Friday.

I got bogged down with work in the midst of doing the links so I’ll give you what I have for now.

Providing Some Sunday Links

Yesterday was busier than I expected both personally and sports media-wise. I was out most of the day which prevented me from providing links, but then the Cablevision/Fox story broke and I give tremendous kudos to Brian Stelter of the New York Times who tweeted the news just as Game 3 of the World Series was about to air on Fox. And he was able to get statements from both companies and in particular, the extremely bitter statement from Cablevision that it acquiesced to Fox’s demands. Thanks to you, the traffic to Fang’s Bites was quite heavy for a Saturday and it’s much appreciated.

I published that statement up while I was in a movie theater, about to see “Red” with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren and Richard Dreyfuss. Good movie, but blogging during the previews wasn’t quite what I had in mind, but it was important to get the news out as fast as possible. Here I am, trying to shade my iPhone so people won’t see the light in the dark theater and copying and pasting the press release from Cablevision. Thank goodness for the BlogPress iPhone app which allows me to blog at a moment’s notice.

Ok, to your links.

Mike Farrell of Multichannel News says the Cablevision/Fox accord was hashed out minutes before World Series Game 3.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel writes that Cablevision and Fox could not kiss and make up after firing off terse statements about the agreement.

Minutes after the Cablevision/Fox deal was announced, New York Times reporters Brian Stelter and Bill Carter gave an overview of how the agreement was reached.

Phil Swann at TV Predictions says Cablevision came to an agreement with Fox, then fired a shot across the company’s bow.

Richard Huff and Rich Schapiro of the New York Daily News says the agreement came in time for today’s Jets game against Green Bay which is airing on Fox.

Andy Edelstein of Cablevision-owned Newsday writes about the end of the carriage dispute.

In SB Nation New York, Steve Lepore at Puck The Media looks at how the Cablevision/Fox dispute affected the network’s ratings. 

Ok, we’re moving on from Cablevision/Fox and on to other sports media stories. I’m tired of these carriage dispute stories.

Bill Reynolds of the Providence Journal talks with legendary Boston Celtics TV voice Mike Gorman who got his start on WPRO-AM in Providence. 

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes that a reluctant Sandy Koufax agreed to take part in a new documentary on Jews in baseball.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News says the opening segment of Football Night in America with Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth and Al Michaels is must see TV.

Phil Mushnick from the New York Post is blaming ESPN for everything that’s bad in society. He does make a good opening point, then sours into extreme bitterness.

Dan Mangan of the Post says brunette bombshell Jenn Sterger will likely meet with the National Football League to talk Brett Favre. Just get it done and over with, honey. And maybe help your dead show, The Daily Line, with a statement or two about the story instead of clamming up. I was on your side on this earlier, but stonewalling the NFL hasn’t helped you.

Chuck Gormley of the Cherry Hill (NJ) Courier-Post profiles the Vice President and General Manager of Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. 

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic’s Wizards reporter about the team’s chances this season.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News reports that Fox Sports Houston will lose the Astros and Rockets in 2012-13.

Barry writes that the NFL TV partners don’t want to kill off the Cowboys despite their pitiful record.

Mitchell Schnurman of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram profiles the real owners of the Texas Rangers, the team behind front men Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan.

Bud Kennedy of the Star-Telegram says Fox is showcasing the Ballpark at Arlington in a way similar to how it showed AT&T Park in San Francisco during the World Series. 

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle says Dish Network subscribers could lose the local CBS affiliate later tonight.

David says Comcast SportsNet Houston will become a reality in the 2012-13 season.

The Daily Oklahoman has a video clip from an upcoming ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on former Oklahoma University running back bust Marcus Dupree.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman says the ESPN on ABC crew gushed over Oklahoma’s quarterback last night. 

Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has video of a new ESPN NBA promo featuring Stuart Scott and the Bucks mascot, Bango.

Michael Rand in the Minneapolis Star Tribune talks with Dan Patrick. 

Dan Caesar at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says Dish subscribers get Fox Sports Midwest back on their systems.

Matt Solinsky of the Desert Sun (CA) answers a reader’s question on the chances of seeing NFL Network on Time Warner Cable this season. 

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks with disgraced track star Marion Jones about the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on her and her new book.

Bruce Dowbiggin at the Toronto Globe and Mail says Rogers Sportsnet has chosen to reject Fox’s feed of the World Series and take MLB International’s.

Joe Favorito says NBC is choosing to put the Fright in Fright Night tonight.

Sports Media Watch has its Weekend Ratings Predictions.

SMW speaks with PromaxBDA President Jonathan Block-Verk about the upcoming Sports Media Marketing Awards.

Jonathan Stein at CultureMob would like to see Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia on DirecTV and so would I.

A good amount of links today. Enjoy your Sports Sunday.

DEVELOPING: Versus Cancels "The Daily Line"

Citing low ratings, Versus has canceled The Daily Line. It was touted as an alternative to ESPN’s SportsCenter. Premiering in April during the NHL postseason, The Daily Line settled into an 11 p.m. timeslot featuring multiple hosts including former Florida State University Cowgirl Jenn Sterger who eventually became a lightning rod over the Brett Favre sexting story. But with an average audience of 53,000 viewers and an 0.06 nightly rating, Versus could not justify keeping the show on the air.

John Ourand of Sports Business Journal broke the news today saying Versus will most likely replace The Daily Line with a nightly hockey highlights show.

USA Today’s Mike McCarthy reports that the show will go off the air next Thursday.

When the story of the Favre sexting scandal broke, Sterger never once addressed the story on The Daily Line and it’s not known if she’ll keep her silence as the show leaves Versus. I have contended that if she ever broke her silence about the story on the show, it would lead to huge ratings, but with an 0.06 average, I wonder if her talking would be similar to a tree falling in the forest and no one around to hear it. Would she really make a sound?

Anyway, I thought the show wasn’t bad for what it was trying to accomplish, but overall, it comes down to viewership and The Daily Line didn’t have enough to survive.

I’ll have more on this in the days ahead.

Our Monday Linkage

Now that I’ve returned to the regular office, it’s time to bring you the linkage as it’s a back to work day for most of us.

Let’s go.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today writes that the NFL’s TV partners took a close look at the hard hits on Sunday.

Nat Worden of the Wall Street Journal looks at the experiment that puts the authenticated ESPN programming online for Time Warner Cable subscribers.

Milton Kent of Fanhouse talks with NFL Films President Steve Sabol on the issue of violence.

John Ourand and Michael Smith of Sports Business Journal tell us that ESPN has joined Fox Sports as a bidder to operate the University of Texas sports network.

James Hibberd of the Hollywood Reporter writes that Sunday Night Football dominated the ratings for NBC last night.

George Winslow at Broadcasting & Cable says Turner Sports will offer one price for the NBA’s pay per view package on TV, computers and cell phones.

Anthony Crupi and Katy Bachman of Mediaweek look inside the numbers in the Cablevision/Fox dispute.

Aaron Kuriloff of Bloomberg says NFL Network is urging Cablevision to go to binding arbitration to  settle their dispute.

Toni Fitzgerald at Media Life Magazine says NBC’s Sunday Night Football took out the viewing competition.

And Toni says TBS saw huge gains for the American League Championship Series over last year’s MLB Postseason.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell catches up with former Auburn star Bo Jackson. 

Noah Davis at SportsNewsers wonders why Sports Illustrated chose a notorious soccer hater (the Boston Globe’s blowhard Dan Shaughnessy) to explain the sale of the English Premier League’s Liverpool to Red Sox principal owner John Henry.

In Fishbowl New York, Jerry Barmash writes that ESPN Radio New York’s Seth Everett is joining
the New Jersey Nets radio broadcast team. 

Jerry also writes about the arrangement between the New York Islanders and Hofstra University to air their games on the student radio station.

Brian Stelter and Bill Carter of the New York Times write that the Cablevision/Fox dispute now threatens World Series viewing for subscribers.

In the New York Post, Phil Mushnick picks on Yankees postseason ticket prices.

Claire Atkinson from the Post talks about the NFL Network doing a surprise ploy on Cablevision. 

In the Albany Times Union, Pete Dougherty has the Week 9 college football schedule for New York’s Capital Region.

And Pete points out the NFL games that will be seen locally for Week 8.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun is not a fan of CBS’ Steve Beuerlein who called the Bills-Ravens game with Don Criqui.

At the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg noticed signs referencing the DC NFL Team and the DC Sports Bog at Saturday’s College Gameday appearance in Missouri.

Tom Jones at the St. Petersburg Times reviews the weekend in sports TV.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News says the ALCS could not have ended better for Texas Rangers fans.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that ESPN3.com makes its debut today on Time Warner Cable.

Barb Berggoetz of the Indianapolis Star talks with Indiana Pacers TV host and sideline reporter Stacy Paetz who survived an abusive relationship.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Cris Collinsworth got the job done on Sunday Night Football

Bob says Vikings-Packers got a huge rating in Milwaukee.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business notes that White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen will be working for Fox during the World Series.

Dale Bowman of the Chicago Sun-Times looks at Dan Patrick’s debut on the Comcast SportsNet affiliate.

Dusty Saunders at the Denver Post says former Bronco offensive lineman Mark Schlereth became a voice of reason in the illegal tackle debate.

Tom Hoffarth in the Los Angeles Daily News has the sports calendar for this week.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail poo poos cynics who feel the World Series has teams from small markets.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media notes that CBC, NBC and NESN NHL analyst Mike Milbury makes his Versus debut next month.

Sports Media Watch says the National League Championship Series did pretty well for Fox, but still finished below 2009 levels.

SMW says CBS garnered good overnight numbers for NFL Week 7, but the ratings were still down from last year.

The National Sports Daily noticed that WFAN’s Craig Carton chose to hit Jenn Sterger below the belt this morning.

Johnny Crowe at The Crowe’s Nest discovered that Comcast SportsNet New England is not picking up The Dan Patrick Show.

On that note, a Comcast SportsNet New England spokesman told me that the original press release listing CSN New England was incorrect. The channel may pick up the show at a later date.

Here’s the current list of Fox Sports Net and Comcast SportsNet affiliates that are airing the Dan Patrick Show.

Joe Favorito wonders if Pro Bull Riding can become a viable and breakout sport.

That will complete the linkage for today.

Bringing The Sunday Links

Let’s get busy with the Sunday linkage. Some good stuff to get to.

On Fox NFL Sunday, Jay Glazer reported that Vikings quarterback Brett Favre denied sending pictures of his shlong to Jenn Sterger, but did admit to leaving voicemails on her cell phone. I’ll have video of that segment during the Fox NFL Sunday quotage later today.

Speaking of which, Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk says the NFL is ready to move on from the Favre/Sterger story. a

Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio has video of Saturday Night Live entering the Brett Favre/Jenn Sterger fray.

Mike also shoots down Jenn Sterger’s manager’s denials that she’s not looking for a payoff from Favre to keep quiet.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says the American League Championship Series ended up being the most watched LCS in cable TV history.

Mike Farrell of Multichannel writes that there was no progress made in the Cablevision/Fox dispute on Saturday.

Back to Mike Reynolds who tells us that CBS College Sports will use a free preview to honor the Service Academies this week.

Bob Raissman from the New York Daily News isn’t surprised that MSG Network jettisoned Gus Johnson from Knicks games.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post says MLB Postseason announcers don’t realize how things can change from pitch-to-pitch.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has your World Series starting times.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes that ESPN’s Trent Dilfer is a Green Bay Packers critic.

The Appleton (WI) Post-Crescent notes that CBS’ Greg Gumbel will be the keynote speaker at the annual Red Smith Banquet early next year. 

Dan Caesar at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes that the attendance at ESPN’s College Gameday stop at the University of Missouri set a record for the show. 

David Briggs of the Columbia (MO) Daily Tribune says Missouri students turned out en masse for College Gameday’s first appearance at the school.

Tom Hoffarth in the Los Angeles Daily News looks into the background of Fernandomania which is the subject of the latest ESPN 30 for 30 documentary.

Tom also reviews the documentary.

Tom has a more extensive review here.

Tom wonders what local NFL viewing would be like if Los Angeles actually had a team in place.

The Sports Media Watch says TBS had a good audience for the ALCS.

SMW also has its Weekend Ratings Predictions.

That will do it.

Let’s Do Some Saturday Linkage

Time to provide some linkage on this Saturday. Lots of stuff going on.

Tom Van Riper of Forbes.com notes that Cablevision and Fox are now acting like spoiled little children. 

John Simon from Bloomberg reviews the Broadway play, “Lombardi”.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Dave Kindred wants to see the wall of ethics return in sports journalism.

Mandi Bierly of Entertainment Weekly writes that TBS has hired “Bull Durham” director Ron Shelton to create a minor league baseball comedy. 

The Lalate blog notes that the TOcho show on Versus garnered really low ratings on Tuesday. Really, really low. 

To SB Nation Boston, where Boston Sports Media Watch’s Bruce Allen discusses the local media and fan reaction to Patriots cheap shot artist Brandon Meriweather.

Dan Mangan of the New York Post reports that Brett Favre tried to contact Jenn Sterger a year after texting pictures of his manjunk. According to the Post, Favre allegedly called her when he was in New York for the premiere episode of HBO’s Joe Buck Live. Thanks to Robert Littal of Black Sports Online for this link.

New York Magazine chronicles Week One of the Cablevision/Fox dispute. 

Dave McKenna of the Washington City Paper notes that a group of former ESPNZone restaurant workers in Baltimore and DC is forming a class action lawsuit saying the the closing of the theme establishments was handled illegally.

Keith Groller at the Allentown (PA) Morning Call notes that the son of the late Phillies announcer Harry Kalas will sing “God Bless America” during the 7th inning stretch of tonight’s Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.

Tim Guidera of WTOC-TV in Savannah, GA is angry over the NFL not allowing his station to air the Falcons and requiring it to show the Jaguars instead. Thanks to the506.com for the link.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News talks with ESPN’s Jon Gruden.

Victor Godinez of the Morning News has Fox skeptical of restoring its cable networks including its Sports Net affiliates to Dish Network anytime soon. 

Jim Ingraham of the Morning Journal (OH) assesses the MLB Postseason announcers.

Patricia Babcock McGraw of the Chicago Daily Herald notes that there are mixed opinions on the new espnW.

Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune notes that the Timberwolves have finally released their TV schedule. 

The Boulder (CO) Daily Camera reports that FSN Rocky Mountain will be all over University of Colorado sports over the next four months. 

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times says the FCC wants proof from Cablevision and Fox that they’re bargaining in good faith. Certainly does not appear to be the case.

The Los Angeles Wave looks at the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on former Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela.

The Eugene (OR) Register-Guard notes that Versus is picking up the Oregon-Cal game on November 13.

Sports Media Watch says CBS is seeing its highest NFL ratings in over a decade.

SMW points out that Fox garnered a season low for its early NFL window last week and wonders if that was a result of not having Cablevision subscribers.

And SMW says NLCS Game 5 got the highest ratings of this year’s MLB Postseason.

We’re done with the linkage for today. We’ll be on top of any breaking news if it happens.

Time For Some Friday Megalinks

I haven’t given you a full set of Friday megalinks since October 1, so it’s time to do some now. Let’s get to them.

The Weekend Viewing Picks has your sports and primetime viewing.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand and Mike McCarthy debate what can be done to improve baseball’s ratings.

Fanhouse says Jenn Sterger appears to be ready to talk with NFL Security about Brett Favre.

Georg Szalai of the Hollywood Reporter says the FCC is urging Cablevision and Fox to talk in good faith on Monday.

John Eggerton from Broadcasting & Cable says the FCC is calling both Cablevision and Fox on the carpet.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News looks at how Time Warner Cable customers can legally watch Monday Night Football and other ESPN programming online.

Mike Farrell of Multichannel says Fox is telling Cablevision subscribers to buy an HD antenna so they can watch network programming.

Kelly Ridell of Bloomberg says the Cablevision/Fox dispute is heading into its second weekend with no apparent end in sight.

Noah Davis at SportsNewser says ESPN Boston will webcast the Head of the Charles event this weekend.

Wayne Friedman at MediaPost explores the story that won’t go away, Timeoutgate, from the Monday Night Football game in Jacksonville.

SportsbyBrooks looks at Jay “The Rat” Mariotti deleting his Twitter account. Good riddance, Jay.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media notes that TSN has picked up 24 Montreal Canadiens games.

The Sports Media Watch notes that former NBA star Chris Mullin has apparently joined ESPN’s roster of analysts.

SMW says NLCS Game 5 received its highest ratings in three years.

Joe Favorito says a former New York Giant understands the value of a publicity stunt.

Emmett Jones of Sports Business Digest says NBC is asking in excess of $400,000 per 30 second spot for Sunday Night Football, up significantly from last year.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe profiles Celtics TV duo Mike Gorman and Tommy Heinsohn who have worked together for 30 years starting with two seasons calling Providence College basketball.

Thomas Grillo of the Boston Herald says a Tweet from the New England Patriots helped to prevent a blackout of the team’s game in San Diego this weekend.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette has TNT’s Reggie Miller singing the praises of the Boston Celtics.

Ken Belson and Richard Sandomir from the New York Times says former Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks is seeing his former team’s success as an outsider.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks with polarizing New York Yankees voice John Sterling.

Neil has his weekend viewing picks.

Bob Raissman at the New York Daily News feels YES’ and ESPN Radio New York’s Michael Kay has been speaking out of both sides of his mouth.

As expected, Phil Mushnick of the New York Post takes his newspaper owner’s side in the Cablevision/Fox dispute. News Corp. owns both the Post and Fox.

Pete Dougherty in the Albany Times Union says NBA fans will overdose on seeing the Miami Heat this season.

In the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg notes that DC sports icons got to tape new “This is SportsCenter” ads.

Andrew Beaujon at the DC-centric TBD.com notes that co-author of the new ESPN book, Tom Shales is leaving the WaPo after 39 years as its television critic.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with NFL RedZone host and former Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic anchor Scott Hanson.

South

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald says the Heat have terminated their agreement with their flagship radio station and are now looking for a new home.

The Dallas Morning News’ Barry Horn finds a way to jab Newsday’s Neil Best. A couple of years ago, Horn and Best had a friendly war of words in their respective blogs.

The Houston Chronicle’s David Barron talks with NBC’s Rodney Harrison about his statements about hard hits in the NFL.

Midwest

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press talks about the Dan Patrick Show premiering on Fox Sports Detroit on Monday.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bob Wolfley notes that the Big Ten Network will profile a Wisconsin defensive end tomorrow.

And Bob says Joe Namath on his Sirius XM show likes Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business has his weekly winners and losers.

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune writes that ESPN has postponed the airing of a 30 for 30 documentary on the infamous Steve Bartman.

Jeremy Fowler of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press reports that Jenn Sterger won’t talk to the NFL if Brett Favre pays her off. Thanks to Robert Littal of Black Sports Online for the link.

Dan Caesar in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says ESPN’s College Gameday loves being at the University of Missouri.

Dan says the Missouri Attorney General has weighed in on the Dish Network/Fox Cable Networks flap.

West

Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune has CBS’ Phil Simms previewing this Sunday’s Patriots-Chargers game.

John Maffei of the North County Times gets Jim Nantz’s favorite San Diego sports moments.

Tom Hoffarth in the Los Angeles Daily News writes that even without a home team, LA still loves watching the NFL.

Tom has his extensive media news and notes.

I’m going to end it there.

Filling Out The Wednesday Linkage

Let’s do some linkage. I had to catch up on paperwork in the morning and I’ll provide some links now. Lots of good stuff today.

We begin with Sports Business Daily and a story on ESPN starting a three part series on how the public views LeBron James? Does this require three days? The Alleged Worldwide Leader continues to provide fodder for its critics with stuff like this.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand notes how a less than stellar Monday Night Football game beat the ALCS in the ratings.

Sean Leahy at USA Today’s The Huddle blog has Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher clarifying statements that ESPN asked him to call timeouts to get its commercials run during Monday Night Football. 

Brian Lowry of Fox Sports says it’s time for baseball to bring fans closer to the action through technology.

Amir Efrati of the Wall Street Journal watches his San Francisco Giants on delay and chronicles the silly ways he prevents from finding out the score until he watches the games some 8 hours later. Thanks to Barry Pachesky of Deadspin for the link.

Jon Wertheim at Sports Illustrated says tennis needs to improve its TV coverage. 

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times says the NFL needs to relax its TV blackout policy.

At Pro Football Talk, NFL Security wants to speak with Deadspin’s AJ Daulerio. 

Alex Weprin at SportsNewser says the Rose Bowl has a new presenting sponsor.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says the NFL Players Association had no sense of humor and took a Twitter handle away from a group of fans. 

Darren notes that a shoe banned by the NBA is now bringing its manufacturer increased business.

Darren wonders what Magic Johnson’s intentions are after the former Lakers star sold his share in the team and also liquidated his Starbucks franchises.

John Eggerton and Mike Farrell of sister publications Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News say the Cablevision/Fox dispute rolls on.

In Multichannel News, John has the FCC Chairman unhappy over the Cablevision/Fox fight. 

John of B&C says Tennis Channel and Comcast are heading to arbitration.

John writes that MSG Network is willing to go to arbitration to settle its dispute with Dish Network.

Mike Shields of Mediaweek tells us that the NBA has a new social network app.

Anthony Crupi from Mediaweek says thanks to Monday Night Football, ESPN overtook TBS as the top network in the cable primetime ratings.

Mediaweek’s Katy Bachman has Massachusetts Senator John Kerry willing to step in to get the Cablevision/Fox dispute resolved.

Diego Vasquez at Media Life Magazine says nothing is new in the Cablevision/Fox dustup.

To gossip publication OK Magazine where ESPN.com and Comcast SportsNet Northwest personality Lindsay McCormick denies that she’s dating Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez. 

In the New York Times, Brian Stelter and Bill Carter say Cablevision and Fox are intensifying their war of words.

Brian looks at how Fox extended this fight over TV carriage to Hulu.com.

Richard Sandomir in the Times says sports fans are a huge loser as the fight between the two parties drag on.

The New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman says TBS was on top of Bengie Molina’s home run power before he hit a huge bomb against the Yankees last night.

Newsday’s Bob Glauber notes that Jenn Sterger’s attorney has had contact with the NFL in regards to the Brett Favre sexting investigation.

Newsday’s Neil Best says the ratings for the ALCS have been very good despite the Yankees being beaten to a pulp in Games 2-4.

Brendan Prunty of the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger finds the Yankees fan who was caught by TBS cameras flipping off Texas Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz after the fan interfered with a fly ball that eventually became a home run. Thanks to Matt Sebek of Joe Sports Fan for the link.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner writes that the Ravens and DC NFL Team dominated the TV ratings in their respective local markets.

Jim says the NFL may use regional rivalries to help promote a new 18 game schedule.

Jeff Elliot of the Florida Times-Union spent time in the ESPN Monday Night Football production truck for the Tennessee-Jacksonville game.

Jim notes that the American League Championship Series is bringing in the ratings for TBS.

Tom Jones at the St. Petersburg Times looks at the NFL’s impressive TV ratings.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman says ESPN/ABC made a mistake regarding a trivia question that should have included former Sooner running back Adrian Peterson.

Mel notes that an Oklahoma football game got beat by the NFL in the local TV ratings.

The Detroit Free Press is giddy over Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio ripping of ESPN analyst and former Lions GM Matt Millen. 

Reggie Hayes of the Fort Wayne (IN) News-Sentinel speaks with ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen. 

Bob Wolfley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes that the insufferable Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News was included in a book dedication by mystery author Elmore Leonard.

George Diaz in the Chicago Tribune writes that ESPN and NASCAR are searching for reasons why TV ratings are down significantly this year. 

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says ESPN is making the College Gameday appearance at Missouri a big event. 

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls (IA) Courier notes that ESPN Dictator George Bodenheimer will be making an appearance in the Hawkeye State this week.

Bob Young in the Arizona Republic talks with Dan Patrick about Fox Sports Net simulcasting his radio show.

Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star previews tomorrow’s Pac 10 meetings which will also include talks on its TV contacts.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has a look at the NFL ratings in SoCal.

From the Fairbanks (AK) Daily News-Miner, we learn that Fox Sports Northwest will be picking up 9 Great Northwest Athletic Conference NCAA Division II basketball games.

MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez speaks with the TBS cameraman who had a close call with a broken bat during the ALCS last night. 

Sports Media Watch has the Weekend Overnight Ratings.

SMW says while the media is harping on the ALCS being beat by Monday Night Football, Paulsen notes that MNF had its smallest audience since 2008.

SMW has the local ratings for the LCS.

Susan Shan asks just what is the truth in the Brett Favre/Jenn Sterger story.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media notes that Christine Simpson joins the New Jersey Devils TV crew.

Yardbarker’s Pete Vlastelica writes an open letter to explain what the Fox purchase of the blogging network means.

Dave Kohl at Major League Programs talks about some upcoming sports radio show TV simulcasts.

Mike Silva’s New York Baseball Digest has ESPN Radio New York’s Don LaGreca calling out WFAN’s Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton for being Yankee suckups.

And that will conclude our linkage for today.

A Sunday Linkage Grind

Let’s do some linkage for you on this busy Sports Sunday. NFL Week 6 and Game 2 of the NLCS. We also have the Cablevision/Fox talks that affects 3 million households in the nation’s largest media market. And there’s the Mad Men season finale tonight so I may have to hire a blimp to fly over my house, today is so big.

Let’s get busy.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News looks at TBS’ great ratings for Game 1 of the American League Championship Series.

Mike Farrell of Multichannel notes that fans in New York have to scramble to watch today’s Lions-Giants game due to the Cablevision/Fox dispute. 

George Szalai of the Hollywood Reporter says Cablevision subscribers in New York and Philadelphia are looking at blank screens again today when they turn to their local Fox stations this morning.

David Ubben of ESPN.com’s College Gameday blog says the show is heading to Missouri for Mizzou’s game against Oklahoma.

Nancy Armour of the Associated Press says the NFL’s broadcasters are walking a fine line in praising a big hit and talking about concussions.

Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk notes NBC’s Alex Flanagan’s interview of NFL Commish Roger Goodell who broke news of Brett Favre going to be interviewed this week over the Jenn Sterger issue. While Favre will speak with the NFL on Tuesday, let it be noted despite saying she would cooperate with the NFL, Sterger has said nothing regarding this story making her word look very bad right now.

Mike Florio at PFT says NFL Network will bring back its “Official Review” segment to Total Access with new league head of officiating Carl Johnson.

Alan Greenwood of the Nashua (NH) Telegraph says ESPN is going all-Miami Heat, all the time.

Dave Ruden from the Stamford (CT) Advocate has ESPN’s Bobby Valentine in no rush to leave the network.

From last week, Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes that legendary Big Apple sportscaster Sal Marchiano is suing his former TV station in an age discrimination lawsuit.

Brian Stelter and Bill Carter of the Times say consumers have to sit on the sidelines and watch Cablevision and Fox duke it out until someone blinks. 

Brian says it appears fans won’t be able to watch today’s Lions-Giants game on Cablevision.

Also in the Times, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann reviews the new biography on Mickey Mantle.

John Branch of the Times looks at how Major League Baseball is digitizing its extensive archives.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News feels the TBS crew should have been more pro-Yankees in Game 2 of the ALCS.

Without any evidence, Raissman says this will be the last season for Jon Miller and Joe Morgan on ESPN. He also said this in 2008 without any evidence.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post is a bit too giddy about a man who pleaded guilty in a mortgage fraud scheme and was the Jets’ point man in selling Personal Seat Licences.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says this year’s ALCS Game 1 on TBS was down slightly from last year’s opener on Fox.

Evan Weiner in the New Jersey Newsroom says the Cablevision/Fox dispute exposes the hypocrisy on both sides of the argument.

Kate Wheeler at MASN says Orioles TV voice Gary Thorne is calling the ALCS and World Series for MLB International.

The Washington Examiner’s Jim Williams talks with NBC’s Tony Dungy about DC NFL Team coach Mike Shanahan.

Dan Steinberg in the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has John Riggins feeling that this is the last season for DC NFL Team radio analysts Sam Huff and Sonny Jurgensen. Again, no evidence.

Steve Kaminski at the Grand Rapids (MI) Press reviews ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary on the late NASCAR driver Tim Richmond. 

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman says Fox Sports Net got the job done for both the Oklahoma and Oklahoma State games.

Brandon Storlie of the Wisconsin State Journal looks at College Gameday’s visit to Madison.

The Sports Media Watch has its Weekend Ratings Predictions.

SportsGrid has the video of HBO’s Bill Maher picking on Brett Favre.

We’ll end it there.

Some Quick Mid-Week Linkage

I’m at a FedEx office in Cambridge, MA using its free wi-fi and taking every advantage of its LapNet Station. I could go all out and start using the copiers and printers, but free wi-fi is enough for me. I’m a happy blogger when I can connect from outside the office. It means you deserve some linkage. Let’s get started.

USA Today’s Mike McCarthy has TNT’s Charles Barkley defending Brett Favre saying the media is a bunch of jackals. Chuck may be right about that, but he’s wrong about Favre not doing anything wrong.

Sean Leahy in USA Today’s The Huddle blog has ESPN’s Mel Kiper, Jr. denying that he’s too close with certain agents. This week’s Sports Illustrated has a story of a former NFL agent who contended that Mel Kiper was used to help attract potential clients. That story is a must read. Tremendous stuff in the article.

Gregg Rosenthal of Pro Football Talk says ESPN is now looking into Kiper’s relationship with agents as a result of the SI article.

Liz Mullen of the Sports Business Journal also talks about the ESPN investigation into Mel Kiper, Jr.

The Nielsen ratings Wire blog notes that the NFL is tops in commercial viewing for the first week of the 2010-11 TV season. 

Brian Lowry of Fox Sports says ESPN didn’t measure up to covering the surroundings of the Vikings-Jets game.

Jelisa Castrodale at NBC Sports says Jenn Sterger has become a hot topic for some very strange reasons. 

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says ESPN’s Monday Night Football matchup received the 6th highest audience in US cable TV history. 6th!

Toni Fitzgerald at Media Life Magazine says the Brett Favre/Jenn Sterger saga helped to give Monday Night Football a big ratings spike.

The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir says the recently unearthed TV broadcast of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series will air on MLB Network later this year.

Richard talks with the author of a new biography on Mickey Mantle.

Newsday’s Neil Best delves into the unique arrangement between the New York Islanders and Hofstra University’s student-run radio station.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says the NHL Network will be airing American Hockey League games this season.

The Tampa Tribune reports that the Buccaneers game with the defending Super Bowl Champions Saints this Sunday is blacked out.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says thanks to the Reds playoff run, WLW-AM topped the local radio ratings.

From the Indianapolis Star, Bob Kravitz says his journalism students believe the Brett Favre/Jenn Sterger story is truly news. 

Ed Sherman from Crain’s Chicago Business says the Blackhawks banner raising ceremony will be reaired tonight on Comcast SportsNet.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says Rogers Sportsnet is using a novel concept to talk about the NHL teams they cover.

We’ll end there for now. I’ll be back later with more linkage.

Let’s Bring You The Tuesday Linkage

Already, I’ve been all over Kent County in Rhode Island for no good particular reason so I’m hoping I can stay in one place for a bit to give you linkage.

Let’s begin with Michael Hiestand of USA Today who looks at the TV ratings from the weekend.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch has his Media Power Rankings for September. 

Marcus Vanderberg at SportsNewser writes that Richard and ESPN’s Jemele Hill had a friendly wager on last Saturday’s Michigan State-Michigan game.

Here’s something to watch. Eriq Gardner of the Hollywood Reporter says there’s a conflict brewing between the Miami Dolphins and the Miami Heat on Halloween as both claim they have priority on flagship radio station WBGG-FM and both will be playing at the same time.

Sports Business Daily notes that Game 4 of the Tampa Bay-Texas ALDS is the lowest rated MLB Postseason game in TBS’ history.

Even so, TV by the Numbers says thanks to the MLB Postseason, TBS won the cable ratings last week. 

Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand and Michael Smith report that Fox Sports has emerged as the favorite to become a partner with the University of Texas for its television network. Fox has a leg up being a minority partner on the Big Ten Network.

The Associated Press reports that the ESPN NASCAR producer who was caught masturbating outside a neighbor’s window has left the network. 

The St. Petersburg Times’ Eric Deggans, writing in the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, fears how Deadspin handled the Brett Favre/Jenn Sterger story is how the sports media game will be played from now on.

Milton Kent at Fanhouse looks at why it took two months for the mainstream media to pick up the Brett Favre/Jenn Sterger story. 

Gregg Rosenthal of Pro Football Talk says Favre was not happy with Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell for disclosing to ESPN’s Michele Tafoya what the QB said during a closed door meeting.

TMZ noticed that Sterger has apparently canceled a personal appearance in Chicago this coming weekend.

It doesn’t appear Jenn will be making a statement on the story anytime soon.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News says ESPN 3D will air its first Thursday night college football game later this month.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes that Wrangler Jeans is in a quandary over Brett Favre.

Darren says Nike will become the official NFL apparel outfitter in 2012 taking over for Reebok. 

Darren talks with a Nike official about the new NFL deal.

At TV Predictions, Phil Swann looks at who’s losing the Dish Network/Fox conflict. 

To Press Coverage (to which I owe a column), Dan Levy writes that it’s time to give ESPN its due.

NFL.com gives us an inside look at NFL Network’s NFL Gameday Morning.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes that the Deadspin postings on Brett Favre has forced the mainstream media and the NFL to play catch up.

Bob Raissman in the New York Daily News says baseball needs to learn marketing from the NFL in order to pick up its TV ratings for the League Division Series. A lot of this has to do with a few factors. One, the Red Sox which has a large following is not in the postseason this year. Two, the Texas Rangers and Cincinnati Reds are unknown entities to the casual fans. Three, there’s also the Tampa Bay Rays as well. Now, if the Red Sox, Cubs, Dodgers or Angels make it next year, those ratings shoot up and we’ll be talking how hot baseball is.

The Albany Times Union’s Pete Dougherty has the NFL Week 6 TV schedule for the New York Capital Region.

Pete also has the college football Week 7 TV schedule.

Pete has the preliminary MLB LCS schedule. This will be made final after tonight’s ALDS Game 5.

In the Philadelphia Daily News, Bob Cooney talks about Eric Snow joining the 76ers TV team. 

In the Delaware County Daily Times, Bob Parent says for ESPN to report on Brett Favre’s alleged transgressions is like having to report on one of its own.

David Teel of the Newport News (VA) Daily Press reports that Eagles QB Michael Vick will make weekly call-ins to a local radio station.

Susan Miller Degnan of the Miami Herald says the Hurricanes will appear in primetime on ESPN2 later this month.

Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun Sentinel says hip hop artist Birdman’s announcement that he’s about to own a piece of the Miami Dolphins comes as news to the team itself.

Sarah and Tom Jicha team up for a story on the Heat filing a suit against Clear Channel over their radio contract.

Over to Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News who writes that the Texas Rangers have decided to let TV voice Josh Lewin go after nine seasons with the team.

Robert Feder tries to determine who’s to blame for encore presentations of Sports Writers on TV  being pulled from Comcast SportsNet Chicago after just four weeks.

Dan Caesar at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says the Rams’ debacle in Detroit led to the team’s lowest TV ratings of the season.

Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times speaks with former Lakers center Vlade Divac on tonight’s 30 for 30 documentary.

John Scheibe of the Times reviews “Once Brothers”.

The Big Lead goes into its archives and finds that Jenn Sterger was once available to appear at your New Year’s Eve party for a mere $600.

Jason Ankeny of Fierce Mobile Content says CBSSports.com is releasing 190 free mobile apps devoted to its college sports partners. 

Sports Media Watch says Saturday’s Alabama-South Carolina contest drew big ratings for CBS.

SMW says ABC’s primetime offering of Florida State-Miami drew higher numbers from the week before, but still were lower than last year.

SMW says Notre Dame football did not excite the masses for NBC.

SMW notes that NBC’s overnight rating for Sunday Night Football was the lowest of the season, but still outranked the competition.

Deadspin does another media roundup of the Brett Favre/Jenn Sterger story.

Joe Favorito says the NHL using different ways to hype itself is not a bad thing at all.

Dave Kohl of Major League Programs talks about how radio stations try not to promote the competition.

And again, it’s taken me too long to get these together mostly due to interruptions here in Rhode Island. I hope to get back to the Massachusetts office soon so I don’t have to deal with this.