Fang's Bites

Picking Out Some Sunday Links For You

Let’s do some Sunday linkage on this first NFL regular season Sunday of 2012.

We’ll begin with Pat Eaton-Robb of the Associated Press with an interesting story on how Connecticut is fast becoming home of major sports media companies.

Candace Jackson of the Wall Street talks about her visit to Rich Eisen and his wife, Suzy Shuster’s home in beautiful Beverly Hills.

Jon Gold from CBSSports.com has statements from Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott on getting the conference’s networks on Dish Network.

Also from CBSSports.com, Dennis Dodd says the SEC expects to have new TV deals in place including the super secret SEC Network, not the one run by ESPN.

Media Rantz solves the mystery of what happened to NFL Network’s Kara Henderson.

Liana Baker of Reuters reports that an NHL lockout could hurt ratings momentum for NBC Sports Network.

John Gaudiosi of Forbes.com tells us that Sony Playstation 3 gamers get a discounted price for  DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel says Dish Network has beaten DirecTV to the punch and made a deal with Pac 12 Networks in time for yesterday’s college football games.

Georg Szalai of the Hollywood Reporter writes that movie director James Cameron will be assisting UK’s Sky Sports in producing a 3-D production of this month’s Ryder Cup.

Tim Nudd of Adweek looks at ESPN’s very funny SportsCenter promo featuring John Clayton that has already gone viral.

Anthony Crupi from Adweek notes that NBC broke even on the 2012 Olympics.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch has your NFL Broadcasting Guide for the 2012 season.

Eric Deggans of the Tampa Bay Times, writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center has a theory as to why some NFL teams fail to sell out their games.

Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report has former ESPN’er Charley Steiner recalling two of the funniest “This is SportsCenter” ads ever.

Ed also has some videos from the early days of Monday Night Football. Make that very early days.

ESPN’s Darren Rovell wonders if CBS is selling Super Bowl ads on the cheap.

Evan Weiner of Examiner.com says the late Art Modell deserves better from Cleveland fans. I hate to tell you, Evan, but as a Browns fan, Modell made his bed and has to lie in it.

On the other hand, Newsday’s Bob Glauber says he can’t reconcile Modell’s pulling the Browns from Cleveland with the other parts of his legacy.

Rachel Margolis at ESPN’s Front Row PR blog says College GameDay heads to Tennessee for Week 3.

Drew Drawbaugh of Engadget reports that Google Fiber subscribers will get access to NFL Network and NFL RedZone starting tomorrow.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe says former Celtic and Chicago Bull Brian Scalabrine will join Comcast SportsNet New England as an analyst.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says two former American Basketball Association team owners who get to collect part of the NBA’s TV revenue in perpetuity, want even more and are suing to get it.

Tanzina Vega of the Times says ESPN Deportes Radio NY will be broadcasting Jets games in Spanish this season.

The Albany Times Union’s Pete Dougherty has NFL Commish Roger Goodell disappointed that the league doesn’t have a deal with Time Warner Cable to carry NFL Network.

David Zurawik from the Baltimore Sun says ratings for the Grand Prix of Baltimore fell by almost 60% from the year before. However, last year’s race was on ABC while this year’s edition was on NBC Sports Network.

David speaks with Amber Theoharis who has left MASN for NFL Network and will replace the aforementioned Kara Henderson.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with Fox Sports college football analyst Charles Davis.

Coley Harvey at the Orlando Sentinel asks if ESPN’s College GameDay will pay a visit to Tallahassee later this month.

Jimmy Burch in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes that the new Big 12 deal with ESPN and Fox will allow for more national broadcasts.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle has the college football media guide for this season.

Mel Bracht in The Oklahoman says yesterday’s PPV production of the Florida A&M-Oklahoma game was network quality.

Tim Feran of the Columbus (OH) Dispatch says NFL Network and Time Warner Cable are no closer to an agreement than when the channel debuted.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News wonders how long DirecTV can hold out not carrying the Pac 12 Networks.

Tom says Fox tapped the right man to lead its World Cup coverage.

Sports Media Watch notes that last week’s PGA Deutsche Bank Championship hit a five year ratings high.

Dann Stupp and John Morgan of MMA Junkie write that NBC Sports Network will hire some familiar names for an upcoming World Series of Fighting telecast.

And that will do it. The NFL pregame show quotage is coming up next.

The Friday Linkage

Ok, lots of links to give you on this Friday. Let’s get to them.

First, in Boston, David Scott from the excellent Boston Sports Media Watch site has his latest entry which includes the Line of the Week from Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, a recap of a busy week in the Beantown media and the transition of turning FSN New England into Comcast SportsNet New England.

The NBA schedule is out and the Boston Celtics get some national exposure on ESPN and TNT, but not ABC. Susan Bickelhaupt of the Boston Globe has that story. The Sports Media Watch blog has a couple of notes on the sked, first the number of appearances per team and of course, the Los Angeles Lakers lead the pack. And second, here’s the ABC schedule which is shrunken even further from last season (if the ratings for the NBA go down again next season on network television, NBA Commish David Stern can point to this fact as a major factor).

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand also talks about the NBA schedule and interestingly enough if you scroll to the bottom, he has a tidbit on Suzy Shuster, wife of the NFL Network’s Rich Eisen, but no updates on the swimsuit pictures accidentally sent to her by KYW’s Alycia Lane. We still need to see those pics!

Neil Best of Newsday filed a story from Washington, DC where he spent time with the ESPN Monday Night Football crew. Best and Newsday Business reporter Kat O’Brien worked on a story broken by Fortune magazine concerning the proposed sale of the YES Network, and that has been flatley denied by the Yankees.

In the New York Daily News, Bob Raissman also goes over the possible sale of YES, but states that the Yankees most likely won’t allow Cablevision and the Dolan family to get involved.

And Richard Sandomir in today’s New York Times reports that the Yankees are saying “no” to selling YES.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick feels ESPN is finally getting wise to Joe Morgan’s twisted logic.

Jim Williams in his Watch This! blog in the DC/Baltimore Examiner gives the weekend sports viewing menu.

In the State newspaper, Doug Nye says July wasn’t a good month for soccer or cyling fans.

Down to the Orlando Sentinel where Matt Murschel writes about the HBO Sports series, “Hard Knocks” looks at the Kansas City Chiefs’ training camp this year.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Charles Elmore has his own take on ESPN’s silly “Who’s Now” calling it, “Who’s Not Now.”

Barry Jackson in the Miami Herald talks about Comcast putting the NFL?Network on a sports tier.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes about Rich Lord who finally makes it as a sideline reporter for Houston Texans broadcasts after 20 years in the broadcasting business.

In the Chicago Tribune, Teddy Greenstein talks with Joe Buck of Fox Sports about the Cubs’ chances this season.

George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal tells readers that they won’t be able to see the NFL Network’s coverage of the annual Hall of Fame game this Sunday.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune which by the way has done a tremendous job in its coverage of the I-35W bridge collapse this week, has a story from Judd Zulgad talking to the Twins’ broadcasters trying to do the game that night while keeping an eye on the collapse.

Jerry Magee is covering the USTA’s Acura Classic for the San Diego Union-Tribune and he says TV coverage for the tennis tournament on ESPN2 is being revised so the network can also cover the San Francisco-San Diego game tonight. Jay Posner talks to the Padres broadcasters who are hoping that they don’t have to call Barry Bonds’ record-tying and/or breaking home runs.

And John Maffei of the North County Times has a similar story with Ted Leitner of the Padres radio team.

In the Ventura County Star, Jim Carlisle has two stories, one on the release of the NBA TV schedule. His other story is on ESPN changing its schedules to chase Barry Bonds and David Beckham.

In the LA Daily News, Tom Hoffarth has a bunch of stories. His blog entry expands on his weekly media column which is humorouly titled, “The Summer of Beckham Drags On”. Lots of stuff today from Hoffarth as he also talks with ESPN’s Paul Page who works the X Games this week.

The LA Times’ Larry Stewart talks with Sal Masekela who hosts ESPN’s X Games. And Stewart looks over the NBA schedule which is Laker-heavy.

Heading up to Canada, Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star writes that there’s a little more competition in sports talk radio these days.

And finally from the Toronto Globe and Mail, Willliam Houston discusses CBC’s coverage of David Beckham who will make his MLS debut this Sunday in Toronto.

That’s it for now. If updates warrant, you’ll see them here.

"It’s tough being married to such a handsome guy."

That’s the quote attributed to Suzy Shuster, wife of NFL Network host Rich Eisen. Suzy put out a statement in regards to the swimsuit controversy involving her husband and sexy Philadelphia news anchor Alycia Lane. Michael Klein of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes about how Suzy is pretty much unfazed about the whole incident. Klein cites sources saying that there’s no strain on her marriage with Eisen.

In addition, there’s a benefit for Lane. Apparently the ratings for her newscast on KYW (CBS 3) have gone up since the story broke. The story by Dan Gross of the Philadelphia Daily News adds that the pictures came while Alycia was covering a story in California and while she was taking pics of her incredible body, producers and photogs were doing the heavy lifting in producing her package.

I don’t know how or who sent Suzy’s e-mail to Page Six (cough Suzy cough), but the next story should be about Alycia’s swimsuit pics being leaked to the media.