Time to do some thoughts before the NFL Conference Championship Games. Once they start, I won’t be able to get this done. As usual, they come in bullet form.
- Last week, Grantland put forth a story by Caleb Hannan on the science behind a golf putter and the person who invented it. And while it’s a fascinating piece, the further I read, the more I was bothered about the details that were being revealed.
Hannan’s subject of the story, Dr. Essay Anne Vanderbilt, apparently lied about her background and college degrees, but then he went one step further and proceeded to out her. Dr. V as she was labeled in the story had asked that Hannan only write about the putter and the science behind it and not about her.
But as Hannan researched more about the putter and her background, the more he found about the cracks in her story and then discovered she was transgendered. Dr. V later e-mailed Hannan asking him to stop and telling him that he was going to be responsible for a hate crime. Later she committed suicide.
Now, whether she killed herself directly over Hannan’s digging or had other issues, we’ll never know. The more I read the story, the more I was troubled over Hannan’s callousness on Dr. V’s death. He appeared more troubled about outing the science over the putter than Dr. V herself. And the way Grantland promoted the story was also callous.
There have been several articles that have criticized Hannan for his outing of Dr. V (here, here and here) plus the Big Lead’s Ty Duffy has his take on the story. In addition, there are ethics about outing someone and that’s where the story has angered many in the transgendered community.
Hannan has been quiet on his Twitter account since Friday and an e-mail requesting him to appear on a podcast has gone unanswered. The fallout will continue to be heard on this for the next few days.
- Now back to sports fantasy land and I’m not talking about fantasy football, the bids for the Thursday Night Football package are in and as I told you last week, ESPN/ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and Turner Sports have submitted bids. An NFL spokesman told me that the league will review the bids starting this week. There isn’t a timetable as when an announcement will be made, but expect it within one to two months.
The league wants to have a package of games on broadcast TV and also simulcast on NFL Network. Expect at least half of the package to be split between the new partner and NFL Network.
If ABC gets the package, it would mark the first time the NFL would be on that network since it aired Monday Night Football in 2005.
It appears Turner is a long shot at this time.
- Still no word on who will replace Tim McCarver on Fox. Back when McCarver left after the World Series, we had heard Harold Reynolds was a prime candidate to take McCarver’s place. However, there’s been no leaks from the Fox camp on Joe Buck’s new partner. And we should hear word on the 2014 regular season MLB schedule on Fox/Fox Sports 1 after the Super Bowl.
Ok, those are some quick thoughts. Ponder them. Disagree and debate. Drop me a line to tell me what you think.
