The hammer dropped on ESPN's Rob Parker Friday morning.  ESPN announced this morning the pundit/debater/instigator was "suspended until further notice" for his incendiary comments about Washington Redskins QB Robert Griffin III on Thursday's edition First Take.

Remember Bob Costas' halftime essay on the Jovan Belcher murder-suicide and guns?  For a couple days last week that was seemingly all everybody in America was talking about.  And then everyone moved on.  Sure, there were a couple meaningful conversations about gun violence and domestic violence, especially within the context of the NFL, but for the most part we've all forgotten about it.  Like we always do with any story in this new age of news.

In the dying embers of the frenzied gun control/culture debate though, one strange media feud has developed.

Fox News' Bill O'Reilly vs Fox Sports' Jason Whitlock.

The Memphis Grizzlies have hired ESPN columnist and basketball sabermetrician John Hollinger to be their vice president of basketball operations. Hollinger, who had been with ESPN since 2005, continues the march of teams across all sports to become more data-driven and analytic by hiring prominent Internet columnists and analysts, including Mike Fast and Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus by the Houston Astros (who also courted ESPN's Keith Law last winter).

As the calendar winds down for 2012, it's that time once again to wistfully look back on the year that was at AA.  We start our retrospective on the last 12 months with our favorite clips from 2012.  While it was tough work for the AA selection committee to select a Top 10, we hope you'll enjoy some of our favorite moments from the past year.  These are the best, funniest, most awkward, and most random clips from the year that was in 2012.  Bon appetit!

10) David Locke Loses His Mind

In April, the Utah Jazz trailed the Memphis Grizzlies by 3 in the final seconds.  As Utah's Derrick Favors missed a layup for a potential 3 point play to tie the game, play by play man David Locke took the opportunity to speak in tongues on the air.

We're sorry too, Larry.  We're sorry too.

Thursday, December 13

Cincinnati Bengals @ Philadelphia Eagles [NFLN 8:20PM] Brad Nessler, Mike Mayock & Alex Flanagan

Sunday, December 16

Denver Broncos @ Baltimore Ravens [CBS 1PM] Greg Gumbel, Dan Dierdorf
Indianapolis Colts @ Houston Texans [CBS 1PM] Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts
Jacksonville Jaguars @ Miami Dolphins [CBS 1PM] Marv Albert, Rich Gannon

Green Bay Packers @ Chicago Bears [FOX 1PM] Joe Buck, Troy Aikman & Pam Oliver
New York Giants @ Atlanta Falcons [FOX 1PM] Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, Tony Siragusa
Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ New Orleans Saints [FOX 1PM] Thom Brennaman, Brian Billick & Laura Okmin
Minnesota Vikings @ St. Louis Rams [FOX 1PM] Gus Johnson, Charles Davis & Katarina Pink
Washington Redskins @ Cleveland Browns [FOX 1PM] Ron Pitts, Mike Martz & Krista Voda

Seattle Seahawks vs. Buffalo Bills @ Toronto [FOX 4:05PM] Dick Stockton, John Lynch & Jennifer Hale
Detroit Lions @ Arizona Cardinals [FOX 4:05PM] Chris Myers, Tim Ryan & Jaime Maggio
Carolina Panthers @ San Diego Chargers [FOX 4:05PM] Sam Rosen, Heath Evans & Jill Savage 

Pittsburgh Steelers @ Dallas Cowboys [CBS 4:25PM] Jim Nantz, Phil Simms
Kansas City Chiefs @ Oakland Raiders [CBS 4:25PM] Kevin Harlan, Solomon Wilcots

San Francisco 49ers @ New England Patriots [NBC 8:20PM] Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth & Michelle Tafoya

Monday, December 17

New York Jets @ Tennessee Titans [ESPN 8:30PM] Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden & Lisa Salters

H/T Sammy!

HBO boxing analyst, interviewer, and mainstay Larry Merchant will call his final fight for the cable network Saturday night when Nonito Donaire faces Jorge Arce.  The 81 year old commentator has been with HBO since 1978 and has stood as one of the last remaining mainstream voices of boxing.  He was also a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and New York Post in his sportswriting career.

In all of the debatable moments in the history of First Take, this is one of the most debatable.  Weekend First Take "star" Rob Parker offered bizarre commentary about Washington Redskins QB Robert Griffin III that is unbelievable even by Rob Parker's standards.  It all started because of a First Take debate on quotes RGIII gave USA Today about not having to be defined by his race.

Parker began the discussion on RGIII's comments and floated the question asking if RGIII was "a brother or a cornball brother."  Parker then threw out speculation and questioned RGIII for being a Republican and having a white fiance.  After a question from Skip Bayless, Parker then affirmed RGIII was a "brother" because he wore braids.  Stephen A. Smith came on directly after Parker and appeared as the voice of reason, saying "I'm uncomfortable with where we just went.  RGIII, the ethnicity, the color of his fiance is none of our business, it's irrelevant, he can live his life any way he chooses... I don't judge someone's blackness based on those types of things."

Here's the video evidence...

ESPN has aired their latest installment of the 30 for 30 documentary series ' You Don't Know Bo' three times. For those who attempted to DVR any one of these three viewings, all three airings of the program left viewers with an incomplete recording unless they added extra time to the end of the program. Below a look at how this came to be.

It's no secret the newspaper industry is dying a slow, painful death and layoffs are commonplace.  But this story fromRomenesko about what's happening at the Kansas City Star may be the most maddening, depressing, unbelievable story from the print media world.  It's something I've never seen or heard of happening before at a legitimate, real-life company.  

The newspaper is forcing two writers, Karen Dillon and Dawn Bormann, to decide their own fate on which one out of the pair will be laid off, and which one will stay employed.

We've had some fun ripping professional on-camera buffoon Warren Sapp to shreds here before, so let's just give you the straight-up details on the latest silly incident involving the former sack machine that still won't shut up. We'll let you draw your own conclusions.

See, Sapp ran into some money trouble earlier this year and was forced to pull a Michael Scott and declare bankruptcy. It just so happened, though, that when he made that filing he failed to include his Super Bowl ring from 2002 as part of his list of assets to be liquidated. 

The ring was lost, he claimed. 

And suddenly, half-a-year later and with the Buccaneers celebrating the 10th anniversary of said Super Bowl, Sapp has apparently found the very important piece of jewelry. 

Here's a shot from the event, courtesy of the guys at JoeBucsFan:

“Is it so unbelievable that I misplaced my ring?” Sapp said back in April. No, knowing you, not really. But it's a little harder to believe that the ring is suddenly back. 

Unless, of course, you're wearing a replica....