ESPN Radio to air NFL Sunday afternoon games

Written by Ken Fang on .

Joining an already crowded field, ESPN Radio has announced it will begin carrying Sunday afternoon NFL games starting this fall. Because the NFL allows teams to sell their out-of-market rights to syndicators, ESPN signed five teams, the Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, New York Giants, New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers.

ESPN Radio joins Compass Media Networks, Dial Global and Sports USA in providing national NFL Sunday afternoon radio broadcasts. ESPN's games will not affect the local broadcasts. If you live in Pittsburgh, you'll still hear the Steelers on WDVE and WBGG. ESPN Radio's broadcast of the Steelers will be blacked out in the local market and the same if the network airs a Patriots game, Boston would be blacked out from hearing the broadcast.

In addition, ESPN Radio's broadcasts will not be streamed. The only way to listen will be through your radio set.

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UFC switches The Ultimate Fighter coaches after injury to Cat Zingano

Written by Joe Lucia on .

The UFC has swapped a head coach due to injury for just the second time in the history of The Ultimate Fighter. The 18th season, premiering in the fall on Fox Sports One, was scheduled to pit womens bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey against #1 contender Cat Zingano after Zingano beat Miesha Tate last month. However, when filming began on Tuesday, Tate was there and Zingano wasn't.

What happened was that Zingano blew her knee out while training (and later tweeted a picture of her recovery in the hospital after surgery), and that the UFC immediately reached out to Tate to replace her. Tate and Rousey have a history of verbal sparring, and they have a history in the cage too after Rousey armbarred Tate in the first round of their fight last March to win the Strikeforce womens bantamweight title.

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5 NBA announcers who deserve more airtime

Written by Matt Yoder on .

The playoffs aren't just a time for the teams to shine, what about the announcers!  That's what we're here to talk about at least.  With the NBA Playoffs now moving through the Conference Finals, we take a look at 5 personalities we'd like to see featured more prominently on ESPN and TNT's NBA coverage throughout the postseason and beyond...

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Sportsnet's Hockey Central Twitter account gets hacked, sends out porn links for four days before anyone notices

Written by Andrew Bucholtz on .

Editorial Note:  We have received a note from Sportsnet telling us that the account was hacked and the tweets have been deleted. You'll have to resort to finding porn links on your own now. They've issued an apology on Twitter. You can find a full list of the tweets here.

The sports media world has been connected to the porn world in a lot of odd ways over the years, from Florida Times-Union writer Vito Stellino accidentally tweeting a porn link instead of a link to a newspaper piece to Bill Plaschke's discussion of his porn-viewing habits on a sports radio show to Miami radio host Dan Sileo tweeting he wanted to see Erin Andrews in porn to the ongoing coverage of Taylor Stevens at hockey games. Tuesday might have seen one of the weirdest ones yet, though. Apparently Rogers Sportsnet's HockeyCentral Twitter feed (which has over 15,000 followers!) has been tweeting nothing but suggestive, spammy sex invitations since Saturday...and no one noticed until they sent a particularly graphic one to Sporting News hockey writer Jesse Spector, who promptly pointed it out to the world. It's obvious the account's been hacked (an actually valid excuse for once!), but what's stunning is how no one at Sportsnet appears to be paying any attention to it. 41 minutes after that tweet to Spector, the tweet still existed, as did the four days of archived spam messages. Here's a compilation of some of the best (full Storify feed of all the messages available here):

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2014 NFL Draft officially moving to mid-May; don't expect it return to April

Written by Brad Gagnon on .

The National Football League has confirmed that next year's Draft will indeed take place two weeks later than usual. The league's second-biggest annual event will be held once again at Radio City Music Hall in New York, but on May 8, 9 and 10, rather than April 24-26. 

"The decision was made after discussions with club personnel and key NFL business partners," the league wrote in a press release issued Tuesday. "No decision has been made regarding the dates of the NFL Draft in 2015 and beyond. A variety of alternatives are being explored, teams were told, including holding the Draft at Radio City or at other locations, either in the New York area or in other cities."

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Viewing Picks for May 29, 2013

Written by Ken Fang on .

All Times Eastern

College Football
College Football Live -- ESPN, 3:30 p.m.

College Frisbee
USA Ultimate College Championship: Men -- ESPNU, 8 p.m.
USA Ultimate College Championship: Women -- ESPNU, 9 p.m.

College Softball
Women's College World Series Press Conference -- ESPNU, 2 p.m. & 4 p.m.

Golf
Memorial Honoree Ceremony -- Golf Channel, 3:30 p.m.
On the Range: Memorial Tournament -- Golf Channel, 8 p.m.

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Tuesday in NFL news: Justin Bieber feuds with Keyshawn Johnson and Eric Dickerson

Written by Brad Gagnon on .

Ed Note: The following appears courtesy our friends at This Given Sunday.

For a variety of reasons, the NFL offseason is rarely dull. But the latest sharp story from the world of football (sort of) in May might be the strangest yet.

You know how it goes: Two NFL legends living in an affluent Los Angeles suburb take issue with a Canadian pop star. 

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Keith Hernandez calls a broken bat a "dead soldier" on Memorial Day

Written by Joe Lucia on .

Monday in America was Memorial Day, a day where we celebrate the men and women of the Armed Services that we've lost. MLB typically loads up the schedule with day games and pays tribute to the military before and during each game, and it's something that is a sight to see.

During the Yankees-Mets game on Monday night, Keith Hernandez (a solid, or dare I even say good, broadcaster) made a very unfortunate and (assumingly) accidental slip-up. After Phil Hughes made a nice pitch and broke Daniel Murphy's bat, Hernandez explained what happened, and called the broken bat a "dead soldier". You wouldn't think twice about that on any other day, but on Memorial Day, it's a wince-worthy remark.

[Larry Brown Sports]

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2013 Indianapolis 500 draws lowest overnight rating ever

Written by Joe Lucia on .

Despite a record 68 lead changes, the 2013 edition of the Indianapolis 500 didn't draw viewers. The race's 3.8 overnight rating on ABC was its lowest ever, down 7% from 2012 and 12% from 2011. Since the race began to be broadcast live starting in 1986, this year marks the first year where the overnight has dipped below a 4.0, the previous low set in 2010. This also is the first time in history that the race has drawn under a 4.5 rating in five straight years.

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Ryan Lochte gets dumped over the phone

Written by Ken Fang on .

One of the pitfalls of doing a reality TV show is that the cameras record everything. They not only record the good moments, but the bad moments as well. For Ryan Lochte, cameras were present when his girlfriend of four years called him and dumped over the phone. While we didn't hear the actual conversation, the moment the phone rang and the aftermath of the call were seen on "What Would Ryan Lochte Do?" Well, we know what Ryan did after he got dumped, he drowned his sorrows with beer. 

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