Chael Sonnen was in Bristol on Tuesday going through the ESPN car wash to promote his light heavyweight title fight with Jon Jones on Saturday at UFC 159. At the end of his interview with Sage Steele on SportsCenter, Sonnen went into hard sell mode, and it all began with him asking to feel Steele's hair. After confirming that the anchor's hair was real and that he loves it, Sonnen admitted he doesn't hate anyone, especially women...and then looked towards the camera in the style of The Rock, raising his eyebrow towards the camera.

The sales pitch for the fight was even more impressive, considering that Sonnen is a 6:1 underdog and that Jones isn't too much on his end to promote his title defense. Just with his words, Sonnen is coming off as the more confident, favored fighter, even though the common belief is that he's going to get smashed by Jones. 

Fighters everywhere could take a lesson from Sonnen's brash, albeit eccentric, personality. His ability to push the fight like no other is something that is invaluable to the UFC, and him overcoming the odds and winning the title would be a huge boon towards fight cards for the rest of the year for the company.

During Game 2 of the Clippers-Grizzlies NBA playoff series on Monday night, Memphis was making a comeback late in the fourth quarter. Darrell Arthur broke free of Los Angeles defenders, dunked the ball, and was fouled by Lamar Odom.

Of course, play by play commentator Dick Stockton completely ignored the dunk, saying that in fact, Odom prevented Arthur from making the basket. In such a close playoff game with a minute and a half to play, two points isn't that big of a big deal, right? This seems to be par for the course for Stockton, and you wonder how many more years TNT is going to stick with him calling playoff basketball.

[CJZero]

Since he became the lead announcer for the NFL on CBS in 2004, Jim Nantz has had the opportunity to thrice pull off the rare sportscasting feat of calling the Super Bowl, NCAA Tournament and The Masters in the same calendar year.

This year, each event had its bizarre moments. The Super Bowl had the Louisiana Superdome blackout, the NCAA Tournament had Kevin Ware breaking his leg and there was the whole "should Tiger Woods be disqualified" story.

In an interview with Sports Business Journal's John Ourand, Nantz said that he wanted to jump out of the booth during the Super Bowl blackout and run down to the field so he could help CBS report on the situation, but instead he was told to remain where he was. Given CBS's immense struggles during that time, Nantz doing his best superhero impression and coming to the rescue of the bumbling coverage may have actually been a decent option. As strange as it sounds:

After a 3-1 loss in Vancouver last night, Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith had an exchange with Vancouver sportscaster Karen Thompson that caused the sports world to rise up with jeers of sexism.  Keith appeared to slash Daniel Sedin on a Canucks goal, but was not called for a penalty.  After the game, Thompson tried to bring up the slash to Keith and prodded him about it not being called.  Keith didn't appreciate the line of questioning, which led to a weird exchange of Keith derisively saying she should be a "female referee" and that Thompson didn't know the game.

Immediately, alarm bells went off about Keith being a misogynistic neanderthal and taking us back 30 years to when female reporters weren't welcomed in locker rooms.  However, after listening to the full exchange, I'm not sure Keith's crime here is as much sexism as it is a graceless tete a tete with any reporter that would challenge him in the locker room.  Here's the full audio...

Elway and his father hours after being picked by the Colts, a move that led to them announcing he would play baseball instead. ESPN's latest installment of 30 for 30 airs tonight at 8 PM ET.

If you had to pick three companies that are thriving at producing high quality sports documentary content, you'd give the nod to HBO, NFL Films, and ESPN with their popular 30 for 30 series. Tonight's 30 for 30 installment in Elway To Marino has the distinction of being the only 30 for 30 film to be produced by NFL Films, thus giving the film about the 1983 NFL draft a second helping of high production value special sauce.

After a lengthy search, ESPN today named a new ombudsman to replace the Poynter Institute.  After the experimental nature of the institute's reign as ombudsman led to mixed results at best (we're still waiting for that Craig James column that never came), ESPN has gone back to one person in the role.  That person is former New York Times writer and PBS host Robert Lipsyte.  Lipsyte wrote a sports column for the Times and also wrote at ESPN.com for a period in the mid-2000s.  Lipsyte promises to work towards transparency in the ESPN announcement...

The latest edition of the UFC on Fox drew a 1.5 overnight rating and 3.31 million viewers, slightly down from the 3.77 million viewers and 1.8 rating that the January edition of live fights on the broadcast network drew. The December edition of the UFC on Fox drew 3.41 million viewers and a 1.6 rating, pretty close to this weekend's edition.

Controversy follows Liverpool striker Luis Suarez wherever he goes.  He's a brilliant player, perhaps the most naturally gifted in the English Premier League.  His last minute goal and assist in Liverpool's 2-2 draw with Chelsea Sunday and league leading 23 goals proves that.  But Luis Suarez can't stop doing monumentally stupid things.  Diving, racial abuse, and for some troubling reason - trying to eat the flesh other human beings.

For the second time, Suarez bit an opposing player for the world to see, this time Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic was the Uruguayan's tasty treat.  Suarez faces another lenghty ban and many are calling on Liverpool to dump their best player because he's that much of a detriment to the club's reputation.  The scandal gave the infamous British press something to chew on in terms of clever, shocking headlines yesterday morning.  The British tabloids are quite the phenomenon, like New York tabloids on horse steroids.  Here's a roundup of the back pages and front pages featuing the Cannibal of Anfield...

All Times Eastern

College Baseball
Vanderbilt at Louisville -- CBS Sports Network, 6:30 p.m.
USF at Florida -- Fox College Sports Atlantic, 7 p.m.

College Football
College Football Live -- ESPNU, 3:30 p.m.
CFB Daily: Spring Blitz -- ESPNU, 4:30 p.m.
Inside College Football: Draft Special: Big Uglies -- CBS Sports Network, 9:30 p.m.
Inside College Football: Draft Special: Diamonds in the Rought -- CBS Sports Network, 10:30 p.m.

College Softball
Illinois at Iowa -- Big Ten Network, 4 p.m.
Houston at Baylor -- Fox College Sports Central, 5 p.m.
Illinois at Iowa -- Big Ten Network, 6:30 p.m.
Houston at Baylor -- Fox College Sports Central, 7:30 p.m.

Golf
Golf Channel Academy: Bernhard Langer: Bunker -- Golf Channel, 7 p.m.
Playing Lessons From the Pros: Natalie Gulbis -- Golf Channel, 7:30 p.m.
Golf's Greatest Rounds: 2003 The Players -- Golf Channel, 8 p.m.

MLB
American League
New York Yankees at Tampa Bay -- MLB Network, 7 p.m.

National League
Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati Reds -- WGN America, 7 p.m.
St. Louis at Washington -- MLB Network, 7 p.m.

Baseball the Ripken Way: Defense -- MLB Network, 1 p.m.
The Rundown -- MLB Network, 2 p.m.
MLB Now -- MLB Network, 4 p.m.
MLB Tonight -- MLB Network, 6 p.m.
Baseball Tonight -- ESPN2, 10 p.m.
MLB Tonight -- MLB Network, 10 p.m.
Baseball Tonight -- ESPN2, midnight
Quick Pitch -- MLB Network, 1 a.m. (Wednesday)

NBA Playoffs
Eastern Conference
Game 2: Milwaukee at Miami -- NBA TV, 7:30 p.m.
Game 2: Boston at New York -- TNT, 8 p.m.

Western Conference
Game 2: Golden State at Denver -- TNT. 10:30 p.m.

Inside the NBA -- TNT, 1 a.m. (Wednesday)

NFL
SportsCenter Special: On the Clock -- ESPN, 2:30 p.m.
NFL Live -- ESPN, 4 p.m.
Around the League Live -- NFL Network, 4 p.m.
Path to the Draft -- NFL Network, 6 p.m.
Top 10 Draft Day Moments -- NFL Network, 8 p.m.
The Ones -- NFL Network, 9 p.m.
Gruden's QB Camp: EJ Manuel -- ESPNU, 10 p.m.

NHL
Boston at Philadelphia -- NBC Sports Network, 7:30 p.m.
Dallas at San Jose -- NBC Sports Network, 10 p.m.

NHL Live -- NHL Network, 5 p.m.
NHL Live -- NBC Sports Network, 6:30 p.m.
NHL on the Fly -- NHL Network, 7 p.m.
NHL Tonight -- NHL Network, 10 p.m.
NHL Live -- NBC Sports Network, 12:30 a.m. (Wednesday)

Sports Talk
NFL AM -- NFL Network, 6 a.m.
The 'Lights -- NBC Sports Network, 6 a.m.
Morning Drive -- Golf Channel, 7 a.m.
The Dan Patrick Show -- Audience Network (DirecTV)/NBC Sports Network, 9 a.m.
Tim Brando Show -- CBS Sports Network, 9 a.m.
Sky Sports News -- Fox Soccer, 9 a.m.
The Box Score -- Audience Network (DirecTV)/NBC Sports Network, noon
SVP & Russillo -- ESPNews, 1 p.m.
Outside the Lines -- ESPN2, 3 p.m.
Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable -- ESPN2, 3:30 p.m.
SportsNation -- ESPN2, 4 p.m.
The Best of the Dan Patrick Show -- NBC Sports Network, 4 p.m.
Pardon the Interruption -- ESPN, 5:30 p.m.
ROME -- CBS Sports Network, 6 p.m.
The Crossover -- NBC Sports Network, 6 p.m.
Fox Soccer News -- Fox Soccer, 10 p.m.
UNITE -- ESPNU, midnight
Lead Off -- CBS Sports Network, midnight

UEFA Champions League
Semifinal, Leg 1
Bayern Munich vs. Barcelona -- Fox Soccer, 2:30 p.m.

UEFA Champions League Pregame -- Fox Soccer, 2 p.m.

Even without Kobe Bryant, the Lakers are a draw for ESPN. Los Angeles' first game of the 2013 playoffs, against the San Antonio Spurs, drew a 4.6 overnight rating, the best opening weekend rating for a game on ABC since 2003 (which once again featured the Lakers, coming off of their third straight NBA Championship taking on the Timberwolves).