A couple months back at the Blogs With Balls Conference, former SportsCenter host, Josh Elliott (now with Good Morning America), confirmed what many sports media enthusiasts had concluded for quite some time.

ESPN would often confirm already broken stories without attributing the story to another media organization. Andrew Bucholtz was one of many in attendance who took note of the revelation as this seemingly standard practice hadn't really been confronted or confirmed in any way. 

"Elliott also criticized ESPN for its decision to start putting Chris Mortensen "reports" that were reworkings of other organizations' football stories on their ticker.

"They just started stealing scoops," he said. "It was a practice I never agreed with. ... I felt horrible."

Elliott said he made his concerns known to his bosses, but they never went too far.

"It’s such a big place," he said.

Elliott deserves thorough props for being willing to criticize his employer in front of an audience. It was one of the most interesting moments of the day, and one that gave me a great deal of respect for him. The rest of the panel was notable as well, though."

Of late the practice has begun to rankle those within the business as ESPN continues to utilize the tactic in the moments and hours after news initially breaks.

Dan Patrick has quite the monologue on the topic, which I implore you to listen to below as ESPN tried to piggyback off Yahoo's Tim Brown's scoop of the Angels' signing of Albert Pujols. 

Those are strong words and you can tell it's a topic the former ESPN host is passionate about. I'd quote the good parts, but really the entire two minutes packs a good punch.

Patrick isn't alone though as there has been a noticeable outcry within the industry as ESPN continues to get beat to the punch, but still goes through the act of "breaking" the story on Twitter and on live television without attributing to real people. 

Below are some of the many instances where media folks are speaking out. We're so cool, you can just click read more rather than make you endure a slide show...

Below is the full TNT NBA schedule for the coming season.  Because TNT contractually has the opening game of the season, they draw the first of five Christmas Day games - Celtics at Knicks.  In fact, it's the Celtics and Lakers (not LeBron and the Heat) that have the most scheduled TNT appearances at 10.  As with the ABC schedule, all the league's top powers are heavily featured throughout the course of the abbreviated season.  Durantula and the Thunder appear six times.  TNT will also have all the All Star festivities from Feb 24th-26th and feature the largest media acquisition of the offseason with The Big Prognosticator now in the fold.

H/T Fang's Bites!

With the NBA season getting closer, the reworked TV schedules are out.  The 66 game slate starts with a Christmas Day Quintupleheader on ESPN, ABC, and TNT.  The early highlight is the rematch of the NBA Finals, Heat/Mavs, being one of those five games to open the season.  First up is the nationally televised schedule on ABC, followed by the full ESPN lineup and the TNT games in a separate post.  So much for "competitive balance" as ABC will only feature 8 out of the 30 NBA teams on network television.  I doubt too many fans of the league will complain though as these are all great matchups...

ABC schedule

ESPN schedule after the jump...

Dick Stockton makes a charge this week with a great showing in the Straight Outta Stockton vote to extend his lead.  Chris Berman and Brian Billick also highlight this week's list.  Down to the last month of the season, and this week's group of Dickies winners may be the most enjoyable yet.  The envelope, please...

10) "if that was a pass down the field it would have been pass interference" - Phil Simms (via dmitsch15) describing a block on a punt return.

9) "Brandon 'Our Prices Are In' Saine" - Chris Berman (via CMehring) jumping the shark for 17 years running.

8) "Tom Brady is half quarterback, half coach, half coordinator." - Rich Gannon, no wonder Brady's so good, he's 1.5 people! (via markgoodman10)

7) "This is an aroused Cardinals defense we are seeing here today." - Dick Stockton (via PTNetherton)  Eww...

6) In summary, today Brian Billick has called Jared Allen "Gerald", Brian Dawkins "Darryl Dawkins", and Big Ben as "Roethlisbooger." Amazing. (via AA)

5) "Arian Foster Houstonian for beer" - Chris Berman (via AA) in the most bizarre Australian accent known to humankind.

4) "Hand off to Wells! Kolb can't find any one. Incomplete." - Dick Stockton (via TheBrain2177)

3) "You see a lot of head coaches handle the playcalling but you don't see a lot of head coaches handle the playcalling" - Jim Mora (via ShutdownLine)

2) "They should let Michael Vick take a shot at the end zone here." - Brian Billick from Broncos/Vikings (via sctvman)

1) John Lynch: "Dez Bryant slipped there." 
Dick Stockton: "Yeah, and so did Dez Bryant. You wonder if there's a problem." (via SportsByDallas)

Week 13 Top 5 -

1) Dick Stockton 75 pts

2) Brian Billick 47 pts

3) Phil Simms 46.5 pts

4) Jon Gruden 44 pts

5) Mike Tirico 28 pts

Others receiving votes - Chris Berman 23 pts, Dave Lapham 14 pts, Jim Mora 14 pts, Dan Dierdorf 13 pts, Rich Gannon 12 pts, Joe Buck 11 pts, Cris Collinsworth 11 pts, Terry Bradshaw 10 pts, Scott Hanson 10 pts, Jim Nantz 10, Dan Fouts 8.5 pts, Bob Griese 8.5 pts, Troy Aikman 8 pts, Dan Patrick 7 pts, Mike Mayock 6 pts, Daryl Johnston 5 pts, Tim Ryan 5 pts, Al Michaels 4.5, Bob Costas 4 pts, Warren Moon 3 pts, Marv Albert 3 pts, Keyshawn Johnson 3 pts, Chad Pennington 2 pts, Thom Brennaman 2 pts, Tony Siragusa 1 pt, Ron Jaworski 1 pt.

You can check out the Week 14 NFL announcing schedule here.

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Good news for those goofy kids from Angels In The Outfield, your team is now stacked. In just a couple of hours they've spent north of 300 million on contracts for Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson.

Also, GREAT news for those of you who enjoy awkward TV moments. Ravech, Kruk and Francona were on the set discussing the massive moves the Angels made live on SportsCenter. If you see at the beginning of the clip, Ravech is fiddling on his phone. Nope, he's not playing Angry Birds. Ravech was apparently in contact with Wilson's representative and just decided to ring him up on the air. I thoroughly enjoyed an obviously flabbergasted Francona looking around frantically and making jokes as he's only been on the job for just under a week now. Ravech did get some good information, the Angels signed Wilson for 77.5 million.

The New Yorker has an interesting read about where Jon Gruden's career is at today and some entertaining behind the scenes information about Monday Night Football. Even though the piece is 98% about Gruden, a quote from Jaws was easily my highlight of the article. Jaws said and repeats, trying to sell himself on what he's actually saying, "call me crazy, but I’m really excited for Tyler Palko tonight.” And who could blame Jaws? Falco, that scrappy quarterback out of San Dimas High School, was getting his shot for the Chiefs on the big stage. Wait. Tyler Palko? He wasn't talking about the fictional movie character, Shane Falco? Well then, Jaws you are crazy.

Another interesting thing I learned was that in 2001, People Magazine named Gruden one of the "most beautiful people." I called shenanigans on the New Yorker until I dug this goody up. My only explanation of Gruden being named one of the "most beautiful people" is that there sure must have been a lot of uggos roaming around back then. Gruden also has some peculiar idiosyncrasies such as waking up each morning at precisely 3:17 AM and being the founder of the F.F.C.A (Fired Football Coaches Association), which is apparently real and not a made up thing that actually meets. 

Even though I've cherry picked a few of the bizarre points of this lengthy piece, it's actually a really informative article about the immense preparation he does for MNF and if his future is in the booth or on the sidelines. The tireless work ethic of football coaches is pretty renowned for inundating a coach until they are burned out. Gruden isn't coaching a team anymore, but he hasn't radically altered the way he prepares for the next game. Even though this guy (pointing thumbs at self) would never call Gruden one of my favorite announcers, it's refreshing the change of tone MNF telecasts has taken in recent years. In the years before Gruden, the most prestigious game of the week was dumbed down to an almost insulting degree to the viewers. While he might never say a bad word about anyone on the field, at least we can be confident the announcers know what they are talking about. And shit, isn't that the most important thing?

[New Yorker]

Shaq has always been one of the most entertaining sports stars on and off the court, but his teaser ad for the return of the NBA season is something that will remind you of what to look forward to come December.

Being that most of the American population is so fixated on football right now, missing the NBA during its lockout was something that never really came to a boil. Which is why networks like TNT are looking for creative ways to remind us all of what we may have missed out on so far this year; Shaq analyzing basketball games.

Besides the embarrassing attempt at a rap career, Shaq brilliant dances and sings his way through a “get ready ‘cause here I come” themed video set to introduce the future HOFer in his first job behind a desk at TNT.

While the jury is still out on his actual analytical skills, there is no doubt he will bring plenty of entertainment value to TNT’s NBA Thursday coverage... especially if Chuck and Shaq throwdown like this.

H/T Yardbarker

Mark Schlereth is a bit of a polarizing guy. A bit boisterous at times, he's been low hanging fruit to be mocked by the blogosphere and Twitterverse. 

On today's show, Schlereth attempted to show off his comedic and singing chops in one comprehensive and majestic sonnet, which oddly enough ended with a reference to Vanilla Ice.

I'd recommend Schlereth to not quit his day job....wait actually...that works too.

Posting might be light the next couple of days as many of us at AA have requested mental health days when this news came across our desks.  While not terribly shocking given the numbers Cowherd pulls across ESPN, there is still a knee jerk reaction of "Are you serious?"

ESPN employs a massive amount of on air talent, the bulk of which is pretty stellar. But there also seems to be a portion of that talent that falls into a "They're soo bad they're good" strategy. Woody Paige and Skip Bayless are other long term ESPN personalities that seem to fit into this bucket.  

While they certainly have their audience and moments, a lot of their shtick is "What will they say next?" as sports talk radio has proven that asinine and outrageous musings can inexplicably retain an audience.

A four year deal with ESPN isn't very common, but given the amount of programs and platforms Cowherd is involved with, ESPN decided to stretch out this extension.

I personally reacted to the news by loosening my tie and pouring myself a drink (not really), but given Matt's documented disdain of Cowherd, I picture his reaction to the news similar to this.   

Today the Baseball Hall of Fame selected the winner of the presitigious Ford C. Frick Award.  The award is the top honor amongst baseball announcers and has been won in the past by legends like Mel Allen, Vin Scully, Jack Buck, and Curt Gowdy.  This year, the Ford C. Frick Award, which "is presented annually to a broadcaster for 'major contributions to baseball,'" was awarded to one James Timothy McCarver today.

After exhaustive research, it was discovered that this was not a prank...

Tim McCarver is being honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame for excellence in broadcasting.

Tim McCarver is being honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame for excellence in broadcasting.

Tim McCarver is being honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame for excellence in broadcasting.

Words cannot describe this absurdity.

In case you are still doubting this story, and I can't blame you, here's what the President of the Baseball HoF had to say about Timmy...

"Tim McCarver has been the face and voice of baseball's biggest moments on national television," said Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson. "His wit and intuition, combined with his passion for the game and his down-home style, delivers a trusted insight for viewers. Tim's journey in reaching baseball broadcasting's highest honor has connected generations of New York Mets fans as well as audiences across the country for more than 30 years."

Wit?  Intuition?  Passion?  Has this guy from the Hall of Fame watched an MLB on Fox broadcast in this millenium?!?!  I'm sure McCarver was a fine analyst back in his prime, but that's been in upwards of twenty years ago.  I know baseball ratings have been down recently, but I would have at least thought people at the Hall of Fame would still be watching games.  Then again, perhaps viewers muting televisions and mass tweeting their best attempts to mock McCarver's announcing gems counts as "major contributions" to baseball these days.

Deadspin publicized the conference call number for anyone to ask questions of the newest honoree earlier today and then recorded hilarious audio for posterity.  The first three questions on the conference call included - Tim McCarver's vendetta against the Yankees, whether or not he wanted to rub his fingers through Joe Buck's hair, and my favorite... "Do you think your nomination into the Hall of Fame illegitimizes the Hall of Fame?" 

Sadly, we didn't get McCarver's response to that last question.

Nevertheless, Tim McCarver, the same guy who said "strike" was a five letter word and proceeded to spell it out, is being honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame for excellence in broadcasting.  The same guy that produced this montage of awfulness is being honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame for excellence in broadcasting.  

Tim McCarver is being honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame for excellence in broadcasting.

Who's next, Scooter?