As has been expected, the networks broadcasting NFL games re-upped with the league on a new deal yesterday.  NBC, CBS, and Fox will now all carry NFL games into the 2022 season.  The current arrangement with the three networks expires after the 2013 season and both sides were eager to pen a new contract.  The three networks will pay an average of over ONE BILLION DOLLAS PER YEAR EACH for the rights to NFL games.  (If you want to get granular with the numbers, Fox pays the highest amount at 1.1 billion because NFC teams are in traditionally stronger markets.)  It's an insane amount of money and shows the significance of the NFL and televising live sports in general.  Let's face it, with the advent of the DVR, sports is one of the few events on television that has to be seen live - thus rights fees are going through the roof all over sports.  And the NFL is king of the mountain of live sports.

With the new deal starting in 2014 will come several very interesting changes for NFL fans and sports media geeks like yours truly.  The structures of the NFL deals with its networks are the most interesting of any sport and a major shift to the landscape will come when the new contract kicks in.  Here's each of the major developments of the new contract between the NFL and Fox/CBS/NBC...

*Flex Scheduling Expansion

This is perhaps the biggest change to how we will watch the NFL.  Not only will NBC receive enhanced flex scheduling for Sunday Night Football, but both Fox and CBS will have flex capabilities.  In a move that alters my reality, Fox will now have the ability to broadcast AFC games and CBS will have the ability to broadcast NFC games.  Here's that part of the announcement from the NFL...

Flexible scheduling – which ensures quality matchups in all NFL Sunday time slots and gives teams a chance to play their way onto primetime on NBC and into the late-afternoon 4:15 PM ET time slot on CBS and FOX – remains a viewer-friendly element of the network broadcast agreements. It will be expanded in 2014, including the ability to move games between CBS and FOX to bring regional games to wider audiences. Further details on enhanced flexible scheduling will be developed with the networks.

If you're like me, AFC games on Fox and NFC games on CBS is shocking news.  I don't know about you, but there has always been a sense of comfort level knowing that Fox was the network to watch my Saints since it was the "NFC" network.  But ultimately, this enhanced flex scheduling is a huge victory for NFL fans around the country...

Yes, that's Matthew Barnaby's Porsche Cayenne after apparently driving 9 miles before being arrested for DWI. Police concluded he drove that distance after finding the missing tire on the side of a freeway exit ramp, but were unable to get a 5th charge of fleeing the scene of an accident to stick as they couldn't prove that Barnaby's tire was the one they found and had no witnesses linking him to any damage or injuries.

Barnaby couldn't shake the other four charges and pled guilty to driving while intoxicated, refusing a Breathalyzer test, driving with unsafe tires, and failing to notify the Department of Motor Vehicles of his address change. Although he'll avoid jail time, Barnaby was ordered to pay a $2,000 fine, give 100 hours of community service, and ordered to attend rehab as well as outpatient counseling upon completion of his program.. It's still tbd if his former plea deal for another incident will be honored and if he's safe from facing deportation to Canada.

Barnaby gave a pretty convincing statement and apology to the press that brought him to tears. I'd cry too if I lost my job at ESPN and was no longer dating Michelle Beadle. Below is a video of local news coverage of the court appearance and his public statement.

While a lot of coaches and television personalities are able to continue their careers despite similar legal issues, I'm not so sold we'll see Barnaby back on television anytime soon. He's got two strikes against him and the NHL has limited positions within the media. Potentially something opens up down the road in Canada or with a regional channel, but for the foreseeable future, Barnaby will have a tough time getting back on television.

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One of our favorite posts from our relaunch in 2010 was the Top 10 Announcing Gaffes of the year.  Once again, to look back on the year that was in Awful Announcing and spread some holiday cheer, we've poured through our archives and narrowed down hundreds of possibilities to bring you the Top 10 Announcing Gaffes of 2011 (give or take a couple).  These are the absolute best announcing bloopers and faux pas from the last twelve months.  Leave us a comment and let us know what you think of the list and your favorite gaffe of the year.  

10) Dan Shaughnessy Soothsayer

Dan Shaughnessy is one sportswriter turned talking head that may actually have fewer fans in the blogosphere than Skip Bayless.  So, it's refreshing to know Shaughnessy is still wiping egg on his face after this guarantee during a rain delay on the last night of the Sawx baseball season.

9) Matt Millen Is Confused, So What Else Is New...

Matt Millen is paid by ESPN to be a college football analyst.  However, given his track record, maybe the following gaffe shouldn't come as a surprise.  When asked about the Miami quarterback situation in the wake of the Nevin Shaprio scandal and who would replace starter Jacory Harris, Millen replied with "Jarrett Lee."  One slight inconvenience to this hypothesis... Jarrett Lee plays for LSU.

Here is your Week 15 NFL schedule. You can find the broadcast maps here (via The 506).  This week features the first Saturday game of the season in addition to the regular late season Thursday Night game. Next week there will be a whole slate of Saturday games, so get your feet wet with this week's game on NFL Network.

Thursday, December 15

Jacksonville Jaguars @ Atlanta Falcons (NFLN 8:20PM) Brad Nessler, Mike Mayock, Alex Flanagan

Saturday, December 17

Dallas Cowboys @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers (NFLN 8:20PM) Brad Nessler, Mike Mayock, Alex Flanagan

Sunday, December 18

Cincinnati Bengals @ St. Louis Rams (CBS 1PM) Greg Gumbel, Dan Dierdorf
Miami Dolphins @ Buffalo Bills (CBS 1PM) Kevin Harlan, Solomon Wilcots
Tennessee Titans @ Indianapolis Colts (CBS 1PM) Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts
Washington Redskins @ New York Giants (FOX 1PM) Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Pam Oliver
Green Bay Packers @ Kansas City Chiefs (FOX 1PM) Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, Tony Siragusa
Seattle Seahawks @ Chicago Bears (FOX 1PM) Chris Myers, Tim Ryan
Carolina Panthers @ Houston Texans (FOX 1PM) Ron Pitts, Charles Davis
New Orleans Saints @ Minnesota Vikings (FOX 1PM) Dick Stockton, John Lynch

Detroit Lions @ Oakland Raiders (FOX 4PM) Thom Brennaman, Brian Billick, Laura Okmin
New England Patriots @ Denver Broncos (CBS 4:15PM) Jim Nantz, Phil Simms
New York Jets @ Philadelphia Eagles (CBS 4:15PM)  Marv Albert, Rich Gannon
Cleveland Browns @ Arizona Cardinals (CBS 4:15PM) Bill Macatee, Steve Tasker

Baltimore Ravens @ San Diego Chargers (NBC 8:20PM) Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, Michele Tafoya

Monday, December 19

Pittsburgh Steelers @ San Francisco 49ers (ESPN 8:30PM) Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden, Ron Jaworski

H/T Sammy!

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Deep in Parts Unknown of the sports world lies a debate desk, surrounded by a lake of fire and hideous, monstrous looking creatures.  This place is known in the above world as the First Take studio.  The daily double trolling of Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith, or what I like to refer to as Occupy Common Sense, was on full display as the two debated Dwight Howard's future and a possible trade to the Lakers.  (I know, a Tebow free three minutes, who knew?!) 

Skip Bayless sent Stephen A. into the laughing fit/heart attack pictured above by saying he would take Andrew Bynum straight up over Dwight Howard.  Dwight Howard is a 4 time All NBA First Teamer.  Andrew Bynum was last seen doing this.  Preposterous, but as we all know, that's what Skip Bayless is paid by ESPN to do for a living.  Consider it our public service to feed the trolls and share videos like this with you so that you will know to stay away from this dark, evil place...

If I were ESPN, I would trade Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless straight up for Jacob Silj and this mentally unbalanced wrestling fan to debate every day.  It would be more watchable television.

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Yesterday, the Dallas Morning News reported what we had first heard a couple weeks ago, Craig James is going to run in the Republican Primary for the United States Senate seat in Texas being left vacant by Kay Bailey Hutchison.  This sent the Twitterverse into a liberating jubilee of snarky jokes and references to dead hookers.  Something tells me it'll be more fun to cover Craig James political candidate (as evidenced by the screengrab above) than Craig James corrupt college football analyst.  As always, these are Real Tweets from Real People...

texashsfootball In regards to Craig James.. he wont win the Senate seat and he is off ESPN due to running for office.. so double win for everyone.
DanWetzel I worked w Craig James at Yahoo. Can't think of a better group to "enjoy" that experience than Washington politicians
ClayTravisBGID I'd like to say no way that Texas elects Craig James, but somehow you've elected Rick Perry three times.
greggdoyelcbs The characters in the Senate would look at Craig James and say, "There goes the neighborhood."
slmandel Robert Griffin thinks Craig James has no chance of winning Senate.
TamaraJoleeTV I'm actually voting for Craig James; I'd much rather him have a Senate Seat than ESPN Seat.
BourbonWarfare Time Magazine's choice of "the protester" as person of the year might be the dumbest thing I've seen since Craig James' Senate run.
Juddley Craig James has a great shot @ a Senate seat. He knows how to be in a group that can take a bribe & isn't afraid to be publicly stupid.

texasbirddog If Craig James is elected to anything, I will lock myself in a shed.
szsandlin Craig James running for the senate??? That could very well be the "death penalty" for TX political effectiveness in Washington.
seanpcoyle I weep for our country if Craig James is ever an elected official in any capacity #Rememberthe5
COUGFANcom If there was any doubt about Craig James being a delusional crackpot, his Senate announcement Tues surely seals the deal.
BePeeArr Who is going to tell Craig James that Congressmen don't get diplomatic immunity that protect them from murdering five hookers charges.
DeepFriedSports If Craig James gets elected we are ALL going to have to shovel earth until Texas is severed from the rest of the country #howsmyhair
janorwood Told my 12 year old Craig James was running for senate. He burst out laughing. #goodpoliticalinstincts
GodsSport Sure, put Craig James in the Senate. He'll be off the air, and it's not like he can make Congress less effective. #firecraigjames

cdhacker1421 If Craig James wins that election, I will have lost all faith in America.
VictoryforSha Craig James, who "most recently gained attention for his peculiar college football voting in the AP ballot" ... is running for Senate?
BenjaminJDawson The Craig James news makes up for almost everything bad that happened in college football this year.
css01 I want to move to Texas, just to vote against Craig James.
TheCBurns Craig James is running for Senate. Nail in the coffin, I am moving to Canada.
henchman21 I don't know which is the worse option; Craig James in government, or Craig James remaining on ESPN. 
longhornderek If Craig James has any campaign stops in Lubbock, I really want to go. #txsen
notdanielhenry When asked in a debate to sum his campaign up into one word, Craig James would use: "corruption"
TimWatts_BOL If craig james gets a single vote in his run for senate I'm going to be disappointed in mankind as a whole.

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On Monday, we posted our nominees for the Pammy quote of the year to kick off our AA yearendapalooza.  What better way to celebrate the departure of Craig James from the broadcast booth and the year that was in the Pammies than by counting down the Top 10 quotes of 2011!  James ran away with this year's Pammies, but he didn't capture the Pammy of the Year for the most memorable quote of the college football season.  Who did?  Let's just say it was a great year for casual swearing across the family of networks.  The envelope please...

10) "The first, inaugural Big 12 Champions." - Tim Brewster (via Aaron_Torres) at the Big Ten Championship Game.

9) "Smith has a team high 6 catches on the season. Or on the season or in the game because it's the first game of season" - Pam Ward(via kevin7673)

8) "2 of the last 3 Central Michigan passes have been intercepted. The last one for an interception." - Pam Ward (via SBisho12)

7) "I know a lot of Aggies who are happy they aren't blowing out (Texas)." - Craig James (via sctvman)  Even for Craig James this makes no sense.

6) "Six Trojans are going to come" - Craig James (via SenatorGiggity)

5) "If he wasn't a quiet guy, he would be a vocal leader on this club" - Craig James (via dhh78) on Marcus Lattimore.

4) "There is a good possibility one of these teams will suffer their first loss." - Gary Danielson (via ATLNagel) in a game featuring unbeaten Florida vs unbeaten Alabama.

3) "Got his hands on a lot of balls and then a sack." - Gary Danielson (via Ryan Scheb)

2A) "I'm all for it. I'm not completely against it." - Craig James (via DWW_1992)

2B) "It's not even close and it's really close right now." - Craig James (via IsaacTM)

1) ...

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The degree of difficulty of this buzzer beater is off the charts. Damien Bell-Holter, who plays center, steals the pass and baseball throws in a one-footed contested missile from half court to win the game. He even does it on the road in front of what looks to be a very raucous UALR Jack Stephens Center crowd. After the pass is intercepted, Haxton excitedly says "let's go to overtime!" before breaking out in hysterics after the shot miraculously doesn't shatter the backboard and goes in. Also, check out #22 Steven Roundtree's victory dance, it's almost as good as Bell-Holter's shot.

Since I write for Awful Announcing, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out the news anchor saying, "as they say, expect a miracle." I disagree with "they" that expecting a miracle is actually a thing that one should be doing. Besides, a certain QB in Denver certainly might be bogarting most of the miracles these days.

The win improved Oral Roberts' record to 7-3 on the season. Hopefully ORU once again can make the tournament so when it comes time to filling out our brackets we can proudly brag that we picked "ORAL" to go far in the tournament. Next, the Golden Eagles travel to Spokane for a showdown with Gonzaga.

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We posted a story two weeks ago that a source close to the situation had said Craig James was leaving ESPN at the end of the year to run for political office in Texas.  At the time, we had a statement from James through our friends at Crystal Ball Run that ominously referenced his ties to Texas business leaders and his focus on his "analyst responsibilities."

But now it looks like the Pony's run for political office is indeed coming true.  According to Gromer Jeffers, political reporter for the Dallas Morning News, Craig James will file paperwork Thursday to run for the United States Senate...

This calls for a celebration, unless you live in Texas that is...

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Dick Stockton has the lead in the awards that bear his name, but there's still plenty of voting left in the 2011 Dickies.  Phil Simms turned in an absolutely epic performance in Green Bay's blowout victory over Oakland this week, and it was tough to only limit him to four nominees.  Enjoy Phil's pearls of wisdom and the rest of your Week 14 nominees...

1) "Mike McCarthy...I said he's a genius. And you know why? Because he doesn't try to be a genius." - Phil Simms (via DevsFan30)

2) "You hate when your balls get tipped around" - Marcellus Wiley (via jbteller)

3) "This is a very important game." - Chris Berman. He was talking about the Jaguars-Buccaneers game. (via JoshuaBatelli)

4) "Aaron Rodgers can make that ball spin so much that it almost wobbles" - Phil Simms (via yerger)

5) "Tom is pretty good at challenges. He's lost his last six though" - Al Michaels (via ThreeRiversBlog)

6) "How about the second yard statistics from this game?" - Jim Mora showing the second quarter stats (via ShutdownLine)

7) "You know, coach Cowher he hands out compliments like manhole covers." - Phil Simms (via kylejgood)

8) "Gimme 50 shares of Tebow" - Daryl Johnston (via BKibbs)

9) "It was a good hustle penalty there by the Raiders." - Phil Simms (via AA)

10) "He combines the combination of speed and power." - Brian Billick (via Chad1320)

11) "Joe Buck and Tim McCarver are the gold standard of baseball broadcasts." - Dick Stockton (via JoshButters)  

12) "That's a tight hole and a big man right there" - Brian Billick (via jessegennigen/prwillard2)

13) "He might go to the pro bowl before this season's over" - Jon Gruden (via mgwPSU)

14) "Doug "Prematurely" Baldwin" - Chris Berman (via JagsFan93)

15) "These Skittles, I gotta find out what's in these things." - Jon Gruden (via AA)

16) "It's amazing how you figure those yardages out so fast John...I'm really...(awkward pause) amazed." - Dick Stockton (via abashuk)

17) "He's a guy who would chew a guy's leg off to win a game." - Dan Dierdorf (via bjgunts)

Vote For Your Week 14 Dickies Nominees! (vote for up to five)

The winners will come Wednesday so make sure you vote early and often and check back for the full NFL Week 15 announcing sked later this week!

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