The Bombshell Yahoo article covering Miami didn't even make ESPN's Top Stories....

If you're a college football fan or even just a fan of good journalism, Charles Robinson's bombshell of an article chronicling nearly a decade of rampant rules violations was potentially one of the best reads and most gripping investigative pieces in quite some time. It's a thing of beauty, and very refreshing considering a lot of the fluff that passes for news these days.

It's not just the story itself, but the depth of the reporting which apparently spanned almost a full year. This isn't Yahoo's first splash on the investigative front as they've delivered on accurately reporting and breaking stories surrounding UCONN, USC, Oregon, and to a lesser degree Ohio State whose own internal investigation seemed to find it's way to Yahoo ahead of major developments.

Yahoo is so proud of their investigative track record, they have a great landing page showcasing their past investigations as well as a more thorough breakdown of the brewing Miami scandal. If you click on that link, you'll find UNIQUE links to 65 current and former Hurricanes and the evidence tied to each one's alleged role in the scandal. There are also links with findings and evidence tying in 7 players who signed to play football elsewhere as well as findings for 10 Miami coaches, managers, and various personnel. You have to wonder what may have been on the table for the 7 players who chose not to go to Miami given they were already tapped into a booster giving them illegal benefits. 

Not only is the featured article extremely potent but the 82 individual breakdowns are all very impressive. Frankly speaking I don't even think NCAA formal investigative documents have been this well organized, researched, and corroborated. 

This got me thinking about just how poor of a job traditional media has become in doing investigative reporting, especially reporting on powerful programs and leagues that are a huge part of their content strategy. In fact, I contend that now more than ever, independent digital voices are the only reason any movement has occurred at all on this front.

I'll go into more details but will start with this except from Robinson's article...

Cuteness sighting! I swear I never watch 'Live with Regis & Kelly' but thankfully our friends at Sportsgrid captured Erin Andrews' appearance in place of Kelly Ripa on the show this morning.

In addition to the screencap above, Sportsgrid provides the following videos. In the first, you can hear Regis lie about his height and call Andrews a "hunk of woman" and "a great tight end" (the football position, I think - not her butt). The second video has Andrews playing with puppies, during which the world stood still. Unfortunately, there was no segment of Andrews and Regis eating ice cream.

Re-gosh-darn-diculously adorable, right?

The news just never stops coming out of Bristol in relation to their brigade of NFL analysts.  Already this offseason, the "leader" has added Damien Woody and Eric Mangini, Bill Parcells (for the 77th time), and Jerry Rice.  Well, it turns out that ESPN has let go of one of their NFL analysts to make room...


Yes!  I can hear the kazoos and sense the exuberant dancing from all around the country!  Matt Millen has been eliminated from ESPN's NFL coverage!  No more stupid arguments with Steve Young!  No more "draft expertise!"  Hip hip hooray!!  

Wait, wait a second... he's still sticking around to contribute to the network's college football coverage??  Dang.  Sorry, didn't mean to get you all worked up...

In other news, former QB Trent Dilfer is in for a "promotion" also according to USA Today, taking Millen's spot on the MNF on-site set next to Stuart Scott and Steve Young.  I don't know about you, but sitting next to those two seems more like punishment than anything else.  I actually thought Dilfer's best role was in the SportsCenter studio for the MNF postgame when he didn't have to battle guys like Steve Young for airtime.  Oh well, I guess this just means he'll have to talk even more louder and slower than normal to get Steve's attention.  It's strange to hear someone publicly talk about one of these analysts a promotion from ESPN.  Clearly there's a pecking order in Bristol, but rarely is one of these guys singled out from the pack, unless you're THIS GUY and you get your own TV special.

And that's not all for Trent Dilfer, he and Brad Nessler will return to the booth to call ESPN's second Monday Night Football game in Week 1, which is Raiders/Broncos.  If you also include his key role in the world changing, mountain moving, life altering Total QB Rating, it's clear that he is the one analyst that ESPN wants to hitch its wagon to.  How much longer before he takes a spot on the main set of Countdown and co-hosting PTI?

By the way, here's your running updated list of ESPN NFL analysts...

Jon Gruden, Ron Jaworski, TRENT DILFER (note the all caps promotion), Cris Carter, Mike Ditka, Tom Jackson, Keyshawn Johnson, Matt Millen, Steve Young, Eric Allen, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Golic, Herm Edwards, Tim Hasselbeck, Merril Hoge, Antonio Pierce, Mark Schlereth, Marcellus WIly, Darren Woodson, Andrew Brandt, Lomas Brown, Derrick Brooks, Warrick Dunn, Jon Ritchie, Kordell Stewart, Ross Tucker, Damien Woody, Hugh Douglas, Eric Mangini, Bill Parcells, Jerry Rice, The San Diego Chicken, Red Grange, Rich Kotite, He Hate Me, Leon Taylor, Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, Terry Tate Office Linebacker, William "The Refrigerator" Perry, and Coach Tony D'Amato

[USA Today] 

 

Yahoo Sports and Charles Robinson broke the most important story to hit college sports in a long time on Tuesday, dropping this on The U and also indirectly, the NCAA.  The entire report links to documented allegations against over 70 Miami Hurricanes players and coaches.  It is the most thorough takedown of a program I've ever seen.  As I tweeted last night, this Miami case is OSU, GT, UNC, and every scandal from the past year combined, multiplied by infinity, and exploded with a nuclear bomb.  There were whispers the last few days about something big coming down at Miami, but nobody expected anything this big.  That said, the real stars of this story are Robinson and Yahoo, who have delivered again with true investigative reporting rarely seen anymore in the sports media.  Ryan and I got together over Skype and chatted about the Miami story, the troubles facing the NCAA, and Yahoo's journalistic dominance over their rivals in Bristol...

Matt: Ok Ryan, Yahoo Sports has done it once again.  Intrepid investigative reporter Charles Robinson broke the incredible news that The U and booster Nevin Shapiro gave millions of extra benefits to over 70 Miami players.  This seems to make USC, Ohio State, and any scandal broken in the last couple years look like tiddliewinks.  Am I getting lost in the moment or is this story that huge?

Ryan: Definitely not, especially because we can put this story up directly against those other two.  As much as ESPN and SI would have you believe, the Ohio St. scandal isn't the reincarnation of SMU... this Miami story is.  It's a fantasitc job of old-school reporting by Charles Robinson and Yahoo Sports, which I think is the first angle of this story we should focus on, the rise of Yahoo as the premier source for sports journalism going today.  Agree?

Matt: Yep.  Yahoo has solidified themselves as the #1 source for sports journalism and breaking huge stories, especially with college athletics scandals.  UConn, Reggie Bush, and now this bombshell.  What impresses me most about this particular job by Robinson and Yahoo is the massive scope of it.  100+ interviews, 20,000 pages of financial records, 5,000 pages of cell phone records, 1,000 photos, and over 100 hours of talking to Shapiro himself.  An 11 month investigation!  This is the kind of reporting that Outside the Lines or SI could only dream of.

Ryan: Just look at the difference in journalistic standards between the stories Yahoo is running versus their competitors in ESPN and SI.  As I wrote about yesterday, ESPN and OTL have done their best to tear down Ohio St. with unnamed sources and shadowy figures.  Meanwhile, George Dohrmann's much hyped SI piece on Ohio St. was more dud than bombshell.  Honestly, it was like SI fired a gun only to have a flag that said BANG come out of the barrel.  Meanwhile, Yahoo Sports (and Charles Robinson specifically) has been doing legit reporting with sources and documentation to back up their allegations.  Comparing Yahoo's reporting with Dohrmann's dud at SI and what we've learned about people like Joe Schad at ESPN, this is a proud day for the folks at Yahoo...

Triple plays are awesome and, for the first time since 1981, one has been turned on back-to-back nights. On Monday night, the Brewers turned a 4-6-3-2 triple play against the Dodgers and the Red Sox followed that up by turning their first triple play since 1994 against Tampa Bay of the 5-4-3 variety. 

Unfortunately, LA Dodgers radio play-by-play man Charley Steiner had a little trouble calling the one last night on the LA Dodgers Radio Network. So Don Orsillo of NESN gave Steiner a free lesson tonight: 

I love Remy's reaction, too: a nonchalant "yes," because, as he pointed out, he was calling the game in which Gary Gaetti turned two triple plays in one game in 1990 at Fenway Park. One triple play is NOTHING to him - he was just happy the Sawx got out of the inning.

 

Dana White has been patient in regards to his strategy of getting the UFC onto a major network. When confronted by the fact that the UFC was late to the party in acquiring a network deal, White responded with this:

"I will not do a dumb deal. We're not going to do a deal that doesn't make sense. We could've been the first mixed martial arts on network television, but none of the deals made sense," White said. "And as you saw all those guys [that were on network TV like EliteXC on CBS] ended up going out of business."

Despite those strong words from White, it was easy to anticipate the UFC's pending deal with Fox given MMA's continued growth, but more importantly, the growing carriage fees for sports channels and the trickle down effect of highly competitive and lucrative television rights deals.

Kudos to FOX for bolstering their position by adding the UFC to the fold.

"Fox has agreed to a deal that will see the broadcast channel air as many as four MMA events per year, according to several sources. The multiyear deal would mark the first time the UFC will have consistent airtime on a broadcast network. Fox execs refused to comment on the deal, but sources with knowledge of the negotiations said bidding had gone as high as $90M per year. The Fox deal is believed to be for seven or eight years. As part of the deal, most of the weekly programming that UFC has on Versus and Spike TV will move to FX starting in January. That includes several fight cards, plus shows like the reality series "The Ultimate Fighter."

Gar Ryness, better known as "Batting Stance Guy", put together a video of himself playing the roles of MLB announcers/reporters Matt Vasgersian, Peter Gammons, Tim Kurkjian, Buster Olney, Craig Sager, Rex Hudler, Jon Heyman, Ken Rosenthal, and Pedro Gomez. And why did he do that? On the YouTube description of the video, he writes, "What would it look like if my dream lineup of sportscasters all covered same game, same place for same network dissecting a small story...together?" So there you go.

Anyway, watch Gar play the roles of those announcers and reporters to break a story about the Cubs' Darwin Barney changing to a heavier bat:

Funny stuff. That Kurkjian impression is spot-on.

Last night, the Milwaukee Brewers accomplished one of baseball's rarest and coolest feats, turning a triple play against the Los Angeles Dodgers.  The play happened in the top of the second inning.  With runners on first and second, James Loney sent a grounder to Milwaukee second baseman Josh Wilson.  He flipped to shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt to get Juan Rivera at second.  Betancourt then doubled up Loney at first.  A quick thinking Prince Fielder then fired home to get Matt Kemp, who was trying to score all the way from second base on the play.  Just your run of the mill 4-6-3-2 triple play.  Here's the video of the play:



As you can clearly see, there was a lot happening there.  So you might forgive Dodgers radio play by play man and former SportsCenter anchor Charley Steiner for not fully describing every element of the play... or in this case, the entire play.  Here's the audio of Charley's attempted call from tipster Missak and the transcript below:



"There's a comebacker, backhanded beautifully at second base by Wilson, flips (pause) to second and THERE IS A TRIPLE PLAY!  A TRIPLE PLAY!"

So, somehow, Josh Wilson recorded three outs at second base??  Unless it was Larry, Curly, and Moe running the basepaths, it seems Charley didn't exactly capture the moment for the fans that were listening.  Perhaps his mind was being preoccupied while watching his back in fear of Evander Holyfield.   
 
 

Cognitive Dissonance: "An uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously"

You'll have to forgive the psychology minor in me, but cognitive dissonance perfectly explains the feeling I get when the subject of Terrelle Pryor comes up on ESPN, especially considering Pryor's fate in terms of the NFL Supplemental Draft is about to be determined.  Yes, I know, I've turned into a frequent critic of ESPN, especially when it comes to their journalistic decline in relation to their quest for world-domination.  As I've argued before, the problem with ESPN is that they want you the viewer to compartmentalize and separate all of the WorldWide Leader's different tentacles.

We're supposed to compartmentalize Joe Schad's reporting on Texas A&M joining the SEC from ESPN's investment in the Longhorn Network, forgetting the fact that Schad has proven to be a fraud.  We're supposed to compartmentalize ESPN cozying up to athletes at The ESPY's to their "hard-hitting" reporting on those same athletes.  We're supposed to compartmentalize The Heat Index from The Decision.  We're supposed to compartmentalize how ESPN covers the leagues they are in business with from the presentation of those events.

The same is true when looking at the singular case of Terrelle Pryor.  On the one hand, there's Terrelle Pryor the cheating Ohio St. quarterback. On the other, there's Terrelle Pryor the reclamation story.  Not even before ESPN had finished digging up dirt on Pryor, which of course was followed by his expulsion from the Ohio St. football program, ESPN sought to build Pryor back up on his quest to enter the NFL's Supplemental Draft.

Matt talked about the media's vicious cycle of building up athletes, only to tear them down, and vice versa.  But, ESPN has skipped the cycle completely with Terrelle Pryor by simultaneously building him up and tearing him down.  One minute, Pryor is the subject of severe rules violations, the prototypical athlete breaking or bending the NCAA's rules.  Minutes later, he's laughing with Jon Gruden who's extolling THIS GUY as a great person and football player.  How can Terrelle Pryor be a victim of Don Goodell's hammer of justice at the same time he's a villain for taking advantage of his fame?  And yes, it is more complicated than the a student-athlete making the jump from college to the pros...

Last night, the Jets and Texans played an ESPN-televised Monday Night Football preseason game in Houston. SportsCenter immediately followed the game, starting out with two minutes of coverage about Jim Thome's 600th career home run, and the next 10 minutes about NFL preseason action. And understandably, because what's the bigger deal in the sports world: Jim Thome being the eighth player to ever reach the 600 home run club(with three of the other members in the club being alleged steroid users), or 53 combined passes between Greg McElroy and Matt Leinart in an exhibition game? Clearly, ESPN got this one right.

Well, following those intense 10 minutes of NFL preseason highlights and analysis, Stuart Scott decided to drop this bomb on us(and I hope you enjoy my crappy video camera work):

Hilarious, Stu. Had I not been nerding it up on Twitter all night and been fully aware that there was zero news on the Favre front, I would've absolutely flipped out about this.

And with that in mind, could Stu have gotten away with this five+ years ago? We used to rely on SportsCenter and whatever else on ESPN to break us the sports news. Now, if a Favre-esque story breaks, we usually know about it thanks to Twitter or other sources on the interwebs, well before we see anything about it on television.