Former Rutgers player Eric LeGrand was paralyzed from the neck down after attempting a tackle on kickoff coverage during an October game against Army.  Since that day, LeGrand's faith and belief in recovering from the horrific injury has inspired countless individuals.  His recovery has been slow, but progress is being made.  Earlier this Summer, he reported slight movements in his arms.  LeGrand also released a picture of himself standing next to his mother with support in his rehabiliation process.  And now this Fall, Eric LeGrand will return to the Rutgers football family as his recovery continues.  He will serve as a pregame, halftime, and postgame analyst in the Rutgers radio booth...

LeGrand made his debut as a radio analyst last night in Rutgers' win over North Carolina Central.  LeGrand is hoping to pursue a career in sports broadcasting according to Yahoo Sports...

A player who was told he likely would never walk again is suddenly standing very tall. With headset on, LeGrand broke down the Rutgers 21-0 halftime lead over FCS program North Carolina Central in both program's season openers. He didn't like the Rutgers penalties, three in all for 25 yards against the MEAC program, but he saw good things from a defense he once anchored in limiting the visitors to just 78 yards of total offense in the first half.

And since the injury last fall has derailed his dreams of playing in the NFL for his favorite team, the Denver Broncos, LeGrand has focused on a future on broadcasting.

"It's just my dream got started earlier now than I expected so I got to go with the flow," LeGrand said. "Enjoy the stuff I'm doing now."

Hopefully for Eric LeGrand, his progress as a broadcaster will parallel his continued progress in recovery.  His presence at Rutgers football games in the broadcast booth is one of the most uplifiting stories you'll find in the sports media and we wish him all the best.  You can make a contribution to the Eric LeGrand Believe Fund at this link.   

[H/T Dr. Saturday]
 

Some of ESPN's finest minds have come together to try to solve the mystery of this week's Screengrab Snafus.  Believe it or not, this was the intellectual high point of First Take this week.  Ok, maybe it isn't that hard to believe after all.  Somewhere Dana Jacobsen is throwing a bottle of vodka at her computer screen...

Speaking of the leader, let's take a look at the lighter side of their craptastic PR week.  ESPN.com had some trouble with the waiver-wire drama associated with Padres closer Heath Bell.  Was someone's autocorrect spellchecker not turned off for this headline, or is there something we don't know about the reliever...


Two NFL teams ply their trade in New York, New York.  NFL Network was focusing on Jets/Giants when they wanted to show us a fancy graphic reminding us of the city's location.  According to my research, New York, New York apparently has the largest population in the United States.  Who knew.  How they got all those people to relocate to Boston is quite the accomplishment.  Now that New York resides in the state of Massachusetts, my God, what would that do to YANKS/SAWX!!!


Kevin7673 sent us this screengrab from last night's Murray State-Louisville game along with this note - "Bruce Feldman says there is no integrity to ESPN's graphics."  Either the following graphic is another small element of a vast Bristol conspiracy, or the scoreboard was as functional as Danny Kanell's play cock.


And finally, let's check in with Mt. Rushmore resident Craig James to see how he's handling the pipebombs that Bruce Feldman is continuing to drop on his employer.  James' seat must be getting fairly warm with criticsm from the media and blogs now reaching a fever pitch.  He seems to be handling the heat well...


That was your week in Screengrab Snafus.  Next time, be careful out there!
 

We're barely hours into the opening week of the 2011 Pammies and already we have a frontrunner for the Week 1 honors.  On ESPNU, former FSU QB Danny Kanell joined Rob Stone in the booth for Louisville's game with Murray State.  Danny was trying to tell an old war story about his first start as a QB after a delay of game penalty and started talking about the play cock.  Whoops...



The official Pammies Open Thread will go live Saturday morning at 10 AM, but you can also tweet submissions until then by tweeting us @awfulannouncing and including #PWAA in your tweet.  It promises to be a great year ahead!

H/T to Brian Finley for sending us the clip!

 

In the latest AA Podcast, we talk with one of the most influential bloggers in sports, Timothy Burke of Mocksession and SportsGrid. Tim has developed a massive following thanks to his screencaps and video posting that are quickly seen all around the internet. We unravel the mystery of his bubbaprog moniker and also talk about...

-His move to full-time sportswriting at SportsGrid and screencapping 
-The famous Georgetown brawl video 
-His methods for being able to cover so much ground 
-The role of sports blogs and mainstream sports media 
-Tim's favorite and least favorite announcers

Much more is included in this insightful interview with one of the best in not just sports blogs, but the entire sports media.



 

Bruce Feldman's Twitter silence finally ended today with this announcement...



Feldman also destroyed ESPN on The Dan Patrick Show this morning.  The best quotes and hopefully audio or video are coming soon.  Welcome back, Bruce!

UPDATE: And here's the full video from Feldman's interview thanks to our own Brady Green...



UPDATE 2: And here is the entirety of the CBS press release on Feldman's hire...

CBS today announced that veteran journalist and New York Times best-selling author Bruce Feldman has joined CBS to cover the sport of college football.

With over two decades experience covering college athletics, Feldman joins CBS after 17 years working for ESPN. In addition to writing for CBSSports.com, Feldman will report on college football across multiple CBS platforms.

Feldman's hire comes on the heels of the recent addition of three award-winning writers to the CBSSports.com staff: Tony Barnhart, Brett McMurphy, and Jeff Goodman. Feldman joins Barnhart, McMurphy, and Senior Writer Dennis Dodd in covering college football for CBSSports.com. Feldman, Barnhart, Dodd, and McMurphy will combine with RapidReports, the innovative network of reporters covering 40 of the largest college football programs and the Eye on College Football blog to bring CBSSports.com users the most comprehensive coverage of college football available to fans.

"There aren't too many writers covering college football with the experience and talent of Bruce Feldman and we're thrilled to have him join the team at CBSSports.com," said Jason Kint, Senior Vice President and General Manager, CBSSports.com. "In combination with the recent hires we have made, Bruce's addition puts CBSSports.com in a leadership position in terms of our coverage of college sports."

"CBS presented me a great opportunity. I've been very impressed with so many of the moves they've made and with the people I've met there," said Feldman. "I'm excited to join the company and can't wait to get started."

Feldman co-wrote Swing Your Sword, which was published in July 2011 and reached number five on the New York Times Bestseller list. He also is the author of Meat Market: Inside the Smash-Mouth World of College Football Recruiting and Cane Mutiny: How the Miami Hurricanes Overturned the Football Establishment. His articles have been cited in several editions of The Best American Sports Writing, nominated for numerous national magazine awards and he has won first place awards in contests sponsored by the Football Writers Association of America.

Feldman lives in Los Angeles. 

This is certainly huge news and we'll have a more detailed analysis on what it all means coming later today.

As you know, Arian Foster hurt his hamstring last weekend, aggravating a prior hammy injury. Foster then created a stir by calling the people who were only concerned about their fantasy football teams 'sick,' and subsequently getting into a back and forth with everyone's least favorite boob. 

Well, Foster stirred the stir yesterday by tweeting the MRI of said hamstring injury. While Foster is adamant that he'll be back by Week 1, the MRI he tweeted paints a different picture. ESPN's medical expert suggests it's a Grade 1 or 2 tear and he could miss 3-4 weeks. (Woah, that just hit me. Hold on, I need to go adjust my fantasy team.) 

Foster defended his decision to tweet the MRI by following it up with,"If I had a 'significant injury' why post it? I'll be fine, it was jus meant to make fun of the whole situation. Humor is lost nowadays." People are sick.

Of course, the other issue is that Foster revealed some highly intimate information that NFL teams typically hold very close to the chest. Tedy Bruschi was on that one blockhead's radio show yesterday and expressed just how up in arms he is over Foster's MRI tweet:

Seriously, how genius would it have been if Foster actually tweeted an MRI image of our hammy from the other night? I know, it clearly says Arian Foster and 8/28 on the image, but man, talk about tweeting to win the game -- that'd be the very definition.

Anyway, since it is against Texans' policy to openly discuss their team's injury updates, the Texans are handling Foster's tweet internally and we'll undoubtedly hear more talk about how the NFL should do something about its darned Twitter policy.

The term "train wreck television" gets thrown around much too lightly these days.  In fact, perhaps we need a more extreme, disastrous terminology to refer to the type of video you'll see below.  This video goes above and beyond run of the mill train wreck television and into some sort of galactic collision of destruction and despair.  

Ortis Deley was the British television presenter (that's what they call their studio hosts across the pond) for Channel 4's coverage of the IAAF World Track And Field Championships from South Korea.  That was until he actually started hosting the championships and was discovered to be one of the worst live anchors in the history of televised sports.  This compilation of Ortis' work is a smorgasbord of screw ups with something for everyone.  Missed lines, botched names (including his co-workers), rambing incoherence, and awkard pauses are just the beginning...



The host of The Gadget Show was unceremoniously dumped by Channel 4 in Britain due to "hundreds of complaints."  (I wonder why that never works with Fox baseball.)  The quick demise of Deley's career as a studio host was reported by the UK Guardian...

Channel 4 has dropped Ortis Deley as main presenter of its coverage of the world athletics championships following hundreds of complaints from viewers.

Deley, previously best known as one of the hosts of Channel 5's The Gadget Show, has struggled in the live presenting role and was described by Giles Smith, a critic at the Times, as wearing an "expression that brings to mind furry creatures and headlamps"

Furry creatures and headlamps, wasn't that the title of Terry Bradshaw's first album?  Maybe it was Tim McCarver...

[H/T SportsTVJobs via Hot Clicks]

According to MLB Network, TNT analyst Reggie Miller is neighbors with Ryan Braun in California, so that is why he decided to take in a Brewers game at the park not named after Reggie in Milwaukee on Wednesday night.  It looked like Miller was going to witness his neighbor hit an inside the park home run, but Braun tripped half way between third and home and was ultimately tagged out as he retreated to third.

Naturally, Miller got a kick out of seeing his neighbor stumble over his own feet like Miller does over his own words. I've got video of it below and, coincidentally, my awesome new Macbook Pro froze right when FSN Wisconsin showed Miller with his hands over his head:

The MLB Network accused Miller of sniping Braun, but NO WAY, man: Braun is the great neighbor bread of the Miller sandwich. 

Update: ESPN has subsequently removed Texas from their top 25 week one preview article. Nice try....

Texas A&M has taken the plunge to leave the Big 12, compelled by the level of uncertainty that the conference faces going forward having one institutional member involved in a business and promotional relationship with ESPN. Texas supporters think the Aggies are being irrational and the Longhorn Network is nothing worth fleeing from the Big XII over - A&M's concern over Texas' "we're super special and awesome" TV deal with The Worldwide Leader is overstated.

Enter Exhibit A of ESPN bending the rules for Texas. In this article previewing all Top 25 games from Week 1, ESPN took the liberty of adding one extra game to the list. Although unranked, the Longhorns' game against Rice (which of course is on The Longhorn Network) finds itself oddly added to the article:

Now this isn't the biggest deal in the world, but it's clear that ESPN's editorial agenda is now being dictated by their business relationships. If this was a preview of interesting games, or "big programs," or something along those lines, then of course Texas should be in there. 

This article though is a Top 25 preview, a feature ESPN has had for years. Teams EARN the right to be highlighted here and the criteria is self explanatory. You're either a top 25 program or you're not. That is unless your school has a relationship with ESPN and wants to promote their first game on a new cable channel.  Note that Rice's visit to Austin is also "much-anticipated."

Where will the special treatment stop? Is College Gameday going to spend one Saturday a month covering a Texas game? Will the Longhorns get their own ridiculously stupid version of "The Heat Index" on ESPN.com? 

Again this is a rather subtle attempt to promote Texas and the Longhorn Network, but the precedent has been set. Audaciously, ESPN will bend the rules to promote Texas and The Longhorn Network. While ESPN always has promoted as it see fits, it's always been at a conference, sport, and league level. Now it is one school and ESPN in bed with their own network. Call me crazy, but I don't think the Aggies were being paranoid for wanting to escape the ominous shadow of Texas, ESPN, and The Longhorn Network.

Ed Note: Texas is indeed ranked 24th in the ESPN/USA Today poll.  However, ESPN's list of Top 25 games uses the AP Poll as West Virginia is clearly seen at the link as being ranked #24 in the rundown of games.  Similarly, Penn State, who is #25 in the ESPN/USA Today Poll and unranked in the AP (as Texas), does not see their game included in ESPN's list of Top 25 games.  Nor is there a note explaining Texas' presence in the list of AP Top 25 games when they are unranked in that poll.
 

The new Versus NBC Sports Network is the latest, best hope as a challenger to mighty ESPN.  And even though NBC Sports Network is starting on a pretty blank slate, you have to give them credit for wanting to compete directly with the WWL's flagship program... SportsCenter.  Starting next Thursday, the network formerly known as Versus will begin rolling out their vast array of new, original programming.  And the fun starts with taking a direct hit at ESPN's flagship show.

That's right, NBC has announced a nightly Monday-Friday 6PM show called NBC SportsTalk that will air opposite ESPN's 6PM SportsCenter.  The anchor for the nightly show will be Russ Thaler from Comcast Mid-Atlantic.  It's not a surprise that NBC/Comcast would stick within their family to find an anchor for the new show, but it's also a risk to entrust a regional sports anchor to head up this ambitious competitor to SportsCenter. 

Further announcements from NBC Sports have shed more light on the role personalities like Mike Florio, Darren Rovell and Peter King will have on the network.  Florio will join Thaler on Mondays to convert NBC SportsTalk to Pro Football Talk, an hour-long focus on the NFL.  Mondays will also feature an hour-long college football wrapup show (not surprisingly called College Football Talk) to lead in to Florio's NFL show.  Peter King then joins the party on Fridays with Florio and Thaler to preview the upcoming NFL weekend on NBC SportsTalk. 

New details have emerged from Darren Rovell himself on Twitter concerning his Friday night show as well. Apparently Rovell (Twitter savante that he is), will be incorporating social media throughout his show.  Also, CNBC Sports Biz: Game On will apparently have a sideline reporter (?!) in Erin Sharoni.  And... judging by Rovell's sideline reporter, this may be a sports business show worth watching.  All kidding aside, Rovell is one of the smartest in the sports media business, and his show should provide great content that can't be found on other networks.

Original NHL and NFL programming (including a show we told you about backed by NFL Films) will be sprinkled in throughout the week to round out programming.  A future soccer wrap-up show would also be a wise decision once NBC's deal with MLS kicks in to go after another audience starved for attention.  Tuesday through Thursday though will prove to be more interesting in terms of how well NBC SportsTalk will directly compete with SportsCenter.  It looks like on those non-football centric broadcasts, NBC will try to rely on their other talent in the NBC/Comcast family to carry a general sports news/information show on a nightly basis.  Of course, NBC is claiming they aren't trying to compete with ESPN's SportsCenter, at least according to our friends at Sports Business Journal.  

However, you have to think NBC's decision to air a nightly sports news show at 6PM is showing some ambition.  Truth be told, the ratings for these new shows will be grim in the beginning.  Still, the NBC brand and the synergy NBC Sports Network is creating with their online content (Pro Football Talk, etc.) should help immensely.  As we all know from the ESPN Book, Bristol didn't become the WorldWide Leader overnight. But, it sure seems like NBC Sports Network is making all of the right moves in the beginning of their journey towards eventual world domination, because that's what every sports network strives for these days, right?  All that's missing is that new 8-game NFL package...

[Fang's Bites]