Tonight Tiki Barber was featured on HBO's Real Sports where he discussed his motivations for making a comeback at the age of 36 after 4 years away from the game. If you missed it and have HBO, it's worth watching especially if you enjoy foul mouth agents waxing poetically. In the piece, Barber chronicles his last 4 years as a football player, television personality, Paparazzi target, and his last year as a depressed, unemployed media personality trying to start a new life with "the other woman". After a year of "sitting on the couch for 10 hours depressed a day", which is what we bloggers consider "the good life," Barber has been busting his butt in an attempt to make a comeback at the age of 36. 

Given none of last year's top 18 rushers were over 30 years of age, only three running backs in the top 50 were above 30 (Tomlinson, Thomas Jones, Ricky Williams), and only Williams is within three years of Barber's age of that group, you could say Barber certainly has his work cut out for him. With the time off you also have to take into consideration how much he's lost in those 1000+ days away from from the game. On the flip side his twin brother Rhonde seems to be maintaining a high level of play so there seems to be some data that the Barber twins don't fall off a cliff athletically after 34.

While Barber's time away from the game and his comeback are both unique stories, what's not unique is his departure and transition from athlete to broadcaster. In fact it's become an annual thing and was even foreshadowed all the way back in 2003 on ESPN's Playmakers. The story goes something like this:

An aging likeable and well spoken star begins to think about life after his playing career. Maybe their agent is pushing them out the door or just whispering it might be good to look at broadcasting options if they're available. Suddenly with no contract in place for next year and sagging interest from teams or maybe prospects of lesser playing time to finish out an existing contract, a broadcasting opportunity presents itself and then without warning that athlete's playing career is over. Major broadcasting jobs are HARD to get and now agents are pushing their clients towards these secondary careers. In fact they're going beyond looking for these jobs on behalf of their clients but are often grooming their clients, making them do side-work in the off-season, and networking on their behalf years in advance of any retirement.

When the offer comes, it's decision time. In some cases players may feel like they have a few years left in the tank and probably have grandeur of going out the right way. A heroic performance, in front of your home fans, maybe even a championship. It's an unlikely ending for any athlete but it seems like a happy ending worth chasing. 

But when the money is on the table from ESPN, Fox, NBC, etc. it seems athletes are hanging them up and going the safe route. Rather than 1-3 years of grinding and a future which is to be determined, the bird in the hand of launching a lucrative secondary broadcasting career seems to be winning out.

In the case of Barber it was $2 million a year, a fraction of his NFL salary, but a nice salary to launch what was thought to be a long-term career on television.

Aaron Boone, Marshall Faulk, Keyshawn Johnson, and Normar Garciaparra are other examples of guys who had the same day headline that read something like "Yeah I am retiring AND OMG I have a job on ESPN now". Others have had a little time in between like Michael Strahan and Mark Mulder to officially wind down before announcing their new gigs.

Terrelle Pryor's summer odyssey has now taken another interesting step, straight into the arms of Monday Night Football analyst Jon Gruden.  The maligned former Buckeye and current NFL prospect sat down with Gruden for one of his "QB Camp" specials that will air on June 30 at 9pm ET.  Excerpts will also run during the week on SportsCenter leading up to the special.  Let's look at the TP saga step by step, because I'm having a hard time figuring this out...

-Top HS prospect hyped as the next greatest player in the history of college football.
-Prospect makes his decision to attend Ohio State live on ESPN to an audience of millions.
-Ohio State QB criticized for not matching previous hype and not being the greatest player in the history of college football. 
-OSU QB enters into feud with ESPN analyst, also a former OSU QB.
-Player is embroiled in memorabilia/tattoo scandal that warrants a suspension as his coach loses his job and the school falls into a great scandal.
-As OSU coach resigns, QB is vilified by media and comes under more off-field scrutiny.
-Now disgraced QB leaves OSU, plans to enter NFL Supplemental Draft as media experts question his skills and future as an NFL prospect.
-NFL prospect participates in ESPN show about improving his questionable QB skills and future in the league.

Excuse me if I'm the only one that is troubled by Terrelle Pryor's relationship with ESPN and the way the sports media has covered him the last four years.  It was ESPN and the sports media that built Pryor up to impossible heights.  It was ESPN and the sports media that killed him for not living up to that hype (in spite of going 31-4 as a starter and winning a Rose Bowl and winning a Sugar Bowl and being MVP in both of those games).  It was ESPN and the sports media that shamed him throughout the Tressel scandal.  And now, it's ESPN and the sports media that will cling to his story of trying to make it in the NFL... and ESPN will get a TV special and a week's worth of SportsCenter segments out of it.  Here's a preview from SportsCenter today and thoughts about the special...

After last year's NFL season, we discussed Fox's inferior NFL broadcasting teams in comparison to their network rivals at CBS.  From top to bottom, CBS is deeper and better in the broadcast booth when it comes to pro football.  This offseason though, Fox is slowly taking steps to improve their network roster.  First, it was the all-star signing of Gus Johnson and now comes the arrival of former Dolphins and current free agent QB Chad Pennington.  After seriously injuring himself in the offseason playing a pickup basketball game, Pennington will take the year off and join Fox.  Here's some details from the Sacramento Bee:

"I'm going to take this year off, get healthy," Pennington told The Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail at a Thursday speaking engagement before the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Pennington, who signed a one-year contract with Fox, will be paired with Sam Rosen on one of the network's announcing teams. "He came to Los Angeles for an audition a few weeks ago, and we think he has a chance to be a pretty successful analyst," Fox Sports representative Dan Bell said Saturday morning.

Immediately, one has to wonder if this means that Fox analyst Tim Ryan (Rosen's partner the last few seasons) is getting the axe from Fox or is being moved down the analyst chain.  There's no mention of Ryan in the article, so it looks like Rosen/Pennington will go forward as a two man booth.  If Ryan does stay aboard, that may mean no more room for Torry Holt.  Darn.  Pennington has always seemed like a smart guy and should be a good addition for Fox.  Time will tell just how well Pennington transitions to the booth, but he will likely be a step up from Ryan.  Pennington may also be able to provide some unique and thoughtful analysis having played in the league last year.  Hopefully for his own sake, NFL analyst Chad Pennington will be the first TV personality that doesn't criticize QB Chad Pennington for his lack of arm strength.

Comedy Central has decided to give the axe to Sports Show with Norm Macdonald and Onion SportsDome. Comedy Central surprised many by introducing two separate shows that focused on the comedy of sports after ignoring this area for so long. And let's face it; we know as well as anyone that sports are a gigantic never-ending resource of ridiculous figures/shows who take themselves wayyy too seriously. Comedy Central even stuck our best people on it, Norm Macdonald was back in familiar territory behind the desk updating us on the news in sports and SportsDome was a spot-on parody of SportsCenter being run by America's Finest News Source, The Onion. Both shows were among my favorites on my DVR, and the decision to cancel them after one short season each was a disappointment.


I was very hopeful that SportsDome would be given another season to find its legs. Sure, its bits certainly didn't hit all the time, but when they worked, they were fantastic. I thought SportsDome nailed the small nuances that make SportsCenter insane and what it is, but struggled when they decided to mock more current material that came off as somewhat dated by the time it aired. Plus, for no real rhyme or reason, the show was extremely dark, which I think threw a lot of people off. Recurring dark bits such as, "who would you kill?" and "the Toad" were ideas I enjoyed, but I definitely  can see why they did not click with a wide audience. Still, I felt they got so much of the show right, and I really wanted another season to see if they could iron out some of their misses. Plus, after reading the ESPN book, there really is no other group of people that need to have their ego checked as much as so many at ESPN these days.

The Norm Macdonald show was exactly what I think all of us thought it would be. It was Norm and his unique, dry, and sarcastic tone making fun of sports for 30 minutes. Personally, Dirty Work (one of the first DVD"s I ever bought) and his time doing Weekend Update on SNL are things I always found to be fantastic, so I was eagerly looking forward to his show. Still, I was completely surprised that Comedy Central gave him his own show because, let's face it, Norm's a polarizing comedian. Plus, he's been around for a long time and he's awesomely stubborn and his audience is firmly established. Many just do not appreciate his schtick. Also, Norm hasn't been commercially successful in a long time, but he has a small, dedicated fanbase that will always support whatever he is doing. Unfortunately, small and dedicated audiences are not things that result in renewals in a bottom line business. While I'm upset with the cancellation, I think most fans of Norm realize this certainly won't be the last time we will be hearing from him.

With two misses, this certainly looks like the end of sports satire on the small screen for the time being. Let's just hope this doesn't mean Comedy Central takes us down that dark path once again and replaces these shows with Mind of Mencia and Jeff Dunham clones.

Joe Buck has been the lead broadcaster for Fox's MLB coverage since its inception in 1996.  That's fifteen years of Buck & McCarver as the national voices of baseball.  In that timespan, we've seen Joe Buck go from Jack Buck's kid to the most notable play by play man in sports.  Joe Buck has announced the World Series, the Super Bowl, hosted Fox's NFL Pregame, and even had his memorable, hilarious trainwreck of a late night career.  Yet through it all, Joe Buck has been a baseball guy, getting his start with his father's team, the St. Louis Cardinals.  

Somewhere in those fifteen years though, scores of baseball and sports fans turned against Joe Buck.  Maybe it was his overreaction to Randy Moss, maybe it was admitting that he didn't enjoy baseball anymore, maybe it's his too understated play by play, maybe it's his smug demeanor and failed late night career.  Nevertheless, at some point, Joe Buck was transformed from the bright, young, shining star of sports broadcasting to one of the most disliked announcers in sports.  In fact, it's almost a near certainty that you will find Joe Buck's name trending on Twitter during Saturday's Fox MLB coverage and always because fans are destroying him.  

In this year's season though, something else has been different about Joe Buck... his voice itself.  For several months, Joe Buck has been dealing with a virus in his vocal cords since after the NFL season ended.  The ailment has caused his voice to sound weaker and hoarse.  You can really tell that Buck's voice is struggling in this botched call of a Reed Johnson solo home run in this weekend's broadcast of a Cubs-Yankees game.  Thankfully, the virus isn't painful or causing any damage to Buck's voice (we're not completely heartless and actually wish Joe the best in health), but fans are taking notice of what sounds wrong with Joe and it is hurting the Fox broadcast.  

Simply, Fox needs to sit Joe Buck and his voice and take him off their MLB coverage for the time being.  Not just for the present, but for the overall outlook of MLB on Fox...

Interleague play takes centerstage once again this week with some interesting matchups across the big leagues.  Unfortunately for all you Joe Buck fans, we don't have the Fox assignments at the moment, but Indians-Giants looks like the pick of the weekend matchups as Sunday Night Baseball will be in San Francisco.

Monday, June 20

New York Yankees @ Cincinnati Reds (ESPN 7:00) Sean McDonough, Aaron Boone, Rick Sutcliffe

Tuesday June 21

New York Yankees @ Cincinnati Reds (MLBN 7PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Toronto @ Atlanta]
Chicago Cubs @ Chicago White Sox (WGNA 8PM) Len Kasper, Bob Brenly
Minnesota Twins @ San Francisco Giants (MLBN 10PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Detroit @ LA Dodgers]

Wednesday June 22

Philadelphia Phillies @ St. Louis Cardinals (ESPN 8PM) Dave O'Brien, Nomar Garciaparra

Thursday June 23

Seattle Mariners @ Washington Nationals (MLBN 1PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Oakland @ NY Mets]
Philadelphia Phillies @ St. Louis Cardinals (MLBN 8PM) TBA [Alt: Arizona @ Kansas City]

Friday June 24

Oakland Athletics @ Philadelphia Phillies (MLBN 7PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Colorado @ NY Yankees]
Chicago Cubs @ Kansas City Royals (WGNA 8PM) Len Kasper, Bob Brenly

Saturday June 25

New York Mets @ Texas Rangers (FOX 4PM) TBA
Cleveland Indians @ San Francisco Giants (FOX 4PM) TBA
Los Angeles Angels @ Los Angeles Dodgers (FOX 4PM) TBA
Washington Nationals @ Chicago White Sox (FOX 4PM) TBA
Minnesota Twins @ Milwaukee Brewers (MLBN 7PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Oakland @ Philadelphia]
Chicago Cubs @ Kansas City Royals (WGNA 8PM) Len Kasper, Bob Brenly

Sunday June 26

Colorado Rockies @ New York Yankees (TBS 2PM) Ernie Johnson, John Smoltz
Washington Nationals @ Chicago White Sox (WGNA 2PM) Ken Harrelson, Steve Stone
Cleveland Indians @ San Francisco Giants (ESPN 8PM) Dan Shulman, Orel Hershiser, Bobby Valentine

H/T Sammy!

In a US Open without Tiger Woods, NBC was blessed with anything but your average, Tigerless major championship.  Rory McIlroy rebounded from his Masters meltdown and won his first major in record setting fashion at Congressional, shooting a tournament best 268 (-16) and besting the field by 8 shots.  It was an incomparable performance that captivated a large audience and had golf fans, tv execs, and sports watchers salivating over the next big thing in golf.  NBC should have been reveling in their good fortune of having golf's newest superstar come to life on their network.

Instead, the major story coming out of NBC's coverage of the US Open is their inexplicable decision to cut out the words "under God" from a patriotic opening montage that included the Pledge of Allegiance.  Dan Hicks was then forced to sheepishly apologize later during the broadcast.  Before we break it down, here's the video...



With that little omission, the internet was thrown up in arms and NBC was caught in the middle of political, social, and religious crossfire, and all of it totally unnecessary...

Nowadays, even I'm beginning to feel just a bit of sympathy for LeBron James.  Now that it's become fashionable to hate on LeBron, everybody under the sun has had to get in their jabs at the Miami Heat superstar.  I'm sure you've all heard the dollar jokes amongst countless others by now a thousand times.  Making fun of LeBron has even reached crossover appeal to other sports - Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo was saddled with the nickname "LeBrongo" for his lack of clutchability (imagine that in the realm of possibilities when The Decision happened last summer).  I'm no fan of LeBron James, and I couldn't be happier that he and the Heat got so close to the NBA title only to choke mercilessly and be denied by Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavs.  But, maybe with this clip below, dissing LeBron James has officially jumped the shark, at least for the time being.  Listen as Hollywood Park track announcer Vic Stauffer takes his swing at James during a recent race...



H/T Darren Rovell 
 

Say what you will about the pros and cons of interleague play, but it made for a nice moment this weekend when Derek Jeter chalked up his 3,000th hit in the Yankees 3-2 victory over the Cubs didn't play due to a calf strain. And because the future Hall of Famer crossed that coveted baseball milestone in Chicago, kicked back and enjoyed a few hot dogs while watching the game in his mansion, we were treated to this little number by Ryan Dempster, who paid tribute both to Jeter and the late Harry Caray. 

I don't know who this Caray fella is, but Ryan Demptser sure does a solid Will Ferrell impression.