With no regard for human life, Kevin Harlan called Chris Paul's buzzer-beating three-pointer to end the third quarter of Game 2 like he was auditioning to be the killer in Scream. I'd at least give him a call back.

Given how bloody ugly this game was, you can't blame Harlan for gettin' a little woozy over Paul's three-pointer. Of course, it's a signature call for Harlan, but he usually doesn't put so much English on it. It's fantastic.

[video via Blazers Edge]

Once upon a time, Jack Edwards was your average ESPN SportsCenter anchor.  He wasn't any different than Gary Miller or Steve Levy or Stan Verrett - just your everyday, straight-forward ESPN personality.  Unlike most other ESPN anchors though, Jack Edwards has made even more of a name for himself as a play by play man... and an insane one at that.  The last few years, Edwards has been NESN's lead announcer for coverage of the Boston Bruins.  You could tell Jack Edwards was on his way to Crazytown when he shouted jingoistic, patriotic slogans announcing USA soccer games during the 2002 World Cup, but he's really blossomed in Boston.  Inspired by this clip from Game 3, we've scoured Youtube for the best (and by best I mean most insane) Jack Edwards clips.  Here now, the Crazy Jack Edwards Top 13! (We can't stop at ten, can we?)  Come into the padded room, it's safe...

13) "TAKE THAT!"


12) "Rabblerobbleyabba"


11) "We are HIGH"

Earlier today, we threw up the NFL's Monday Night Football schedule, so to complete the primetime schedule on broadcast and cable (we're still waiting NFL Network), here is NBC's Sunday Night Football schedule.  If you want to waste some time and have fun with the schedule, NFL.com has a pretty cool interactive look at the full slate by team, week, and primetime.  All SNF start times are 8:20 ET with Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth calling the action.  Flex games will start in Week 11, so this schedule is subject to change where there are asterisks and the Week 17 game will be decided after Week 16's games are complete.  

NFL Kickoff: New Orleans Saints at Green Bay Packers
Week 1: Dallas Cowboys at New York Jets
Week 2: Philadelphia Eagles at Atlanta Falcons
Week 3: Pittsburgh Steelers at Indianapolis Colts
Week 4: New York Jets at Baltimore Ravens
Week 5: Green Bay Packers at Atlanta Falcons
Week 6: Minnesota Vikings at Chicago Bears
Week 7: Indianapolis Colts at New Orleans Saints
Week 8: Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles
Week 9: Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers
Week 10: New England Patriots at New York Jets
*Week 11: Philadelphia Eagles at New York Giants
*Week 12: Pittsburgh Steelers at Kansas City Chiefs
*Week 13: Indianapolis Colts at New England Patriots
*Week 14: New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys
*Week 15: Baltimore Ravens at San Diego Chargers
Week 16: Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers
*Week 17: TBA 

The SNF schedule is awesome.  Currently, it looks much stronger than the Monday Night Football slate.  The season begins with a fantastic Thursday night kickoff between the last two Super Bowl champs - New Orleans and Green Bay.  Week 1 also features an emotional home game in the Meadowlands between Dallas and the Jets on the 10 year anniversary of 9/11.  I can't remember a better primetime slate to start the year - Weeks 1-10 are absolutely stacked.  Mike Vick's return to Atlanta, Peyton Manning going home to New Orleans, and Rex Ryan's return to Baltimore are only a few of the compelling games.  The only matchup in there that can be deemed average is Minny at Chicago, if the Vikes can't rebound post-Favre.  The huge divisional rivalry games are also here like Pats/Jets, Ravens/Steelers, and Cowboys/Eagles.  Barring catastrophic collapses, expect the big NFC East games to remain in the flexed schedule, as well as Colts/Pats of course.  Since Christmas occurs on a Sunday this year, Packers/Bears is the only game scheduled on December 25 and is not a flex game.  All of Week 17's games will take place on New Year's Day.  On paper, the Sunday Night games are outstanding, it gets an A.  

Now for the bad news... your list of teams not on Monday or Sunday Night Football: Arizona, Buffalo, Carolina, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, and Tennessee.  Of those teams, at least Cleveland and Houston get a Thursday Night Football bone thrown their way.
 

The NFL released their 2011 schedule last night, while locking out their players for the 38th straight day.  Perhaps it's no surprise then that the schedule release was somewhat muted compared to the hysteria of recent years.  One of the highlights of seeing the NFL sked for the first time is checking out the national primetime matchups, especially who squares off on Monday Night Football.  All games (except the Week 1 DH that begins at 7:30) are 8:30 ET starts on ESPN with Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski, and Jon Gruden calling the action.  Here's the MNF sked, with some thoughts below.

Week 1: New England @ Miami, Oakland @ Denver
Week 2: St. Louis @ New York Giants
Week 3: Washington @ Dallas
Week 4: Indianapolis @ Tampa Bay
Week 5: Chicago @ Detroit
Week 6: Miami @ New York Jets
Week 7: Baltimore @ Jacksonville
Week 8: San Diego @ Kansas City
Week 9: Chicago @ Philadelphia
Week 10: Minnesota @ Green Bay
Week 11: Kansas City @ New England
Week 12: New York Giants @ New Orleans
Week 13: San Diego @ Jacksonville
Week 14: St. Louis @ Seattle
Week 15: Pittsburgh @ San Francisco
Week 16: Atlanta @ New Orleans

The MNF sked has some intriguing games, but is mostly a letdown.  After 13 divisional rivalry games on last year's schedule, this year MNF is down to 9 divisional games.  From a brief glance, the sked doesn't have the great, must-see, highlight games that you would expect.  Surprisingly, SB XLV reps Pittsburgh and Green Bay only get one game a piece.  Even the rivalry games don't stand out as there would be better divisional matchups on the table.  I would have hoped we could be spared from Vikings/Packers for another year (my God, it'll be the first Vikings/Packers game in Lambeau that Brett Favre will watch as a fan!!!).  It also seems like this is the 34th straight year the Jets and Dolphins will play each other on Monday night.  Cross-divisional matchups like Rams/Giants and Ravens/Jags don't exactly cause masses of NFL fans to start circling their calendars either.

It's interesting to look at the late-season MNF schedule since those games cannot be flexed like their Sunday Night brethren.  The league is counting on those games to feature good teams and mean something.  That's why I can't understand the three week run of Chargers/Jags, Rams/Seahawks, and Steelers/49ers.  Seriously?  St. Louis vs Seattle?  Didn't we all have to suffer through that once already?  The best matchups appear to be Weeks 9 and 16 featuring CHI/PHI and ATL/NO.  Of course, with the topsy turvy nature of the NFL nothing's certain, but as we sit in April, the MNF schedule gets a C at best.

I don't know why I didn't change the channel for 30 full minutes of Rome is Burning. Maybe it's because Jim Rome wasn't actually on today and was replaced by Jason Smith. Figuring out who his guest host today was actually pretty difficult given twitter mainly referred to him as Dr. Evil.

I didn't pay attention to how Smith did but was lucky enough to look up at the right moment to see this interesting shot.

Not sure what the topic was in "The Final Burn", but am pretty confident it didn't involve haircuts and suit purchasing decisions. The word is tomorrow Will Smith with guest host and will burn Robert Horry in the final segment. 

Probably the most anticipated first-round matchup of the NHL Playoffs is the pairing of two original 6 rivals, the Habs and Bruins. During the regular season, the rivalrly was ratcheted up a couple thousand notches after Zdeno Chara's hit severely injured Max Pacioretty. It was an ugly scene to be sure, so ugly that Montreal police opened a criminal investigation into the hit. With the Canadiens taking the first two games in Boston, this set the stage for an intense and pivotal game three. As you can see/hear by Bruins announcer, Jack Edwards, the intensity wasn't just isolated to the ice. I personally don't have much of a problem with announcing homerism when it's a local broadcast, but this is just hilariously awesome. Hopefully this series goes 7 so we can enjoy more Jack Edwards.

[Fang's Bites]

One of the big stories in the sports world that not all fans may be aware of is the massive TV contracts that are dropping everywhere.  Just last week, the Big 12 was pretty much saved from extinction by a 13 year deal with Fox.  Today, it's being reported that the NHL has signed a new deal with NBC/Comcast to keep the league on their networks including NBC and Versus.  Yahoo reports that the deal is for 10 years.  The league had been in contact with ESPN, Turner, and Fox during negotiations as well.  Here's some of the details from Sports Business Daily...

"NBC and Versus have agreed to a deal to renew the NHL’s TV rights, according to execs close to the deal. A formal announcement is expected to come this afternoon. Specific deal terms are not known, but the bidding had gone above $200M per year. Fox pulled out of the bidding last week, and Turner pulled out yesterday, saying it could not find a business model to support the money the NHL appears to be getting in this negotiation. The NHL never came back to ESPN with a final bid, sources said. ESPN’s interest in picking up the package stayed until the end of the bidding process. But sources said it was too difficult for the NHL and ESPN to work around NBC and Versus’ matching rights."

Whatever those dollar figures end up being, it will be a huge increase for the NHL and an encouraging sign for the league's future.  Remember, this league was on the brink of disaster just over a decade ago after an entire season was lost (are you listening David Stern).  The excellent Puck Daddy puts the NHL's recent TV negotiations into perspective...

"It's pretty incredible, thinking back to the lockout, how far the League has rebounded. We've gone from the NHL taking Comcast's money to go on something called OLN after ESPN low-balled them, to having ESPN in a bidding war to reacquire hockey, with the TV rights jacked up.

The Winter Classic, the Stanley Cup Finals and conference finals are all rating well. There are at least eight or nine marketable teams for U.S. TV, even if NBC only shows about four of them. The League's top stars are, by and large, under the age of 30, and branching out into popular culture.

It's a good time to be the NHL, and to be in business with the NHL."

Sticking with NBC will be a good move for the NHL in the long run because they can be one of the top sports properties for NBC and whatever VS ends up being.  SBJ's John Ourand (a must follow on Twitter if you're interested in this kind of thing) says that Versus will eventually be rebranded with NBC Sports.  For this deal to be a true success for the NHL though, Versus is going to have to up its game dramatically by reaching more homes and improving its overall programming quality.  A more profound synergy with NBC Sports is likely to help in that area as they beef up their portfolio.  

***Update: I asked John on Twitter what NBC may be looking to add to NHL programming and here was his very interesting response...

Ourand_SBJ @awfulannouncing Everything from Olympics to NFL to MLB. Comcast/NBC will be at the table for almost every rights deal coming up.

So, it looks like NBC/Comcast will be working hard to add more feature sports programming to their networks.  If they can acquire something as big as NFL or MLB, maybe a new NBC powered sports cable channel could step up as a legitimate challenger (not competitor necessarily) to ESPN.

Overall, this is a better deal for the network than moving to ESPN, where they would always be fourth or fifth on the network platforms behind the NFL, MLB, NBA, and college football.  Yes, the ESPN machine sounds good to respective leagues, but Bristol hasn't exactly done a lot for NASCAR, and the NHL would probably stagnate as a secondary property for the network.  By staying with NBC/Comcast, the league can better continue the momentum they have built in the last decade.

NBC, Versus win NHL TV rights in war vs. ESPN; source says 10 years - Puck Daddy
NBC, Versus Set To Announce Deal To Retain NHL TV Rights - Sports Business Journal
 

On Friday night I shared my disappointment that ESPN was not acknowledging their relationship (at least on Sportscenter) to the various troubled poker companies that essentially propped up their heavy rotation of poker programming. In that article I began to hypothesize that the end was likely near for poker on television and for the events and tours that provide the programming to ESPN and other media companies. Less than 3 days later, the first domino fell as ESPN has announced they'll drop all poker advertising from their programming. 

 

I'd imagine you'll see Fox, CBS, and NBC/Comcast all follow suit in the coming days. It's not just that it is a bit taboo right now to flaunt poker programming and advertising in the wake of the US government's crackdown, but mainly because the economics don't work anymore given ~70% of the sponsor money just got connected to companies deemed to be operating illegally. 

While I think a lot of folks think poker is still a niche "sport", the fact that poker spans all the major media companies shows that it's been a favorite of programmers at all the big networks. Whether it's late night/early morning on cable or network television, live in prime time on ESPN , or on a Sunday afternoon on NBC (like this weekend which featured Don Cheadle and Emmitt Smith), poker has given media executives a low cost programming option that had built in sponsors via Full Tilt, Absolute, and Poker Stars.

As the Bulls and Pacers play on in the fourth quarter, we have to share this clip of TJ Ford tying the game for the Pacers with a beyond mid-court buzzer beater at the end of the third quarter.  It's an unbelievable shot and a great reaction by TNT analyst Chris Webber who screams ala Gus Johnson.  I have to say too though that Dick Stockton did a great job going into the commercial break after Ford's shot.  For whatever reason, he's been quite excited during this game (maybe he has money on the Pacers? HGH? other reasons?) and his pairing with C-Web is growing on me.  Here's the clip of the amazing Ford buzzer beater...



H/T @jeff1317
 

For the last month, SportsNation has been conducting a bracket style poll in partnership with EA Sports to determine the cover star for Madden 2012.  The Madden cover may be one of the biggest deals in sports video games due to the prestige of the honor... and the curse that goes along with it.  Each team was given a player as a representative (except the Seahawks who were given The 12th Man, ha!) and players advanced by winning each individual matchup.  Now, the competition is down to the final two - Michael Vick and Peyton Hillis.  I'm not making this up.  I know you're looking for some real analysis of how this matchup breaks down, so before we make fun of the whole thing, here's what ESPN's gaming blog has to say...

"... thanks to an online campaign by the Cleveland Browns and a city looking for a spark of positivity in an era that's been defined by the words: "I'm taking my talents to South Beach," Peyton Hillis is not only in the finals, he has a real shot at winning the ultimate prize in the world of video games -- posing for the "Madden NFL 12" cover.

... Could we see animal rights groups gather online to provide the anti-Vick vote, swinging the election towards Hillis? Could happen, as the combination of Cleveland fans and anti-Vick voters could put Hillis over the top in this one, giving fans one of the most shocking cover athletes in EA Sports history."

Or, it could just be a majority of people wanting to have fun at the expense of the legitimacy of this process.  How many people are voting Vick for the ironic humor in seeing Michael Vick, say it with me, Michael Vick, as the face of the NFL once again.  Or wanting to just vote against PETA.  On the other side, you have the laughability of seeing the NFL's 11th leading rusher on the Madden cover.  But, hey, I hear he has a great online campaign.  Thanks to the good people of EA for not just plastering Aaron Rodgers on the cover and giving us some entertainment during the lockout.  What I want to know though, is how to market this matchup for the primetime theater it should be.  Here's some ideas...

NFL's Leading Fumbler vs NFL's Leader In Jailtime Served
Wait, How Did Tebow Get In This Bracket?
Dawg Pound Seeks Revenge Against Vick (that one and many others like it write themselves)
At Least He's Better Than Danny Woodhead vs At Least He's Not O.J. 

What are your thoughts on the Hillis/Vick matchup?  Can you provide a headline worthy of such a titanic duel?  Leave us a comment below with your feedback!