Our long national nightmare is over. HBO and NFL Films have found their next victim subject for Hard Knocks, the Cincinnati Bengals. The last time the Bengals were on Hard Knocks, the then-Chad Ochocinco added the phrase "Child, please" to the national lexicon. And while Chad is no longer with the Bengals and fighting jail time, the team will be back on Hard Knocks. NFL Films cameras will tape training camp and the results will be featured on HBO later this summer.

Word began surfacing Friday night that the Bengals had given their blessing to be on the show again, however, the original tweet from Philadelphia Daily News columnist Paul Domowitch was deleted. But other NFL reporters began to latch on to the news. Bengals beat writer Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported the agreement and ESPN's NFL insider Adam Schefter tweeted out word today that he has confirmed the Bengals' return to Hard Knocks as well.

An official announcement from HBO and the NFL is expected within a couple of weeks. Last year's subject, the Miami Dolphins were mostly dull and made for some boring television. Asides from cutaways to Ryan Tannenhill's wife, Lauren, Hard Knocks in 2012 was relatively lackluster. Here's hoping the Bengals can provide some excitement and bring back some memorable moments for Hard Knocks.

[Cincinnati.com/Adam Schefter]

ESPN and NBC share the broadcast rights to the US Open.  On Friday night, during an evening replay of the day's action, ESPN2 re-aired some of NBC's coverage from the late afternoon window.  That coverage included this promo for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals airing on NBC Sports Network tonight.

So yes, as a function of sharing broadcast rights, ESPN ran a graphic advertising hockey on NBC Sports Network.  I think we all know the joke that's coming...

This is the most ESPN has cared about hockey in years!

H/T to the incomparable bubbaprog

It's a yearly tradition.  Chris Berman announcing golf's US Open.  It's a bizarre situation because ESPN knows they're going to get crushed year after year, and yet they persist in what may be the single most decried announcing assignment of the year.  Putting Chris Berman on US Open coverage is like putting Gary Busey on PBS NewsHour, it just shouldn't be done.  In terms of the reaction from fans, it'd be akin to putting Craig James on a Texas Tech telecast.  

And yet, every June, ESPN places Chris Berman on its Thursday and Friday coverage of the US Open.  Every June, golf fans around the country erupt in protest.  Every June, we round up tweets from those golf fans.  

As always these are Real Tweets from Real People...

Cougar Life is a dating web site for older women to find younger men. Last month, the site asked their members which baseball player they’d most like to score with, and NY Met David Wright came out on top (pun intended…or not).

A staff member in the Mets marketing department thought they could use this prestigious award (or something) to get Wright more All-Star votes. This year’s ASG game is at Citi Field, where the Mets play, so it would be a slap in the face if Wright could not start at 3B.

All Times Eastern

Arena Football
Jacksonville Sharks at Utah Blaze -- CBS Sports Network, 9 p.m.

Australian Rules Football
Fremantle Dockers vs. Brisbane Lions -- Fox Soccer Plus, 2:30 a.m.

Boxing
IBO Championship, South Africa
Kgole vs. Ramagole -- beIN Sport, 1:30 p.m.

Boxing After Dark, Dallas, TX
Mikey Garcia vs. Juan Manuel Lopez -- HBO, 10:45 p.m.

The Philadelphia Eagles signed fourth-round pick Matt Barkley to a four year contract on Thursday. After being projected to be a top ten (or better) pick if he left USC for the 2012 Draft, Barkley's stock plummeted after a disappointing senior season at USC. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported the signing, with a little dig that the contract wasn't similar to the one Barkley would have signed a year ago. Barkley's response was full of snark and to the point...

This week, ESPN did Round Two of its layoffs and veteran researcher Howie Schwab became the face of those job cuts. An estimated 400 people will lose their jobs. In addition, ESPN announced that it was suspending operation of the flailing ESPN 3D due to lack of consumer interest. And quietly, two late night programs that had filled timeslots on ESPNews and ESPNU were canceled. 

This was by far the best tweet of Game 4.  Only Metta World Peace could tweet his admiration for Dwyane Wade with an acrostic that spells W.A.D.S. instead of W.A.D.E...

Wade stands for We Are defending Something

— Metta World Peace (@MettaWorldPeace) June 14, 2013

So close!  Seriously though, let's all just thank Metta for not referring to Dwyane Wade by the worst self-appointed nickname slash secret marketing campaign in the history of sports - Way of Wade.  That's still unforgivable and makes me root against Miami more than anything in this year's Finals.

Here's wishing Metta World Peace a Happy Bastille Day, or whatever holiday he's celebrating today.

Above, you see the touching tribute from the Chicago Tribune to the city of Boston the day after the horrific marathon bombings. Erasing any and all rivalries, one city reached out to another to say, “We stand with you.” I was particularly proud of this gesture for two reasons:

1. I live in Chicago

2. I am originally from New Hampshire, which means Boston teams are our teams.

The next week, the Tribune expanded on its generosity by buying lunch for the entire Boston Globe staff. Again, another touching gesture from one city to another.

Well, now that the Blackhawks and Bruins are vying for Lord Stanley, the Tribune has turned its act of kindness into the act of a petty teenager in some sort of misguided attempt at humor or sporting rivalry or something pointless. Behold what wound up in Wednesday’s supplemental edition of the Tribune:

This is one of the crazier sights I've ever seen caught on camera at a golf tournament.  As Carl Pettersen takes his backswing on the 5th hole early Friday morning, his ball is ricocheted away by a wayward shot from the neighboring 2nd hole.  And you thought golf was tough enough when the ball was stationary?  

The odds of this happening at a US Open have to be somewhere around one in a trillion.  Kudos to ESPN's production for catching it on tape.

H/T Liam_Jones15