Remember when ESPN appeared to be like The Brain of the old WB animated series, Pinky and the Brain, on a mission to take over the world? Well unlike the Brain, ESPN seemed to be on its way with networks in Asia, Africa, Europe as well as Central and South America.

You could travel to the UK and watch ESPN for the English Premier League, the FA Cup as well as some of ESPN's USA programming. ESPN Star Sports in India gave viewers cricket, soccer, tennis and the Olympics. It seemed where there was a TV set and a pay provider, ESPN would find its way there.

But over the last half-year, ESPN has been quietly selling some of its international channels. Months after losing the UK rights to the English Premier League to BT Sport, the Worldwide Leader decided to sell its channels in England and Ireland to BT for an undisclosed amount of cash. ESPN will still have an online presence in the UK, but its broadcast rights to various events will revert to BT. The moves have already influenced some of the on-air talent as Rebecca Lowe, a host for ESPN UK will move to NBC in June to host English Premier League games here and the beloved Ian Darke will call EPL games for BT in the UK.

There once was a man named Reilly,
His work used to be regarded highly.
He once was quick as a pistol,
Then got hired by Bristol.

He was a good writer,
He once could be proud.
But now he writes jokes,
that make me curse aloud.

Money became his muse,
So recycled columns he did use
And he'll continue to collect his paycheck wryly.

He fell off the wagon,
Although he keeps braggin,
Even when he keeps writing quite dryly.

He bloviates poetically,
Though he does poorly phonetically,
Inventing words to fit his awful rhyme,
Reilly wasticated all of our time.

They put him on shows,
Now his work blows,
And God only knows,
How much lower he goes.

Rick Reilly has spent
Many years at the top
Which is rather amazing
When he produces such slop.

Never call him a quitter,
Because he breaks news on Twitter.

Appearing in order: daytonadan, ph_problems, ArchStanton52, Weldibeast, HawgPride5, TStads20, JoeMcCann3, danlevythinks, normalguyguide

On Thursday, Youtube launched the first wave of paid subscriptions to a variety of channels. Of the 54 paid channels that are currently active, some are sports related, including channels for Fitness, the PGA Digital Golf Academy, TNA Wrestling, and the UFC.

But honestly, when it comes to the major sports leagues, I'm not sure if they have much of a future charging or subscriptions to Youtube channels. The NBA's Youtube channel is a behemoth, with over 3.4 million subscribers and 1.4 billion video views. The NHL is getting somewhere on Youtube despite over three million fewer subscribers than the NBA. Even MLB is getting in on the act, but their main goal is still driving people to MLB.com and their media empire.

Tiger Woods won The Players yesterday for his 4th win of the season and 78th of his career in his 300th start.  He was aided by Sergio Garcia dropping two balls in the water on the famed island green 17th when he was tied for the lead with Woods.  In fairness to Sergio, a small flock of geese were flying overhead and distracted him.  Sergio's unfortunate turn of events let Tiger off the hook somewhat.  Woods temporarily blew a 3 shot lead, aided by his own drive into the water on the Par 4 14th.

Woods would bogey the hole, but not before NBC golf analyst Johnny Miller tried to stir up another national controversy with Woods' drop.  Of course, Tiger Woods held the nation captive earlier this year with a drop on the 15th at Augusta in the 2nd Round that resulted in a 2 stroke penalty and not disqualification.  Miller speculated that Woods had again improperly dropped by placing his ball much further up the fairway than where his ball must have crossed the hazard.  Miller delivered this overly dramatic line on the broadcast and was immediately shot down by on-course reporter Mark Rolfing.

If you've paid close attention to this site over the years, you'll know my affinity for Aussie Rules football.  It's seriously the most entertaining game in the world and I probably watch more AFL football during a week than 99% of Americans have seen in a lifetime.  (Two words: Majak Daw!!)

This AFL clip comes to us from the lead-up to Sunday's game between Melbourne and the Gold Coast Suns.  The Suns are one of the AFL's two recent expansion teams (the other being Greater Western Sydney) while Melbourne is currently in a stretch that is the Aussie version of Matt Millen's Detroit Lions.  In other words, it was going to be a dog of a game.  Maybe that's why analyst Gerard Healy's mind was elsewhere as he was previewing the game and called the Suns the "Gold C**ts."  Let your mind run wild with that Freudian slip!

For what it's worth, Gold Coast blasted Melbourne 114-54 for their first win at the MCG.

H/T TBL

After appearing in the SI Swimsuit Issue and on a celebrity diving show, Katherine Webb is still showing up in random places - like The Tonight Show. First of all, if Jay Leno is using Katherine Webb, Kendra Wilkinson and Alexis Bellino as "all stars" then there is still hope for Tara Reid. Don't give up, girl!

Anyways, Webb and friends went on Leno's show to answer general knowledge questions, and the results were predictably not pretty.

I've seen plenty of dumb moments in sideline reporting.  This may be the dumbest.

During Game 6 of the Kings-Blues series Friday night, actor Matthew Perry was interviewed by Dan Moriarty on the Fox Sports West telecast.  That's when things went quickly downhill.

Inexplicably, Moriarty congratulates Perry on his "big news" - the cancelation of Go On, his NBC show.  Amazingly, Moriarty calls the cancelation a "double edged sword" and congratulates Perry AGAIN because it will free him up to go see more Kings games.  (WTF?!?!)

Usually congratulations are reserved for positive occasions when some type of goal or milestone is reached - not abject failure.  When I failed a test in school, I never remember getting one of those "Good Job" stickers.  While Moriarty was at it, he should have asked Perry about the "great successes" of Mr. Sunshine and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.  How Matthew Perry made it through this interview without bludgeoning this guy over the head with his shoe is truly remarkable.

There is a sadistic part of me that hopes sideline reporters congratulating people on their failures could somehow become a new trend in the industry.  Imagine the high comedy of Roger Maltbie saluting Sergio Garcia for pumping three balls in the drink on Sunday at The Players...

H/T DannyDeraney

All Times Eastern

College Baseball
Florida State at North Carolina State -- ESPNU, 7 p.m.

College Football
College Football Live -- ESPN, 3:30 p.m.

Cycling
Tour of California
Stage 2: Murrieta to Greater Palm Springs -- NBC Sports Network, 5 p.m.

The final place in next year's English Premier League is currently being contested in the Championship playoffs.  Cardiff City and Hull City won automatic promotion on a frantic final day of the regular season in the English Second Division, leaving Watford, Crystal Palace, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Leicester City to fight it out for the third promotion spot in the playoffs.

Earlier today Watford hosted Leicester City in the second leg of their playoff semifinal.  With the score tied at 2-2 on aggregate, Leicester's Anthony Knockaert stepped up to take a penalty kick for the win in the 97th minute after several minutes of stoppage time.  Incredibly, former Arsenal keeper Manuel Almunia made not one, but two saves and Watford launched an immediate counterattack that resulted in a Troy Deeney goal to send the Hornets through and jubilant Watford fans onto the pitch.

It's almost an exact replica of what we saw at the end of April in England's League One when Doncaster saved a Brentford penaly and scored at the other end to win promotion to the Championship.  An inconceivably dramatic finish that keeps Watford's hopes of returning to the Premier League alive and sends them to Wembley Stadium for the richest game in soccer.

And here's how the story was told on Sky Sports' Soccer Saturday...

This post originally on Dave's site, What You Pay For Sports. Dave will be contributing from time to time in addition to occasional syndication of his work.

If you need a prime example of just how much money regional sports networks can suck from your wallet, look no further than the City of Angels.

In the last three years, Los Angeles sports fans have been bombarded with news of their local teams signing TV deals with RSNs worth more than $13.3 billion. The L.A. Lakers kicked off this money grab in early 2011 by signing a 20-year, $3 billion deal with Time Warner Cable, which led to the launch of TWC SportsNet. That network then struck a 10-year, $55 million deal with the MLS Cup-winning L.A. Galaxy.

Having lost the Lakers, Fox Sports West ended up making a 20-year, $3 billion deal of their own with the L.A. Angels of Anaheim the following December. Six months later, Fox Sports West and the Stanley Cup-winning L.A. Kings agreed to a 12-year, $250 million extension.

Then came the biggest bombshell. Time Warner Cable struck a deal with the L.A. Dodgers reportedly worth a whopping $7 billion over 25 years. More importantly, this deal called for the creation of yet another new RSN, SportsNet LA, dedicated solely to the Dodgers.

And who gets the honor of footing the bill for all these massive TV contracts? All the cable, satellite and fiber TV customers in the Los Angeles media market. Who else?

Here’s a rough breakdown of the pay TV services in the L.A. area, and the number of people who subscribe to them.