Eccentric Bills wide receiver Steve Johnson's Twitter account will surely be studied for years by generations that come after us as evidence of the continued evolution of mankind, much like Snooki's baby or the next round of Kardashians.  You never quite know which direction Stevie J is going to with his thoughts on football and life.  Crazed diva wide receiver... or a contemporary Aristotle who can only be truly appreciated long after we're gone?  I'm going to go with Column A, but you never know.

Yesterday, Stevie J turned his attention to North Korea, who is "tripping hard" at the moment with all these nuclear threats.

North Korea tripping hard AF right now. Chill out with that Nuke talk. #uMadBro

— STVN (@StevieJohnson13) April 3, 2013

Of course, war is nothing to joke about... but, if it just so happened that North Korea did decide to go through with their increased rhetoric and drop a bomb on the USA, Johnson had some friendly advice for where they should target...

When it comes to holding the self proclaimed worldwide leader to account for their more mind-numbing moments, I'll hold up my hand as being one of the first in line.  It could be anything that emenates from ESPN2 weekday mornings, inane SportsCenter debates, segments breaking down the Harlem Shake, their treatment of sports and stories they don't have ties to, and so on and so forth.

But ESPN also deserves praise when they put their resources few other networks in the world have towards quality reporting and impactful stories.  ESPN aired the controversial video of now fired Rutgers coach Mike Rice and had a lenghty accompanying story from acclaimed Pulitzer winner Don Van Natta Jr.  If you've been away from civilization for the past 36 hours, here's the OTL video...

All Times Eastern

College Baseball
Arkansas at Alabama -- ESPNU, 8 p.m.

College Basketball
Men's
National Invitation Tournament, New York, NY
Championship
Baylor vs. Iowa -- ESPN, 9 p.m.

Courtside with Seth Davis -- CBS Sports Network, 6:30 p.m.
Slam Dunk & 3-Point Championship -- ESPN, 7 p.m.
NCAA March Madness Bracket Breakdown -- CBS Sports Network, 7:30 p.m.

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

Curling
World Championship, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Sweden vs. Denmark -- Universal Sports, noon
Canada vs. Sweden -- Universal Sports, 10 p.m.

Cycling
Tour of the Basque Country, Spain
Stage 4 -- Universal Sports, 10 a.m.

Golf
LPGA Tour
Kraft Nabisco Championship, Rancho Mirage, CA
First Round -- Golf Channel, noon & 6 p.m.

PGA Tour
Texas Open, San Antonio, TX
First Round -- Golf Channel, 3 p.m.

Mixed Martial Arts
Bellator MMA Live: Pat Curran vs. Shahbulat Shamhalaev, Cooper vs. Marshall, Richman vs. Khasbulaev, Hawn vs. Parisyan -- Spike, 10 p.m.

MLB
American League
Boston at New York Yankees -- MLB Network, 7 p.m.

National League
Chicago at Pittsburgh -- WGN America, 12:30 p.m.
San Diego at New York Mets -- MLB Network, 1 p.m.
Philadelphia at Atlanta -- MLB Network, 7 p.m.

Interleague
Anaheim Angels at Cincinnati -- MLB Network, 12:30 p.m.

The Rundown -- MLB Network, 3:30 p.m.
MLB Now -- MLB Network, 4 p.m.
MLB Tonight -- MLB Network, 6 p.m.
MLB Tonight -- MLB Network, 10 p.m.
Quick Pitch -- MLB Network, 11 p.m.
Baseball Tonight -- ESPN2, midnight

NBA
Chicago at Brooklyn -- TNT, 7 p.m.
San Antonio at Oklahoma -- TNT, 9:30 p.m.

Inside the NBA -- TNT, midnight

NFL
NFL Live -- ESPN, 4 p.m.
Path to the Draft -- NFL Network, 6 p.m.
SportsCenter Special: Draft Lab -- ESPN2, 8 p.m.
Gruden's QB Camp: Geno Smith -- ESPN2, 8:30 p.m.

NHL
New Jersey at Boston -- NHL Network, 7 p.m.
Minnesota at Los Angeles -- NHL Network, 10:30 p.m.

NHL Live -- NHL Network, 5 p.m.
NHL Tonight -- NHL Network, 1 a.m. (Friday)

Sports Talk
NFL AM -- NFL Network, 6 a.m.
The 'Lights -- NBC Sports Network, 6 a.m.
Morning Drive -- Golf Channel, 7 a.m.
The Dan Patrick Show -- Audience Network (DirecTV)/NBC Sports Network, 9 a.m.
Tim Brando Show -- CBS Sports Network, 9 a.m.
Sky Sports News -- Fox Soccer, 9 a.m.
The Box Score -- Audience Network (DirecTV)/NBC Sports Network, noon
SVP & Russillo -- ESPNews, 2 p.m.
Outside the Lines -- ESPN, 3 p.m.
Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable -- ESPN2, 3:30 p.m.
SportsNation -- ESPN, 4 p.m.
The Best of the Dan Patrick Show -- NBC Sports Network, 4 p.m.
Pardon the Interruption -- ESPN, 5:30 p.m.
ROME -- CBS Sports Network, 6 p.m.
Fox Soccer News -- Fox Soccer, 10 p.m.
UNITE -- ESPNews, 11 p.m.
Lead Off -- CBS Sports Network, midnight

Tennis
WTA Tour
Family Circle Cup, Charleston, SC
Round of 16 -- ESPN2, 1 p.m.

UEFA Europa League
Quarterfinals, 1st Leg
Chelsea vs. Rubin Kazan -- Fox Soccer, 2:30 p.m.
Tottenham Hotspur vs. Basel -- Fox Soccer Plus, 2:30 p.m.
Benfica vs. Newcastle United -- Fox Soccer, 5 p.m. (same day coverage)
Fenerbahçe vs. Lazio -- Fox Soccer Plus, 5 p.m. (same day coverage)

With MLB's Opening Day in the books and the grind of a 162 game season underway, there's both good and bad news related to the first couple days of games on ESPN.

Outside the Lines' frank discussion of Mike Rice's physical and verbal abuse continued today as Bob Ley interviewed former player Tyree Graham, who witnessed Rice's action while at Rutgers.  Ley asked Graham where Rice went over the line and he replied it was when he started using profane language and homophobic slurs to refer to the players.  Unfortunately for ESPN, the seven second delay wasn't quite working fast enough as Graham explicitly recounts Rice's verbal abuse.  Obviously the language is NSFW...

Bob Ley quickly reminds Graham he's on live television and then soldiers on in the interview like the boss that he obviously is, apparently offering a later apology for the language that slipped through.  The wonders of live television!

With the start of the MLB season, we welcome Al Leiter to the AA Podcast. Al is a former MLB All Star and World Series winner who now works as an MLB Network analyst appearing on MLB Tonight throughout the baseball season.  His work in the booth started before his playing days were done calling LCS games for Fox and he's continued to do standout work as one of the best analysts in the field. Al Leiter talks to AA about that broadcast career and the early MLB season including...

-How he uses sabermetrics in his analysis and providing balance to fans.
-Yu Darvish coming so close to a perfect game and his experience pitching a no-hitter.
-Whether or not the broadcasters' jinx is fact or fiction.
-Why the Washington Nationals are the team to beat this season.
-The San Francisco Giants flying under the radar once again.
-Increased parity being good for the long term health of the game.
-Early season MLB storylines.

Those topics and much more as we cover the opening week of the 2013 MLB season.

In case you've missed any of our podcasts, check out all of our interviews by subscribing to the AA Podcast on iTunes or our AA Podcast RSS Page.  

It's a well-known fact that former basketball coach and current ESPN analyst Bob Knight is not a happy man. While he has a hidden sense of humor, it's his negative side that has made headlines. When he does interviews, Knight can be a bully, but in an interview on ESPN2's "Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable," he tries to show a humorous side. Le Batard and his dad Gonzalo took a different approach with Knight and didn't ask him any basketball questions. Instead, the Le Batards asked Knight about his new book written with Bob Hammel, "The Power of Negative Thinking: An Unconventional Approach to Achieving Positive Results" and why he believes so much in negative thinking. Knight actually gives some thoughtful answers and how his grandmother began him on his path.

Time to open the notebook once again. Quite a few stories out there for your consumption.

Interesting note from The Big Lead's Jason McIntyre as he breaks news that the popular Charissa Thompson of SportsNation could be leaving ESPN to go back to Fox Sports. You may remember she got her first big break through Fox Sports working on The Best Damn Sports Show Period and on Big Ten Network. A second part to that link is that ESPN is putting the kybosh on a new debate show which would have featured various ex and current athletes.

In a related note, I've heard that former ESPN sideline reporter Jenn Brown was seen auditioning for Fox Sports 1. Brown already landed a role at the new Esquire Channel (formerly G4) and hosting American Ninja Warrior. Those jobs shouldn't affect her potential status with FS1. Not sure of what role she would take, but if she and Thompson are hired, they would join Erin Andrews and Fox would suddenly be filled with a multitude of former ESPNers.

Something left over from the weekend - Tim Carmody of The Verge reports that HBO Sports may stream live events on the HBO Go mobile and tablet app later this year. However, an HBO spokesman later shot down the report. It would be nice to see live boxing on the app and perhaps a way to get some of their pay per view bouts as well.

Before calling last night's MLB Network game between the Giants and Dodgers, Bob Costas took part in a short inteview with the MLB Now studio crew.  It was then when one of his greatest moments as a broadcaster happened.  Harold Reynolds asked Costas who his favorite rapper was and Costas answered Ludacris because he named Costas in a rap. (Of course.)  Costas then proceeded to drop the rhyme, which falls just behind "feel these nipples" at the top of the Bob Costas quotebook...

With the NFL entering the final year of its original four-year agreement with Verizon, it looks like there could be at least one heavy hitter in contention for live mobile rights in the near-future. Yahoo! is considering making a run at the rights, according to Nicholas Carlson of Business Insider. 

That Verizon deal was reportedly worth $720 million, and Carlson reports that Yahoo's price tag will be somewhere in the range of $200 million per year, which seems reasonable.