Sports Illustrated's cover story written by Jason Collins has made perhaps an even bigger impact than could have initially been expected.  The article has touched a populace far beyond the sports world and become a mainstream story with everyone from Kobe Bryant to Barack Obama proclaiming their support.  In fact, Collins' piece moved so thoroughly and so quickly across the internet that it became the most trafficked day in SI.com's history according to SBJ's Eric Fisher...

With one of the wildest days we can ever recall in sports media, we invite back to the show Deadspin's John Koblin to break it all down. John's reporting into ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and more in the sports media is one of the pillars of the top sports blog in the land. Today, we chat with John about Jason Collins coming out, the fallout of Chris Broussard's comments on Outside the Lines, and where we go from here, as well as...

-The significance of Jason Collins coming out in a first person narrative.
-The importance for SI as a magazine and their future health.
-The reaction to Collins' announcement from the sports and media worlds.
-Did ESPN set up Chris Broussard to debate homosexuality?
-Why ESPN was late to the Collins story and how yesterday was a backwards step after a positive year for Bristol.
-What other networks and outlets may learn moving forward.

A great discussion with John on the major stories of the day and their evolving nature.

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.  For more from John, follow him on Twitter @koblin.

With the 2013 NFL draft out of the way, we're still recovering from 16 hours worth of live draft coverage on television. And while we don't expect ESPN or NFL Network to make any big changes to their broadcasting pecking orders until those with seniority are ready to walk away, we still have four analysts in mind whom we'd love to see on the main desks earlier in future years. 

Chris Broussard drew nationwide attention when he went on ESPN's Outside the Lines Monday in the wake of Jason Collins coming out in Sports Illustrated and said homosexuality was a sin and a "rebellion against God."  The transcript of his comments can be found here.

Broussard has been crushed and ESPN has been questioned for allowing him on air to provide his opinion for the story in the theater of an apparent debate with LZ Granderson.  Broussard released a statement on his Twitter page yesterday only slightly walking back his position while supporting Collins' NBA career.

ESPN also released a statement committing to diversity and saying they regretted distracting from the news.

While the reaction to Collins' Sports Illustrated piece has been mostly positive, the fallout from Broussard's comments struck a chord.  There has been plenty of multi-dimensional fallout from his stance on OTL as freedom of speech, religious beliefs in public life, tolerance, and more topics have all been lobbied around the internet.

Broussard's comments, and the reaction to them, struck a chord with me as well.  So while we're being open and this important discussion is taking place, I feel the need to personally speak up.  I posted some personal thoughts as a Christian and a sports blogger last night on my Twitter page and will repost them below after the jump if you are inclined to read further.  It's something I strongly feel needs to be said in light of the reaction to Jason Collins' announcement.

Over the weekend, Peyton Manning attended a fundraising gala for the Peyton Manning Children's Hospital. Apparently, he put on a little impromptu concert with country singer Luke Bryan where he sang one of the classic hits of Johnny Cash:

I'm biased, but as a Canadian who has spent a lot of time south of the border, I feel I've watched enough of both TSN and ESPN that I'm qualified to state that Canada's premier 24-hour sports network just does things better than the "Worldwide Leader."

Usually when arguments like these are made, those on TSN's side build their thesis around TSN SportsCentre and its joker hosts, Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole. But our latest example of TSN kicking ass comes from its "NHL on TSN" panel, who -- for no particular reason -- decided to create a five-minute, self-deprecating, poorly-acted but incredibly well-produced parody of "The Hangover."

To put it all together, James Duthie, Darren Dreger, Aaron Ward and Bob McKenzie even enlisted the help of some Los Angeles Kings players and some local L.A. celebrities, including Ottawa native Matthew Perry.

Lionel Messi added yet another brilliant goal to his loaded resume when he slipped past several Athletic Bilbao defenders this past weekend. In total, he worked his way around four defenders. He touched the ball just seven times while carving up the Bilbao defense. The end result was a predictable beautiful finish into the left side of the net. 

What could possibly upstage a spectacular Messi goal? An even better goal call from beIN's Ray Hudson. 

All Times Eastern

College Baseball
Prairie View A&M at Texas -- Longhorn Network, 7 p.m.
New Mexico at Texas Tech -- Fox College Sports Central, 7:30 p.m.

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

Golf
Inside the PGA Tour -- Golf Channel, 6:30 p.m.
Golf Channel Academy: Bernhard Langer: Short Game -- Golf Channel, 7 p.m.
Golf's Greatest Rounds: 1996 The Players -- Golf Channel, 8 p.m.

Minor League Baseball
Buffalo Bisons at Rochester Red Wings -- MLB Network, 11:30 a.m.

Sometimes you just never know what you'll see on live television. On Sunday during NESN's telecast of the Houston Astros-Boston Red Sox game, reporter Jenny Dell was in the stands to interview a family regarding "Autism Awareness Day" at Fenway Park.

As she was talking to Red Sox fan Jennifer Colbert and her son Elijah about what the day meant to them, a portly Red Sox  fan walked in front of them despite Dell's gestures to him not to. And while the interview continued, you could tell Dell was quite perturbed at him. And when the interview finished, NESN's cameras cut back to  Dell as she was lecturing the fan and his wife about walking in front of them.

Earlier today, the live daytime episodes of SportsCenter once again relapsed into an episode of TebowMania.  Much to the surprise of nobody who has observed ESPN over the last year and a half, SportsCenter went all in on Tebow, dedicating almost half of their airtime to a man who faces a struggle just to make another NFL roster.

But this morning in particular was distressing because ESPN remained with Tebow as their lead story in spite of other highlights and a story that is garnering national attention - Jason Collins being the first active athlete in the four major pro sports to come out.  In spite of the positive steps ESPN has made in the last several months journalistically (their new sourcing policy, coverage of the Boston Marathon, etc.), today showed there was still a sense of warped priorities in Bristol.  In other words, Tebow still trumps all.  It took several hours for Jason Collins to replace Tim Tebow as ESPN.com's top headline and the 12 PM ET SportsCenter mentioned Tebow's name 25 times before it did Collins' once.

On his ESPN Radio show today, evening SportsCenter anchor Scott Van Pelt let it be known he wasn't happy with talking about Tim Tebow as his "One Big Thing" and called out his brethern at the daytime edition...