The Big Lead had a scoop earlier this week on ESPN reportedly looking to hire a full armada of beat writers covering every NFL team. 

"ESPN.com is bolstering its NFL coverage significantly this summer – I’ve learned that the website is hiring beat writers for all 32 NFL teams.

According to a source who interviewed for one of the openings, the goal is to have beat writers for every team in place by August. Previously, ESPN.com had just one writer in charge of every NFL division."

The article would go on to say that with ESPN local writers already in house (New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas) as well as the NFL Division blogger coverage already in place, ESPN only has to find beat coverage for 15 teams.

A thread on SportsJournalists.com, an online message board consisting of those in sports media, provided some more insight although you'll have to it with a grain of salt given it is a message board. Some details there include:

I'm always amazed at the new ways discovered in which sports interviews can go horribly, horribly wrong.  Today we turn to the world of mixed martial arts and MMA Mayhem's George Kennebrew interview with fighter Cliff Thompson.  Thompson had just won a 3 round fight against Doug Usher at Wild Bill's Fight Night 57 (yes, that's the real title).

After the first question, Thompson staggers off stage and hurls.  Kennebrew's grossed out reaction is utterly priceless.

Better for Thompson that he threw up during the victorious post-fight interview instead of during the fight, lest he become the MMA version of Donovan McNabb.  Good thing Thompson wasn't competitve eating either, or else the victory would be overturned due to the infamous reversal of fortune.

And we thought Gregg Popovich was short on words, yeesh!  

Video via Guyism

I'm starting to notice a correlation with Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich and his in-game interviews.  It seems like the better the Spurs are doing, the less Pop wants to say.  With the Spurs trouncing the Heat in their Game 3 blowout, ESPN's Doris Burke asked her mandated two questions of Pop at the end of the 3rd quarter.  After a downright talkative performance earlier in the series, Pop's answers were less than forthcoming including an "I can't tell you that" when asked about the team's defense on LeBron James.

This isn't a derisive no comment from Pop because he'd rather be standing in the middle of a geyser, but rather a no comment out of respect for Burke's detailed question.  That wasn't one Pop could give a yes or no or standard cliche and walk away.  That required some actual thinking!

With Games 2 and 3 morphing into blowouts, it's becoming clear the most compettive battle in this series is Doris Burke vs Gregg Popovich.  The sideline reporter is at the top of her game in this clip and took her own 2-1 lead in the series last night.

Video via Point Forward

And you thought it was scary when there was a potential sitcom based on Colin Cowherd's life in the works!

The Cowherd sitcom never made it to air (thank you Lord), but now comes news via SBJ that another infamous sports media member might get their life turned into a television show.  Believe it or not, Los Angeles Times columnist TJ Simers is the next sports media personality to have a potential network show developed around his life.  Seeing as how it's not April 1st, let's assume this is factual:

During Tuesday night's Brewers-Marlins game, Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning to give the Marlins a 5-4 lead, and eventually, a victory. After the game, Fox Sports Florida reporter Allison Williams was interviewing Stanton when Logan Morrison attempted to dump Gatorade on the pair...but Stanton saw him coming, and him and Williams were able to jump out of the way in time, as dry as they were when the interview began. Upon replay, it looked like Morrison wasn't even going for Stanton, and was shooting for Williams with his orange jug of ice cold elixir.

It's a growing trend in the sport after the Royals botched a celebratory postgame shower on Friday night.

That poor, poor wasted Gatorade...

Before there was LeBron, before there was Kobe, before there was Michael, before there was Magic, and before there was Larry. there was Julius Erving, a.k.a "Doctor J." A new NBA TV documentary aired this week introduces "Dr. J" to a whole new generation. Younger NBA fans may have seen footage of Erving through NBA TV or on YouTube, but for old school fans, Erving was the man who brought a new type play to what was perceived as a boring prim and proper NBA.

The documentary narrated by Chuck D, shows how Erving became from being known as Julius to Jewel to finally, "The Doctor." We learn Erving's upbringing in Long Island to how his legend grew from the playgrounds of New York to the only school that offered him a scholarship, the University of Massachusetts.

All TImes Eastern

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

Cycling
Tour De Suisse
Day 5: Buochs to Leuggern -- beIN Sport, 11:30 a.m.

Golf
Live From the U.S. Open -- Golf Channel, 9 a.m.
SportsCenter at the U.S. Open -- ESPN2, 2 p.m.
19th Hole -- Golf Channel, 6 p.m.
Live From the U.S. Open -- Golf Channel, 7 p.m.

The Sochi Olympic Games this winter will be streamed on NBC Sports' website, but not through Youtube. NBC announced that they're going to be going in a different direction after Youtube provided the streaming player to NBCOlympics.com for last summer's Olympics in London. In Beijing in 2008 and Vancouver in 2010, NBC used the Microsoft Silverlight player. They recently partnered once again with Microsoft and their Azure division for streaming to devices, but there's no video player included with Azure.

The 2012 Olympics were the most popular in terms of live streaming, with 20.4 million hours of video streamed, more than twice the 9.9 million hours streamed during Beijing. NBC also streamed 64.4 million total live video streams, up 353% from Beijing, despite complaints from some users about frozen videos and other glitches.

Of the 32 highest-rated television programs this past fall, 31 of the them were NFL games. Think about that for a moment. The National Football League isn't just dominating the world of sports television, but it has emerged as the ultimate powerhouse in TV, period. You could argue that there isn't a brand or product in the United States that possesses that much media power, but the trouble with being on top is that everybody else is usually working a little harder to hit the bullseye on the target affixed to your back.

You might remember Toronto Blue Jays' shortstop Munenori Kawasaki from his memorable post-game chat with Sportsnet's Arash Madani back on May 26th. The clip went viral, and Kawasaki became a folk hero in Toronto and across the Major Leagues.

On that Sunday afternoon, Kawasaki took the mic from teammate Mark DeRosa. Over the weekend, the Japanese infielder did it again, this time during DeRosa's interview on MLB Network's Intentional Talk with Chris Rose and Kevin Millar.