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espn Archive

BREAKING: JOHN CLAYTON DOES NOT HAVE A PONYTAIL

By
theOCD
Published: 17 February 2010 4:05 PM ESTPosted in: NFL, Sports Media

ESPN's John Clayton does not have a ponytail

There’s been a rumor circulating about John Clayton for a while now. Some people have suggested that Clayton may rock a ponytail. It makes some sense since he is a weird ass looking guy and always faces the camera directly. But as much as I had hoped it would be true, it looks like the Clayton Ponytail is a work of fiction.

The most recent mention of Clayton’s potential ponytail came when an alleged ESPN staffer “eyespian” talked about it anonymously on reddit:

freddyprinzjr

Does John Clayton’s ponytail look ridiculous?

eyespian

No one has ever seen it, but it is talked about. I used to work his remote cameras (he does his hits from his house) and never have seen any evidence of one! It seems to be an urban legend.

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I have seen it in person and it is quite long, perhaps to the shoulder blade region. I hadn’t heard any rumors about any such ponytail before either so it took me by surprise. I have to say, John Clayton is just a weird looking guy in general!

This occurred at a funeral service last year for Mike Kahn, a longtime friend of Mr. Clayton’s whom I had the pleasure of working with.

Intrigued, I decided to do a little more digging. At first, I just saw the same old pictures of him directly facing the camera. When I saw this picture, I started to have hope that I would actually find evidence of the mangy mane. It seems like he could have some extra hair on the back of his balloon-shaped head in that image. Though, it would seem as if a ponytail would be a poor style choice for Clayton. A ponytail would just make his bulbous head look even rounder.

Finally, I came across the image that shattered my hopes and dreams. It’s a shot from the ESPN NEXT party last January. Clearly, Mr. Clayton does not rock a ponytail. Believe me — I’m just as disappointed as you are.  How about we just pretend that he cut it off at some point during 2008?

John Clayton does not have a ponytail

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HOW TO CRASH A SUPER BOWL PARTY

By
theOCD
Published: 27 January 2010 7:35 AM ESTPosted in: NFL

The Super Bowl is back in Miami and that means there will be a lot of partying going down over the next two weekends. Most regular people are limited to small gatherings in their homes or at bars. But if you’re rich, famous, cool, or beautiful there’s an entire hidden world of lavish revelry. I’ve gotten the chance to see this as an employee for Playboy when I worked the last three Super Saturday Night parties in Detroit, Miami, and Phoenix.

Handling tasks ranging from unpacking boxes to working the red carpet VIP entrance, I know what goes into these events. With any big event, a lot more goes wrong than goes right. Random people crashing your party goes into the “bad things” column — but not if you’re the one sneaking in. Using my experience working these events, I’ll give you a few ways that you may be able to talk, deceive, and sneak your way into the biggest Super Bowl parties in Miami.

READ THE FULL POST »

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LIVE INACTION: ESPN LOS ANGELES LIVE VIDEO FAIL

By
theOCD
Published: 12 January 2010 1:46 PM ESTPosted in: Sports Media

shelley_smith_espn_los_angeles_live_3

Yesterday, Pete Carroll held a press conference to talk about his resignation from USC. ESPN Los Angeles had a live video feed up — presumably to cover the event. However, that’s not exactly what they were streaming to viewers.

ESPN’s Shelley Smith was paired with the crew that had the live feed from Los Angeles. But apparently the crew and Smith had no idea that they were broadcasting live on the internet. Smith could be heard talking to producers while she unwittingly stood in front of thousands of internet viewers. She must’ve been waiting for ESPN to cut her into SportsCenter for a segment saying:

“We’re gonna hear Pete and then Golic’s gonna tee me up? Ok.”
“10 seconds!”

Shortly after that, the video feed went blank and displayed a test pattern. I’m not sure what ESPN intended to broadcast since I found the link on twitter. Below are a couple more awkward shots of Shelley Smith and the test pattern.

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ESPN TO LAUNCH 3D SPORTS NETWORK IN 2010

By
theOCD
Published: 05 January 2010 6:29 PM ESTPosted in: Sports Media

FILM-AVATAR

Today, ESPN announced that they would add a 3D channel to their collection of networks in 2010. It seems like an impressive addition that could become an industry leader. Here’s the blurb via ESPN:

ESPN 3D will showcase a minimum of 85 live sporting events during its first year, beginning June 11 with the first 2010 FIFA World Cup match, featuring South Africa versus Mexico, ESPN and ABC Sports president George Bodenheimer announced.

Other events to be produced in 3-D include the 2011 BCS National Championship Game, college basketball and football contests, up to 25 World Cup matches and the Summer X Games. Additional events will be announced at a later date.

While 3D is sure to impress, it’ll probably take a while for the channel to catch on. It’s likely that end-consumers will lack the proper equipment to view the broadcast. At the same time, broadcasting in 3D will probably require equipment that won’t be available for all of the big games. So the result will be that ESPN’s 3D channel will be great for big games — but mostly filled with replays. It will be extremely difficult for ESPN to get enough worthwhile content. Consider the fact that many of the HD channels are constantly replaying the same programs.

LGELECTRONICS-TV/3D

ESPN’s 3D channel will certainly give them a foothold in the future of 3D broadcasts. But also keep in mind that there really isn’t any significant revenue opportunity here — at least at this point. The channel will only cannibalize viewers that ESPN already has on their SD and HD channels rather than add to that existing audience. At the same time, there’s no apparent way that ESPN can generate more revenue on the new broadcast simply because it’s in 3D. ESPN’s channels are now all in HD and it’s had a negligible impact on their bottom line.

While 3D television sounds pretty damn cool and will look great, ESPN won’t have much more to offer advertisers. Perhaps there’s some sort of licensing agreement that they’ll pursue with bars and movie theaters to re-broadcast the games similar to what the NFL does with Sunday Ticket. However, the World Wide Leader will probably have more of an opportunity to increase their revenue with enhanced/interactive TV.

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NUTS & BOLTS: STEVE PHILLIPS, A SILVER FOX?

By
John
Published: 21 October 2009 10:15 AM EDTPosted in: Nuts & Bolts

ESPN’s Steve Phillips sends 22 year-old production assistant off deep end after affair. (NY Post)

Jeff Fisher dons Peyton Manning jersey at event: “I just wanted to feel like a winner”. (Tennessean)

Rangers may bring on 7th defenseman Mathieu Dandenault. (Newsday)

Don Mattingly a contender for Cleveland skipper job. (LoHud)

Shocking Restroom Violence at Red River Rivalry. (SportsbyBrooks)

Labor dispute coming to an end for NBA refs? Bet on it. (FanHouse)

Tim Tebow Slurp Crusade Lives On. (WithLeather)

Angels coach Alfredo Griffin: “We win three in a row. Write it down. Griffin says so.” (OC Register)

David Cone and Al Leiter are drinking buddies on the UES of Manhattan. (Page Six)

***

If you have any links you’d like to share with BLS for Nuts & Bolts or even an original post email them to me at john@bigleaguescrew.com

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ESPN MAGAZINE “BODY ISSUE” WILL FEATURE JOBA

By
theOCD
Published: 01 October 2009 2:49 AM EDTPosted in: MLB, MMA, NBA, NFL, NHL, Sports Media, golf

joba_chamberlain_semi-nude

As you may know, ESPN the Magazine’s next issue is the “Body Issue.” The premise is that they have different athletes nude and semi-nude photoshoots. I’d guess that the goal is to “appreciate the human body” but they’ve chosen some wacky models. The most random seem to come from baseball where ESPN has chosen Joba Chamberlain and Nelson Cruz. Both are quite burly fellows and calling them “easy on the eyes” would be quite a compliment. The picture above is a painting of Joba from some random artist… and I hope his ESPN shoot can live up to that high standard.  Nipple ring included.

Another strange addition to the issue is a spread with hockey player Zdeno Chara. Chara is the tallest player in the NHL at 6′9″ and he’s also extremely weird looking.  They’ve also chosen Bill Guerin from the NHL.  The last time we saw him, he was rocking one of the best hobo beards in sports history. In terms of women, it’s all people you’ve never heard of plus Gina Carano and Serena Williams. Word is that Tiger Woods turned ESPN down. Here’s the list of athletes in the feature as reported by Michael McCarthy from USA Today:

NFL: Adrian Peterson

MLB: Joba Chamberlain, Nelson Cruz

Tennis: Serena Williams, James Blake

NBA: Superman, aka Dwight Howard

NHL: Zdeno Chara, Bill Guerin

NASCAR: Carl Edwards, and someone for the over-50 crowd, Mark Martin.

LPGA: Christina Kim

MMA: Gina Carano, Randy Couture

Horse racing: Alexis Solis

Soccer: Oguchi Onyewu

Surfing: Claire Bevilacqua (Photo by James Dimmock/ESPN The Magazine), Laird Hamilton

Boxing: Manny Pacquiao

Softball: Jessica Mendoza

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ESPN MAKES “EXPERT” PICKS FOR 2009 NHL SEASON

By
theOCD
Published: 30 September 2009 6:22 AM EDTPosted in: NHL

Red Wings Rangers Hockey

ESPN covers hockey? Well, they do sometimes and they’ve unveiled their annual expert picks for the 2009-2010 NHL season. But I don’t put much stock in them. Last year, only one out of the seven experts chose the Penguins to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals. None of them picked the Pens to win. Hilariously, more people picked the Rangers (3) to win the Atlantic Division last year than the Penguins (2). So, if you still care, the 2009 “expert” picks are below. Vegas has the Penguins, Bruins, Capitals, Red Wings, Canucks/Flames (tie), and Sharks as their frontrunners for division crowns. As a reminder, the NHL opener is Thursday night on Versus.

espn_nhl_expert_picks_2009

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ESPN CELEBRATES BEING ESPN BY CELEBRATING ESPN

By
theOCD
Published: 28 August 2009 3:32 AM EDTPosted in: Sports Media

ESPN has nearly reached its 30th anniversary. The cable channel plans to celebrate by creating is own Walk of Fame at their Bristol campus. The countdown until a prankster puts some dog sh*t on it begins NOW.

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Via SPORTSbyBROOKS:

Big news today, as ESPN announces that as part of its 30th anniversary, it will honor long-time employees with a Walk of Fame at their Bristol campus. Just slightly less prestigious than the one in Hollywood, this Walk of Fame will feature a freshman class of 43 staffers, all of whom have been with the network since its first year. Except for that poor guy who Berman screamed at that time; he’s living in the jungle in the Philippines.

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SOCCER IS ABOUT TO BLOW UP THANKS TO ESPN

By
theOCD
Published: 06 August 2009 8:55 PM EDTPosted in: soccer

Yeah yeah yeah, soccer will never be big in the US. I get it. You can say that all you want. The fact of the matter is that it’s still the most popular sport in the world, cheap to play, and has extremely high youth participation levels. ESPN will only add to that recipe for success with their latest move to air more of the beautiful game.

BRITAIN SOCCER

The Worldwide Leader will air English Premier League games on Saturday mornings and Monday afternoons. It may not seem like a big deal — but it is. The audience for these matches has now expanded from 34 million subscribers on Fox Soccer Channel to over 98 million subscribers on ESPN. The move to ESPN also means that the games will be available in high definition. Undoubtedly, ESPN will also fire up their ridiculous self-promotion machine to boost viewership of the Premiership games. I’m just hoping that they don’t give John “I think I’m the best American soccer player of all time” Harkes the color commentary gig. You can find the full schedule on EPL Talk.

Via EPL Talk:

ESPN has acquired the TV rights to two of the weekly Premier League slots on US television for the 2009-2010 season. Beginning on August 15, 2009, each week ESPN will feature the 7:45am ET Saturday game and the 3pm ET Monday game.

Those two weekly timeslots were previously held by Setanta Sports who in the past had sub-licensed those games from Fox Soccer Channel. Despite Setanta losing the two timeslots to ESPN, Setanta US will continue showing the two 10am ET Saturday slots (one game on Setanta US, and the other on Setanta Xtra), as well as the early Sunday morning ET kickoffs and the Tuesday and Wednesday midweek Premier League matches. The games shown by Setanta will also be available on its broadband package at http://www.setanta-i.com

ESPN’s acquisition of the early Saturday morning kickoff and Monday afternoon matches are a massive coup for the Disney-owned company who have significantly increased its soccer coverage recently. ESPN has yet to make a formal announcement regarding the acquisition of the Premier League TV rights (the two timeslots), but will presumably show the games on both ESPN2 and ESPN360.

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STARBURY THREATENS ESPN WITH LIFECASTING

By
theOCD
Published: 31 July 2009 12:38 PM EDTPosted in: NBA

At BigLeagueScrew, we’re now in the camp that the Steph stuff isn’t that funny anymore. No, he was not a great team member during his Knick years. But he wasn’t the reason the team was horrible. So we have no reason to wish him ill will. That’s why it’s a bit troubling so see a former 20/8 man crying in front of his computer. Is he on drugs? Is he just depressed? Is it an act? I don’t know the answer. However, I did come across a video of Marbury where he covers a variety of topics. First, he rants against ESPN for giving him a bad reputation. Then he talks about how a Greek team decided not to sign him but that he really wanted to play in Italy. He signs off with a semi-threat to ESPN and says, “365 days, 24/7… you’re gonna see me.” Here’s the video:

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THE WORLDWIDE LEADER IN FAVORITISM, INCONSISTENCY

By
theOCD
Published: 28 July 2009 12:00 PM EDTPosted in: Sports Media

A week after claiming not to report civil cases, ESPN opted to report on Marvin Harrison’s civil suit. ESPN the Magazine’s Shaun Assael goes into great detail about the alleged shooting of a man in 2008. This is curious since ESPN defiantly provided ZERO coverage of the Ben Roethlisberger sexual assault case brought by Andrea McNulty. ESPN has been exposed as having a frighteningly small amount of journalistic integrity. They have been outed as a money-making machine that cares less about reporting and more about the bottom line — not that this is news to any of us.  Congratulations on contradicting yourself, ESPN!

Via SportsMediaWatch:

There are currently no charges against Harrison. The Philadelphia D.A. previously “left open the possibility that Harrison could face charges, pending the outcome” of a civil suit by the first man Harrison allegedly shot. However, with Harrison not facing any charges, it would not appear as if there is a criminal ‘hook’ to this story.

However, as was shown with Brown, even the smallest police involvement is apparently justification for the story to be reported.

ESPN also says it reports on civil cases when they could affect the performance of the player or team. With Brown, the justification was that he was playing for a Laker team on the verge of the NBA Finals. Such justification does not make sense with Harrison, as he is not only in the middle of his league’s offseason, but is a free agent as well.

Another factor is whether the allegations will harm the player’s reputation, taking into account their previous track record. This was the justification for ESPN reporting on civil suits involving Adam Jones. By contrast, Harrison had a generally spotless reputation before the first shooting incident — which, as mentioned before, has not yet resulted in any charges.

So why cover the Harrison suit, only a week after publicly refusing to cover the Roethlisberger suit? And why cover the Harrison suit in such detail? Not only did ESPN use one of its own reporters to cover the story — as opposed to using an Associated Press report in the Roethlisberger case — but other outlets, including the Associated Press and FOXSports.com, had not even reported on the suit as of Monday night.

Why would ESPN hold back with Roethlisberger and rush to be first with Harrison? With Roethlisberger, ESPN did not report on the civil suit until news broke that there would be “no criminal investigation into the allegations.” Why not wait until the Philadelphia D.A. decides whether or not to launch a criminal investigation?

ESPN appears to have different standards for different athletes. And it begs the question — are some athletes protected? Are other athletes targeted? And why would a news organization have standards so vague that its motives could be easily questioned?

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Is Vanessa Bryant Losing It?

By
theOCD
Published: 17 July 2009 3:40 AM EDTPosted in: Women of Sports, World Class Women

Vanessa Bryant has always been one of my favorite athletes’ wives.  Kobe did an excellent job when he plucked young Vanessa from high school and promptly married her.  I wrote about their somewhat rocky relationship a few weeks ago.

Here’s Robert Littal’s take on Vanessa from BlackSportsOnline:

What people don’t understand is attraction comes in many forms. Of course there is physical attraction which is important, but at a certain point that is just one element. Vanessa isn’t the finest woman I have ever seen. I heard she is a bit crazy and what not, but the attraction for me is how she played the game.

She has played it so perfectly since she was 17 years old, that it is the blueprint for all women who have ambitions to grow up an marry an athlete.

She maybe the only wife of an athlete I know of, that if her husband left her, the public would turn against him. D Wade leaves his wife no one cares, but if Kobe left Vanessa it would be on the front page of every newspaper, website and blog in America. Hell it would probably lead the news in China. She got the game on lock.

That young lady PIMP FOCUS is strong which is why before I leave LA, I am going to try to get a job as their pool boy so I can be her male NoHo 24/7. I mean I am Robert Littal.

READ THE FULL POST »

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