Category Archives: espn

‘Olbermann’: The Smartest Show to Ever Air on ESPN

Keith Olbermann was never supposed to be back at ESPN. He’s burned bridge after bridge at every television job he’s ever had…yet he has been rehired again and again by companies that have shoved him out the door.

Why do these large meda corporations always bring back Olbermann? It’s because he’s great at his job and despite the frustrations of employing him, the positive outweigh the negative…until they don’t, then he’s out the door.

ESPN announced mid-July that they would not extend Keith Olbermann’s contract and his show ‘Olbermann’ would end on July 31st.

I would like to share some of the great moments during the show’s 13-month run on ESPN.

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Martin Jacobson Wins 2014 WSOP Main Event

ESPN hasn’t ‘really’ covered poker since Poker’s Black Friday online shutdown in 2011. The sport was hurt and numbers began to dwindle, in players and ratings. ESPN would show it from time to time, but without much fanfare.

The 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event final table was covered ‘live’ on ESPN (with a 30 minute delay). The drama was intense. Sweden’s Martin Jacobson, 27, won his first WSOP bracelet and took home $10 million dollars.

Jacobson defeated Felix Stephensen with pocket tens. He was quick to call Stephensen after going all-in. He ended up winning with three tens.

Jacobson had the chip lead for the last few hours, but only had seven big blinds left early on in the final table. It’s not exactly ‘a chip and a chair’, but it’s pretty darn close.

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Sports Crush: Britt McHenry

We’ve written a handful of ‘Sports Crush‘ posts since we launched America’s White Boy. We’ve spotlighted female MMA fighters, WWE Divas and female sports reporters like MLB Network’s Heidi Watney and NFL Network’s Erin Coscarelli. We decided to profile another female sports reporter, current ESPN sideline reporter Britt McHenry.

Not only is McHenry beautiful, but she has a brains (she graduated from Northwestern). ESPN hired her away from WJLA, a Washington D.C.-area ABC affliliate.

We are crushing on Britt McHenry and once you look at our photo gallery, you will understand why.

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ESPN Suspends Bill Simmons After Roger Goodell Rant

If you’re a sports fan, you know Bill Simmons. He started as a blogger in Boston as ‘the voice of the common sports fan’ and then somehow morphed into an occasional blowhard and talking head on ESPN. He’s also the creator of the 30 for 30 documentary series and is the editor at Grantland.

Simmons used to write a lot more, but now he’s mostly just does his ‘The B.S. Report’ podcast and is a member of ESPN’s studio team during NBA games. He writes a weekly million-word NFL picks column during NFL season and random NBA articles (his NBA preview with Jalen Rose is about to drop).

Well, on ‘The B.S. Report’ this week, Simmons went off on a tangent and called Roger Goodell a liar (while using a few adult words). He then dared ESPN executives to punish him for his rant. ESPN did just that and suspended Simmons for three weeks.

Here was my reaction when I heard the news: Continue reading →

Keith Olbermann: Derek Jeter Not Greatest Player Ever

Please, Stop Giving Kevin Durant Horrible Nicknames!

NBA fans, and those who make a living covering the NBA, have been trying to make a nickname stick on Kevin Durant since his rookie season. Attempts have ran the gamut from just his initials ‘K.D.’ to the horrible ‘Durantula’ moniker.

This is Durant’s seventh season in the NBA. I cannot remember a time when an athlete in any major sport got a nickname to stick this late into their professional career. A nickname is usually something a player receives at a young age and sticks throughout the rest of his career. If the nickname doesn’t stick, it’s not a good nickname.

Well, basketball fans (especially ESPN‘s Bill Simmons), are still obsessed with a Durant nickname. On The B.S. Report podcast, Simmons even asked Durant what he wanted to be called. His answer was worse than expected…

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The Ladies of 2013 ESPY Awards [PHOTOS]

The ESPY awards are often filler on a day when no major sports play games…like zero games.

I don’t often watch the ESPYs, but I watched the entire thing, even part of the pre-show, because you all know how much we love Samantha Steele (we don’t call her Samantha Ponder on this site).

We surfed the internet and cherry-picked the best of the best photos from the ladies who attended the 2013 ESPYs.

One lady specifically came out of nowhere and was stunning. Here’s a hint…she’s a former Winter Olympian for the United States. Here are the red carpet photos from this year’s ESPYs. Continue reading →

10 Videos of Skip Bayless Being a “Douchebag” [Updated]

Last year, I posted a collection of ten videos of Skip Bayless either being a gasbag or getting called out for being a comment troll. During the transition from Blogger to WordPress, the videos were lost in the process. It gives me a chance to update the post.

It was great timing since Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman hit Skip Bayless with a verbal piledriver this week on ESPN ‘First Take. Sherman went from speaking facts on why he’s better than Darelle Revis to attacking Bayless personally. I have a feeling many professional athletes around the country are giving Sherman a standing ovation.

Here is an updated list of ten videos of Skip Bayless being a total douchebag. Continue reading →

Notre Dame Upsets Louisville in Five Overtimes

The fans at the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Louisville Cardinals game got some free basketball…a lot of it.

The first 39 minutes, as ESPN’s Eamon Brennan describes, was mediocre. He blames low possession rates in college basketball and teams being “overcoached.” Well, all that went out with the bathwater in the last minute of regulation. Notre Dame guard Jerian Grant got the green light to shoot threes and he drained them. He scored 12 points in the final 44 seconds of regulation.

Michigan State transfer Garrick Sherman was the overtime start for the Irish. He was supposed to be a big contributor for the Irish this season, but has seen his minutes dwindle down to nothing. He didn’t even register a single regulation minute, but finished the game with 17 points and six rebounds in Notre Dame’s 103-100 win that needed a FIFTH overtime to find a winner.

Have Extreme Sports Gone Too Far?

After the untimely death of extreme snowmobile athlete, Caleb Moore, due to complications from an accident suffered during the ESPN 2013 Winter X Games. We must ask ourselves if we have hit the bar where it is no longer physically safe to push the creativity any more.

Moore was one of the best riders and his accident couldn’t be chalked up to inexperience…but did ESPN dodge a bullet?

After news about Moore’s death came out, an ESPN representative said on “Outside the Lines” that all X Games athletes have extensive practice in their field and this is the safest games to date. Yet, before the X Games, extreme motorcycle athlete, Jackson Strong, was on ESPN promoting the fact he had only four hours of practice on a snowmobile. The video below is what happened during Strong’s snowmobile attempt at this year’s X Games. He crashes, throttle gets stuck on his snowmobile, it goes into the crowd and clips a fan. Should we second guess calling this a “sport” if they let anyone just jump on a snowmobile and compete?

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Sports Crush: ESPN’s Samantha Steele

ESPN’s College Gameday will have a new face this fall. Samantha Steele-Ponder will be called up to the Majors and take the spot vacated by Erin Andrews, who recently left to join Fox Sports.

Steele has been working at the Longhorn Network and worked sideline duty at various college football and basketball games for ESPN.

With the departure of Michelle Beadle and Andrews, she will most likely be the new female face of ESPN along with Charissa Thompson and Sara Walsh.

We fill you in on Steele’s background and attach a mini photo gallery to help you get to know her a little better.

Steele-Ponder, 26, is a graduate of Liberty University and her father is a football coach. She worked for Fox Sports Net and Fox College Sports before landing a job at the Longhorn Network.

She will be hosting the pre-Gameday show on ESPNU at 9am, helping at the College Gameday broadcast on ESPN, and take over sideline reporting duties during the Thursday and Saturday night football games. She will be thrust into the spotlight and college boys will surely be giving her the same rude catcalls they yelled at Andrews for years.

She’s the perfect addition to the broadcasts. She’s professional, extremely likable, and cute as a button.

Here is an ESPN podcast that introduces Steele as the new addition to College Gameday.

If you wish to follow her on Twitter, she can be found @SamSteelePonder. We wish Miss Steele the best of luck this fall.

Steele married Christian Ponder during the 2012 NFL season. He is a very lucky guy!

Here are a few pictures of Samantha Ponder on the job.

(photo credits: Samantha Steele-Ponder, Getty Images, and ESPN)

Mark Cuban Destroys Skip Bayless on ‘First Take’ (Video)

I have made my fair share of “Skip Bayless is a Douche” posts on this site. I even posted 10 videos of him being a douche bag earlier this month…hell, I even compared him to Glenn Beck.

ESPN’s “First Take” is usually broadcast out of a studio in Bristol, Connecticut, but the show traveled to Miami for the NBA Finals. So it was easy to get Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban as a guest on the show.

“First Take” is usually a decibel battle between Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless. I hear they play the show to torture inmates at Guantanamo Bay, but that is beside the point.

Cuban absolutely destroys Bayless for making blanket statements and speaking in generalities when he bashes players. The video is amazing and quite possibly my favorite video of someone calling out Skip Bayless.

The video is after the jump…

Let me know if this video gets taken down…I’m sure ESPN will do that very soon.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.