At least the Feds were nice enough to let them have their anniversary celebration first. Good looking out.

Here's the court complaint

Read the complaint: WFAN’s Craig Carton arrested on federal charges, official says | Newsday

Federal court allows for greater sentencing disparity (both for more time and less time) than most state courts.

That said, there is are general guideline that the courts use to start the sentencing analysis (called, not surprisingly, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines).

Assuming that he has no criminal history, and assuming that he pleads guilty, and assuming that the 2 million dollar number is right and assuming that there aren't any other aggravating factors in the case (big assumption; there tends to be at least one or two), then the Guidelines would recommend a sentence of 33-41 months.

Also, federal court is good about forcing fraudsters to pay restitution to their victims. That would mean that as part of any guilty plea, the prosecutor would almost certainly force him to agree to pay back his victims. That becomes an enforceable civil judgment against him (and keeps his victims from having to sue him separately and pay a lawyer to do it).

dola: Section 2B1.1 for the morbidly curious:

https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/f...16/GLMFull.pdf

Jemele Hill just got suspended for two weeks from ESPN:

.@espn has just suspended @jemelehill for two weeks "for a second violation of our social media guidelines."

— jamesmiller (@JimMiller) October 9, 2017

People seem to be making this a Trump thing, but isn't this just ESPN protecting its bell cow? We saw the same thing when Simmons criticized the NFL.

Yeah, the two rules at ESPN are you can't criticize the NFL or your fellow colleagues.

And when Schilling was warned, then suspended, then fired when he couldn't keep his opinions to himself. They are just following protocol with this and it doesn't just apply to the NFL.

It will become a Trump thing (much to ESPN's chagrin) when he starts tweeting about it tomorrow morning.

I think "When you tearfully apologize to your boss for putting him in the middle of a media firestorm and promise him you learned your lesson don't do it again two weeks later" is also a common workplace rule.

Had no issues with Hill the first time around but she was either incredibly stupid/naive in this case, or she knew exactly what she was doing and what she was trying to accomplish.

She probably wanted some extra vacation days.

On the eve of PFTCommenter and Big Cat's new show on ESPN2, Sam Ponder fires shots.

Welcome to the ESPN family @BarstoolBigCat (& welcome to all ur minions who will respond to this so kindly) pic.twitter.com/AzgfdDx2FK

— Sam Ponder (@sam_ponder) October 16, 2017

Barstool founder to Sam Ponder in 2014: Stop showing pictures of your ‘ugly kid’, ‘sex it up and be slutty’ | For The Win

She got the guy wrong, was told he didn't write it, still literally claimed "yes, yes he did", was told again it wasn't him, then changed her argument to "well that is what your employer says, so you own it too" before kind of apologizing.

I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to be painted with the "everything ESPN says, you say too" brush.

I was following the exchange and honestly wondered if she was drunk.

What a complete garbage operation ESPN is.

Wanted to make sure they took away pay right before Xmas too.

If u have two epsodes of a TV Show you dont have one

— PFTCommenter (@PFTCommenter) October 23, 2017

I am curious to see the future graduates of this program.

http://m.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Jou...rts-Media.aspx

You've still got time - the Taco Bell drive-thru is open till 1 AM most places.

News coming out for the replacement of Mike Francesca on WFAN: Chris Carlin (who started as a Mike and the Mad Dog producer), former NY Jet Bart Scott, and Maggie Gray.

I can't imagine a less inspiring choice. I can't see why I'd ever turn that station on, and I actually like Carlin because of his Rutgers connection.

Enjoying the final week of Mike & Mike. They were never my thing, but the nostalgia effect is actually working a bit.

Disney-Fox deal gives ESPN a local strategy to combat its financial woes - The Washington Post

An overview of the Disney-Fox deal from a sports fan's perspective.

This is going to shake up my daily routine.

Russillo is one of my favorites on the radio as well. That's a shame.

I'm with him though that doing a daily radio show and being asked to stick around more hours to do appearances is a huge grind. It'll be interesting to see where he goes to do it, but once I made my money and had the national profile I'd definitely be more interested in doing podcasts x times a week and appearances where and when you want to.

He's pretty tight with a lot of the Barstool guys. They'd give him his own podcast and ability to do video stuff of his choosing.

ESPN admits it will “talk to” Peyton Manning about Monday Night Football – ProFootballTalk

I like Peyton Manning, but I don't see him in the booth working well.

I like Romo's goofball approach and Manning could deliver even more of that if he is comfortable in that environment. Would be a refreshing change from the bland tone most networks have seemed to prefer the last 10-20 years, as the older guys with personalities have been weeded out/retired.

WEEI cancels live programming for mandatory sensitivity training

So just a couple of weeks after the one WEEI host insulted Brady's daughter, another one mocked Brady's agent by using a stereotypical Asian accent. So WEEI cancelled all live programming Sunday so all the hosts can attend sensitivity training.

WEEI used to be kind of popular for being a cesspool, in that that was their gimmick, but the act has been growing old forever

Doesn't the sensitivity training really boil down to not making fun of Tom Brady's family and friends? I feel like making jokes at the expense of the region's most popular athlete is more concerning for WEEI than making fun of kids and Asians.

Ya, maybe that's why these incidents seem to be sticking more than all of the other offensive stuff that came out of this station over the years. But they have lost advertisers before, at least temporarily.

But, I'm always surprised just how loud the anti-Brady contingent in New England is. I think these people are disproportionately likely to call into WEEI and complain, but there's always been a small but nosy group of fans ready to move on from Brady, basically since he's been there. So there's always been a little element of that on WEEI that the hosts have played into.

Here's the real issue (from the article):

"In the fallout over the past week, WEEI has had at least five advertisers, including Comcast Corp., Citizens Bank, and the Massachusetts State Lottery, suspend or terminate commercial purchases with the station."

In related news...

Patrick Connor suspended from KNBR job over Barstool Radio comments

Let me say this upfront. I don't listen to WEEI nor do I listen to Barstool Sports. I may be completely wrong on my perception of them, thus being off on what their brand is. Here is the part of this story and the WEEI story that confuses me.


I don't know how this person defines "gutter brand" but aren't these comments and the comments made about Brady's daughter and agent consistent with the brand Barstool and WEEI trying to sell?

Seriously. If Barstool isn't a gutter brand, what is?

Barstool is definitely gutter brand.

I think younger, douchey people with a more modern media presence (like on the internet) get away with more than middle-aged or older people associated with traditional media outlets. Maybe with older people, it's assumed they're more sincere and say what they think, where with younger people, there's this hedge that this is really just all a part of the show and they're just trying to be entertaining.

It was a dumb thing for Braden to say because Barstool's founder and head of content literally says consistently that he (they) "live in the mud". Unlike many others though, they freely admit it and don't claim to be something they're not. Other companies/personalities frequently get on their high horse and claim moral outrage all while, deep down, being no better or actually being way worse.

Mike Patrick existing ESPN after 36 years.

Not quite sure what to make of the manner/timing of the announcement honestly. On the one hand it feels kind of like he got "creative has nothing for you", on the other hand there's a certain feel as though there could be some health/personal reason for it.

Whatever the case, he sure spent a lot of time in my ears through a very long career.

Sounds like Francesa is coming back to WFAN afternoons and the other afternoon folks are going to split time from 10 to 3. His first show is going to be completely unbearable.

Then again, he's reportedly crawling back at a "significant pay cut" so while he's busy destroying staff morale, I'm not sure how much he has to crow about ... at least not until he gives the station a daypart win that his replacements failed to deliver.

I'd expect him to get that based on the freakshow aspect of his return alone, followed by a slide back down in numbers & a second "retirement" within a year.

I love this. He thought people would be lining up to throw millions more at him than he was making at WFAN and boasted about how he could create the most profitable podcast of anyone. Now his plan is supposedly to develop a Mike and the Mad Dog app which he thinks people will just sit on all day watching old videos, not realizing that it's the sharing of that content across the internet and Twitter that makes it much more entertaining than just literally watching old clips.

It will be entertaining for a few days before it devolves into the same crap he had been doing for a few years before the final leg of the last run.

He's 60 something years old, a millionaire (unless he's blown his money), and he just finished a, like, two-year ass-kissing retirement tour. And it wasn't enough. What an emotionally stunted weirdo.

In a slight nod of fairness to him, despite his age, he has a few young kids. So I understand his desire to stay out of the house.

NSFW Audio.

McAfee is a funny dude.

Please take a moment to listen to Pat McAfee explain how Troy Polamalu ruined his life pic.twitter.com/Wx9X39UrSx

— NFL Access (@NFL_Access) November 2, 2017

Great story by McAfee.

Seems like Francesa's return had one silver lining in that it caused Michael Kay to go off the deep end over A-Rod being the first guest (and violating ESPN's policy on employees giving interviews to major market competitors.)

Peter King is leaving SI/MMQB for NBC Sports full time.

Big news.

Pushed out by SI? Or just ready to move on?

Looking to reduce his own workload apparently

https://thebiglead.com/2018/04/30/it...or-peter-king/

This is good.

Daniel Snyder sells WTEM-AM, taking Redskins out of radio business - The Washington Post

Are you sure that you want Snyder more involved in the day to day operations?

I thought that was part of the problems he became hands off.

Interesting (for me) to note that DawgNation is said to be the only part of their verticals that will stay up, being shifted into their Atlanta local operations (which include the #1 broadcast TV station in the market, as well as the newspaper).

Cox Media to shut down sports verticals Land of 10, SEC Country, DieHards, lay off numerous staffers

The Vol Network tonight announced the passing of legendary broadcaster John Ward.

Sigh.

Rest in peace.

Sources -- Kawhi requests Magic-Buss meeting

Ok, props on the headline.

(I don't follow the NBA really, so maybe it's been done before but it got my attention.)

ESPN is reporting that Teddy Bruschi had a stroke.

After 5,060 consecutive games, 81 year John Sterling took yesterday off.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/04/s...g-yankees.html

It was a Monday tradition for me to read his column along with Peter King's during my Monday lunch hour.

RIP

The best tribute I think I can have for him is that for as much as he published, I know nothing about him personally.

In a time when the story is almost as much about the reporter as the reported (see, e.g., the fact that we even have a sports media thread here), he was a nice throwback to just giving us the story without a six-paragraph lead-in about what it was like for him growing up as a Dolphins fan or whatever.

Crazy story from New Orleans.

WWL Radio personality Seth Dunlap is openly gay. The WWL official media account tweeted out a gay slur at him. The thought at the time was that someone who worked for the station meant to send it from a burner account but accidently sent it from the WWL account.

Well, some investigation later, and WWL has turned the case over to the police, claiming that Dunlap sent the tweet himself in order to extort the station.

WWL Radio claims Seth Dunlap sent homophobic tweet, then demanded $1.8M, NOPD report says | Crime/Police | nola.com

and Dunlap has already passed a polygraph saying he had nothing to do with it.

John Hollinger leaves the Grizzlies front office to go back to writing and joins the Athletic. I subscribed a month ago and I think it's easily been worth it.

The Athletic is awesome. They've started video content that is awesome too. The latest with Shaq is good shit.

I got a subscription to the Athletic at the start of the NHL playoffs last spring. Almost all I read is Jets articles and I still consider it 100% worth the price. Phenomenal content.

I love The Athletic. Easily my go-to site/app for sports info.

I also love the Athletic, but worry about it's business model. I hope subscription-based online content can work in both news and sports though.

They're OK I guess.

I love me some Down Goes Brown. That guy is prolific!

same same

I guess this is the right thread to post about the downfall of Deadspin.

httpx://drewmagary.kinja.com/this-is-how-it-s-gonna-work-1839505029

"Stick to Sports"

Having now looked up the basis for the kerfluffle, I tend to think "good riddance".

The number of times in my life I've wanted non-sports intruding on sports coverage I can count on one hand. (The World Series earthquake comes to mind, and I think maybe there was some sporting event on when Bin-Laden was killed ... aside from that, umm )

It's Deadspin. No one read it just "for sports". It was always read for what the writers found interesting, amusing around sports as well as sports related reporting.

Trying to make it into The Sporting News is just idiotic.

I've never once intentionally looked at it for anything that wasn't sports related*.

I'd be considerably happier if ESPN issued a similar edict and anyone who wanted to do something else would follow suit.

If writers want to be working at Vice or Vox or Mother Jones or whatever then by all means, I think they ought to go do that.


*(phrased that way because I can't absolutely swear at some point I haven't looked at something non-sports there via a tweet or fofc linkage or whatever)

I don't understand the economics of it. There are already a ton of places like Bleacher Report, but Deadspin was a little unique. Unless the people who left are lying about traffic and revenue, I just don't see how making it less unique will lead to greater profits.

They were. It was called Deadspin.

"Sports News Without Access, Favor, or Discretion"

That's their own site header.

If it says wrestling on the marquee, I expect wrestling.
If it says sports news on the marquee ...

And talking about how culture and politics insect with sports sounds EXACTLY like "Sports News Without Access, Favor, or Discretion".

Esp the without discretion part. You can be all "by the book" about sports if you don't have access or favor, but without discretion means something else.

No more articles about whether the Pope masturbates?

Their new CEO is a right wing snowflake is how I took all this news. It's a shame

All that horseshit has nothing to do with "sports".

It may have to do with the various nutjobs playing sports but, honestly, the games existed before the current crop of misguided, misbegotten oxygen thieves that overpopulate the coverage in many places today.

I'm not just "shut up and dribble", I'm decidedly more "please shut the FUCK up and dribble."

Deadspin was always sports and... That’s been their brand and readers went there because of it. Seems unlikely to me that they will be as successful as just another sports site indistinguishable from all the others.

Yeah stories about the people who play sports or what happens in the stands during games are stories about sports. Sorry, but it just is.

If you want stories about sports are platonic events without talking about the players lives, may I suggest historical documentaries about sporting events... But even those discuss what was going on to those players and the societies in which they lived.

Maybe you should just stop watching sports.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Jon - the site wasn't for you. But that's ok, that's how the internet works - you don't like a site, don't go to it. Find something you do like instead. Plenty of people liked Deadspin, and liked that it covered topics (big sports, wrestling, boxing, cereal, celebrity, sex, music, brain trauma, parenting, whatever) that other outlets wouldn't touch. And they did so without being afraid to get feedback from -- and interact with -- their readers.


But yes, this. This is a case of someone buying something they didn't like, and rather than leaving well enough alone they insisted on changing what it was (or flat out killing it).

I loved Deadspin. I've been reading it for the better part of 10 years at least. I have a feeling that it's spiritual successor will show up somewhere else before too long. Kinja still has some quality blogs, but the demise of Deadspin leaves a substantial hole in the product.

Agreed.

Or maybe the uber-left agendas should be left out of sports by anything that pretends to be sports media. And that's 99%+ of the worthless drivel that's generated when sports coverage tries to get into anything else.

All I'm left with is an increased number of CEI's to wish for.

There's a twitter feed (@undeadspin) that is aggregating the feeds of everyone who left.

Stick to sporks.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...bout-his-role/


I just started watching (not listening to) this show at the gym.

Well, Drew Magary showed up on Vice two days ago. Knew it wouldn't take long.


{edit: May not be a perm gig, he also shows up on a new site from Medium too.}

I wasn't sure if this should go in this thread or the college football thread.

CBS exits SEC football negotiations, ESPN/ABC likely to take over after 2023

Wow that's massive!

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From the Athletic:
Starting in December and ending on Opening Day, we at The Athletic will count down the 100 greatest baseball players by publishing an essay on a player every day for 100 days. In all, this project will contain roughly as many words as “Moby Dick.” Yes, we know it’s nutty. We hope you enjoy.

Starting reading them today. Pretty good stuff.

This series and the McGinn Files articles on NFL players scouting profiles before the draft have been among my favorites on The Athletic.

The Gammons article on Jeter and Larry Walker getting into the HoF is the first bad article I've read on The Athletic.

I love the Athletic as much as ever, but I wish they would stop trying to push video and podcasts on me. Makes me worried they will be the latest decent sports website to move to a medium I just don’t want my articles in.

How are they pushing that on you? I see the content off to the side, but I can still get to everything I want without any interference.

Keith Law writing for The Athletic now - that's a big get for them. That paired with their reporting on the Astros cheating scandal have made the site a must-have subscription.

Not sure how many listen to the Dan Lebatard show but I’m at the bar at the Clevelander where they broadcast from and just met Billy Gil. Really nice guy. Took a few minutes of his time to chat with me.