Yea Cowherd moved to LA and now does a morning show for one of LA's biggest sports channels. He follows former direct competitor DP here. I think his show is also played in other markets (like DP), but probably nowhere near as numerous.

According to Sauces

HBO is cancelling Simmons' show. One more is airing Wednesday.

I feel like a dick for smiling when I read that. But not too much.

Not really surprised. It was kind of a snooze fest without anything all that interesting going on.

I outright smirked, so I figure you're good.

I straight up laughed and have no regrets over it.

*shrugs* he doesn't play well with the camera. He plays well with the instant take, like you're talking to your "Boston-sports-loving pop-culture-obsessed friend on the next barstool over".. (and that got watered down a bit when he made it so big)

Or he's a fairly shitty journalist who's style was endearing to the right group at the right time and he rode that popularity with the help of a cavalcade of people more insightful and interesting than himself.

Six of one, half dozen of the other. :)

Ditto.

Maybe ESPN was not the #1 problem in that relationship.

ANNOUNCER BEEF!

Cris Collinsworth Laid Into Bill Simmons On Twitter | The Big Lead

What is funny there is I think Simmons is actually right.

Simmons actually seems like a pretty big Collinsworth fan. And that tweet didn't seem that offensive at all. Surprised that Collinsworth felt the need to respond like that. Maybe it's just a "no publicity is bad publicity" sort of thing.

I sure hope ESPN gets over their fascination with politics & controversy sooner than later. Their web page front/headlines has more drama than sports for the past several weeks and it's really getting past tedious.

Several major sports are already barely interesting enough for me to even follow by checking scores, the last thing that behooves me OR the sports OR ESPN is for me to find even more characters that I find utterly unlikable.

Well, these days it's pretty easy to check scores on an app, so they are likely doing what they can to get page clicks to make money.

Not from my #$%@#$ desktop while working it ain't.

(not bitching at you, just at them)

edit to add: Plus, I'm not looking for scores by & large at 2pm on a Tuesday. But I'd like to able to check the headlines (the modern equivalent of the old morning sports page) without being forced to deal with the urge to strangle people for something that has no bearing on actual sports.

I have to say - I haven't checked ESPN for any headlines for a few years now. Typically I'll go there on Saturday/Sunday to get caught up on football scores, and that's about it.

I think I'll be the last person in the world willing to admit I like both ESPN.com and Bill Simmons. Not the Ringer though. That place is a little much. But I still find the blog-style format of the individual ESPN.com sports section the easiest way to keep up with things casually in the shortest amount of time. I've never adapted to twitter, I don't want to hear about all things all day, I want to mostly have my little 10-minute sports breaks and 10-minute news breaks.

I'm with cuervo. I go just to look for scores. I'm sure there are some folks who go for headlines, but I think that's a shrinking breed. I wonder if folks like you, Jon, are just too small for ESPN to cater to these days.

If anyone needs a good app, I highly recommend theScore. Easy to get scores/stats from games and their headlines are much more sports oriented.

+1

+2. ESPN tends to freeze on my phone, theScore works without incident.

It's certainly a possibility.

In which case I'll shake my fist at them.

I am with you with ESPN and Simmons in general. There are just times when he gets a bit too sensitive for a guy who takes a lot of shots at others.

Barstool Sports may be off the radar for many here but they seem to be exploding as a brand. This is following their launch of a daily 2 hour Sirius show this week:

PRESS – Comedy Central and Barstool Sports Greenlight The Barstool Rundown Live From Houston Nightly Telecast Week | Comedy Central Press

Checked in on the Herd show. Rob Parker is on FS1 now. Who knew?

Not me. Then again I don't know who Rob Parker is.

Time to officially shut down Deadspin when they get worked by Ted Cruz and it forces their EIC into a Twitter meltdown.

Ted Cruz told to eat shit despite Grayson Allen joke

The Deadspin EIC Challenging Twitter Haters To Fights In The Octagon Is An Incredible Internet Moment - Barstool Sports

I thought whoever was running the Ted Cruz account made a pretty funny joke... Deadspin would've been wise to just let it go.

Brent Musberger's final play by play duties will be Jan 31, UGA vs Kentucky basketball.

His best work is certainly behind him but his part in the groundbreaking NFL Today would have made him part of sports broadcasting history if he'd done nothing else.

Really? Surprising since his firing came after comments involving your former starting QB.

Rob Parker fired by ESPN after RG3 comments | NFL | Sporting News

Well they're not my team, I'm an Eagles fan. And while I try to listen to DC radio as I'm more or less in that market, I can't pick up 980 after dark, which means I can't really listen in the car during the winter.

And I pretty much never watch any of the ESPN shoutfests.

When Ted Cruz hands you your ass on social media, you are best to just let it die quietly.

Before going to ESPN Rob Parker worked for the Detroit News for 8 years. He got fired from that gig after asking then Lions head coach Rod Marinelli whether he wished his daughter had married "a better defensive coordinator." The Lions defensive coordinator was Rod Marinelli's son-in-law.

Rob Parker is, always has been, and likely always will be, an ass.

Does anybody watch any of these?

I mean, I don't mind PTI from time to time, but that's it. I find the rest of these shows completely unwatchable.

I am incredibly annoyed that the new Stephen A Smith and Max Whoever show is on ESPN at 11 am. That's when I go to the gym. I don't want to watch them when I on the treadmill, or whatever similar shit show is on FS1 at that time. And I don't have that many viewing options.

I think that's a perfectly fine call out.

The 30 Most Powerful Talents in Sports Media Today | The Big Lead

Perfect for this thread.

The top three of that list... smdh.

Jim Rome not even being mentioned seems pretty laughable.

I was standing behind Bill Simmons in line to get concessions at a Clippers game last week. He was dressed like a 40-year-old guy trying to get into a club. I think California's changed him.

I've always given him credit for not pretending he isn't famous and that he does not enjoy being famous. His persona started with the whole I'm-just-a-common-fan-like-the-rest-of-you. And I can see that there would be a temptation to try and continue that persona even as he started hanging out with people like Tom Brady and Magic Johnson. Kind of a Jenny from the Block sort of thing.

But he didn't. He still has that highly autobiographical style, but now it's things like "Me and Tony Kornheiser were trying to decide whether to invite Jon Hamm or Mike Tyson to come to dinner with us last night." So he's going to dress like a California rich guy at the Clippers game. But, since he is a California rich guy, it all kind of makes sense.

Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless have their own show, I see. If they would add Broussard and Adam Shefter to it, they could really call it the Shit Show.

In unsurprising news:

Brent Musburger admits he once bet on a game he broadcasted

He told that story on Pardon My Take a couple weeks ago.

edit: Damn it. I mean, "Pardon My Take had this two weeks ago".

Sportsdigs had it two weeks before Pardon My Take.
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Come on, you knew that was coming.

http://deadspin.com/report-radio-hos...-2m-1800675539

NY radio host and partner of Boomer Esiason arrested for multi-million dollar fake ticket scam.

Some big local news:

WFAN’s Craig Carton arrested on federal charges, official says | Newsday

Ha beat out.

I noticed he wasn't on this morning, but they didn't mention anything about this. Given this is the FBI and likely federal charges, he's pretty well fucked.