Watchdog

CBS just announced this breaking news regarding Sunday's "NFL Today" show:

"The secret is out as Victoria’s Secret supermodel Selita Ebanks joins the guys live on the set to help them with their NFL picks."

Umm . . . why?

Then again, why not?

Ms. Ebanks did date Osi Umenyiora for a while earlier this year. I don't think she still does, but I'm not sure. I don't cover the Giants anymore.

I remember Angie Harmon showing up at training camp one year and creating a bit of a stir. She is married to Jason Sehorn, who used to play cornerback for Big Blue.

(UPDATE: A loyal eader reports Ms. Ebanks has attended a number of Knicks games - she actually met Osi at one - and that the couple was spotted together at the Jones/Calzaghe fight at the Garden earlier this month. Hmm.)

(UPDATE: Just found this, in which Ms. Ebanks reports that she "loves Nate Robinson." There's also this bit of video. And this. Parental guidance suggested. Smelling salts might be helpful, too.)

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Immediately following the Jets' spanking of the Broncos Sunday, Michael Phelps will talk on "60 Minutes" about how he won the 100-meter butterfly in Beijing.

Click above for a video excerpt, and below for a written account.

Continue reading "Michael Phelps discusses tightest race in Beijing" »

Phil Simms worked an NFL game involving one of his son Chris' teams for the first time Sunday. But Chris, a reserve for the Titans, remained on the sideline against the Jets, allowing Phil to avoid an awkward situation.

CBS did eventually show Chris on camera late in the game. Phil said Chris refused to give him inside information on the Titans.

Speaking of people who went into their father's profession, as a baby boomer with an interest in TV, I read this story about Jennifer Aniston in The Times' magazine and wondered this as she went through TV references from "Captain Kangaroo" to "Land of the Lost" to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" to "Rhoda" to "That Girl":

Is Ms. Aniston older than I thought she was? Nope. She's only 39. Which means she either has a really good memory or saw some of those shows primarily in reruns.

Especially "That Girl," which ABC took off the air in 1971. But in fairness she said her father was a friend of Marlo Thomas (who later played Ms. Aniston's mother on "Friends") and that he appeared on the show. So it would make sense for young Jennifer to have watched Dad in reruns.

All this means Jennifer Aniston and I have something in common: We both knew Marlo Thomas when we were young children. But I digress.

Jim Nantz also made an appearance at the SBJ event (see post below), reiterating he plans to retire from golf broadcasting after working his 50th Masters in 2035, and confirming there is an "unwritten rule" at CBS against discussing NFL betting lines on the air.

Click below for the possibly illegal cut and paste from Sports Business Daily.

Also below, read an amusing (and legal) excerpt from Friday's new "CenterStage" with Nantz on YES in which he tells a story about his encounter with the Queen of England at the White House.

Continue reading "Jim Nantz plans to walk away after 2035 Masters" »

CBS College Sports has reached an agreement to be carried by Verizon FiOS.

The distribution-challenged channel has made some headway of late, including a deal in May to be added to Cablevision's iO Sports Pak.

I'll let Glauber and McNamara figure out what the heck just happened in football and betting terms on the final play of the Chargers-Steelers game, in which the Steelers didn't cover the spread, then did, then didn't. There was an illegal forward pass in there somewhere, although I'm not sure where.

Anyway, my jurisdiction extends only to the TV end of it, and I am pleased to announce Jim Nantz came through . . . barely.

While the confusing ending was being sorted out and the score went from 11-10 to 17-10 to 11-10, I kept thinking Al Michaels surely would have come up with one of his trademark veiled references to the effect on those who gambled on the game, in which the Steelers were favored by 5.

Nantz said nothing until just before CBS signed off, when he finally hinted at what much of America was thinking:

"I know there's a lot of people now who will be happy there was an 11-10 final. It deserves it, as strange as it was."

(Unless . . . Nantz just was referring to the fact there never had been an 11-10 final in NFL history and people might be enjoying the novelty of that. I doubt it, but maybe. Lemme know, Jim.)

(UPDATE: Bob Costas joined the fun at halftime of the Sunday night game, saying something to the effect of "others cared for other reasons" after Cris Collinsworth pointed out the possible impact on the point differential tiebreaker of the bogus illegal forward pass call. Yikes. This is going to go down as one of the most notorious incidents in NFL gambling history, my friends.)

Barack Obama lobbied for a college football playoff on "Monday Night Football" the day before he was elected President. He hasn't backed off now that he has actual power.

Here he is on the subject in an interview "60 Minutes" will air Sunday night:

“If you've got a bunch of teams who play throughout the season, and many of them have one loss or two losses, there's no clear decisive winner…We should be creating a playoff system.

"Eight teams. That would be three rounds to determine a national champion. It would add three extra weeks to the season. You could trim back on the regular season. I don't know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this. So, I'm going to throw my weight around a little bit. I think it's the right thing to do.”

"Throw my weight around a little bit?" That isn't much of a threat from this guy. It would take two of him to make one William Howard Taft.

The NCAA has established a scholarship in honor of the late Jim McKay that will offer $10,000 for postgraduate study to one male and one female student-athlete with interest in sports communications.

I promised some nice public relations man I'd mention SlamBall's debut on CBS at 5 p.m. Sunday, but I never got around to it.

(Aren't the Cowboys and Giants going to be playing around that time? Hmm. Tough choice.)

Fortunately, Michael Hiestand of USA Today took care of it for me. Here's his Slamball story in Friday's paper.

One of the coaches is Queens' own Kenny Anderson.

I probably wrote more stories about him during his days at Archbishop Molloy than any journalist alive.

Now he's (gasp) 38 years old.

Every Sunday the networks that produce NFL pregame shows are kind enough to send reams of quotes from them so I don't have to actually watch.

Sometimes there is interesting stuff. For example, this exchange on CBS between Shannon Sharpe and Boomer Esiason comparing Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger:

SHARPE: I'm going to take Eli because of the pressure that he's under. He's Archie's son. He's Peyton's younger brother and if you look he was the first quarterback taken, the first pick in the draft. He demanded a trade. He didn't want to go to that team. Now he's in New York with all that pressure. I saw a sign in Giants Stadium once that said Eli Manning is adopted. I'm going with Eli with the pressure he's under.

ESIASON: Ben Roethlisberger is a spontaneous playmaker unlike Eli Manning, and to me that makes the difference.

Fox loaded up on Cowboys stuff, because the Cowboys always are prime pregame fodder, win or lose.

Click below for Pam Oliver's interview with Jerry Jones, plus pointed comments from the studio panel, including Mr. Jimmy Johnson, an old pal of Jones'.

Continue reading "Jimmy Johnson considers the Pokes a 'sloppy' team" »