1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 5 ... 6 ... 7 ... 8 ... 9 ... 10 ... 11 ... 12 THE DUBIOUS DOZEN YOU MAKE THE CALL: HOW LOW CAN THE SPORTS MEDIA GO?Byline: TOM HOFFARTH There will come a point in the radio broadcast of Saturday night's USC-Notre Dame game when the management of KSPN-AM (710) will allow someone to enter the Coliseum press box, take the microphone from play- by-play man Pete Arbogast and make the call of the second-half kickoff. Live. The station conducted a contest and has surely screened the three finalists -- Thousand Oaks' Jonas Knox, Burbank's Brian Batter and Huntington Beach's Mike Owens -- one of whom will be selected this morning as the winner. Now, if memory serves us, the second half of the '74 USC-Notre Dame game turned out to be a pretty big piece of Trojans lore. So what happens if history repeats itself, and this call by a known amateur is the only audio clip that'll forever replayed over the video of some important 100-yard runback run·back n. Football 1. The act of returning a kickoff, punt, or intercepted forward pass. 2. The distance so covered. that could change the course of USC's season? Maybe it won't be so bad. Hopefully, it will. Unfortunately, it comes too late as an entry for our annual contest: The Dubious Dozen of the Sports Media Sports Media, Inc. (SMI) is a Sports Media and Marketing company that produces radio and television programming as well as representing professional athletes. 2002 Cowboys Live - Hosted by Dallas Cowboys Joey Galloway . The year 2006 produced a very nice selection of Real Men of Stupidity, the stuff you couldn't make up if you tried. So take the leftover turkey leg and bang the drum for these random acts of ridiculousness: 1. `YOU'RE WITH ME, LEATHER' The culprit: Chris Berman Christopher ("Boomer") James Berman (born May 10, 1955, in Greenwich, Connecticut) is a sportscaster, who anchors SportsCenter, Monday Night Countdown, Sunday NFL Countdown, Baseball Tonight, U.S. Open golf, and other programming on ESPN. The crime: In April, the snarky snark·y adj. snark·i·er, snark·i·est Slang Irritable or short-tempered; irascible. [From dialectal snark, to nag, from snark, snork, to snore, snort sports Web site Deadspin.com relayed a story from a contributor about how, nine years earlier, he saw the legendary ESPN ESPN Entertainment and Sports Programming Network celebrity use an otherwise stumblin', bumblin', fumblin' pick-up line A pick-up line is intended to be short and easy method of "picking up" (i.e., engaging) another person for sex, romance,or dating. They are usually used to initiate a conversation (an opener). -- ``You're with me, leather'' -- to entice a woman wearing leather pants to leave a Scottsdale, Ariz., bar with him. It was as if the Fonz snapped his finger at Leather Tuscadero in an episode of ``Happy Days.'' Within days, Tony Kornheiser Anthony Irwin Kornheiser (born July 13, 1948) is an American sportswriter and columnist for The Washington Post, as well as a radio and television talk show host. Kornheiser has hosted The Tony Kornheiser Show on radio in various forms since 1992; co-hosted used the line on his syndicated radio show and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann Keith Olbermann (born January 27, 1959) is an American news anchor, commentator and radio sportscaster. He currently hosts Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, an hour-long nightly newscast that reviews the top news stories of the day along with political commentary by slipped it into his ``Countdown'' show. A teenager approached Berman at ESPN's coverage of the NFL Draft in April and asks him about it. Berman reportedly called him ``stupid.'' When ESPN ``SportsCenter'' anchor Neil Everett snuck snuck v. Usage Problem A past tense and a past participle of sneak. See Usage Note at sneak. in the phrase, ``He's with leather,'' when narrating a highlight, he was reportedly suspended. T-shirts with a silhouette of Berman and the phrase eventually went on sale, and Damien Fahey, the host of MTV's ``Total Request Live,'' wore it on the air. The phrase got its own Wikipedia.com entry. In September, Deadspin.com decided to start its own Hall of Fame, and a plaque with Berman's phrase was the first entry. The aftermath: Will Leitch, editor of Deadspin.com, says: ``I knew it was funny when I got it, but I never imagined it becoming as expansive as it has. The source for the story was a respected journalist, actually, which gave us more credence to run it, rather than it being some random person. ``I've always though Berman could have nipped the whole thing in the bud by saying something like, `David (You're With Me) Weathers coming into pitch for the Reds now,' but that's not really his style.'' There's no signs of it slowing down. On the Nov. 10 episode of NBC's ``Las Vegas,'' the line was used in a scene. ``It's amazing in every conceivable way,'' Leitch wrote on the site. 2. A SIMPLE HUG The culprit: Harold Reynolds The crime: On July 24, two months after he signed a six-year contract extension that would have paid him $1million a year, ESPN's baseball analyst was fired. Rumors of it being related to sexual harassment sexual harassment, in law, verbal or physical behavior of a sexual nature, aimed at a particular person or group of people, especially in the workplace or in academic or other institutional settings, that is actionable, as in tort or under equal-opportunity statutes. quickly circulated but were not confirmed by the network. The aftermath: In October, Reynolds filed a wrongful termination wrongful termination n. a right of an employee to sue his/her employer for damages (loss of wage and "fringe" benefits, and, if against "public policy," for punitive damages). suit. He admitted that he gave an ``innocuous hug'' to a female intern who didn't express any discomfort and ``made no complaint until approximately three weeks later.'' 3. IT'S ... GONE The culprit: KNBR-AM radio. The crime: On May 28, this is how Giants fans heard the radio call of play-by-play man Dave Flemming on Barry Bonds' 715thhome run to pass Babe Ruth for second-place on the all-time list: ``Three-and-two. Finley runs. The payoff pitch. A swing and a drive ... deep cen-'' For the next 10 seconds, there were fans cheering and a foghorn fog·horn n. 1. Nautical A horn for sounding warning signals in fog or darkness, used especially on ships, buoys, and coastal installations. 2. A booming, insistent voice. . Finally, fellow broadcaster Greg Papa jumped on the air: ``I think we have lost Dave's microphone. Barry Bonds has just hit his 715thcareer home run.'' The aftermath: The station's engineer had no idea what happened. Flemming was crushed. ``I think it's the last gasp of the curse of the Bambino The Curse of the Bambino was a superstition cited, often jokingly, as a reason for the failure of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to win the World Series in the 86 year period from 1918 until 2004. ,'' Flemming told the San Francisco Chronicle The San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young.[2] The paper grew along with San Francisco to become the largest circulation newspaper on the West Coast of the . ``Now, I'm starting to re-think my whole world.'' 4. MAYNE PAIN The culprit: Kenny Mayne. The crime: Entered as one of 10 duos on ABC's ``Dancing with the Stars'' in January, the ESPN anchor's 90-second cha-cha with partner Andrea Hale to the Donna Summers' song ``Hot Stuff'' caused judge Bruno Tonioli to say: ``He looked like Pinocchio chasing Jiminy Cricket across the room.'' The couple was the first to be voted off. The aftermath: A few months later, he began doing national TV spots for a car insurance company. ESPN ombudsman George Solomon wrote: ``Mayne, and others who work on news shows or cover events, would better serve the network by avoiding celebrity competitions, or doing commercials.'' 5. BARE IT The culprit: Terry Bradshaw. The crime: The ``NFL NFL abbr. National Football League NFL (US) n abbr (= National Football League) → Fußball-Nationalliga on Fox'' co-host decided to revive his movie career (see: ``Hooper,'' ``Cannonball Run''), agreeing to appear in ``Failure To Launch,'' with Matthew McConaughey, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Bates Bates , Katherine Lee 1859-1929. American educator and writer best known for her poem "America the Beautiful," written in 1893 and revised in 1904 and 1911. . In the role of Al (the dad of the living-at-home slacker), Bradshaw had a scene with McConaughey where he cavorted around in his ``naked room'' showing off his bare backside while the song ``Ain't Nothing But a G-thing Baby'' by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg played. The aftermath: Bradshaw said he didn't tell his parents about the scene before they got a bus full of friends from church to go see the movie. ``My (76-year-old) mother and my father were not real happy,'' Bradshaw said. While Bradshaw sagged, the movie didn't quite flop. It grossed $24.6 million in its opening weekend in mid-March -- No. 1 at the box office. 6. THE SPIN CYCLE The culprit: ESPN's ``ESPY Awards.'' The crime: The 14th annual self-congratulatory network show moved a step closer to edginess and two steps back toward someone needing to pull the plug. During the show's taping on July 12, the monologue delivered by former Tour de France Tour de France World's most prestigious and difficult bicycle race. Staged for three weeks each July—usually in some 20 daylong stages—the Tour typically comprises 20 professional teams of nine riders each and covers some 3,600 km (2,235 miles) of flat and cycling champion Lance Armstrong included a line about telling the producers he would ``give his left nut'' to be the host, how France's World Cup soccer team all ``tested positive for being a--holes'' and an anal-sex joke to ``Brokeback Mountain'' star Jake Gyllenhaal seated in the audience. All those lines made the final edit of the show that aired July 16. The aftermath: ESPN executive editor John Walsh explained to the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times that the jokes were left in because they were a ``reasonable risk.'' New York Times columnist Richard Sandomir responded: ``It would have been unacceptable for one `SportsCenter' anchor to make the same crack to another on the air, yet it was OK at 9:45p.m. Eastern during a program in which athletes and Hollywood stars mingle? ... ESPN's power is such that on nights like Sunday, its nickname should be `The Worldwide Leader of Itself.''' 7. SELL JOB The culprit: Pete Arbogast. The crime: On Aug. 2, the USC football play-by-play man posted a forum notice on the fan site WeAreSC.com under the headline ``I need your help.'' Since his job of just calling football games doesn't bring him enough income, he asked USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. fans to contact management at 710-AM and strongly suggest that he be hired as weekday update man, an opening ``which I certainly could, and I feel should, fill. If you think like me, it is extremely important to have the Voice of the Trojans working full time on the school's broadcast flagship, especially with several hosts there having shown their anti-USC bias in the past.'' The aftermath: Station manager Larry Gifford said he already hired someone before Arbogast's online plea. The editors of WeAreSC.com eventually gave Arbogast a regular blog, and last week, he used it to start another pitch to land an afternoon co-host role at the station. ``Heck yeah I'm campaigning!'' he wrote. 8. WRONG EDDIE EDDIE Environmental Data Dynamic Information Exchange (Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site, Colorado) The culprit: The Chicago Tribune. The crime: On Aug. 9, the newspaper reported that Eddie Johnson, the former University of Illinois University of Illinois may refer to:
abbr. 1. National Basketball Association 2. National Boxing Association NBA (US) n abbr (= National Basketball Association) → Basketball-Dachverband (= and current radio broadcaster with the Phoenix Suns, was arrested as a suspect in a sex crime against an 8-year-old girl in Florida. They had the wrong man. The actual suspect, also named Eddie Johnson, was a former NBA player with the Atlanta Hawks out of Auburn. The Eddie Johnson cited by the Tribune was in Hawaii on vacation with his family at the time of the alleged incident. The aftermath: The next day, Tribune associate managing editor of sports Dan McGrath issued an apology for the ``inadvertent but hurtful error'' that occurred because of a rush to meet a deadline. In October, the wrongly accused Eddie Johnson filed a lawsuit against the Tribune and other media outlets, pointing out that the Aug. 8 Associated Press report on the incident correctly identified the Eddie Johnson suspected of the crime. 9. OUTFOXED The culprits: Dick Stockton, Daryl Johnson and Tony Siragusa. The crime: During the telecast of an Aug. 24 Miami-Carolina exhibition game, the three Fox NFL broadcasters tried to spice things up by announcing they would be giving away a car during the telecast. A Panthers fan, Greg Good, was chosen to receive it. And on the air, he was given a car. It was a toy car. Funny? The aftermath: Fox Sports chairman David Hill wasn't laughing. He personally flew from L.A. to Charlotte, N.C., to present Good with the keys to a new Ford F-150 pickup truck to smooth things over. Hill called the prank ``an appalling piece of misjudgment'' and promised ``internal discipline'' for the crew. 10. A BIT OUTSIDE The culprit: Bob Uecker. The crime: The 72-year-old Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster attracted a stalker. Really. In June, it got out that Ann Ladd, a 45-year-old Chicago-area resident who described herself as a Brewers fan, was arrested for pestering Uecker. It had been going on for six or seven years, so he said. Eventually, Uecker was granted a restraining order restraining order: see injunction. . According to the suit posted on TheSmokingGun.com, the woman reportedly had been seeking his autograph, staying at the same hotel when he was on the road, and sending packages to his home. The aftermath: In October, prosecutors in Milwaukee dropped a felony stalking charge. 11. FILL THE GAPS The culprits: ESPN, FSN (Full-Service Network) A communications network that provides shopping, movies on demand and access to databases and a variety of interactive services. , CSTV CSTV College Sports Television CSTV Copy Salary Table Version and the NFL Network. The crime: It wasn't enough that ESPN went live with the July4 Nathan's 2006 Hot Dog Eating Contest. It sandwiched it between Wimbledon coverage and a semifinal match of the World Cup. Borderline sports programming continued to push its way into network lineups. Consider that the Bratwurst Eating Contest, the World Hamburger Eating Contest, the World Sports Stacking Contest, the World Paintball paintball Sports medicine A sport in which marble-sized gelatin capsules filled with a nontoxic dye are shot at speeds of 300 kph/200 mph Warning: Championships, the World Dominos Tournament, the U.S. Scrabble Open, the National Collegiate Debate Championship, the Rock-Paper-Scissors League Championship, the EA Sports Madden Bowl, a pay-per-view special on the release of the 2007Madden NFL game, the National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship and an NFL cheerleader reality series made it on TV. As well as the National Spelling Bee. But only the preliminary rounds. The finals went to ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. in prime time. The aftermath: Again, ESPN.com ombudsman George Solomon tried to add perspective: ``I fear possible expulsion from the Organization of News Ombudsmen The Organization of News Ombudsmen (ONO) is a nonprofit corporation that was formed in 1980. ONO membership comprises various news ombudsman, and readers' representatives from around the world. should it find out that I comment on and offer observations for a national television network that covers paintball.'' CAPTION(S): 5 photos Photo: (1 -- color) The phrase ``You're With Me, Leather'' credited to ESPN's Chris Berman, took on a life of its own Memory Burn A Life Of Its Own was released by Noise Kontrol in 2002. Memory Burn is made up of several high profile musicians who came together to create this special work. . Illustration by Jim Cooke for Deadspin.com (2 -- color) Harold Reynolds had a hug for actress Sarah Silverman at the All-Star Celebrity Softball game in July, but that was OK. Jamie Squire/Getty Images (3) ESPN viewers were forcefed a victory by Takeru Kobayashi, right, over Joey Chestnut in the 2006 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest The Nathan's International July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest is an annual competitive eating competition held at Nathan's Famous Corporation's original and best-known restaurant at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York. . Stephen Chernin/Getty Images (4) Steve Lyons, left, lost his job with the Fox network but will stay on with the Dodgers. Mark Humphrey/Associated Press (5) ESPY Awards host Lance Armstrong said a mouthful in his monologue, and it was included in the tape-delayed telecast. Kevin Winter/Getty Images |
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