DL526: Kornheiser, Feinstein, Snyder, Favoritism. Plus More Deadspin, SB Nation, Bleacher Report

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We try to briefly recap the night in sports, but other things just keep getting in the way.

We got some interesting feedback from yesterday’s show, so we address that and delve a little deeper into intricacies of the homogenous world of sports blogs (and how eventually Comcast will own us all).

We also talk about the fact that John Feinstein wrote on his blog that Tony Kornheiser has asked him not to talk about Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, when “Junior” is a guest on Tony’s show. Per Feinstein, it’s not because Snyder owns the station that airs the show, but more because Kornheiser likes him as a person.

So…which is worse? Is playing favorites because you’re contractually obligated to do so better or worse than playing favorites because you like someone personally? This isn’t just an issue with Kornheiser — thought it is a HUGE concern that he’s telling guests not to rip a guy who ultimately has the power to yank his show off the air — butREAD MORE

Ken Rosenthal Is Bored, Stirs Pot With Ridiculous Pujols Trade Speculation

Pitchers and catchers reporting is not enough for veteran baseball scribe Ken Rosenthal. In his column today for Fox Sports, Rosenthal felt the need to make stuff up, admittedly so, in an effort to give every St. Louis Cardinals fan a heart attack. To the asinine machine!

WARNING: What you are about to read is pure speculation. It has not, to my knowledge, been discussed at any level. In fact, it is not even my idea.

Harold Reynolds mentioned the possibility Monday on MLB Network. My colleague, Jon Paul Morosi, informed me of it later that night. I then stole the idea from Morosi as if I were Lindsay Lohan in a jewelry store.

Albert Pujols for Mark Teixeira.

And, if that doesn’t work, Pujols for Ryan Howard.

Think it’s nuts? Think again.

Okay, Ken. I’ve thought again. It’s still nuts.

It’s 934 words of pure insanity. The St. Louis Cardinals are not going to trade Albert Pujols, even if this arbitrary deadline comes and goes. The fact of the matter is, the Cardinals have an entire season to figure out a way to keep PujolsREAD MORE

DL523: Tom Ziller On Sports Blogs, FanHouse, SB Nation, Writing For Free & Oh, NBA Stuff, Too

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This is almost a two-part episode and the first time, inexplicably, that Tom Ziller has appeared on the show. Ziller is a lead basketball writer for SB Nation, recently leaving FanHouse a few weeks before the walls collapsed. Insider trading? I ask him (answer: no.)

Ziller was in rare Twitter form last week in response to this article by Dave Kindred that quoted FanHouse scribe Lisa Olson thusly:

“In December,” Lisa Olson said, “we were told how great we were doing.” Once a columnist at the New York Daily News, Olson remembered The National strutting on stage in 1990, a national sports newspaper hiring good people from everywhere. She thought of FanHouse that way, a gathering of veterans on a journalistic adventure. “We were all experienced and qualified, not some 25-year-old bloggers,” she said. “The motto was, ‘Go, go, go. Grow, grow, grow.’ And we did. Then, this. It’s devastating.”

Ziller was, at one point, a 25-year old blogger at FanHouse, back when it was good and way before it was being sold off forREAD MORE

Call of the Day: Mike Emrick + Overtime = Win.

As someone who grew up in New Jersey, right over the bridge from Philadelphia and a few hours south of the Meadowlands, I’ve always hated the Devils. Following a Flyers team that has featured, what, 20 different starting goalies in the last ten years, I’ve certainly always hated Martin Brodeur. So this season, with the Flyers atop the standings, the Devils near the bottom and Brodeur having the worst season of his (grits teeth) illustrious career, it’s actually been a lot of fun following New Jersey.

Still, the one thing the Devils will always have that the Flyers, don’t anymore: Mike Emrick. Sure, Doc will call the occasional Versus or NBC game that might feature the Flyers, and obviously he’s the lead guy for the playoffs so he should get a full dose of Philly games there, but as a kid who got to listen to Emrick call games for the Flyers from 1988-93, it’s always been annoying to hear him do Devils games. Pardon the nostalgia, but the play-by-play tandem of Mike Emrick and GeneREAD MORE

How To Start An Internet Rumor In Five Easy Parts (Gruden, Reid, Media, Etc)

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Today’s show starts with a brief conversation about the insane numbers the NFL gets on TV (more on that later today) before focusing most of the conversation on this ridiculous and unfounded, yet wildly discussed, rumor that Jon Gruden was going to replace Andy Reid as head coach of the Eagles.

This is not the first — and certainly won’t be the last — internet rumor that has turned into somewhat of a breaking news story, in that the news being broken is that there is, in fact, no story.

In fact…that’s an interesting choice of words, I suppose. Fact, as it seems, has very little to do with any of these rumors. Let’s get to the list (note, we talk about all of this in the show that’s linked above so I’m not sure if you should read this first or listen first, but please…do both.)

Part One: Create Rumor

A rumor can come from anywhere and only needs a modicum of believability to spread. If Kyle Eckel’s Facebook page — or aREAD MORE

Note To Super Bowl Media This Weekend: Enough About The Damn Weather

If you’ve been following the Super Bowl run-up as closely as I have, you’ve noticed that everyone in Dallas is talking about one thing: the weather. It’s cold. It’s icy. It’s cold and icy. And windy and snowy and cold and icy and SHUT THE HELL UP ABOUT THE WEATHER YOU ARE AT THE SUPER BOWL.

(Takes deep breath. Continues.)

The Twitpics of your hotel rooftop were cute on Tuesday and there was a time early Wednesday when the ice storm was causing rolling blackouts, creating an actual modicum of news, in that the people who are at the Super Bowl to cover the game may not have had enough power to file their stories, talk on their shows or, gasp, surf the internet.

Today, there’s actual news about the weather as people have been getting hit by sheets of snow and ice falling off the stadium, at least one person critically injured. So by all means, cover that. It’s a terrible situation and it warrants hard-news coverage.

The rest of you? The sportswriters there to cover the game whoREAD MORE

News@Noon: Schlereth Sit-Com, Football Jews, Snyder Lawsuit, Church, Wiz Away & Cold Golf

News@Noon is a random collection of links I like, or think you’ll like. If you want to be on this list, email me. I can’t see everything, after all.

• Kogod and Shoals both tweeted this, so I’m linking to it without even reading it yet. I trust those two Jews that much:

The Other League The short-lived American Football League, merged into the NFL after Super Bowl IV, invented the modern media spectacle that is pro football. And three Jews invented the show that was the AFL.

And I know the image has nothing to do with American football but you try to find something better when Googling “Jews in Football.”

• Part of me wishes I did decide to go to the Super Bowl. I could have stumbled upon a nugget like this. Mark Schlereth of ESPN is getting a sit-com. First Colin Cowherd and now this. Seriously, did the networks not learn anything from Listen Up? I suppose the life of a former NFL player who retired and needs something to do with his life before his wifeREAD MORE

News@Noon(ish): Signing Day Fun, BP Reboot, NFL Labor, ‘Burgh QBs, Groundhog Day

Very busy day with two shows (go listen to them) and a host of other things going on. So…to the links. • Signing day? Follow EDSBS, where they likely won’t break any recruiting news, but you can see a rubber duck covered in sludge. And other hilarious college footballish things. (this is less link and more PSA. You’re welcome.)

• It’s almost Super Bowl time, so let’s get depressed about the likelihood of a lockout. Stephanie Stradley — a fellow BFL participant this season — has a rundown at her Chron.com blog Texans Chick.

• For this year’s game, I was starting to hope Pittsburgh wins just to get the on-air exchange between Terry Bradshaw and Ben Roethlisberger. Bradshaw is handing out the Lombardi Trophy and it would be hilarious to see Roethlisberger take the trophy from him and the two deck each other, then hug it out like Rick Vaughn and Roger Dorn at the end of Major League.

Alas, it happened already; the meeting, not the deck and hug. From Dan Wetzel at Yahoo:

They were face-to-faceREAD MORE

DL517: Will Brinson Has The Super Bowl Blackouts

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Will Brinson of CBS Sports NFL Facts and Rumors (where Rumors are always trying to sack facts) joins the show to talk about Super Bowl Week. We talk quite a lot about the blackouts invading the power grid of the Dallas metroplex before, you guessed it, Brinson blacks out himself.

Or should I say, his power blacks out (note, I believe he is sober during this conversation, so the blackouts are certainly weather, not alcohol, related).

We do talk about the logistics of the weather in Dallas and if that will impact the media covering the game (note: yes). We also talk about media day and wonder if it’s as big a circus as we’re led to believe on TV. Also, how many people are there to cover the teams and how many people are there to cover the people covering the teams.

And why, exactly was Brinson taking photos of Jay Glazer?

If I Rip Dan Snyder, Will He Sue Me So I Fire Myself?

He’d probably try. From the Washington Post:

[Dan] Snyder has objected to the [City Paper] article that detailed some of his controversial actions as team owner and other reports about him in the weekly publication, and has threatened legal action against the newspaper. He also is seeking the dismissal of the article’s author, staff writer Dave McKenna.

In a letter sent to City Paper’s owners after the article’s publication, Redskins chief operating officer David Donovan alleged that Snyder had been defamed by the publication and that legal action was an option. To date, however, no lawsuit has been filed.

Of course, with any threat of lawsuit or any complaint filed on behalf of a rich public figure to a media company comes the inevitable release of that news for all other media folks to mock. And with that, always, comes more attention to the original story.

Had Snyder just sucked up the City Paper story by McKenna as an unfair hit piece and, I don’t know, suggested to his inner ring of associates and supporters to freeze out the publication,READ MORE