DL552: Josh Zerkle & Bethlehem Shoals On Why We’re All Quitting This Week

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This show has always served as somewhat of a living, breathing therapy session for me. I honestly and truly believe that there’s a 50% chance I go insane on Friday. Until then, we have a few shows left and this one is one I hope you download and stick into some kind of time capsule to play in two years when the internet is, once again, completely different than it is right now.

Josh Zerkle of KSK and With Leather and Bethlehem Shoals of Free Darko are both on the show to talk about recent announcements that they, both, are transitioning to new things. Zerkle is stepping down from the helm of With Leather to focus on other, non-sports projects. He’ll still be around the site, writing a few times a month, and he’ll still be doing his podcast and contributing to KSK, but by the sound of it, it was time for him to do something new…even if that wasn’t really anything specific, yet.

Shoals is a little different, in thatREAD MORE

DL542: Will Brinson on NFL’s PR Madness. Plus: Actual Madness (March Style)

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Will Brinson and I talk about the ridiculous PR battle between the NFLPA and the NFL. Is either side winning? How has social media and the instant-reaction media world we live in changed the way this lockout is being covered, and how the participants are acting…and reacting.

Look, you can’t begrudge the players for talking, or Tweeting, about the injustice they feel has been brought upon them and you can’t blame them for hijacking news during the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament when they’re trying to make sure they still have jobs, but you’d think the league, itself, would have more understanding that IT’S NOT ALWAYS ABOUT FOOTBALL. Forcing legalese down our throats isn’t helping.

That said, the more we see football players in suits and not helmets and pads, the worse the PR battle gets for them. We love the guys in our favorite uniforms. The guys in suits, yelling about money? The average fan can’t relate to that.

So there’s a lot of lockout talk, but mostly talking about whyREAD MORE

DL536: Where Jim Burr, Tim Higgins, Earl Walton & Cowardly Big East Make Me Curse…A Lot

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(THERE IS CURSING IN TODAY’S SHOW. A LOT OF IT.)

Forget impartiality. Today’s show is hot fire directed at the old, out of touch, terrible officials employed by the Big East and the cowardly way the conference handled the screwjob given to Rutgers at the end of their Big East Tournament game against St. John’s yesterday afternoon.

Would Rutgers have won the game? Maybe not, but 1.6 seconds is an eternity in basketball and the refs just quit doing their jobs and got protected by the conference office. This could be a REALLY LONG rant, but just listen. Oh, and if you don’t think the Big East is cowardly for their decision to not do anything, consider them cowardly for how they scrubbed down the AP story on their own website.

Here’s the AP story in full at ESPN. Here’s the version the Big East put up. Yeah…that tells you everything.

An absolute joke.

We must credit the job ESPN did in handling this story. Someone got it right, and the network pulled no punchingREAD MORE

DL525: Deadspin on HBO, Mariotti’s BS, Random Rumors & Actually Defending Bleacher Report

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I think I write too much in the show write-up and don’t give people enough incentive to listen. So here’s a quick recap.

We talk about Deadspin’s feature on HBO Real Sports last night. We talk about Jay Mariotti’s conversation with Jason Whitlock and how his story of why AOL got rid of him may be total BS, based on timing.

We talk about PFT’s story on Michael Strahan being a candidate to take over for Regis, plus the Ken Rosenthal story we lambasted yesterday all in a weird conversation where I actually, gulp, defend Bleacher Report. There’s something to that idea, so listen and tell me how wrong I am. Please.

Site News: We Have Our Super Bowl Prop Bet Winners, Finally

Folks, sorry it took almost a week to get this figured out but we’ve finally gotten our prop bet winners for our Super Bowl contest. You can thank/blame Jimmy Traina at SI’s Hot Clicks for making me sift through hundreds upon hundreds of entries. Oh, and to those of you who filled out a poll without putting your name or email address…you are idiots. It’s a contest. How the hell am I supposed to figure out who you are if you won?

Idiots. 117 of you are idiots. You know what else? The 17 people who filled out the FAKE FORM I put up after the game started with CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS that the contest had ended and the form was just there as a reference…you aren’t just idiots but I can only assume are cheating idiots. I mean, seriously, folks, read the damn directions.

Now to celebrate those who didn’t just get called an idiot: Nick ended up with 15 correct answers, meaning that you needed to score 16 or higher to be eligible for some prize.READ MORE

DL522: Did NFL Do Enough For The Seatless 400? A Debate. Plus: Superhero TV Failures

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I got a comment that was complaining about a post I wrote that suggested the NFL did a lot for those who were totally screwed by the Dallas seat debacle. I wanted to mention it before moving on to some conversations about TV and other non-sports stuff.

Then Nick disagreed. So welcome to the rabbit hole show.

We do talk some TV and try to figure out why the biggest movies every year seem to be Superhero flicks, yet no superhero TV show seems to work (other than Smallville, which had a modest audience on CW and likely would have failed if put on a network that needed better ratings).

Why can’t we get the old Batman or Hulk TV or Wonder Woman shows that would get a good rating? Or even lesser known original characters like NBC tried (and is failing) with The Cape? Wasn’t The Greatest American Hero a great show? Believe or not, it was.

Running Numbers: Translating The Insane NFL TV Viewership Into “Unique Views”

We’ve all read release after release after release about just how good the ratings were for the NFL this season. Just how good, you ask? Well, according to CBS:

Through 17 weeks of the 2010 regular season (September 9, 2010-January 2, 2011), THE NFL ON CBS regular-season games were seen by an estimated 164.2 million viewers, 10% higher than NBC’s 149.8 million viewers, 1% higher than FOX’s 162.1 million viewers and 48% higher than ESPN’s 110.9 million.

Those cumulative numbers were based on total viewers (P2+) who watched at least six minutes of NFL game coverage. Add in record numbers for the playoffs (take it away, FOX):

Ratings climbed to astonishing levels as the [NFC Championship] game progressed, peaking at a 31.5/53 rating and 59.5 million viewers from 5:30 – 6:00 PM ET as the Packers punched their first ticket to a Super Bowl in 13 years. FOX Sports estimates that 80.3 million Americans saw at least part of Sunday’s game.

Let’s not forget NBC winning every Sunday night (and two weeknights) of the season, en route to recordREAD 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

NFL Does Smart Job Making Good On Super Bowl Seating Debacle

The last thing the NFL PR and operations people needed last night was angry fans. Certainly with all the weather issues and logistical challenges during the week at Jerry’s World, the league couldn’t have foreseen the disaster of 400 fans without seats. Alas, you don’t have to go home, but you can’t sit here.

How can you sell tickets for seats that don’t exist? How can you sell tickets for seats that aren’s safe enough to sit? You trust Jerry Jones. That’s obviously how.

It’s ridiculous that the 100,000 plus seats weren’t enough for the league that they — and Jones — had to squeeze in extra seating. It’s a disaster and it should always be a footnote in the history of this Super Bowl; the Packers beat the Steelers, it snowed all week in Dallas and a fan seating disaster.

Having said that, the league sure has come through with a make-good for the ousted fans. Per NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy:

So the fans who couldn’t be placed in seats got to stand outside and watch the game onREAD MORE

DL520: Super Bowl, Commercials & Do People Just Hate Joe Buck Because It’s Trendy?

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Nick and I talk about the game, but try to focus more of our time on the other stuff…the stuff that’s more fun to debate than a game that was entertaining, but not fantastic by any means. Maybe it’s the “holy crap football might be gone for a long time” depression or the fact that the game featured two teams that you really can’t hate, but it just ended. It was there, it was fun and now it’s over. Congrats, Packers.

So, Nick and I focus on the commercials a lot. Plus, why does everyone pile on Joe Buck so much? Is it a, pardon the pun, pack mentality or is Buck really that terrible an announcer? Doesn’t it feel like ripping Joe Buck just makes people think they’re cool. He’s not that bad, and he’s much better suited for a big game situation than some other announcers who repeatedly make it all about them with over-the-top calls. He’s not the best, but Joe Buck is fine. At some point everyone isREAD MORE