ESPN reaches multi-year extension with Jon Gruden

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Jon Gruden has agreed to an exclusive, multi-year deal with ESPN, according to an ESPN news release.

In addition to his Monday Night Football role, Gruden will appear on ESPN’s NFL Draft and Super Bowl week coverage. He  will call the 2010 NFL Pro Bowl and serve as an analyst for ESPN Radio’s 2010 Rose Bowl and Bowl Championship Series (BCS) title game broadcasts. He also will be part of SportsCenter coverage leading up to the telecasts of both games.

"Working with Mike, Jaws and our entire Monday Night Football team is the most fun I have had in years, and I am fired up to make this long-term commitment to ESPN," Gruden said in the release. “Monday Night Football is special and I look forward to remaining a part of it and continuing to call these great games.”

Said Norby Williamson, ESPN's executive vice president, production, “Jon has truly reinvented himself, from a Super Bowl-winning head coach to one of the foremost NFL analysts in the business, and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. We are thrilled with his commitment to ESPN, which ensures that Jon will continue on Monday Night Football with Mike and Jaws, and he will have the opportunity to do even more with ESPN.”

Shooting from the Lip/Monday edition

Looking back at a weekend of televised sports ...

Most coverage
It hit me late Saturday afternoon: Too many college football games are on television. This revelation occurred as I was trying to keep track of the Gators-South Carolina, Miami-North Carolina, Ohio State-Iowa and USC-Stanford games at the same time. If you're trying to keep track of four games, you quickly realize that you can't even keep track of one.

Every Saturday is the same. It starts with a slew of games at noon, most which are bad and only of interest to the fans of the schools playing in them. It's difficult to find one game that's any good. Then come the 3:30 games, and too many of them are good to zero in on one. Later, it's prime time, which usually has two or three really good games.

If you're a die-hard fan of one school, it's easy. You watch just your team. But if you're a general college football fan, or your team isn't on (or your team isn't all that good), deciding what to watch is nearly impossible. So you flip around and soon realize that you can't enjoy games like you really want to. You can't follow trends, you can't follow developing story lines, you can't get a feel for which team is playing better. You're just watching a bunch of plays until you change the channel and watch a bunch more.

Now, it seems like a silly complaint, and, yes, I'd rather have too many games on than not enough. It's a buffet, and the viewer can choose what to put on his or her plate. But Saturday, cable alone had 26 games, and that doesn't count games you could get if you also pay extra to get  the Big Ten Network and some of the Fox regional college channels. You might think that having 30-some games available is like a dream for college football fans. But for some of us, it can turn into a nightmare. To paraphrase Yogi Berra, so many games are on that you can't watch them.

Worst overturned call
Not only did the Bucs get a raw deal on an overturned call Sunday, another Tampa Bay team suffered a bum call, too. The Lightning had a victory taken away when officials ruled that Paul Szczechura interfered with Kings goalie Jonathan Quick on Saturday even though replays clearly showed he was knocked into Quick by a Kings defenseman.

Usually, Lightning analyst Bobby "The Chief'' Taylor doesn't need much to get going on the officials, but Saturday his anger was justified, and priceless: "It's amazing to me how incompetent these guys are,' he said.

Good job by the Lightning Live postgame show to dedicate 20 minutes or so to the controversy, and nice hustle by announcer Rick Peckham to conduct a comprehensive interview with Szczechura. It would have been nice if analyst Chris Dingman had done a little less griping and a little more analysis of the play and the rule invoked, but the show was worth watching.

Best speculation
The clock might be ticking on Charlie Weis' career at Notre Dame. He is now 35-25 with the Irish, the record that got Bob Davie fired by the school and the winning percentage that got Tyrone Willingham fired. And the Irish have tough games left against Connecticut and at Stanford. ESPN College GameDay analyst Lee Corso said that perhaps part of Notre Dame's problem is that neither Davie nor Weis had been a head coach before either was hired. Corso has two leading candidates to replace Weis if he gets fired: Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly and, the biggest name of all, former Bucs coach Jon Gruden.

When host Chris Fowler threw out the name of Gators coach Urban Meyer, Corso immediately said no, and analyst Kirk Herbstreit said, "Urban Meyer will never leave Florida to go to Notre Dame.''

Strongest opinion
CBS's Shannon Sharpe talking about the Bengals' Chad Ochocinco being fined $20,000 for pretending to bribe an official with a dollar bill during a game last week: "I think the NFL should fine Chad Ochocinco $250,000. … He's not getting the message. A $1 bribe is the same as a $20,000 fine to him. It's nothing; $200,000 sends the message. Chad will stop these shenanigans. He's getting ridiculous with it.''

Best coverage
It's really too bad that Bright House Networks, which provides cable for much of the bay area, including most of Pinellas County, doesn't carry the NFL Network, because the NFL Network's game coverage might be better than that of Fox, NBC, CBS and ESPN. The network's season-debut Thursday game between the 49ers and Bears was compelling to watch even though it was a dud on the field, with the 49ers winning 10-6. The broadcast team of Bob Papa and Matt Millen is top notch, but amazing on-field camera access pushes the NFL Network's coverage over the top. The production is first-rate.

Now, unless your favorite team is playing in the Thursday night game, you probably don't miss the NFL Network. But if you're an NFL fan in general, you don’t know what you're missing. And that's too bad, because what you're missing is really, really good.

  Best of the weekend
Best scenario: On ESPN's Sports Reporters on Sunday, Miami Herald columnist Israel Gutierrez suggested that LeBron James could end up playing with the Heat, not the Cavs or Knicks, next season.
Best feature: Paula Lavigne’s report on the use of text messaging as an aide for law enforcement at Auburn football games on ESPN's Outside the Lines on Sunday.
Best network: CBS College Sports Network had a rare weekend in the spotlight and took full advantage with good broadcasts of UCF-Houston and TCU-Utah football games.
Best uniforms: South Carolina wearing camouflage football uniforms to salute the military, with labels such as "Integrity'' and "Service'' on the back where the player's name usually is.
Best school: Largo High gets our vote with a pair of former running backs. Graduate Brynn Harvey scored three touchdowns in UCF’s upset of Houston, and former star Dexter McCluster had four touchdowns, 282 rushing yards and a school-record 324 all-purpose yards in Mississippi's victory against Tennessee.

Best local story gone international
During Saturday's Hockey Night in Canada pregame show, the Nov. 5 hit on which Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman suffered a concussion came up in an interview with NHL vice president Colin Campbell. Campbell said a replay of Chris Neil’s hit was shown in a meeting of the league's general managers and it was an example of a good, clean hit.

"There wasn't one manager in the room who felt this hit was illegal,'' Campbell said. "In fact, they felt this was the type of hit we want in hockey.''

Three things that popped into my head
1. How come Gators coach Urban Meyer is always seen hugging quarterback Tim Tebow but you never seem him hugging any of his other players? Just wondering.
2. How depressing is it that USF is going to end up in the St. Petersburg Bowl again?
3. I better read within the next week that a fight has been set between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.

WDAE's Dan Sileo back on air

WDAE-AM 620 talk-show host Dan Sileo was back on the air Friday, a week after being suspended for making comments about the financial state of Tampa Bay Bucs owners, the Glazers.

On Oct. 29, Sileo said the Glazers had lost $400-million in the Ponzie scheme of imprisoned Bernie Madoff and an impending debt payment likely would force the Glazers to sell the team. Bucs co-chairman Joel Glazer denounced the report and Clear Channel Communications, which owns WDAE, retracted the story, issued an apology and suspended Sileo.

However, Sileo, 45, returned to his usual 6-9 a.m. time slot Friday morning, making a few passing references about his suspension, but not talking about it directly and never mentioning the story that landed him in trouble. In his opening comments, Sileo joked, "I have learned I have the fattest pictures of me on the internet.'' Later, he referred to his time away as a "sabbatical'' and asked, "How does my tan look?''

Apart from that, it was business as usual for Sileo, who used his opening segment to praise Gators linebacker Brandon Spikes, who is suspended for one game after attempting to gouge the eyes of a Georgia player last Saturday. Several callers told Sileo they were happy he was back on the air. Sileo thanked them and then continued with the sports conversation.

Bucs director of public relations Jeff Kamis said, "We appreciate Clear Channel taking swift action on this matter by issuing their retraction and apology.''

WDAE is the local AM flagship station for the Bucs, and it's unclear if Sileo's comments will affect Clear Channel's relationship with the Bucs. Clear Channel signed a 10-year deal with the Bucs in April of 2004.

Shooting from the Lip/Monday edition

Looking back at a weekend of televised sports ...

Biggest local story
In a twisted sort of way, the Dan Sileo controversy might have been the best thing that could have happened to bay area sports-talk radio.

If you missed it, Sileo went on his WDAE-AM 620 morning show Thursday and said he had a friend who claimed the Bucs’ owners were in financial trouble because of dealings with imprisoned Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff and were desperate to sell the team. The Glazers responded by saying it wasn't true. WDAE suspended Sileo and ran a retraction of the story on its Web site, saying the story was "factually incorrect.''

Perhaps this will be a cautionary tale for sports-talk radio hosts, reminding them that their words are not spoken in a vacuum. People are listening, and if you make claims as facts, you better be right.
This isn't meant to wag a holier-than-thou finger at talk radio. All media outlets need to be held to the same journalistic standards. But if radio hosts are going to assume the role of news-breaker, as Sileo did, then the news must be accurate.

Here's the problem: Hosts often feel the need to be outrageous with their opinions and often speak without a filter. Their opinions often dictate the success of their show, and many hosts carry it too far, thinking the more uncensored their words, the better the show is. They push the envelope to make a name for themselves. They want the guy in the diner or barbershop to say, "Hey, did you hear what so-and-so said today on his show?''

It's not a case of speaking first and dealing with the consequences later. It's speaking first and not even considering the consequences. That's what happened last week. There's a difference between saying, "I think the Glazers are cheap, and I wonder about their finances'' and what Sileo claimed.

Perhaps now all talk-show hosts in town will think about Sileo the next time they're about to open their mouths and say something controversial or that they claim is fact. And if more people are thinking before speaking, that's good, isn't it?

Biggest decision
Dan Sileo remains suspended indefinitely while Clear Channel Communications, which owns WDAE, figures out its next step. Complicating this case is that WDAE is the flagship station of the Bucs. You wonder how much that will play into the decision about whether Sileo keeps his job. If WDAE is afraid of losing the Bucs contract, it might feel the need to fire Sileo. And it was interesting just how quickly WDAE distanced itself from Sileo, suspending him and retracting the story just hours after Sileo was on the air.

Best feature
ESPN's Outside the Lines had a chilling piece Sunday on Raiders coach Tom Cable. A former wife and a former girlfriend said Cable was physically abusive to them. Raiders assistant coach Randy Hanson had accused Cable of breaking his jaw during an altercation in August, but the Napa County (Calif.) district attorney said he would not pursue charges, saying the facts didn't merit them. Another one of Cable's former wives said she was never a victim of violence by Cable. After the report, Cable admitted once slapping his ex-wife but denied hitting his former girlfriend. Give OTL credit for tracking down these women and getting them on the air. The report again shows that OTL remains the gold standard of sports investigative journalism.

Most disappointing interview
All last week, Fox drummed up excitement for Terry Bradshaw's interview with Brett Favre on Fox NFL Sunday. The interview turned out to be a whole lot of sizzle and no steak. There were no revelations and no tough questions, and more frustrating than anything, viewers heard more from Bradshaw, who too often interrupted Favre, than they did from Favre. It could've been one of the most interesting interviews of the year — Fox advertised it as so — but Bradshaw dropped the ball.

Worst graphic
Do we really need a graphics box taking up space to tell World Series viewers where the Series stands? For example, Saturday night it read, "Series tied 1-1.'' On Sunday, it read, "NY leads 2-1''’ Put the graphic up along with the score coming in and out of commercial break, but we don't need something else crowding the screen during the game.

Most disappointing pregame
Fox's game coverage of the World Series is outstanding, but am I the only one disappointed by the yawn-inducing pregame show? This is the World Series, for crying out loud. But the pregame show doesn't have a special feel. Host Chris Rose seems more interested in cracking lame playful jokes at the expense of the analysts. Eric Karros gives some decent analysis, and Mark Grace and Ozzie Guillen have had a few moments, but it's mostly scratch-the-surface, obvious stuff. There's little depth, no must-see features, and at times it has the feel that they're just winging it.

Saturday night's Game 3 broadcast turned into a fiasco because of a long rain delay that it seemed Fox wasn't prepared for. The panel bumbled its way through shallow chatter, and there were a couple of interviews about the weather, but then Fox ran out of content and was reduced to showing a replay of the ninth inning of Game 2. When that didn't fill the time, Fox put on an episode of The Cleveland Show.

Are you kidding? Fox had two full days before the Series started knowing the Yankees were going to play the Phillies. It knew for nearly a week that the Phillies were going to be in the World Series. And it can't put together enough content to fill time during a rain delay?

Best idea
Not everyone is a fan of Don Cherry's "Coaches Corner'' during the first intermission of Hockey Night in Canada, but whether you like the acerbic analyst or not, you can't help but respect his occasional feature when he shows a photo of a Canadian solider killed in Afghanistan as he emotionally speaks about them. Watching it this past Saturday, I wondered why we don't see American sports broadcasts do more to honor the troops.

Then, Fox announced Sunday that next week, the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show will have a two-hour special live from an undisclosed military installation in Afghanistan.

"Our men and women in the military put themselves in harm's way to protect everything we hold dear, and none more so than those who are stationed in the Middle East,'' said FOX Sports Chairman David Hill. "It is our privilege and honor to take Fox NFL Sunday to them in November, right before Veteran's Day. Amidst the fun and football, it's our hope to showcase the dedication of these men and women who have to defend against a lot more than the Wild Cat.''

This is a tremendous gesture by Fox. Way to go.

Strongest comment
On ESPN's Sports Reporters on Sunday, Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan took a sledgehammer to the Cardinals and manager Tony LaRussa for hiring Mark McGwire as hitting coach. With McGwire's murky past regarding steroids and his infamous "I'm not here to talk about the past'' testimony to Congress, Ryan is shocked that he would be welcomed back by the Cardinals and commissioner Bud Selig, who said he was "delighted'' by McGwire's return to baseball.

"It's sad to see this great manager in denial,'' Ryan said, "but it's worse to have the commissioner say, 'Everything is okay with this guy.' It's not okay. Mark McGwire has no business being in a Major League Baseball uniform.''

Three things that popped into my head
1. No disrespect to the Gators, but Florida's easy victory over Georgia said more about Georgia than it did about the Gators.
2. How do you think Indians fans feel watching the World Series and seeing former Indians CC Sabathia pitching for the Yankees and Cliff Lee pitching for the Phillies while they’re licking their wounds from a 97-loss season?
3. Funniest quote of the weekend goes to ESPN's John Saunders, talking about Cavs center Shaquille O’Neal, right: "If fans or manage­ment are expecting 20 (points) and 10 (rebounds), they better count on getting change.''

Shaun King out at ESPN

Former Bucs and Gibbs High quarterback Shaun King has been let go from his broadcasting job at ESPN. In a statement, ESPN said, “We have decided to go in a different direction. We thank Shaun for his contributions and wish him the best.”

King played for the Bucs from 1999 to 2004 and, as a starter, led the Bucs to two postseason appearances, including NFC Championship Game in the 1999 season. After bouncing around the NFL, the arena league and the CFL, King took a job with ESPN in 2007 as a pro and college football analyst.

King was outspoken, opinionated and honest and that, you would think, would go a long way in making a good television analyst. However, ESPN apparently wasn't pleased with his performance.

Shooting from the Lip/Monday edition

Looking back at a weekend of televised sports ...

Most interesting comment
On Friday night's Charlie Rose show on PBS (see, you never know where you're going to hear talk about sports), Sports Illustrated's Peter King gave the best explanation yet for why the new Cowboys stadium is so swanky. It's not because of owner Jerry Jones' ego, he said.

"Jerry Jones built this stadium and built it the way he did -- garish, bigger than life, giant screens here, creature comforts there -- for one reason,'' King said. "He's afraid of football becoming a studio sport. He's afraid of men 25 to 49 saying, 'You know what? It's raining out there today. I'm going to stay in my man cave with my big TV and have three or four beers and watch the games on TV rather than going out to the stadium.' (Jones said,) ''That's the danger in our sports. TV is so wonderful right now.'''

Biggest conflict
ABC and ESPN are at it again, seeing no issue with their broadcasters doing television commercials with players. The latest ad promoting NBA coverage on the networks is as entertaining as the others, but it features analyst Jeff Van Gundy and Clippers rookie Blake Griffin. This is a conflict. Griffin, one would assume, was compensated for his appearance, and one would assume that Van Gundy and Griffin hung out while shooting. And now every time Van Gundy makes a comment about Griffin during the season, we can't help but think about them doing a commercial together.

Biggest nonconflict
ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit might be the best pound-for-pound analyst on television, and if anyone thought the former Ohio State quarterback couldn't be objective when it came to the Buckeyes, he annihilated that notion Saturday with a scathing review of the program, and in particular, quarterback Terrelle Pryor.

"You don't see him progressing to become a complete quarterback,'' Herbstreit said. "He is not advancing as a quarterback. … He looks confused, his body language is terrible. Other than that, he’s playing well.''

Herbstreit wasn't done with Ohio State:
"They can't run the ball because they have probably the biggest underachieving offensive line in the last 10 years or college football history, and they're uninspired consistently.''

Best son
I was watching the Clemson-Miami game Saturday for 20 minutes before I realized the color commentator was not Bob Griese, but his son Brian. The two sound identical. Fortunately, Brian didn't say anything dumb like his dad did Saturday during the Ohio State-Minnesota game. Talking about Colombian NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya, the elder Griese said, "He's out having a taco.'' Griese apologized later. And let's not overreact and call for Griese's firing. His comment was stupid and insensitive, but it's not the worst thing ever said on the air.

Strangest story line
ABC's Brent Musburger spent way too much time during Saturday night's Texas-Missouri game talking about how Texas wanted to impress poll voters with style points so the Longhorns could pass either Alabama or Florida, as if Texas was in danger of being shut out of the national championship picture. It wasn't a passing reference. He mentioned it several times, obviously forgetting that Texas is fine in the No. 3 spot. Either Alabama and Florida is guaranteed a loss, because if those two remain unbeaten, they'll eventually meet in the SEC Championship Game.

Best premonition
When University of Tennessee kicker Daniel Lincoln made a 24-yard field goal early in the second quarter of Saturday's game against Alabama, CBS's Gary Daniel­son pointed out the low trajectory of the kick and told viewers, "That's something to keep an eye on later in the game.''

Sure enough, Lincoln later had two kicks blocked, including a 44-yarder that would have won the game on the last play.

Unfunniest moments
When did the NFL pregame shows turn into frat parties? This isn't scientific, but if you turn on either Fox NFL Sunday or CBS NFL Today, there's a 67 percent chance that you'll see the analysts doubled over in laughter, all talking at the same time and acting as if they've just heard the funniest thing ever uttered by a human. It's often followed by tossing paper or pencils at one another and even more talking while the host is moving on to the next subject. It turns into a bad version of the old Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, which actually had its moments.

Sadly, what sends these analysts into laughing fits is some verbal insult directed at one of them that isn't even worth a smile, let alone table-pounding, eye-wiping, side-holding laughter. The shows don't have to be as serious as Law & Order: SVU, but if we want a comedy show, we'll watch The Office or Entourage.

Biggest rip
Fox NFL Sunday did get serious long enough for analyst Terry Bradshaw to carve Titans coach Jeff Fisher who wore a Peyton Manning jersey last week at a luncheon where Fisher introduced former Colts coach Tony Dungy. The move didn't go over too well among Tennessee fans because the Titans are winless and were coming off a 59-0 loss to New England.

"I have a big problem with it,'' Bradshaw said. "If you are a player in that locker room and the coach is separating himself from you, he's basically turned around and told the players, 'You're the losers.' I'm disappointed in Fisher.''

Three things that popped into my head
1. He might not be the best football coach in the land, but Notre Dame's Charlie Weis gives the most honest, cooperative and entertaining halftime interviews of any in the country.
2. Know which college "team'' I'd least like to be a member of this season? An SEC officiating crew.
3. Sight I'm tired of seeing: football coaches doing jumping chest or side bumps with players. Can you imagine Tom Landry or Vince Lombardi doing that? Heck, do you even see Bill Belichick doing that? Act like you're the boss, not a buddy.

Shooting from the Lip/Monday edition

Looking back at a weekend of televised sports ...

Worst question
What was CBS's Tracy Wolfson thinking while interviewing Gators coach Urban Meyer after Florida escaped with a 23-20 win Saturday against Arkansas? After gushing over QB Tim Tebow, who had a so-so day, Wolfson said to Meyer, "First time this team has really been tested in a while. Talk about their resiliency.''

Thankfully, Meyer pointed out how dumb the question was, saying, "Well, I'm not sure what season you've been watching. We've been tested a lot.''

For some reason, Wolfson thought that was funny because she laughed. Actually, the Gators were tested a week earlier in a 13-3 victory at then-No. 4 LSU. And the funny thing is, Wolfson covered that game!

Worst graphic
Fox is an innovator in sports graphics. It was the first to run the "Fox Box,'' a miniscoreboard in the upper part of the screen during play, something every other network eventually adopted and no fan can live without. But in the American League Championship Series, it has gone a little overboard with something called "Fox Trax Plus.'' It clocks the speed of a pitch when the ball leaves a pitcher's hand and then gives the speed when the ball crosses the plate. Analyst Tim McCarver seemed amazed that a ball comes out of a pitcher's hand at, say, 93 mph and crosses the plate at 87 mph. That's not amazing. That's physics.

Best idea
Every second of ESPN’s College GameDay is must-watch TV, but now the network has added another wrinkle to take the show up another couple of notches. It has added a guest "picker'' at the end of the show, a celebrity to help predict the outcome of the big games of the day. Bob Knight, Drew Brees and Lance Armstrong have been on. Mark Cuban was on Saturday. Waiting to see who GameDay gets as its guest is as climactic as Lee Corso putting on the mascot's head.

Best use of Telestrator
Few broadcasters -- including national and local ones in every sport at every level -- use the Telestrator better than Lightning analyst Bobby "Chief’'' Taylor. Any announcer can break down a play when given enough time to look at replays over and over. But Taylor needs only a few minutes during intermission to break down several replays and point out things that even avid hockey fans probably didn't notice.

Best line
After running for 246 yards against South Carolina in Alabama's 20-6 victory Saturday night, Crimson Tide running back Mark Ingram accidently tripped into ESPN reporter Erin Andrews as she was about to interview him and then quickly apologized to her.

"Isn't it interesting that Ingram apologized for tripping into Erin Andrews,'' ESPN announcer Brad Nessler said, "but he didn't apologize for running over South Carolina.''

Worst schedule
Can you believe college basketball is starting? Midnight Madness was Friday night, and games start in two weeks. Doesn't it seem like a bad idea to start in the middle of football season? Why not push the start back a few weeks to avoid the conflicts?

Anyway, for those who think college basketball can't start soon enough, ESPN analyst Doug Gottlieb has listed his top five teams going into the season:
1. Kansas. 2. Texas. 3. Kentucky. 4. Purdue. 5. Michigan State.

Biggest doubt
Fox analyst Jimmy Johnson is one of those who thinks Gators QB Tim Tebow will have trouble making it in the NFL. But he does think Tebow has a shot, under one interesting condition.

"If Urban Meyer is brought along with Tim Tebow, that would be the key,'' Johnson said. "If you're going to bring in Tebow, you've got to make sure the offense comes with him, because Tebow’s not going to fit in with a pro-style offense.''

Best radio team
I've never been a fan of ESPN's Sunday night baseball announcing team, Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. On TV, they strike me as arrogant know-it-alls who are constantly trying to outdo one another. But strangely, they are more interesting on radio than they are on TV. They are calling the American League Championship Series for ESPN Radio and do a really solid job. They seem to mesh better on radio, and both seem to make the game the focal point as opposed to their voices.

Best point
Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom was right when he said on Sunday's Sports Reporters: "When (Oklahoma quarterback) Sam Bradford went down again (against Texas on Saturday), it was a scary moment. It scared a whole lot of underclassmen into turning pro as quickly as they can.''

You have to wonder whether Bradford's pro stock has dropped mightily for fear that he now has a creaky shoulder. On top of that, underclassmen have watched Florida's Tim Tebow suffer a concussion as Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez and the Lions' Matt Stafford are having success and getting well-paid instead after leaving school early. Who can blame a kid for seeing all this and wanting to leave early?

Worst quote
Advice to the NFL Network's Michael Irvin: Don't say things like this when the team you're talking about has a tough opponent later in the day:
"This New York Giants football team is better than the New York Giants team that won the Super Bowl,'' Irvin said Sunday morning. "This is the next team that we use the word 'dynasty' around.''

Irvin's dynasty then went out and got blown up by the Saints 48-27.  By the way, CBS's Bill Cowher not only called New Orleans' victory but said the Saints have the best chance of going undefeated.

Three things that popped into my head
1. Doesn't it seem a little early in the season for Lightning general manager Brian Lawton to be reading people the riot act?
2. I don't care whether he's writing for Sports Illustrated or appearing on NBC's Sunday Night Football or at halftime of NBC’s Notre Dame coverage, if NFL writer-analyst Peter King has something to say, I'm interested in hearing it.
3. If a big baseball game is on TV, would you rather have anyone calling it than Fox's Joe Buck and Tim McCarver?

Q&A with Erin Andrews

In these parts, Erin Andrews has always been well-known. She grew up in Tampa, the daughter of WFLA-Ch. 8 investigative reporter Steve Andrews. She graduated from Bloomingdale High and then the University of Florida before landing her first TV gig, as a sideline reporter at Lightning games in 2000. From there, she moved to TBS, then ESPN, where she has been a sideline reporter for its college football and basketball coverage for the past five years.

In July, her world caved in when a grainy videotape of her naked in a hotel room, shot without her knowledge, was spread across the Internet. This month, Michael David Barrett, 47, from suburban Chicago, was arrested; the FBI says he made the videos, posted them online and offered to sell them. He is due in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Friday to face federal charges of interstate stalking. Andrews' only public comments about what happened have come on The Oprah Winfrey Show in September. She cannot discuss it now because of the ongoing investigation.

Andrews, 31, returned to Tampa last week as part of ESPN's Thursday night coverage of the USF-Cincinnati football game. She spoke with Two Cents about how she's doing, the influence former Lightning coach John Tortorella had in her career and where she wants to go from here.

How are you doing?
I'm hanging in there.

Are you a different person since what happened?
Uh (long pause) I don't know.

Are you a different reporter?
No. No, I'm not a different reporter. I still work really hard and do the best job I can.

Let's talk about your career. How much did former Lightning coach John Tortorella (the coach when Andrews started with the team) influence your career?
Torts has meant so much to me in my life and in my career. It was clearly a situation where he didn't want a 22-year-old around that team, nor should he have. He was trying to turn around the worst team in the league. And here's this 22-year-old kid right out of school traveling on the bus, at the hotel, at all the practices. But he taught me so much about how to prepare, how you should act as a professional, how to ask questions. I mean, if you weren't prepared, a guy like that could be tough to deal with. (Laughs) And he taught me to have no fear. He taught me how to prepare and jump right in. He was so good and respectful to me, and he didn't have to be. Everybody with the Lightning was like that.

How good of a reporter were you back then?
Oh, I was horrible. I'm not just saying that. I was bad. Seriously. I didn't know what I was doing.

So what changed?
I grew up. I learned. Back then, I knew nothing about what it took to do that job. I probably had no right to even have that job. But once I had it, I was thrown into the fire. I was on TV every other night. I'm doing pregame interviews and features and interviews between periods, and I did postgame wrapups and interviews. I had to learn. I just did it, but I honestly would hate to go back and even look at those tapes.

But it turned out to be great experience, didn't it? It turned into more opportunities.
I was definitely in the right place at the right time.

When did things change? When did you reach the point where you thought, "You know, I can do this job, and I can do it well.''
Well, I got lots of support from my dad, and with him being on TV, I grew up with it, and it's never really been that big of a deal for me to be on TV. But it probably wasn't until my third year with ESPN that I started to feel really confident in the actual job. But I certainly don't think I've learned all there is to learn.

With your popularity came criticism, too, and you've at times become a lightning rod among sideline reporters for criticism. Do you pay any attention to what people out there might say about you?
It's always been like that. I remember my first year with the Lightning, I called my dad and told him that I had read something critical about myself on a message board, and I was crying, and my dad said, "Hey, toughen up. Get some thick skin.'' I just learned that there are always people out there, and there are going to be things on the Internet and things that people say, sometimes even co-workers or others in the business, and you just have to keep working hard. But it can be hard to deal with, for sure. It's not easy.

Are you surprised how far you've come since you've been at ESPN and how popular you have become since those Lightning days?
Are you kidding? I've never looked at myself as someone special. I'm just a normal girl. I mean, look at me now. I'm not wearing makeup. I'm in sweats. I'm wearing a baseball cap. I've never thought of myself as a big deal or anything. I'm just a reporter at ESPN who works hard at her job.

What's a typical week like for you during football season?
Crazy. I cover a game Saturday and fly home (to Atlanta), and I'll be honest, I sleep all day Sunday because I'm wiped out. I put on my sweats and don't leave the house. And I sleep until noon on Monday. And then it all starts. We have a conference calls with the crew to get ready for the next Saturday game. And then conference calls for the Thursday game. Tuesdays I'm catching up on stories involving the teams I'm going to cover and have a conference call with coaches, and I'm making other calls and doing more reporting. Then on Wednesday we all fly into the city for the Thursday night game, and we meet with the home (team). Then it's a production meeting Thursday morning for that night's game. Then we do the game, hopefully get a couple hours of sleep, and then fly Friday to the next city for the Saturday game. And then it's more meetings, cover the game on Saturday, maybe catch a couple hours of sleep, and then get up early Sunday, fly home and start all over.

Where do you see your career going from here?
I'm happy doing sports. I feel every year I'm getting better and more comfortable, and I want to try to keep developing that. I'm not looking to do anything else.

But don't you ever feel like you might have reached a ceiling as far as sideline reporting, that there isn't really any more for you to do in that job?
No, not really. I still feel like I have so much more to learn. I sometimes still feel like that girl who was doing Lightning games, so I just want to keep getting better.

Q&A with the Rays' Carlos Pena

The Rays aren't in the postseason, but their first baseman is. Carlos Pena is working the postseason for the MLB Network, offering studio analysis on Path to the Pennant, a nightly pregame and postgame show. Pena, whose season ended on Sept. 7 when he broke two fingers on his left hand while trying to check his swing on a fastball from Yankees ace CC Sabathia, made his MLB Network debut on Monday. He can be seen throughout the rest of the postseason. On Tuesday, Pena spoke with Two Cents by telephone from the MLB Network headquarters in New Jersey and talked about his new part-time job, memories from last year's postseason and why he wants the Yankees to lose in this postseason.

You made your MLB Network debut on Monday night. How was it?
It was so much fun. The guys were unbelievable and made me feel really comfortable.

It seems like the show is just one big conversation about baseball.
Exactly. We just go out there and talk about the game through each of our own perspectives. It's like sitting around the lounge at Tropicana Field with the guys talking baseball.

What's the process like as far as putting together the show?
We watch the games and then look for things we think are interesting to talk about after the game. The great thing is we all bring a different perspective. I'm a different type of hitter than, say, Sean Casey and we each have our own perspective. Then there are guys like Mitch Williams and Barry Larkin and Harold Reynolds and each of them bring their own perspective based on their experiences. Because we're all different and seeing the game through different eyes, we're covering all the angles and that's what makes it so good, I think.

Many of the analysts are former players, but you still play. Is it harder to be critical because you still are playing against the players you are talking about on the air?
Well, I just think I bring the perspective of the active player as opposed to a former player. That's how I see my role. I talk about what it's like playing right now against these guys.

As you're watching this postseason, are you thinking a lot about last year and the Rays' postseason run?
Oh, man, I wish we were out there celebrating because I don't think there is anyone in the world who can celebrate like we can. Last year was so special, going from last to first. It may happen again, but I don't think what we did can ever be duplicated. But hopefully we can take it the next step by winning the World Series.

What is being in the postseason like?
It is absolutely amazing. You feel blessed. You feel so fortunate because so few get to experience it. You almost cannot explain it. It's so intense and you feel the energy of the crowd. Everything is just super intense and you never forget it.

What have you thought of the postseason so far?
I was very disappointed when the Twins didn't advance. Colorado, too. I always pull for the underdog teams that may not be the favorite on paper and don't have the high payrolls. They play just on pure passion and talent and they aren't huge giants, like the Yankees and Red Sox. That's what I enjoy, teams that rise to the occasion and make the impossible happen. Maybe it's because of what we did last year, but I like when the underdog shakes up the world.

Were you surprised the Red Sox were swept by the Angels?
I was. Again, the Yankees and Red Sox? I cannot deny that I'm pulling against them. I love the guys themselves -- David Ortiz and (Kevin) Youkilis. I like the Yankee players. But it's not about the players. It's about me spending so much energy all year trying to beat them that you cannot turn around and then root for them. I was happy the Angels beat the Red Sox.

How do you see the Angels-Yankees series playing out?
To me, it doesn't matter. I just want the Angels to win. (Laughs) Supposedly I'm supposed to be a guest "analyst,'' but maybe they should call me the guest "fan.'' But I'm still offering the best perspective and analysis I can.

What about Dodgers-Phillies?
There’s something about the Dodgers. I like their lineup, I like the way they’'e playing right now. ... They have a nice dynamic on that team and I think they have what it takes to beat the Phillies.

Before you go, how's the hand?
Doing great. I'm actually holding the phone with that hand as a part of my therapy. I'm just doing a lot of different things to improve the strength and it feels a lot better.

Are you holding a bat yet?
No, not yet. I’m just going through the therapy and won't start doing anything like holding a bat until it's all the way 100 percent.

When will that be?
Hopefully by the end of the month. Right now, it's all about strength and mobility, so I'm doing exercises to improve that, but everything should be back to normal soon and I'll be ready to go for next season.

Shooting from the Lip/Monday edition

Looking back at a weekend of televised sports ...

Worst schedule
Baseball's postseason was moved back a bit this season because of the World Baseball Classic in March, but baseball still needs to figure out how to avoid playing postseason games in weather more suited for the NHL's Winter Classic than baseball. Can you imagine how cold it might be two weeks from now in New York, Philadelphia and Denver -- all cities that could still be hosting baseball games?

Saturday's game in Denver was postponed because of snow and Sunday's game was played with temperatures in the 20s. Remember last season how the weather in Philadelphia turned Game 5 of the World Series into a three-day event

Obviously, baseball isn't going to cut games out of the schedule or cut the number of teams in the postseason back to four and it can't start the season any earlier than it already does. The only solution might be to schedule more day-night doubleheaders during the season. Teams could still have full gates from 81 homes games, but if they could knock even a week out of the regular-season schedule, it might help avoid some of the chilly weather.

Finest moment
Desmond Howard appears to have more of a role on ESPN's College GameDay this season, perhaps because analyst Lee Corso still isn't quite 100 percent after suffering a stroke over the summer. In the past, Howard has been rather vanilla with his comments, but with more air time this season, he has developed a stronger voice. Saturday was his finest hour on GameDay as he weighed in with unique and thought-provoking comments, especially when it came to whether Tim Tebow should play later that night against LSU.

Howard suggested that Tebow should not play even if he was to be cleared medically (Tebow was cleared and he did play, apparently with no negative effects). But Howard brought up something worth considering: Imagine how Gators coach Urban Meyer could have solidified future recruiting if he sat Tebow. Imagine Meyer going into the living room of recruits and telling their parents how their son's health is paramount and being able to point to the time he sat Tebow in a big game even though Tebow was cleared to play. Whether you agree isn't the point. It was something that made you think, and isn't that what a good analyst does?

Strongest comment
Kirk Herbstreit of ESPN's College GameDay blasted Florida State officials who are trying to push out football coach Bobby Bowden. Herbstreit doesn't have an issue that there are those who want Bowden out, he has issue with how it's being done.

"The chairman of the board of trustees (Jim Smith) got emotional and let his feelings behind closed doors be known publicly,'' Herbstreit said. "The Florida State powers-that-be are entitled to have their own opinions and make whatever move they need to make. But their thoughts should be kept behind closed doors. … Don't let your feelings out like that publicly. That's embarrassing to your school and embarrassing to a guy who has done so much for that school.''

Most criticized
Thanks to the well done Sports Business Daily for pointing this out: TBS baseball announcer Chip Caray is getting clobbered by the national media for his postseason performance. New York Times sports media writer Richard Sandomir said Caray is "prone to bad play-calls, descriptive exaggerations and factual errors.'' New York Post writer Phil Mushnick, as only Mushnick can, was more to the point, saying Caray was "like an interpreter who can speak with a French accent but doesn't know French. … When did broadcasting executives lose the ability to distinguish good from bad?''

Funniest line
Did you hear that it was actually rapper MC Hammer who helped jump-start the negotiations between the 49ers and first-round pick Michael Crabtree, who eventually signed last week? ESPN's Adam Schefter said, "Barack Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize this week; maybe it should have gone to MC Hammer.''

Most average broadcast
The Florida-LSU game Saturday night wasn't exactly the most compelling college football game ever played, and it might have been overhyped to begin with. Still, CBS's broadcast was just so-so, and surprisingly so, because announcers Verne Lundquist and Gary Daniel­son are top-notch broadcasters. But even their performance was mediocre. They spent too much time trying to convince viewers that Florida quarterback Tim Tebow was playing better than he actually was and not enough time pointing out that LSU was vastly overrated.

Best show
If you're a baseball fanatic and can't get enough of the postseason, tune into the MLB Network's Path to the Pennant pregame and postgame shows, because it gives you more than enough. The advantage the MLB Network has over, say, ESPN and that network's Baseball Tonight is time. MLB Network has nothing else to cover but the playoffs. It can, and does, spend all night dissecting practically every inning of every game. It's easy to turn it on and leave on.

Best point
Los Angeles Times writer Diane Pucin pointed out how someone at TBS needs to pay attention to the order of the commercials during the postseason baseball games. During Game 1 of the Red Sox-Angels series, there was a Captain Morgan ad that told viewers how there are 40 shots in their big bottles of rum. That was followed by a Fox/TBS ad for postseason coverage that centered on how the Angels are honoring Nick Adenhart, the pitcher killed in April by a man charged with drunken driving.

Three things that popped into my head
1. Doesn't it seem like the Dodgers went just a tad overboard with an out-of-control champagne celebration when all they did was win a division playoff series?
2. Most interesting thing on TV over the weekend was a piece on ESPN's Outside the Lines looking at the earthquake in the 1989 World Series and, honestly, how different the world was back then without cell phones. Plus, anytime host Bob Ley is reporting the story, it's can't-miss stuff.
3. Prediction: The best college football game this season will be Florida and Alabama meeting in the SEC Championship Game.