We had a lot of ESPN-related coverage this year, because ESPN continues to be fertile ground for mockery. Here's everything we had to say about the monolithic sports network this year. The Mostly Sexless Sex Scandal That Shook ESPN A few hours after the 2009 Home Run Derby, Steve Phillips bought Brooke Hundley a drink. They were at the bar of St. Louis's Millenium Hotel, a block from Busch Stadium, where more than a dozen ESPN staffers had gathered after wrapping up another day's work during MLB's extended All-Star weekend. Hundley was a 22-year-old from Colorado making $10.96 an hour as an ESPN production assistant. Phillips was the former general manager of the Mets who'd spent the previous four years as a baseball analyst at ESPN. They'd met there in St. Louis, and Phillips had clearly taken a shine to Hundley. "Denver chick," he would call her. "Look at this little thing," he'd said to Chris Berman, one of his derby booth mates, as Hundley escorted Phillips from the stadium to a production truck. "She's going to be my bodyguard." Read… The ESPYs Are A Colossal Waste Of Money It's a nearly annual question in Bristol: Can we finally cancel the ESPYs? Read… How ESPN Pulled A Bullshit Colin Kaepernick Story Out Of Thin Air By pulling out of its partnership with , ESPN reminded us, yet again, where its newsroom stands. It's second fiddle to the company's business interests. So, let's show you what the flagship show of ESPN's newsroom does in lieu of participating in a documentary that the NFL is afraid of. It's a story that the NFL could only be thrilled with. Watch the video above and let's take you step-by-step through how ESPN contrives and then covers a story that doesn't even exist. Read… Why ESPN's Chris Broussard Came Out As A Bigot Outside the Lines is supposed to be the safe haven from all the bullshit. Bob Ley likes to call the show the Switzerland of ESPN. It's the thinking man's sports program—Bristol's answer to NewsHour. Sonorous reporters intoning Serious News. An air of calm, cool reflection about the issues of the day. Even on Monday, as SportsCenter kept fuckingTim Tebow's chicken at the expense of the Jason Collins news, Bob Ley seemed to understand that there was a truly significant story breaking all around them. Read… What I Learned From A Year Of WatchingSportsCenter Thirty-three years and more than 50,000 episodes on, SportsCenter is less a television show or a convenient way to catch up on the day in sports than a great mechanical contraption gone awry, its parts moving independently not just of one another but of any obvious directing intelligence. Read… ESPN Loses Its Mind: What Howie Schwab Meant To Bristol Information was sacred to Howie Schwab, the longtime researcher and producer who was laid off by ESPN on Wednesday. "Not knowledge," as the critic Lee Siegel once clarified. "Information." Siegel was writing about Stump the Schwab, the game show that made Schwab an unlikely half-celebrity, but it'll work here as an epitaph for Schwab's career at ESPN. His 26 years in Bristol were spent in service of information, dedicated to the idea of sports as discrete packets of unprocessed data, to be sorted and stored and perhaps later retrieved, or maybe jotted down on a card and hurried over to theSportsCenter desk, where an anchor always knew Schwab was coming by the jangling of coins in his pocket. Read… Rick Reilly's Wife Does His Dirty Work On Twitter Cynthia Reilly's Twitter presence is small. She's tweeted just 42 times and follows only nine people. She has three followers. But she's there for an important reason: to get people to call her husband, ESPN writer Rick Reilly. Read… Rick Reilly's American Indian Father-In-Law Says Reilly Misquoted Him Last month, ESPN's Rick Reilly came out in support of the Redskins' name. The backbone of his argument? Father-in-law Bob Burns, a Blackfeet elder, who supposedly said he doesn't care about the team name. Burns has written a response for Indian Country Today Media Network, and oh man. Read… Ex-ESPNer: Did Network Cut 300-400 Jobs To Pay For SportsCenter Set? A recently laid-off ESPN source gave us more details about the ESPN job cuts, the first significant staff reduction in four years. First off, it appears these layoffs will stretch over several weeks. There will be more technology and creative services layoffs today. Layoffs in production are coming in a few weeks; remote production layoffs will follow that; and then, some time in the summer, layoffs will hit the Charlotte office. This is how ESPN is going to get those to 300 to 400 job cuts: over several weeks, in excruciatingly slow fashion. Read… ESPN X Games Memo Asks Staffers To Work For Free And Not Make Fun Of Brazilian People ESPN's X Games are slouching toward Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil, the first of three new international host cities, where competition begins next week and where staffers are arriving to find that their mellows have already been thoroughly harshed. It seems that money is tight in this corner of the $40 billion empire—tight enough that production assistants are being asked, nicely and obliquely, to work for free. A tipster passes along a memo sent by ESPN operations manager Severn Sandt. It includes the following: Read… ESPN Pulls Out Of Frontline Concussion Investigation For a while now, ESPN's big alibi, the thing Bristol would trot out any time someone questioned the company's journalistic bona fides, was its joint investigation into NFL head injuries with PBS's Frontline. Now that's done with. Read… Bottom Line: How Sports Leagues Crack The Whip On ESPN "We're not in the business of antagonizing our partner," the ESPN executive told theNew York Times, defending the network's sudden withdrawal of support for a program that made the NFL look bad. This wasn't last week. This was nine years ago. Read… ESPN Never Had A Golden Age: The Real Meaning Of Olbermann's Return So Keith Olbermann is returning to ESPN, which a) has to be one of the more expensive press releases in history and b) shows that the company really has come to that age where you start getting deeply sentimental. It all makes sense. Read… ESPN Mentioned Tim Tebow 137 Times In 120 Minutes The Worldwide Leader has really outdone itself. Read… Sources: ESPN Laying Off Hundreds ESPN is laying off a portion of its staff today, a network spokesman confirms to us. How many? ESPN won't say. A tipster told us earlier today that it would be more than 400 staffers. A source at ESPN said that number is a little high, but it appears to be in the hundreds. Read… ESPN President's Memo: Support The Troops; Also, We're Firing People Below is a memo from ESPN president John Skipper, sent companywide just before the Memorial Day weekend and forwarded to us by a Bristol tipster. "This is the only communication we've received from upper management this week that mentions the layoffs," our tipster writes. Happy Memorial Day! Read… ESPN Fired The Guy Who Made That Genius Olbermann/Tupac Video Remember the Keith Olbermann-as-Tupac video? It was a bit of a thing a couple of weeks ago. We posted it; so did the The Big Lead and Complex and Awful Announcing. Apparently the guy behind it—Will Schleichert—worked for ESPN. He was a PA. Emphasis on the was. He was fired last week. Read…
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Having recorded a shock victory over Slovenia in their opening fixture, Estonia were unable to avoid defeat in Lithuania, and they are now set to face arguably the best team in the group. After rolling over San Marino in midweek, England should have plenty left in the rank to ensure the third successive triumph in the Euro 2016 qualifiers.
Estonia are one of the weaker national teams to have emerged as the Soviet Union collapsed, and their best result up to date remains a second-place finish in the Euro 2012 qualifying group, when they left the likes of Serbia, Slovenia and Northern Ireland behind. The team, however, haven t enjoyed a lot of success of late, picking up mere seven points in their 2014 World Cup qualifying group, albeit holding Netherlands to a 2-2 draw at home. …
Diego Milito has hailed Wesley Sneijder s legacy at Inter but accepted that the player must now choose his own path.
Sneijder has been locked in an internal struggle at the club for several months over a new contract, leaving him to play a bit-part in the current campaign as his relationship with coach Andrea Stramaccioni soured.
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He told Sky Italia: (Sneijder) helped write the history of this club and the players get on great with him. We have left him free to decide which path he wants to take.
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Wigan Athletic are closing in on the signing of Sunderland winger James McClean, .
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However, he struggled to reproduce that form last team as the Black Cats flirted with relegation – with Di Canio now willing to let him leave.
The Latics are keen to wrap up a deal as soon as possible as they embark upon a season that will see them make their bow in Europe having clinched the FA Cup back in May.
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Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill wants her name removed from Sheffield United s stadium if Ched Evans is offered a contract at the club.
The London 2012 heptathlon champion was born in Sheffield has a stand named after her at Bramall Lane, but the 28-year-old is opposed to convicted rapist Evans possible return.
Evans was released from prison last month after serving half of his five-year sentence and has subsequently been offered the chance to train with his former club, who have insisted the decision was taken at the request of the Professional Footballers Association.
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Mikel Arteta vowed to lift Bernd Leno s spirits after the goalkeeper s error cost Arsenal in a 2-1 defeat to Chelsea, and the new Gunners boss also said he hoped Granit Xhaka would stay at the club.
Leno allowed a Mason Mount cross to pass him by before Jorginho scored Chelsea s equaliser at Emirates Stadium, cancelling out Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang s opener in a game Arsenal dominated before half-time.
Arsenal collapsed in the closing stages, with Tammy Abraham sliding Chelsea s winner through Leno s legs three minutes from time to ensure Arteta suffered his first defeat since taking charge.
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He …
Paul Pogba will not leave Manchester United in January but must play for a club that can challenge for major trophies in the longer term, according to his agent Mino Raiola.
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Having won the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal clash with Bayern Munich at the Etihad by 3-0, Manchester City went and completed the job at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday by drawing 1-1 against the Bundesliga champions.
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Liverpool striker Fabio Borini has no regrets about turning down chances to join Sunderland and QPR and is determined to prove his worth.
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I ve never re…
Juan Roman Riquelme announced his retirement from football on Sunday, ending speculation he might continue in Paraguay or the United States.
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