A late afternoon Bullet Joint for ya:
• COWARD UF PREZ IMPEACHES COLLEGE FBALL PLAYOFF: The MIAMI HERALD reports University of Florida President Bernie Machen, apparently not concerned with the laughable lack of credibility plaguing college football’s BCS debacle, has “backed off his playoff football proposal” after meeting with SEC presidents at the conference’s recent spring meetings.
Machen “
decided it’s better to work within the confines of the current” BCS system.
Actually the SEC presidents think it’s better to work within the confines of a system which fattens their personal bank accounts and maintains their Mao Tse Tung-esque chokehold on the sport.
• OLY LOGO A “PUERILE MESS” AND “BROKEN SWASTIKA”: By now we’ve all seen the new, absurd logo of the London 2012 Olympics:
The MANCHESTER GUARDIAN reports that moments after the release of the design, which was created by Wolff Ollins and cost about $800,000 (!), an online petition “
calling for the logo’s replacement had gathered more than 3,000 signatures, and websites and television news channels were inundated with almost universally hostile opinions about the design.”
Design Museum Founder Stephen Bayley called the logo a “puerile mess, an artistic flop and a commercial scandal.” And the Guardian also notes posters on message boards said the logo resembled a “broken swastika.”
• The New York Mets have launched something called “Your 15 Seconds of Mets Fame Commercial Contest,” and the winning entry will debut July 12 on SportsNet N.Y. during a Mets broadcast.
The winner receives tickets to a home game this season (woo-hoo!), and the ad will also appear on the videoboard at Shea Stadium.
Our bet on the first person to appear in the spot: Lastings Milledge.
• BRANDWEEK reports the lovely Heather Mitts will film a TV ad for Under Armour this week for the company’s new “Team Girl” apparel line. The ad will break during ESPN’s ESPY Awards on July 15.
• SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL reports Anheuser-Busch, which was a WNBA founding sponsor and has pumped tens of millions of advertising dollars into the league over the past decade, “
is out after 10 seasons.”
A-B VP of Global Media & Sports Marketing Tony Ponturo on the WNBA: “The national (television) ratings are tough and the markets without teams had very little interest.”
• During a recent ESPN “Outside The Lines” episode, Chicago WSCR-AM sports talk radio host Mike North had these priceless comments about his bosses: “Most corporate executives in radio are weasels, number one. They don’t have any guts, number two. … You don’t know that you said anything wrong until a couple of people bring it up or it’s in print. All of a sudden, the corporate executives who let you say that same thing for 15 years all of a sudden say, ‘You shouldn’t have ever said that.‘”
Speaking of the slap-happy funtime that is sports talk radio, AWFUL ANNOUNCING keeps us abreast of a brewing feud between ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd and ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons.
Apparently (I didn’t hear it) Cowherd mocked a recent Simmons post that presented a Kobe Bryant trade scenario.
Simmons then responded to Cowherd’s comments on ESPN.com: “ESPN colleague Colin Cowherd mocked my seven trade scenarios for Kobe on the radio last week without reading the entire column or even attempting to understand its premise … Cowherd embarrassed himself by not understanding basic NBA trading principles like it would be valuable for L.A. to swap Vlad Radmanovic’s contract for Bobby Sura’s expiring contract in a T-Mac/Kobe deal because Sura’s contract expires in 2008, which would buy them some cap space down the road.
“Look, I know the radio business lends itself to hosts lazily skimming other people’s columns and blogs but seriously, Colin, in the words of Mark Jackson, you’re better than that. Your show’s on for three hours a day and you get four giant commercial breaks per hour. That leaves you plenty of time to research your segments so you don’t come off as misinformed. No offense.”
• The PORTLAND OREGONIAN has an interesting breakdown on the vitals of Greg Oden and Kevin Durant - with Oden’s astonishing athletic attributes making him now the clear choice over the former Longhorn.
• SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL reports HBO Sports this summer will once again air the NFL reality show “Hard Knocks,” which centers on a NFL team’s training camp.
The Chiefs will be featured in this year’s edition. The network showed the Ravens in ‘01 and the Cowboys in ‘02.
• FATHER’S DAY GIFT PROVIDES A BONDING EXPERIENCE: The WALL STREET JOURNAL has the details on a Father’s Day travel package offered for Giants fans wanting to attend the June 15-17 series against the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
The $1,995 deal provides two suite tickets to the Saturday game along with a room at the Four Seasons Boston for Saturday night. A package costing $3,495 includes two suite tickets to games on Saturday and Sunday, plus two nights at the Four Seasons and a limo service to boot.
• The BOSTON COURANT reports Tom Brady has put his 3,422-square-foot, ten-room condo on the market for over $5.9M. Brady paid $4.1M for the unit in July ’04.
Meanwhile, Johnny Damon wants $8.2M for his Manhattan condo, which he bought a year ago for $5.5M.
• Reggie Bush is blowing off the New Orleans Saints offseason conditioning program for his own workout plan called “Free Flo Do”.
Saints Coach Sean Payton on Bush’s decision: “
I’m not familiar with Fre Flo Do. I’m a fan of our offseason program, that’s what I’m a fan of. I think when you align yourself to the right product, your Fre Flo Do, or your ice cream flavors, all that stuff tastes good.”
Wot?
• SPORTS BUSINESS DAILY reports FoxSports.com has signed former NEW YORK DAILY NEWS writer Mark Kriegel as a columnist. Kriegel “will write a weekly column on sports and pop culture named after his former newspaper column, ‘On The Mark’“.
