Dan Snyder Now Controls Your Radio

He finally did it. Dan Snyder has purchased the biggest sports talk radio station in DC, WTEM Sportstalk 980. Snyder purchased 3 low powered DC area radio stations in 2006 creating his own Redskins Radio network and he has used these stations to essentially become the Fox News Channel of Redskins news. Instead of spreading Republican propaganda, it spreads Redskins propaganda.

Broadcaster and Redskins play by play man Larry Michael has been the Bill O'Reilly of Redskins radio, always saying whatever the boss man upstairs tells him to and sticking to the company's agenda. Michael spends most of his time spreading nothing but unbelievably positive news from Redskins Park essentially turning himself into the Baghdad Bob of sports talk radio. A great quote about how bad Michael has become is from the Washington Post's Redskin beat reporter Jason LaCanfora:

There's "The Voice of the Redskins" Larry Michael, who would spew the company line about anything, anytime. I'm not even sure he has to be asked anymore. I'm thinking the mindwashing is complete by now and Michael is thoroughly reprogrammed.

Its only natural to assume that one can expect 980 to eventually become similar to the existing Redskins Radio stations because Snyder isn't overly fond of media criticism since he got burned so bad when he first took control of the team and has been pummeled in the media since (including by this blog). Sadly for 980, it was and currently is the only sports talk radio station in town that is always critical of all of the sports teams in the nations capital, including the Redskins, and now that freedom to be critical of everything without big brother's corporate oversight might be lost.

Its almost a certainty that 980 will switch from being a Fox Sports Radio station and back to an ESPN Radio station (which it was before Snyder got the contract in 2006 with the creation of the Redskins Radio Network) which almost certainly means no more Czaban in the morning and back to the horrid Mike & Mike. That alone will make me listen to less radio...or maybe i'll have to tune into the Junkies...ugh. Lets hope that that will be the only change that Snyder implements. Even Jesus doesn't approve of this...

When I Cook Beef, The Smoke Will Never Clear

Bill O'Reilly is going be pissed when he finds out that his trumped-up war between GE and himself doesn't carry any weight. The real war doesn't even include him. We're talking News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch vs. Keith Olbermann.

Murdoch recently spoke at a Wall Street Journal conference and covered a wide range of topics from the presidential election to newspaper industry's decline. He was also asked a question about Keith Olbermann and whether he would hire him.

"No, I fired him five years ago...He's crazy."

Olbermann wasted no time in responding and elaborated on the circumstances of his firing from Fox Sports. It turns out he may have gotten involved in affairs that did not concern him such as the potential purchase of the Los Angeles Dodgers by Murdoch. Unfortunately he didn't have a sprightly Chinese sidekick to save his ass from the ax.

Here's Olbermann's response in full from Mediabistro.com.

Firstly, the quote is, according to AlleyInsider.Com, "he was crazy."

I appreciate the difference and apparently Rupert does, too.

But this is actually quite a news story (for a very small group of people who worked with me at Fox Sports, and people who covered tv at the time). I had already been the host of Fox's Baseball coverage for two years when, in April of 2001, I got a tip from outside NewsCorp that Rupert was unofficially shopping the Los Angeles Dodgers, which Murdoch at that time owned. I confirmed the story with an excellent baseball source, then immediately went up my chain of command at Fox. They all said "if it's solid, go with it," but I suggested we get the corporate viewpoint on this, so they put me in touch with Rupert's PR guy in New York.

I said, in short, this is your candy store, if you don't want me to run this, I'm not running it, and I'm not leaking it, but at minimum you should know the story's out there. And the guy's answer was, thanks for thinking of us, here's our official denial, please report it and whatever your sources tell you, just please make clear that none of your sources are within the company (baseball was, and is, extremely touchy about when a team is, or isn't, "officially" for sale, and woe betide the owner who makes a deal before the "officially" kicks in).

So I ran the Dodgers-Are-Unofficially-For-Sale story (with the "the sources aren't NewsCorp" caveat taking almost as long as the story itself) and everything was swell. And two weeks later, the day before the annual Fox Baseball Meeting convened in L.A., my agent was suddenly notified "he's no longer the host for baseball." This is a week or so before our first game of the week. A day or two later it was "come in and clean out your office."

And a day or so after that I got a call from a friend who's a prominent tv sports beat writer, and he says, I'm hearing Rupert Murdoch just found out about your Dodgers story and personally ordered you fired.

It had never crossed my mind that the two things weren't coincidental. I never could prove that that's what happened, but nor did I ever get any other answer as to why they took me off, considering that in two years we'd been twice nominated for the Emmy for best studio sportscast — and won once (with our competition being all the ESPN shows and hour-long NFL extravaganzas). Months later, the guy who ran sports, David Hill, told another tv sports beat writer that he still thought I was the best sportscaster in the world.

So: I appreciate Rupert finally owning up to firing me because I followed his rules.

And as to the "crazy" part, he had to pay me $800,000 for the rest of 2001, and lord knows how many tens of millions I've helped MSNBC take out of his pocket ever since — so: who's crazy?

Don't you know you don't cross Elliot Carver and his Aryan henchmen? I guess Olbermann didn't know the ledge. However he did get the better of Murdoch in Round 1. It's also interesting to see that Fox Sports is run in a similar fashion to Al-Jazerra English. Don't stray too far from the party line, Brett.

Wondering if Hideki Irabu is still awesome at sucking? Wonder no longer, my fat toad.

What's The Worst That Could Happen?

Donnie Walsh and the Knicks are hedging their bets and praying to Jesus, Buddha and Allah that Stephon Marbury won't be a problem this upcoming season. Don't count on it.

Perhaps an Aztec or Mayan sacrifice would do the trick. Here's a thought. Use Starbury for the sacrifice. If that's too messy, pour BBQ and hot sauce on him and let Eddy Curry eat him like a boa on a small mammal. He must have a detachable jaw. Problem solved either way. A salary cap hit is a small price to pay for peace of mind.

What Happened To Superstition?

Good thing Stevie Wonder's blind. He'd be crushed if he could see how the Lakers and Spurs are abandoning superstition. Whatever happened to not touching the championship trophy until you win it? No respect I tell ya.

Kobe's molesting the Larry O'Brien trophy during photo shoots like a Colorado hote....ah that's too easy. Meanwhile Kevin Garnett and Adidas are putting out special edition Team Signature Commander shoes for the NBA Finals.

Adidas will produce only eight pairs per game of this shoe to be sold at retail (as few as 28 and as many as 58, depending on the length of the Finals). One pair autographed by KG will be auctioned off on NBA.com after the Finals, with the proceeds going to NBA Cares community partners in the Boston area.

The shoe won't be launched until October but Garnett plans to wear a pair with the LOB trophy on the side. It seems like he's tempting fate but humping the trophy has to be much worse. Take note, sports books.

‘‘All season long it has been about we and not me, so as we head into the NBA Finals I wanted to do something special for the Boston community. That is why we came up with this limited edition shoe,’’ Garnett said in a statement. ‘‘Since day one, the fans of Boston have made me feel like family, so to do this and be able to give back to them is a great honor.’’

Auctioning off a pair of shoes should make KG as loved as Dave Roberts in Boston win or lose. The proceeds could surely feed a small African country like Djibouti or Uranus. We're only playing. At least he's doing something for the community unlike ODB.

It's Alive! The Return Of Inside the NFL

It didn't take long for Inside The NFL to make its return to the airwaves. NFL.com reports that Showtime and CBS Sports have decided to pick up the series for air on Showtime.

The show will be produced by CBS Sports and NFL Films and will premiere on Showtime on Wednesday, Sept. 10 (9 p.m. ET/PT). It will air each Wednesday throughout the season through Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2009 ... The talent team for Inside the NFL on Showtime will be announced in the coming weeks.

ProFootballTalk.com sources claim that the HBO cast will be replaced by CBS "talent" including Jim Nantz, Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason and Charlie Casserly.

It's understandable that CBS would want to use their current talent instead of using others that work for competing networks or who might be more expensive. The upside to using the current crop is that there's still a chance we could see the following again:





We notice Shannon Sharpe isn't rumored to be joining the rest of the NFL Today crew on Showtime. Hopefully this means they'll be adding an Emmitt Smith or Eric Dickerson.

Doomsday Device: The Cure For Vertigo

It's not bad enough that unsavory wrestling promoters screw over wrestlers. Now the medical profession thinks it can step in and take credit for maneuvers created by wrestlers.

MSNBC is reporting that the American Academy of Neurology has come up with a "series of gentle head and neck movements known as the canalith repositioning procedure" as the fastest, easiest way to cure BPPV or vertigo.

There's just one problem. They didn't come up with it. Aminal and Hawk may have something to say about that. They've been doing it since the 80s.

Jump to 7:30 unless you want to watch the whole match.

Forgiveness Please: The Alou-Bartman Story

Media outlets reported that Moises Alou forgave Steve Bartman for interfering in that fateful play during the 2003 NLCS. Of course, the Deuce was all over it like the best sports blogging team on the internet. We should just repeat that phrase in every post like a couple of insecure bloggers. Right, Wolf?

I was going to use a political analogy to describe the Alou-Bartman saga but I couldn't decide between Scott McClellan and Robert Byrd. It appears that Alou's advanced age and injuries have finally affected his mental, see. Either that or Alou was playing a cruel April Fool's joke on Bartman. It turns out that Alou now thinks he would have made that catch after all.

Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post reports that Alou now says Bartman did prevent him from making that catch.

"I had it,'' Alou said Wednesday in the Mets' clubhouse. "I make that catch, (the playoffs would have been a) different story.''

In March, Associated Press columnist Jim Litke wrote that he ran into Alou last summer at a department store where the outfielder said he wouldn't have caught that famous foul that hit Bartman's hand in the eighth inning of Game 6, prolonging an inning in which the Marlins later rallied for the lead.

..."Everywhere I play, even now, people still yell, 'Bartman! Bartman!' I feel really bad," Alou, a Cubs left fielder in 2003, was quoted as saying. "You know what the funny thing is? I wouldn't have caught it anyway."

Wrong, Alou said Wednesday.

"I don't remember that,'' he said. "If I said that, I was probably joking to make (Bartman) feel better. But I don't remember saying that.''

Tony Tarasco feels your pain, Moises. Good thing Alou is on the permanent DL. He can nurse this hurt along with the physical ones.

Chelsea Yeah

I'm over Chelsea's loss in this season's Champions League final yeah. So's this Chelsea fan yeah.



What is penalties yeah? I'm Chelsea straight through and through like him yeah. I still love Winston Bogarde and Chris Sutton. I'll always love them yeah. Chelsea yeah?

Actual NYC Fight Club?

In Union Square, in the heart of NYC, a fight club exists. No it doesn't seem to be like the movie where the only rule of fight club is that you do not talk about fight club, the site And I Am Not Lying got tipped to it by an email from a friend. Its also not done at night in a basement of a dive bar, its done in broad daylight in the middle of a park. The fighting however, is very real.

Take this guy below for example, Mr. Afro Puffs we'll call him. This guy's fighting style consists of taking wild ass swings with one arm, while the other one is behind his back. All while intimidating the opponent with a duck over his crotch, for protection of course.

There's a couple more videos by And I Am Not Lying here and you should totally check out that site with a great breakdown of the events along with some investigative blogging that we could only hope to come close to doing...but never will

Anyway here's the videos:

It figures that something like this would happen in NYC, I'd love to see it happen here in DC, but I doubt the authorities would allow it to happen. Too many killjoys here in our nations capital. If anyone else finds more of these, send us some pics, we'd love to see it.

From And I Am Not Lying

All The Shards Of Glass You Can Handle

There's something glorious about watching a basketball player shatter a backboard with a thunderous dunk. Its even more special to watch a 4 minute compilation of dunks destroying backboards. This is just fun right here.

What has 10 legs, $300, and a hell of a lot of balls?

This guy. This kid apparently doesn't take "Get Out!" for an answer. Not only did he throw the octopus in the Pens arena, but he had the guts (and money) to sneak back in with a scalped ticket. I'm sure his face made it onto the JumboTron as he was esscorted out so he is damn lucky this game wasn't on the other side of Pennsylvania. Flyers fans would've kicked his ass.

Rasheed Wallace Has Nothing On Andre Luis

Rasheed Wallace is known for being an ejection magnet. His ability to attract technicals and flagrants knows no bounds. He could be one of the most prolific athletes when comes to getting bounced. Botafogo's Andre Luis might have something to say about that.

Luis was sent off after receiving a second yellow for a foul. Instead of leaving peacefully, he flipped off the crowd, kicked a bottle into the stands, rumbled with the riot police causing his teammates to get involved and was re-arrested only after the police had to use batons and pepper spray on him and his fellow players.



Nice to see the coppers have time for an interview while beating and arresting players. Cops em Brasil could be a hit. The bar has just been raised, Sheed.