While we don’t know for sure why Dunn won’t be returning to ESPN, Brooks told USA Today that he was too busy to work for the network this season:

“They wanted me to come back but I couldn’t with everything else going on. It was just difficult to do,” Brooks said over the phone Thursday. Brooks added he continues to have an “excellent” relationship with the brass in Bristol.

The ex-Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebackers has also been in touch NFL Network and Versus about on-air roles. But he doesn’t want to commit unless he’s able to give it 100%.

“I don’t want to start something with all this other stuff going on. My word is my word and I keep my word,” Brooks said.

Along with charity and spending time with his family, Brooks was named president of the AFL’s Tampa Bay Storm in April.

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The PFT editor will host an hourlong NFL roundup show on Friday evenings, where Florio will provide his analysis on upcoming games, players and league trends. The untitled show will air from 6-7 p.m. during the NFL season.

Rovell will follow up Florio with a half-hour show looking at sports business – a topic he’s been known for since his days at ESPN.

In addition, Versus reportedly has a weeknight hourlong sports roundup show in the works. continued…

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No, Colbert did not hack into MLB’s system. He won a bet, beating MLB in the Beat The Streak contest. This is where fans pick one player they think will get a hit each day, in hopes of putting together a streak that bests Joe DiMaggio‘s all-time hit streak record of 56 consecutive games. The reward is $5.6 million.

MLB also rolled out a side game, featuring Colbert. If he could put together a longer streak than MLB itself, he’d win control of their Twitter feed for a day. Colbert won — with a hitting streak of two.

In short, MLB is the Mario Mendoza of its own contest.

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“It was smart on their part, because they have nothing to hide. There are no warts there,” Radovich told USA Today.

Filming began in June, and included seeing U.S. Naval Academy freshman Maika Polamalu, cousin of Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu, getting his buzz cut.

“Without question, this could be an annual thing. … What’s good about this – compared to other annual reality shows out there – is there’s a lot more to this than sports,” Radovich says.

John Feinstein, the longtime Washington Post reporter who contributed color commentary to Navy games for 14 years, recently quit his position in protest of this CBS/Showtime project, explaining that he’d unsuccessfully petitioned CBS to do a documentary about the Army-Navy game in the past.

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The game gives fans a virtual destination to run their own sports bar and grill, win over loyal customers, decorate walls with sports paraphernalia, show simulated live and on-demand games via flatscreens, get real-time scores and news, interact with friends and their sports bar and grills and more, according to ESPN’s press release.

Fans are challenged with all the day-to-day management duties of a real sports bar and grill owner. The more patrons served and kept happy, the bigger the buzz, popularity and success of the bar and grill. By earning more, owners can purchase enhancements to their sports bars to level up faster, including expansion, flatscreen TVs, the Samsung Galaxy Tabâ„¢ and TVs, posters, signs, arcade games, sports memorabilia, tables, chairs, bar stools and more. For players under the age of 21, the game experience will be customized to serving food and non-alcoholic beverages.

(Disney….)

In short, it’s Farmville for guys and/or sportscentric women. If that’s your bag, have at it. Hard to see how something like this won’t be popular, especially since Chris Berman‘s well-known comment, “You’re with me, leather,” is the chorus that greets all visitors to the game.

Not true, actually. But wouldn’t that be fun if it were?

“Following the success of ESPNU College Town, we pulled out all the bells and whistles for the launch of ESPN Sports Bar & Grill, our most integrated and real-time connected game developed to date,” said Raphael Poplock, Vice President, Games and Partnerships at ESPN. “We’re excited to continue our collaboration with Playdom in the development of sports-themed social games that reach a broad audience of both casual and passionate fans.”

Go here to join the fun on Facebook: http://apps.facebook.com/espnsportsbar/.

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“It’s a chance to spend more time with my family,” said the 50-year-old McGuire, who has an 11-year-old daughter and a nine-year-old son. “I’ll be doing two games a week for Versus or NBC, and spend one night in the Versus studio.”

He’ll also have the opportunity to cover the Olympics for NBC, which owns the rights to all the upcoming scheduled Games.

“I’ll get a chance to work on the next three summer Games and two winter Games,” McGuire said.

McGuire is well known for his “inside the glass” assignments, where he’s stationed between the opposing teams’ benches and offers viewers a unique vantage point for in-game interviews and analysis. He’s also known for inspiring the Pierre McGuire Drinking Game, which has its own Facebook page.

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“I read that nonsense Tom Boswell writes, and I’ll say this: Tom Boswell has tried to be the impetus behind me not being the manager here for a long time. He is a master of the half-truth. A half-truth can be more dangerous than a lie. He prints just enough nonsense that can paint a picture.

“But he’s become such a snake and such an impetus to have me out of there, [and] he’s just written so many snide remarks. That type of stuff from such a well-respected columnist throughout the country, to get away with that nonsense, I’m just bringing it to your attention, that that’s the kind of stuff that gets written that is totally false.”

Murray then asked whether Riggleman thought the Nats’ front-office was overly influenced by Boswell’s writings.

“No. Not at all,” Riggleman said. “I think that the people who buy The Post and read it, you know, they see some of that stuff. And there’s just enough truth in there to get somebody’s attention, but he never tells the full story. He’s never interviewed me, he never talks to me and asks me these questions. He just writes negativity.

“And in his own words, he grew up at the knee of the great Earl Weaver. And nobody respected Earl Weaver more than I did. I’m a Marylander, I loved the Orioles and Earl Weaver. And he loves Earl Weaver, he thinks Earl Weaver invented the game, and that the Oriole Way is the way to go, and let’s get an Oriole in here. Never mind Jim Riggleman. He never thought I was the right guy for the job, and he likes to think he was the impetus of me not being here. But his opinion is so non-respected around that ballpark that I shouldn’t even be mentioning his name.”

The Oriole Way? I don’t think you should be mentioning that, either.

(Source: Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post)

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(H/T to Sportsgrid)

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“While I’m best known for baseball, I’ve always had a love of all sports,” said Morgan, who won the 1975 and 1976 National League Most Valuable Player awards and is widely considered one of the best second basemen of all time. “I’m fortunate that my career has allowed me to meet some of the most amazing people, and I have heard so many remarkable stories. With my new show, I am looking forward to sharing these stories, as well as speaking with today’s sports personalities and newsmakers.”

Larry Kahn, president of President Sports USA. “Joe is a well known and respected broadcaster whose opinions and overall knowledge of sports will captivate sports fans nationwide. This platform will allow him to reach and engage other sports enthusiasts.”

The guest list for the first week will reportedly include Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax and Johnny Bench. It probably won’t include the founders of Fire Joe Morgan, the one-time baseball blog that often made light of Morgan’s antiquated attitude towards the importance of statistics, particularly in the post-Moneyball world.

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MSG Action Sports is a division of MSG Sports that will produce a variety of action sports and lifestyle events. It’s first event is a MegaRamp ASA Triples BMX and skateboarding competition that will be held in Times Square from 3 – 5 p.m.

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Fox Sports analyst and former New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan is the latest athlete to film a video for the Human Rights Campaign in support of marriage equality.

“I have plenty of gay friends, and I don’t judge them,” Strahan told The New York Times. “I want them to have all the same rights I have, and all the opportunities I have to be in a relationship, a great relationship, with the person that they’re in love with.”

If someone wants to look at it that way, if it makes someone who is African-American feel more comfortable and want to join and get behind it, that’s great,” he added. “I look at it as a human rights type of situation more than anything else.”

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Here we go again.

Stephen A. Smith hinted Thursday morning that he heard something is going on in LeBron James‘ personal life, which might explain his poor outing in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.

Sound familiar? *Cough, Gloria James, cough*

Based on Smith’s recent track record (he broke the LeBron story last year), you have to believe him at this point. But why bring it up if you aren’t willing to dive into the topic?

[H/T SportsGrid via The Big Lead]

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IMG has represented Woods since he became a professional, and Steinberg has guided the ascent to his perch as one of the world’s wealthiest and most marketable athletes. However, in the wake of an alleged sex scandal and divorce, Woods is far less profitable than he used to be when his annual income was roughly $100 million a year. Multiple companies have dropped their endorsement deals with him.

Meanwhile, a person familiar with the situation said Steinberg’s contract was set to expire next month and the company decided not to renew the contract. Steinberg was among the highest paid employees at IMG, with a salary topped only by that of the company’s chairman, Ted Forstmann.

Steinberg could not be reached for comment. Glen Greenspan, a spokesman for Woods, did not return a message seeking comment.

Steinberg can take Woods and Annika Sorenstam with him if he continues to work as an agent, but a non-compete agreement will prevent him from taking other IMG clients, according to a person close to the situation.

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ESPN New York’s Mike Lupica Show and Michael Kay Show along with ESPN Chicago’s Waddle and Silvy can be heard of Sirius channel 93 and XM channel 210.

“New York and Chicago are two of America’s greatest sports hubs and fans of these cities’ teams reside all over the country,” said Steve Cohen, SiriusXM’s SVP of Sports Programming. “Whether it’s the Bulls’ run through the playoffs, Yankees and Mets baseball, or another local team making headlines, there is a constant sports buzz in these two cities. That makes for excellent sports talk, and we’re thrilled to be able to offer these great shows to all of our listeners, allowing them to follow the local story lines all year long.”

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The struggling catcher quit Twitter this week after fans took to the social media tool to express their feelings on his slow start.

“I thought this was supposed to be fun,” Thole told The Star-Ledger Wednesday. “They’re ruthless on there.”

The tweets ranged from the usual colorful name-calling to my personal favorite – - hitting advice.

Based on his .239 average and .577 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, Thole could use all the advice he can get at this point.

[H/T Larry Brown Sports]

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