CNN has lined up a celebrity team for the fifth annual “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute,” which will air on December 11 at 8pmET. Anderson Cooper will host the special, which will feature the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2011 as voted by the fans. Each will have their story told by a celebrity, including will.i.am, Christy Turlington Burns and Kurt Warner. A live pre-show red carpet will be hosted by  J.R. Martinez of “Dancing with the Stars.”

The full release is after the jump. Read more

Nationally syndicated sports talk show host Tony Bruno caused quite the stir over the weekend following a racially insensitive tweet Friday night.

“Gutless #!@%*# Giants,” Bruno, a Philadelphia Phillies fan, tweeted. “[Bruce] Bochy is a coward for having his illegal alien pitcher hit a guy since mighty Frisco boys …” He was referencing San Francisco reliever Ramon Ramirez, who drilled Shane Victorino with a pitch.

Bruno deleted the tweet, but the damage had been done. He issued an apology and explanation on his Facebook page: Read more

In a bid to help fans plan their viewing schedules for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the BBC has posted an online planner, while also announcing that fans watching online will have full control over what events they watch.

With up to 12 sports taking place simultaneously on many days of next year’s Olympic Games, it will be the corporation’s most ambitious coverage of an Olympics to date with more than 2,000 hours of live sport on the BBC website.

The BBC has launched an online guide to help people plan their viewing, highlighting “ones to watch” and “medal events”. It will be updated with more information including when and where British teams and individuals will be competing.

Dave Gordon, the BBC’s head of major events, said: “If you want to spend all day watching the water polo or fencing or taekwondo or swimming, or any combination of the 26 sports, for the first time you can. The choice is yours rather than ours.

That’s pretty cool (even if the games aren’t for a year).

“As host nation broadcaster, this online guide is the first step in realising our commitment to making every sport from every venue where it’s happening on every day of the games available to the British public.

“From the start of the early morning action until the end of competition just before midnight, there will be live BBC Sport online coverage. You can look at the big picture each day, planning for those not to be missed events.”

ESPN released their list of relevant and approved endorsements involving ESPN commentators.

Erin Andrews: Reebok
Paul Azinger: Adams Golf
Mike Bellotti: Nike Coaching Clinic at USC
Ato Bolden: Adidas
Bruce Bowen: Nike
Tim Brown: Under Armour
Olin Browne: Callaway, Razor Hawk, Odyssey
Chris Burandt: Monster, Polaris, Slednecks, Klim, HMK, Starting Line Products, Holz Racing Products, Fox Racing, Snox, EGT, VCHK, 509, Boon Docker Performance, RSI, RPM, Sled Solutions, Better Boards, Timbersled, Sledez, Edge Products
Darren Cahill: Adidas, Wilson, Donnay Read more

Another list! But really, is there anything better to do on a snowy day than read year-end collections? NOPE.

And so, we turn to Jason Gay at The Wall Street Journal. His ninth favorite moment of 2010:

Who picked San Francisco to win the 2010 World Series? You too? We put $4 down last March, and now we own a Bugatti Veyron powered by white truffles! But not even Jerry Garcia’s ghost could have predicted that a team with a wildly eccentric pitching staff and no-name position players could deliver the first Giant title by the Bay. The year’s hairiest, best-smelling victory.

Go read the whole list. It’s excellent.

If there was a top 10 list for “Writers we’re happy to have back on the sports beat,” Mr. Gay would certainly push for the No. 1 slot.

Athletes are not known for their wonderful public speaking abilities. They aren’t unintelligent – most of them, anyway – it’s just that they’ve been taught to think roboticly about things like effort, workrate, and desire, so the inevitable soundbites are cliches focusing on those themes.

But every now and again, an athlete surprises reporters with smart, thoughtful commentary. Landon Donovan jumps to mind. So does Charles Barkley.

Apparently, we can add Deion Branch to the list. Read more

CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta anchors a three-part series about the effects concussions have on football players, which will be airing Monday through Wednesday on CNN’s “American Morning.”

Learn more about the series on Sportsnewser.

Read More

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Remember when I said that folks in Detroit really don’t like Matt Millen?

Well, they really don’t like him.

As we get closer to Saturday’s Michigan-Michigan State game in Ann Arbor, the Michigan residents are becoming more hostile with the fact that the former Detroit Lions president and CEO is working the game with Sean McDonough.

Sports talk show host and The Detroit News columnist Terry Foster has led a online campaign this week against Millen and ABC/ESPN.

“Call 888-549-3776 ext 3. Tell ESPN and ABC your thoughts on Matt Millen doing the Michigan-Michigan State game,” Foster wrote on his Facebook page.

Enough people have voiced their opinion to ABC/ESPN that the network issued an e-mail statement to Tom Leyden, a sports anchor at WXYZ in Detroit.

“Matt brings a strong knowledge of the game, decades of experience and a great ability to communicate his insights to sports fans,” the e-mail read. “He and Sean McDonough are one of our top commentator teams and as a result, are assigned to one of the very best matchups each week.”

Foster followed up with a blog post on Thursday saying it was time to bring back the “Fire Millen” chants at Saturday’s game:

I’ve heard from some people who want to boycott the game, but we should not let ABC run us off. This is our game and it means too much to our community. We simply must allow these outsiders know what they are doing is not cool. It’s time for ABC and ESPN to get the message. Repeat after me. FIRE MILLEN!

They do know there’s a football game between two Top 25 teams happening, right?

NBC Learn, the educational arm of NBC News, and the National Science Foundation are partnering with the NFL on a 10-part video series “The Science of NFL Football.” Designed to be used by teachers and educators, the video series will be available to the public at NBCLearn.com and Science360.gov.

The series is timed to the start of the new school year, as well as, of course, the new NFL season.

“The Science of NFL Football” is the second video series to come out of a partnership between NBC News and the NSF. During the Winter Olympics in Vancouver they produced “The Science of the Olympic Winter Games.”

The series is very similar to the Emmy-winning series “Sport Science” on ESPN. Both use high speed cameras, professional athletes and scientists to demonstrate how science and sports intersect.

In the case of the NFL series, episodes will focus on topics such as “vectors,” “nutrition, hydration and health” and “projectile motion and parabolas.”

“As children go back to school and the country gets back to football, we are pleased to partner with NBC and NSF to bring our fans a new way to understand the game they love,” said Tracy Perlman, NFL Vice President of Entertainment Marketing and Promotions in a statement.

The full list of athletes participating in the series is after the jump.

Read more