With the NFL lockout resolved, the 2012 Fiesta Bowl has been moved up from Jan. 5 to Jan. 2.

The BCS originally left the evening of Jan. 2 free in case the NFL had to push their season back due to the lockout.

The Fiesta Bowl will now be played right after the Rose Bowl, which is on Jan. 2 next year because New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday.

There won’t be World Peace on this season of Dancing with the Stars.

Los Angeles Lakers forward Ron Artest was “seriously thinking about” competing on the ABC dance competition show, but it appears he’s passing on the opportunity, according to Laker Nation:

Artest had this to say when we asked him at Matt Barnes 3rd annual Athletes vs. Cancer event at Trump National.

“Nah I’m not doing that. People want me to, but I’m not. I like that show though!”

Guess it would be hard to Dancing with the Stars from England, huh?

The NFL’s new TV commercial hits airwaves this weekend, but USA Today has a link to watch a sneak preview of the new 30-second spot as part of the “It’s Good to be Back. Back to Football,” campaign.

The commercial is from Grey Advertising and will air for three weeks on NBC, CBS, Fox, ESPN and NFL Network.

According to NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, this is the earliest the NFL has launched a commercial campaign to promote a new season.

The spirit of 30 for 30 lives on thanks to seven new documentaries from ESPN.

Catching Hell, the documentary on Steve Bartman, kicks off a seven-week run through Nov. 8. Below are the rest of the documentaries that are scheduled, according to Zap2it.com:

Renee, about transgender tennis player Renee Richards‘ efforts to enter the 1977 U.S. Open and her life today. Airs Oct. 4.

The Dotted Line, directed by Morgan Spurlock, which profiles two sports agents, Peter Greenberg and Eugene Lee. Airs Oct. 11.

Unguarded, about former high-school star and NBA player Chris Herren‘s struggles with addiction and his road to recovery. Airs Oct. 18. Read more

Speaking of Ozzie Guillen‘s temper …

[H/T CSNChicago.com]

The Shaquille O’Neal era at Turner Sports started off with a bang Tuesday afternoon as the former center took a direct shot at Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh.

“The Miami Heat, they’ve got a lot of great players, the `Big 2.’ They will be back,” O’Neal said on NBA TV during the 2011-12 NBA schedule release special. “LeBron James is taking a lot of criticism, but I know LeBron very well. He hears everything that everyone is saying, so I think he’s going to come back and have an MVP year this year.”

Big 2, eh? So much for that Big 3 the media dubbed James, Bosh and Dwyane Wade last July.

When called out by Steve Smith about leaving Bosh out the mix, O’Neal simply brushed off the omission and took one last jab by omitting Bosh once again. Read more

Tiger Woods, whose lingering injuries have caused him to miss the U.S. Open and to withdraw from the upcoming British Open, is sitting down with The Golf Channel’s Kelly Tilghman to discuss an undisclosed subject at 11 a.m. today. Is he retiring? Highly unlikely. So why is he calling a pseudo press conference? We already know he’s not playing in the British Open due to injuries, so drawing people together for the added, unnecessary measure of repeating the same news seems oddly LeBronthian.

Shane Bacon at Devil Ball Golf discussed some of the other possible things Woods might talk about: Read more

During an appearance on 106.7 The Fan in Washington, D.C,, this week, former Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann revealed for the first time that he contracted Hoof and Mouth Disease in 1971 while playing in the Canadian Football League.

“First of all, you go back to 1982, I got my teeth knocked out against the Giants because I didn’t wear a mouthguard,” the quarterback told Mike Wise and Holden Kushner. “And then go all the way back to 1971, when I played for the Toronto Argonauts up in the Canadian Football League. We were playing in Montreal, and they had had a cattle show or a livestock show in the stadium the day before, and I wound up with hoof and mouth disease, a bacterial infection. I’m serious. It’s one of those things that fell through the cracks. On your show, things are revealed that are not revealed anywhere.”

“It was miserable, I’ll tell you,” Theismann said. “It was the Autostade in Montreal, and we were playing a game the next day….[Olympian] John Carlos was actually in the stands that day, because they were recruiting him to play with the Alouettes. All the animals had been in, and you get dirt in your mouth, one thing led to the next, and all of this sudden if I drank a glass of water it was like drinking a ball of fire. Finally went to the doctor, I said i don’t know what’s going on, he said you know,I don’t want to say anything, but you’ve got Hoof and Mouth Disease or Trench Mouth. I go oh God, that sounds so disgusting. He says it is, what can I tell you, it is.”

In related news, Theismann was recently named a national spokesperson for Defense Sport Mouthguard Rinse, which is designed to clean and remove dirt and bacteria from a player’s mouthguard without the use of alcohol or sugar.

(H/T to Dan Steinberg at WaPo)

According to Sports Business Journal, ESPN is close to finalizing a full-rights package with The All England Club for Wimbledon – ending NBC’s 43-year association with the tournament.

“We are proud of our 43-year partnership with the All England Club and while we would have liked to have continued our relationship, we were simply outbid,” NBC’s statement said.

ESPN’s current deal for the early rounds of Wimbledon runs out in 2013. That deal will be incorporated into the new proposed deal.

A key component in the deal is the fact that ESPN will broadcast the entire two-week tournament live. In recent years, NBC has tape-delayed semifinals coverage to West Coast viewers in order to show the Today show.

HBO is developing a new primetime reality series on famed boxing trainer Freddie Roach.

On Freddie Roach will be directed by Emmy nominee Peter Berg and executive produced by Jim Lampley, Sarah Aubrey and Michael Price.

The six-episode series is set to debut in early 2012 and the cinéma-vérité series focuses on Roach, who owns and operates the famed Wildcard Boxing Club in Hollywood. Cameras will document Roach as he manages his personal life with his life inside the gym, all while fighting Parkinson’s disease. Read more