The National Hockey League announced a tender process Monday for international media rights to live NHL games throughout Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The open bidding process will run from May 17 to June 8 and the foreign rights would run from 2011-12 through 2014-15 seasons.

According to the NHL, 26 percent of its players come from outside of North America. Since 2007, the NHL has staged more than 35 exhibition and regular season games in Europe attended by over 400,000 fans.

Friday on ESPN’s Outside the Lines: First Report, Bob Ley moderated a discussion regarding Kobe Bryant’s appearance in the Call of Duty: Black Ops commercial, where the Lakers star is seen firing a gun.

In case you were wondering why the commercial didn’t air before the panel discussed the topic, Activision, creators of the video game, shot down ESPN’s request as Ley explained: Read more

Former CNN anchor Veronica De La Cruz‘s mission to save her brother’s life has picked up tremendous steam from when we last wrote about it.

De La Cruz’s brother, Eric, is fighting for his life while awaiting a heart transplant. As she began asking for donations through her Twitter account and Website the response began to grow.

Celebrities from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails to Tony Hawk have picked up the cause, as have thousands others now on Twitter and elsewhere. You can find more information, and donate, here and here.

Last week there had been approximately $5,000 raised. Two hours ago, Reznor tweeted: “Money raised for #ERIC as of Wed AM: $858,628.30.”

Click continued to see a KTNV-TV news report from last week on De La Cruz…

Read more