ESPN The Magazine editor-in-chief Chad Millman released a statement Friday regarding the controversy surrounding the “What if Michael Vick were white?” article. Below is Millman’s statement.

This past January we decided to dedicate our entire NFL Preview issue to Michael Vick. His story, from All-Pro to inmate and back, had transcended the boundaries of the field and become a flashpoint of conversation. It incorporated sports, society, morality, forgiveness and, yes, race. Among the many questions asked when discussing his crime and punishment – How could he do such a thing? Should he be allowed to play again? Could he ever play again? – was, would he have been punished as severely if he were white? It’s hard to ignore the topic in a fully realized examination of Vick and his impact. As the senior editor of the piece, Raina Kelley, pointed out on CNN [see video here] rather than use vague arguments that skirt the issue, we chose to address it head on. First, in a thoughtful essay by Toure. And, just as important for magazines, with art that lended power to the concept. In the past, designers have challenged readers to consider their views on race by portraying a black Queen Elizabeth II and Pope John Paul II. We had several conversations about how to support the essay with imagery that made people think as much as the words did. Ultimately, the resulting treatment felt like the strongest way to answer the question so many have been asking.

For an upcoming Media Beat interview, we also spoke with the article’s author Toure about how he tackles the issue of race online without offending people. The full interview airs on mediabistro.com September 12, but here’s an excerpt.

Starting Sunday SportsCenter will follow four former coaches and current ESPN talking heads as they visit their old high schools. “Back to School” will feature Mike Ditka returning to Aliquippa, Pa.; Herm Edwards going back to Monterey, Calif.; Lou Holtz visiting East Liverpool, Ohio; and Lee Corso heading back to Miami, Florida. Unfortunately it will not feature any clips from the Rodney Dangerfield movie.

In addition to making surprise visit to their old schools, the four coaches visited some of their favorite hometown spots and shared time with family and friends.

“What these ‘Back to School’ features do is allow viewers to see where these guys got their start – both on the field and off – and provide our former coaches a chance to go back and interact with the community they grew up in,” said Glenn Jacobs, ESPN senior coordinating producer.

The schedule goes like this: Holtz on SportsCenter Sunday at 10 a.m.; Corso, Monday at 9 a.m.; Edwards, Tuesday at 9 a.m.; and Ditka, Wednesday at 9 a.m.

The Longhorn Network landed their first major carriage pickup Thursday when FiOS TV added the network to its channel lineup.

“The Longhorns have a huge presence in Texas, with a passionate fan base that extends across the country,” said David Preschlack, executive vice president, Disney and ESPN Media Networks. “Verizon’s early commitment to this network speaks to the university’s popularity and the consumer demand for this content.”

FiOS TV subscribers will have to wait until Sept. 1 before they can watch the Longhorn Network – two days before the 2011 Texas football season opener against the Rice Owls.

In Texas, FiOS TV Prime HD, Extreme HD and Ultimate HD subscribers can watch LHN on Channels 79 (standard definition) and 579 (high definition). Subscribers outside of Texas can watch on Channel 320. The Longhorn Network will soon be available online, on tablets and smartphones for Verizon FiOS TV plan subscribers.

John Feinstein, who is best known for A Season on the Brink, the year he spent embedded with former Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight, has quit the Navy Radio Network after 14 years as a color commentator after the school agreed to do a documentary with CBS about the Army-Navy game — a project that Feinstein, whose book The Civil War chronicled the annual football game between the two service academies, reportedly pitched to CBS in the past, but to no avail.

I have no doubt CBS will do just fine with this. They’ll have the access and they’ll spend the money. They won’t have my anecdotal memory or know some of the stories about past players that I know and I’m SURE they won’t try to claim any of the stories I’ve written or told in the past as their own.

I’m not angry with the people at Army or Navy. This was a business decision. Could they have pushed CBS a little harder to involve me, pointing out that it would benefit the project? Yes. Would that have done any good? I doubt it.

The reason I’m stepping down then isn’t because I’m throwing a hissy fit at being left out. But, as I said in my note to the Navy people, Army-Navy and doing Navy football has never been a job to me, it has been a passion. Doing this documentary would have been a labor of both love and passion and, yes, I believe I would have done it better than anyone else.

So, to be at the games this fall and see CBS there with their cameras following players around; knowing they’re in the locker room with their cameras; encountering people from CBS all the time, is something I simply can’t face. It’s a little bit like dating a girl for 10 years, getting dumped and then being invited to her wedding. I just don’t want to watch it.

Can’t really blame him. Then again, the idea for a documentary about the Army-Navy game doesn’t seem like something that Feinstein alone could have brainstormed. Not involving him, though, seems odd. Hopefully CBS will address the reasons for doing the documentary without him.

The Los Angeles Lakers are shaking up their broadcast teams for the 2011-12 NBA season.

Gone are Joel Meyers (television) and Spero Dedes (radio) and in are Bill Macdonald (television) and John Ireland (radio).

Macdonald will call all televised Lakers games on Fox Sports West and KCAL 9 with color commentator Stu Lantz.

It looks as though NBCUniversal is just about ready to announce the name for its cable sports network, currently called Versus. In April, Then-NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol announced that he expected to have a new name with “a strong utilization of NBC in the title” in around 90 days.

Ebersol may be gone, but if comments made by Comcast CEO Brian Roberts at a breakfast discussion hosted by Fortune are any indication, those plans are continuing.

During a discussion about NBCU’s Olympic rights victory, Roberts noted Versus’ new NHL deal, and hinted that a new name for the channel–likely including “NBC Sports” in some form–would be coming soon:

“We have Versus, which many have suggested will get re-named NBC Sports, or something with NBC Sports, including us allowing that we are going to start an NBC Sports channel,” Roberts said. “And take Versus which just made a 10 year deal with the NHL. We are thinking that way, and we will do something we just haven’t announced it yet.”

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NBC’s Sunday Night Football contest between San Diego and Indianapolis earned a 13.0 overnight rating and 19 share, up slightly from last year’s Week 12 game (Pittsburgh-Baltimore).

For the 12th straight week, Sunday Night Football was the top program of the evening and helped NBC win the primetime (7-11 p.m.) ratings for Sunday, defeating second place CBS by 23 percent.

Locally, the game earned a 42.9 overnight rating and 55 share in Indianapolis and a 39.2/56 in San Diego.

And here comes the fallout from George Dohrmann‘s Sports Illustrated story.

ESPN is looking into Mel Kiper’s relationship with NFL agent Gary Wichard as described by Josh Luchs in this week’s SI cover story on agent tampering in college football.

In the article, Luchs claims Kiper worked with Wichard in order to persuade potential clients by using his NFL draft rankings as incentive for players to sign.

(No wonder those draft ranking arguments with Todd McShay are always so heated).

“Conversations with players, which are occasionally facilitated by agents, are a valuable way to get to know the players,” Kiper responded in a statement. “These conversations have never compromised my integrity, and my 32-year record supports that.”

Luchs stood by his claim of Kiper’s involvement on Mike and Mike in the Morning on Wednesday.

“What Mel did do in these situations, whether he realizes it or not, he allowed himself to be used in the recruiting process,” Luchs said.

This will likely be the first of many folks to publicly deny the allegations described in Dohrmann’s story.

Stay tuned.

Politics Daily reached out to a number of prominent journalists and media personalities to get their predictions for the 2010-2011 NFL season.

A small selection of their picks:

NBC’s Chuck Todd likes the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts… though he admits a bias:

“I’m going with Packers-Colts . . . and not just because I’m a Packer fan. Aaron Rodgers will finally get the [Brett] Favre monkey off his back and beat the Vikings (TWICE).” Todd also argued the New York Jets are overrated, and went out on a limb with a wild prediction: “Two dark horse teams from the AFC . . . Texans and Dolphins.”

Fox News Channel’s Brian Kilmeade takes the New York Giants and Baltimore Ravens:

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