After Jeremy Lin’s first loss since he was placed in the New York Knicks starting lineup, ESPN.com posted the headline “Chink In The Armor” under a picture of Lin on Friday night. The headline was taken down after 35 minutes, but not before a screenshot was captured that went viral.

Meanwhile, ESPN News anchor Max Bretos asked, “If there is a chink in the armor, where can Lin improve his game?”

The headline writer was fired, and Bretos has been suspended for 30 days.

While “chink in the armor,” is an overused cliche involving sports, the word “ch*nk” is also a racist slur against Chinese, one that Jeremy Lin endured on one occasion coming from a college basketball opponent.

It could very well be that both the headline writer and Bretos made the reference accidentally, as it is often used. I would think that would especially be the case with Bretos, since he perhaps had less time to think about it being live on the air.

Nonetheless, with the conversation about race that Lin’s success has caused, ESPN was right to reprimand both. Punishments are handed down for sloppy worksmanship as well as for intentional comments.

MITCH BLATT

ESPN the Magazine would seem to be pushing the envelop to try to compete with Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue. A PR firm is promoting their latest Body Issue edition with “naked photos” including Olympic gymnast Alicia Sacramone, Clippers forward Blake Griffin and Team US soccer star Hope Solo. “Naked photos” are normally considered trashy in the media, but these ones are “art” as the press release states, and they don’t feature any body parts anyway.

Actually, its nothing new, what ESPN is doing. They’ve been publishing the issue with “naked” athletes since 2009, in a conscious effort to compete with the Swimsuit Issue, with a little bit of a more progressive nature in calling it “the Body Issue.” The images may or may not be considered NSFW, so don’t click the link for the full post if you don’t want to, but in the full post, you can see some of the bodies. Rest assured, there is no Greg Oden’s d***.

MITCH BLATT

ESPN: Those Guys Have All the Fun is a detailed 745-page history of the network, from its start in 1978 until today, as told by the anchors, personalities and executives who helped contribute to its three decade and counting history. The title “Those Guys Have All the Fun” is apparently referring more to the perception of the network than the reality. Stop and think for a moment if living in Bristol, working regularly past midnight, and obsessing over Joe Paterno’s medical condition (after getting knocked down again during practice) sounds like a fun life. In Bristol in the 1980’s, there were stories of employees and executives occupying their time in apartments with whores, drugs and excessive amounts of alcohol told in first hand accounts.

Inside the studio, sexual harassment was alleged–most famously by Karie Ross in 1989 at an ESPN meeting. According to the book, it was frequent that male employees turned on the Playboy channel when women were sitting in front of the screens.

Naturally the ESPN folks have a lot of stories to tell from throughout their history working at the Worldwide Leader, and they are given the opportunity to tell their tales in the book’s format; A format which mostly consists of direct quotes and stories from one person after another. There is scant original writing by the authors, James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales which they themselves acknowledge early on: as their voice is only used to clarify specific situations and important details. The format obviously gets everyone’s voice heard as well as their viewpoints, but sometimes the stories would be conveyed better if told through the author. Some of the interviewees ramble or become too self-focused in addressing their feelings. There’s also some talk about the business side of things from executives early on that might not be particularly interesting to non-ESPN diehards.

However the style works well in explaining what people were thinking at certain points during ESPN’s most entertaing moments: like Rush Limbaugh’s comments on Donovan McNabb and Jim Rome getting owned by Jim “Chris” Everett. They’re not contextualized by event, rather by periods of years that make up short eras, so you might have to search the index to find specific moments or people. Stephen A. Smith, Dick Vitale, Keith Olbermann, Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chris Berman and a host of other well-known ESPN personalities past and present chime in with their words. You’ll also hear from many people you have probably never heard of. Comments by athletes and managers like Emmitt Smith and Joe Torre, along with celebrities like Spike Lee make for interesting reading material.

Ultimately it’s among the most comprehensive history books on ESPN, and it has a lot of interesting tales to tell. The format wasn’t to my liking, but that’s an issue of personal preference rather than an objective criticism.

Details:
ESPN: Those Guys Have All The Fun
Authors: James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales
Pages: 745
Price: $17.45 at Amazon

Graphic: Scott Jacobs

MITCH BLATT

I reported last week on how ESPN had a record of cowtowing to LeBron James.

As noted:

[ESPN writer Tom] Friend didn’t get his facts wrong but LeBron felt he portrayed his mother, Gloria, in an unfavorable light. From that day forward, LeBron put The Magazine on his banned substance list.

Who knows whatever could they have been reporting about Gloria in an unfavorable light???

Well now ESPN deleted a story one of its writers wrote about a LeBron James-hosted Vegas party that James was paid $100,000 to host.

Sportscasm reports: “The story was full of tales of James’ ego, naked ladies, and the out-of-control party James threw that night.”

Luckily, the story was captured and is available at Sportscasm in it’s entirety.

Considering that only one of the players has a title so far and that LeBron completely flopped in last year’s playoffs, is it just a little too soon to be asking “How many?”

It reminds me of when LeBron was a senior in high school and everyone thought he was already the best player in the NBA. There were comparisons to Jordan; there was talk of him being better than Kobe. Well now Kobe has five championships after having stayed on his team for his entire career even during losing seasons (to be fair, he did criticize his team and ask for trades a few times). Michael Jordan didn’t announce his decision to stay in Chicago with an orchestrated one-hour special; he used one simple fax to say he was staying.

Now LeBron is playing on a “Dream Team” with two other stars–and that’s about it–and everyone expects him to win a title immediately. Probably not.

The Heat is already trading Michael Beasley. James and Wade don’t really compliment each other; they have very similar games. When ESPN showed a projected starting five for Miami there was no center. Who do they have? Joel Anthony? Dexter Pittman? Dwight Howard is going to have his way with Miami!

The Celtics have a big three and Rondo and Rasheed and Perkins. The Bulls have a much more well-rounded (and better) team, especially after adding Boozer.

To answer ESPN’s question, How many titles will the Heat win?, I’m going to say none, not until they get a team together.

Of course you can always bet on who is going to win, but sports betting and live betting aren’t my areas of expertise. I’ll make my picks, but I’m not going to put money on it.

As I said on Twitter, “When you are yelling at the camera about sports, you know you have a problem.”

Yes, that’s ESPN for you.

MITCH BLATT

While browsing ESPN and SI.com this morning, I noticed ESPN and SI had the same topics for almost all their headlines but ESPN’s headlines were framed in a much more exciting manner.

For example, how do the two sites headline a story about Dwight Freeney tearing a ligament in his ankle.

ESPN headlines his torn ligament:

Source: Freeney has torn ligament in ankle

While SI takes the Colts sources and headlines their denial:

Colts deny Freeney has ligament tear in ankle

When it comes to Rex Ryan flipping the bird, ESPN headlines:

Jets’ Ryan sorry for flipping fans the bird

While SI refers to “flipping the bird” simply as an “obscene gesture.”

At ESPN, Julius Peppers’ agent is “convinced” that Peppers will “leave the Panthers.” At SI, it’s simply a question: “Peppers done with Panthers?”

The final analysis shows that 70% of their headlines are about the same topics. Here are the screenshots:

ESPN

Sports Illustrated

Brett Favre just lost, so you would think that ESPN would go into overdrive with coverage of Brett Favre crying, speculation about whether he would retire, interviews with teammates about whether they think he’s gonna retire and the like.

On their website, they don’t have any of that up. They have an NBA story featured, and Brett Favre isn’t anywhere on their next three related stories. He is #2 in their headlines, with a story about how he says it’s “highly unlikely” that he will return. (No word on how likely it is that he will hold another press conference next week.)

ESPN better get to it soon, or else they risk losing their title as the Worldwide Leader in Brett Favre.

However, this is an important story about the two Mikes:

SCOTT JACOBS

We’ve come to expect stupid comments from our sports analysts. We’ve come to expect controversial comments from our sportscasters. But it’s going to take some time before I get used to totally ludicrous claims. Shaun King, step up to the plank, jump off the ship, we’re throwing you overboard and giving you the “most moronic statement of the week” award.

Now King, the former Tulane quarterback, was never a great analyst. Nothing he’s ever said on ESPN ever made my head spin in awe. I’ve come to expect that from the majority of ESPN’s hires.

It does take talent (not the good kind) to make as dumb a bold proclamation as King did today. When asked who the best team in the NFC was, King was quick to answer, The Philadelphia Eagles.

Whatttttttttttttt?

Is he watching the same league that I am? Is he? Because the Eagles aren’t even the best team in their division, nevermind ALL of the NFC! The 3-3 Eagles? That’s the best team in the NFC? Now, I’m no rocket scientist or nothing, but how can you call a .500 team the best in the conference?

Some of his reasons, besides the fact that he picked them to go to the Super Bowl before the season, were:

*The signing of Asante Samuel
*They have a bye week this week to right the ship

Uh, whatever you say Shaun.

Here’s the thing about the Eagles. They probably are better then their record. They lost that nailbiter in Dallas 41-37 in week 2, and they are the only team to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are 4-1. However, they have lost to every other quality team they’ve faced, including the Bears and the Redskins. Two of their wins are over the Rams and the 49ers, and let’s be real here: those aren’t exactly bona fide contenders.

The Eagles are last place in the NFC East.

But yeah, they are the best team in the conference. Clearly!

Seven teams out of the 15 team conference are 4-2 or better. Yet, its the 3-3 Eagles that are the best?

I understand records can be deceiving. For example, if the Patriots announced tomorrow that Tom Brady was okay to play this coming week, everyone would scrap their 3-2 record and steady fall, and proclaim them one of the favorites again. Injuries give you excuses at least. But the Eagles are healthy for the most part. Sure Brian Westbrook has been hurt two of the past three weeks, but the Eagles have gone a respectable 1-1 in his abscence. Donovan McNabb hasn’t missed a game yet, and the Eagles are still just a .500 team.

I understand that on paper people want to believe the Eagles are a very good team. But no one’s ever won a championship on paper. See: Yankees, New York. You have to go on the field and prove it.

Let’s look at the numbers and see what they say (Rankings in conference)

Offense:
Yards per game: 7th
Points per game: 5th
Yards per play: 5th
Third down percentage: 7th
Time of possession per game: 11th

Pretty average numbers, though we will point out that they’re the least penalized team and they have the best turnover ratio in the conference, so we’ll give them that.

Defense:
Points allowed per game: 7th
Yards per play: 2nd
Yards per game: 2nd
Percent of 3rd down stops: 5th
Penalties per game: 6th most

Their defense is pretty good, but if you look a the numbers overall (offense and defense) this is far from the best team in the NFC, even during a year where there might not be one elite team that stands out from the rest.

Here’s the list of all the teams that are better (by record) then the Eagles right now:

Giants (4-1)
Bucanneers (4-2)
Cardinals (4-2)
Redskins (4-2)
Panthers (4-2)
Falcons (4-2)
Cowboys (4-2)

And please, can we stop vehemently proclaiming that the NFC East is the NFL’s best division, a no brainer? Because, the NFC South has three teams that are 4-2, and one that is 3-3. That’s pretty darn good if you ask me. Sure, they lack the “tradition” that the Giants, Redskins, Cowboys and Eagles have, but let’s look at the facts:

Three of the NFC East’s teams lost this past Sunday.
Three of the NFC South’s teams won this past Sunday.

If this is truly a what have you done for me lately league, then I’d say the two are just about neck and neck right now.

One thing’s for sure though: until proven otherwise there is no way that the Eagles are the best team in the NFC right now.

Up for grabs doesn’t mean pick a name out of a hat.

Hopefully Shaun King will learn that.

Because of this useless stat, brought to you by ESPN:

The Cubs became the first team in the National League to win 60 games. The last time the first time in the NL to win 60 games won the World Series was the 95 Braves.