Desmond Howard, a Heisman Trophy winner and Super Bowl MVP, is also supporting Obama. In early June, Howard -- who is now an ESPN analyst -- donated $35,800 to the Obama Victory Fund.I wonder if another ESPN personality donates the maximum to a Republican and it's known to the public would that person be long for ESPN?
Facts: Potus has played more golf this month than I have: I have created more jobs this month than he has: #MarthasvineyardWell, the bumkissing rumpswabs at ESPN, who fawn shamelessly over Obama as he embarrasses himself each year with his March Madness idiocy, have admonished Azinger.
ESPN is coming down on Paul Azinger for mocking President Barack Obama on Twitter. The golf analyst tweeted Friday that the Commander-in-chief plays more golf than he does -- and that Azinger has created more jobs this month than Obama has.It's OK for them to slobber over Obama, but one of their employees dares to make a joke and that's forbidden.
ESPN has 'reminded" Azinger his venture into political punditry violates the company's updated social network policy for on-air talent and reporters issued yesterday.
"Paul's tweet was not consistent with our social media policy, and he has been reminded that political commentary is best left to those in that field," spokesman Andy Hall told Game On! in a statement.
President Obama may be taking a political risk in his quest to fix health care, but he's playing it safe when it comes to his March Madness picks.So now we'll be treated to three weeks of slobbering over Obama on ESPN. Great.
The Hoopster-in-Chief chose Kansas, Kentucky, Kansas State and Villanova to make the men's Final Four.
It's the second year the President has filled out a bracket for ESPN.
But this was the first time Obama also picked the Final Four in women's college basketball, choosing Connecticut, Stanford, Tennessee and Notre Dame.
His full brackets, including who he thinks will win the championships, will be released on ESPN's SportsCenter on Wednesday.
SportsCenter will also air an interview with Obama at noon.
Pardon the interruption: Tony Kornheiser has been benched from "Pardon the Interruption."
ESPN has banned the print, radio and TV personality from its popular "PTI" show for biting on-air comments he made last week about SportsCenter host Hannah Storm's wardrobe.
Kornheiser, who has built a persona on caustic shots at a wide swath of sports figures, couldn't get away with turning his sights into ESPN's house – saying Storm dressed "like she has sausage casing wrapped around her body" and calling the 47-year-old anchor "a Holden Caulfield fantasy," referring to the protagonist in J.D. Salinger's book "The Catcher in the Rye."
Kornheiser opened his ESPN Radio show by briefly addressing the suspension, saying he "had made intemperate remarks, and stupid remarks, about Hannah Storm … and as a result of this I have been sent to the sidelines from PTI for a while." The suspension is expected to be a few days.
"I've said about a thousand times while doing radio in my life the following sentence: If you put a live microphone in front of somebody, eventually that person will say something wrong. This was one of the times I said something wrong," Kornheiser said. "It seems to me without any question that I broke the rules, and this is the punishment that's come."
The firestorm - just the latest sexual harassment flare-up to hit ESPN - occurred the evening after Storm had hosted the morning SportsCenter wearing a slim-fitting red sweater, a red-plaid skirt and red boots ending just below the knee.
"Hannah Storm in a horrifying, horrifying outfit today," Kornheiser said on PTI. "She's got on red go-go boots and a Catholic-school plaid skirt. … Way too short for somebody in her 40s or maybe early 50s by now. She's got on her typically very, very tight shirt. She looks like she has sausage casing wrapping around her upper body.
"I know she's very good, and I'm not supposed to be critical of ESPN people, so I won't. But Hannah Storm, Come on now! Stop! What are you doing? She's what I would call a Holden Caulfield fantasy at this point."
Only one missing ingredientShe's not going to be ignored, Steve!At the link there are PDF's of the letter Hundley wrote to Mrs. Phillips, as well as statements from Phillips, his wife and son. Being this is the Facebook age, naturally Hundley went really psycho and "friended" one of Phillips' sons.
ESPN analyst Steve Phillips had a fling with a 22-year-old production assistant, who, after being dumped, taunted his wife with "Fatal Attraction"-like phone calls and a letter that bragged about her sexcapades with Phillips while taking pot shots at their "loveless marriage," The Post has learned.
The former Met general manager, whose tenure with the team was rocked by admissions of infidelity, confessed to his wife and local cops that he had slept with ESPN assistant Brooke Hundley several times this past summer before dumping her.
In retaliation, the jilted young woman repeatedly phoned Phillips' wife, Marni, saying, "We both can't have him!" an explosive police report claims.
Hundley's desperate actions -- including accidentally smashing her car into a stone column while speeding away from the Phillips' home after leaving the letter -- terrified the family, according to the Wilton, Conn., police report."I have extreme concerns about the health and safety of my kids and myself," Steve Phillips said in a police statement, adding that the woman became "obsessive and delusional" after he dumped her.
But Phillips, 46, declined to pursue criminal charges against Hundley, a Bristol, Conn., woman who cops learned may have used an ESPN computer to contact Phillips' 16-year-old son on Facebook while posing as a high-school classmate.
Phillips -- who admitted having multiple affairs with women while working for the Mets -- is now being sued for divorce by his 40-year-old wife, the mother of his four sons. Two months ago, Phillips deeded the family's five-bedroom, multimillion-dollar Wilton home to her.
A source told The Post Phillips has been suspended for a week by ESPN -- which hired him in 2005 as a baseball analyst -- because of the scandal.
ESPN refused to comment, and Phillips did not return calls seeking comment.
Hundley, too, refused to talk when reached by The Post last night.
The bombshell developments come 11 years after Phillips took a brief leave of absence as the Mets' GM after admitting to having sex with a team employee, Rosa Rodriguez, who sued him for sexual harassment, a case later settled out of court.
"She said that she had overheard my mom telling someone at my brother's baseball game that my dad really likes someone at work and is probably going to move out and that if I need to talk to anyone, she would be willing to listen because her parents went through the same thing," the boy told cops.Hundley's Facebook page is still active. Ironically, her photo shows her blowing a whistle.
"She asked inappropriate questions about my parents, such as: Do they sleep in the same bed? Do you think they will be getting a divorce? Do they fight a lot?" the youth added.
He said the woman even tried flirting with him to get information.
"She told me that she had stopped by the [football] field before to see me [practice] . . . She often awkwardly, flirtatiously complimented me, saying that I was a very sweet and nice guy."
But the son said he grew angry when she referred to his mother as his dad's "baby mama."
"[She] would often make comments of how lucky my mom was to marry a guy with money and not have to work . . . The tone was very jealous," he said.
The boy added that when he didn't immediately respond to the writer, she would start bombarding him with messages.
"Countless times, she asked me for my home phone number and stated that . . . her parents needed to contact my mother immediately," the rattled teen said.
The kid also began receiving numerous Facebook friend-requests from Hundley.
Marni Phillips, a stunning, green-eyed blonde, told cops that on Aug. 19, she drove home with her 7-year-old son and spotted a woman walking down the driveway to a parked car.
"I knew instinctively this was the woman Steve was involved with and I was terrified," Marni told cops. "I immediately called 911. She got in her car, put it in reverse and smashed the rear end of her vehicle into the stone column."
Marni then found the letter stuck in the door.
In the letter, Hundley details her affair with Phillips, and mentions "a big birthmark on his crotch . . . and one on his left inner thigh, so you know I'm not being fake."
Greg Stube set the tone for my approach to hosting “Grateful Nation”. Greg and I bonded in many ways during our time filming in the snow covered Rockies. I learned so much from him and how he sees life, and I am a better man for it. Watching Greg on horseback for hours, heading up steep mountain trails, knowing he was in pain from his many surgeries to re-attach is right leg, his skin grafts to a major portion of his body to heal 3rd degree burns, numerous surgeries to address a wound channel created by a one pound piece of shrapnel which traveled from his right buttock though his body, which took out 70% of his insides, and gunshots through his torso as well, I asked if he’d like to stop and rest a while. A smile crossed his lips and he said, “I’ll be alright. I can deal with the pain. I just wish my doctors could see me right now so they could see what fine work they’ve done. They would be proud.” That took my breath away. Here is a man on a hard mountain ride, who’s never been on a horse, who is in pain from his many injuries, and all he would like is for his doctors to see the outstanding job they have accomplished on his body. No whining, just a man happy to be alive and appreciative of the great care he received from his medical staff and his wife Donna.
The revelation there are six tapes leads investigators toward the theory it could well be someone she knows who did this.Beautiful ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, who was secretly videotaped naked in her hotel room by a peephole pervert, is horrified and furious over the twisted act, her lawyer said yesterday.
"We are focused on putting this predator behind bars," her lawyer, Marshall B. Grossman, said yesterday. "This conduct is unacceptable in a civilized society."
Of the probe, he said only that his client and her representatives are working with authorities to bring the pervert to justice.
They are teaming with law enforcement and scouring the Web to find the creepy cameraman and make sure no more videos are up on any Web sites.
Grossman refused to identify the law-enforcement agency investigating or even where and when the videos were made.
"We will not risk the compromise of investigations through public discussion," he said.
TMZ has reviewed six videos shot by the peeping Tom who secretly videotaped Erin Andrews in her hotel room as the ESPN reporter walked around naked, not having a clue she was being watched ... and there are signs the person who taped it may be connected with the coverage of athletic events.My money is a disgruntled ex-boyfriend and/or someone related to ESPN is behind this. It can't be long until law enforcement pinpoints who was in both locations concurrently with Andrews and whittles it down from there.
Four of the clips were shot in the same hotel. The remaining two were shot in a different hotel. In the first hotel, the peephole is round. In the second hotel, the peephole is jagged. The furniture in the two hotel rooms is completely different.
This is really low. You've got to figure whatever hotel this transpired at has some employees who are a little nervous today.America's fixation with ESPN sportscaster Erin Andrews has now offcially reached the creepy stage.By the way, if you go looking for the video, be very wary of clicking on it.
According to numerous reports, Andrews, the former University of Florida dance team member, was recently victimized when some sicko videotaped her through a peephole in her hotel room door while she was undressed.
The video, as you might expect, went viral when it hit the Internet and Andrews' attorney was forced to put out a statement.
"While alone in the privacy of her hotel room, Erin Andrews was surreptitiously videotaped without her knowledge or consent," the statement said. "She was the victim of a crime and is taking action to protect herself and help ensure that others are not similarly violated in the future. Although the perpetrator or perpetrators of this criminal act have not yet been identified, when they are identified she intends to bring both civil and criminal charges against them and against anyone who has published the material. We request respect of Erin's privacy at this time, while she and her representatives are working with the authorities."
The tape of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews undressing in her hotel room is being used to spread a computer virus according to sophos.com.While we certainly are fans of the female form, we will not be linking any video that was taped illegally. Considering a computer virus may accompany the video, we won't be viewing it either.
Webpages are being put up with claims of links to the tape. However, a link to footage actually releases a virus into your computer system.
"Hackers are no slacks when it comes to taking advantage of a hot internet search trend, and they have been quick to set up bogus webpages claiming to contain the video footage of Ms Andrews in her hotel room," said Graham Cluley of Sophos.
U.S. President Barack Obama has accepted an invitation to attend the opening ceremony of the World Cup finals in South Africa next year, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on Monday.Of course ESPN is owned by ABC, which is now owned by the White House, so I guess if you like tuning in there but can't stand Obama, it might be time to find alternate viewing.
President Obama, whose late father was Kenyan, has indicated he will attend the event on June 11 next year when the first World Cup to be staged on African soil begins.
Blatter told a media briefing: "The World Cup in Africa will go well, there is no doubt.
WILL Leitch was banned from ESPN in October 2006 after he reported various scandals involving the network's anchors on his Deadspin sports Web site - prompting the cable channel to circulate a memo banning any mention of the site on its shows.He sounds like quite the catch.
Now Leitch has compiled all those anchors' peccadilloes in a book, "God Save the Fan," in which he strikes back at ESPN with tales of bizarre off-air behavior by Chris Berman, Scott Van Pelt and Sean Salisbury, among others.
In "God Save the Fan," due out from HarperCollins on Jan. 22, Leitch recalls the time back in the '90s when Berman, who goes by the nickname "The Swami" on air, walked into a bar, "waddled up to a woman clad in leather, pointed at her, and bellowed, 'You're with me, Leather.' And it worked." In the wake of Deadspin's posting the anecdote, "a catchphrase was born," complete with its own T-shirt line.
Then there's Salisbury, who holds the No. 3 spot on Leitch's list of "Ten Most Loathsome ESPN Personalities." He writes, "This blustery, mentally deformed NFL analyst reportedly took a picture of his penis and sent it out to female colleagues encouraging them to meet 'Lil Sean.' " After the incident, Salisbury "was suspended by the network" for one week but "has never publicly denied the incident."
"SportsCenter" anchor Van Pelt had his own issues with women - and with Leitch after he shared with his Web site readers a voicemail Van Pelt left for a girl he'd met at a bar, according to the book.
The message went, "Hey, it's Scott Van Pelt. We shared a brief but exceptionally meaningful relationship last Saturday. For what it's worth, you did pass everything on my checklist . . . as if I have any business having a checklist. At this point, I should talk to any woman who doesn't have a club foot or an amputee. If you have four limbs and you don't have Bell's palsy, I probably better just be signing up."
