So University of South Carolina head football coach Steve Spurrier got himself into some trouble on Friday (July 24) when it was finally revealed that he was the lone Southeastern Conference (SEC) coach to not vote for Florida’s Tim Tebow for quarterback on the ballot for the preseason All-SEC team.
There was a bit of a rumble in the sports media world for most of last week when news surfaced that every head coach in the nation’s top football conference voted for the two-time National Champion and 2007 Heisman Trophy winner as the SEC’s top QB – except one.
Tebow is by far the [...]

Big news…no wait…huge news announced earlier this week by ESPN. The “total sports network” says it has plans to extend its reach into local sports media markets by launching individual market-specific Web sites across the country.
Following a successful test run in Chicago with www.ESPNChicago.com, ESPN will next setup Web sites aimed at covering the local sports scene in the New York, Los Angeles and Dallas markets.
ESPN’s plan is to first establish an online presence in the local markets, covering the area’s pro teams and local sports action, then dig deeper into coverage of college and high school sports news.
ESPN’s local [...]

Professional soccer, specifically the MLS (Major League Soccer), received a ton of media attention this week thanks to a newly released book containing comments from one of America’s biggest soccer stars severely criticizing the world’s biggest soccer star.
“The Beckham Experiment – How the World’s Most Famous Athlete Tried to Conquer America” by Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl examines David Beckham’s impact on America and the MLS after signing a five-year contract in 2007 to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy.
The book was officially released Tuesday (July 14) and created a major media storm due to comments in the book [...]

It’s been a slow week in the world of sports as the MLB All-Star Game has dominated the fans’ attention and recent media coverage.
Sports PR 101 Trivia Question: Name the only two days during the entire year that there’s not at least one game played by any of the four major pro sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL).
Answer: The day before and the day after the MLB All-Star Game.
The All-Star Game is an important event for MLB as it showcases its top players in a fun and relaxing style amidst a real and competitive game. It’s a unique experience [...]

As we enter Day 5 of the Dunk-Gate saga, both Nike and LeBron James continue to look pretty silly and have tainted, just a little bit, their golden images with the way they’ve handled the ridiculous situation.
The situation, of course, occurred Monday in Akron, OH, at LeBron’s Skills Academy when Xavier’s Jordan Crawford, allegedly, dunked on King James in a pickup game.
Two videographers captured the entire event on tape but had the evidence confiscated by Nike, a major sponsor of both James and the camp, after LeBron, apparently, instructed a Nike representative to do so.
James ordered the Nike rep to seize the [...]

It’s not news to anyone that our troubled economy has hit the sports industry very hard, paralyzing many areas of its businesses.
I know, I know…most industries and job markets in America have suffered tremendously since the bottom fell out last fall. But because past economic slowdowns had bypassed sports, the industry, as a whole, had severely underestimated the impact of the most recent downturn.
As a result, the sports industry was unprepared for the universal spending and hiring freezes by its clients, sponsors, broadcasters, fans, politicians, etc.
In essence, things are pretty bad.
However, like every other industry in America, the financial impact on [...]

Twitter, the micro blog sensation that’s taken the media world by storm, continues to garner tremendous press attention and has become the “flavor of the week” in the sports marketing and public relations industries.
A day doesn’t go by where a sports cable show, Web site, newspaper or magazine doesn’t refer to an athlete and his or her Twitter postings.
Not that Twitter isn’t a terrific marketing and PR tool, if leveraged appropriately, but it seems that other social media sites have been left in the dust by it. Certainly Facebook, MySpace and YouTube pages, personal Web sites and individual blogs of athletes [...]

Seeing as today’s July 4th, our Nation’s birthday, I thought it only appropriate to post something about sports and patriotism. The love and respect of America is a huge brick in the strong foundation of our sports culture.
So it’s important, today, to reflect on how sports have played a significant role in the history of our great country.
Perhaps the earliest connection between sports and patriotism is the tradition, in all American sports (professional and amateur), of performing our National Anthem before each game or event.
The origin of this great American tradition is traced back to 1918 when the United States was [...]