ESPN: The World Wide Leader In Hypocrisy

Hey, remember when a bunch of ESPN talking heads, including Michelle Beadle, Kirk Herbstreit, Jay Bilas, and Colin Cowherd went on a moral crusade against Joe Paterno for not doing more upon learning that Mike McQueary witnessed Jerry Sandusky in the shower behaving beyond inappropriately with a boy in the shower?  Good times, wasn't it?  Now, in a cruel twist of irony, the shoe is on the other foot, and then some.  While we do not know what Jim Boeheim did or did not know in terms of the Bernie Fine allegations at Syracuse, but we do know who did know of these allegations back in 2003.  That's right.  The Worldwide Leader, themselves.  ESPN knew.

ESPN did nothing.

What am I talking about, exactly?  It goes back to the Syracuse allegations against Bernie Fine.  Released today on Outside The Lines, a recorded telephone conversation former Syracuse ball boy Bobby Davis had with Bernie Fine's wife, Laurie in regards to Bernie Fine's behavior.  Due to the disturbing nature of this conversation, I will not post any quotes here, but if you want to read it so you have, click here to read excerpts of the conversation between Davis and Laurie Fine.

One slightly major issue.  The conversation in that transcript took place in 2002.  ESPN obtained a copy of the audiotape of that conversation in 2003.  Sporting News summarizes what ESPN did with the conversations (bold emphasis mine).

Davis, now 39, shared the tape with Syracuse police after Outside the Lines reported that allegations Nov. 17. He had given ESPN the tape of the recorded conversation in 2003, but ESPN did not report that accusations because it didn’t have enough information to back up Davis’ allegations.

 At least Joe Paterno went to the AD and the head of police, even though all he had to off of was hearsay.  ESPN had tapes from Bernie Fine's wife essentially implicating him in child molestation.  ESPN sat on these tapes.  They claim there was not enough evidence to go public, but they did not turn over the conversation to authorities for further investigation.  Is this beginning to sound familiar to anyone?

Now this is likely something that Michelle Beadle, Kirk Herbstreit, and other ESPN talking heads knew nothing about, but, it is worth pointing out that they are not directing anger at their own company.  Shocking.  Beadle has turned from mud-flinging at Paterno to "Monsters are everywhere," and "Focus on cleaning up" abuse at universities.  Amazing.  I know.

But instead of continuing on my moral high horse on the hypocrisy of some at ESPN, I'll just ask one question.

Is this too a conspiracy of cowards?

Big East Tournament Semifinals Live Blog

We have already started and are watching much more than the Big East. For the whitest basketball game you've ever seen, Patriot League final is today at 4:45.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE LIVE BLOG!

Big East Tournament Quarterfinals Live Blog

"AN INSTANT CLASSIC ON THE CORNER OF JOHN STOCKTON AND KARL MALONE DRIVE!" And The Rest of Gus Johnson's Fun Night In Salt Lake City

Oh, Gus, we really did miss you and your awesome screaming in the NCAA Tournament! What a night he had. For all the bad luck he has had in the past few years, he can now say that in what has been a wild and incredible tournament, he called the Game of the Tournament. But before we go there, let's get to this little thing called Butler upsetting Syracuse in a close game, shall we?



"BUTLER! AGAIN!"

Priceless Gus Johnson. It is worthy to note that before that Gus did have his moments of complete freakout in that game, although aside from the highlight videos that everything out, I can't seem to find anything.

And that maybe because the game he called after that one trumped it by a wide margin. Here are your late 2nd half and overtime game and Gus Johnson highlights of what was undoubtedly the game of the tournament, quite possibly the game of the college basketball season thus far, and maybe even an overall game of the year candidate. I present to you this highlight video starring Kansas State, Xavier, Karl Hess, and Gus Johnson.



"Let's it go AND BURIES IT!" - GuJo on a K-State 3 to put them up 3 with 23.6 to go.
"Here comes Holloway with the screen, OH HE'S FOULED ON THE SHOT!" - GuJo on the shooting foul behind the arc.
"WE'RE HEADING TO OVERTIME!" - GuJo. Self explanatory.
"Holloway, turns, fires OH HE MADE IT AGAIN! - GuJo on a Holloway 3 that tied the game with 46 seconds left.
"Holloway, he's shown a flare for the dramatic. Holloway! 11 to go! Holloway! Holloway gets it out. Crawford! 8! Crawford's gotta HURRY! UP..OOOHHHH!!!!!!!! HE'S TIED IT! CLEMENTE! CLEMENTE FIRES....AND WE'RE HEADING TO DOUBLE OVERTIME!! WHAT A GAME! INSTANT CLASSIC ON THE CORNER OF JOHN STOCKTON AND KARL MALONE DRIVE!" - Gus Johnson calling the final seconds of the first overtime.(Len Elmore's screaming drowns out the "OH!" but if you listen closely you can still make it out.)
"Redford a 3. Off the glass and no good and that's it! Kansas State advances to the Elite 8 with a double overtime win over Xavier! 101-96!" - Gus at the end of the game.

Now for some talk about the game. Yes, Karl Hess did mess up that call at the end of regulation. Yes there was a foul before the shot before the foul in the act of shooting behind the arc was called. Yes, Karl Hess was given a get out of jail free call by Kansas State holding off Xavier and winning one of the most thrilling and exciting NCAA Tournament games we've seen in quite some time.

Now back to Gus. If you think that we are the only ones that talk about Gus Johnson, think again.

Check this out:

As the seconds were winding down in double overtime, Gus Johnson was the #1 Worldwide Trending Topic on Twitter. How cool is that.

And yes, I was at first disappointed that Gus got the West region. I figured that out of his three possible destinations (Houston is the excluded destination for the obvious reasons; Nantz's hometown and Duke), SLC was the least attractive of the bunch. Boy was I wrong. We are yet to see what takes place in St. Louis but last night Salt Lake City saw a close and exciting upset, even if at times it was not the most beautiful basketball game ever played, and that was followed by the Kansas State-Xavier thriller that was without a doubt the game of a tournament filled with great games. On the other hand, the games in Syracuse set basketball back a few decades.

2010 Big East Tournament Quarterfinals Live Blog

Last year on this day of the tournament, Villanova beat Marquette on a last second buzzer-beater and Syracuse and Connecticut went 6 overtimes. This is the round where the Big East tournament gets real good. A reminder for the 10,000th time that I will be out for the Cuse-GTown game and will return sometime during Nova-Marquette. But that does not mean you should join us throughout the day and night for an awesome day of basketball! Feel free to comment as long as you don't troll! (all times eastern)

#8 Georgetown vs. #1 Syracuse 12:00 (ESPN - Dave Pasch, Doris Burke, and Fran Fraschilla, SR: Beth Mowins)

#5 Marquette vs. #4 Villanova Approx. 2:00 (ESPN - Dave Pasch, Doris Burke, and Fran Fraschilla, SR: Beth Mowins)

#7 Notre Dame vs. #2 Pittsburgh 7:00 (ESPN - Sean McDonough, Jay Bilas, and Bill Raftery, SR: Beth Mowins)

#11 Cincinnati vs. #3 West Virginia Approx. 9:00 (ESPN - Sean McDonough, Jay Bilas, and Bill Raftery, SR: Beth Mowins)