World Sports

This week is a key one on the sports calendar for industry conferences presented by prestigious universities. The 11th annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is Friday and Saturday March 3-4. The speaker list is again impressive. Highlights include Billy Beane, Mark Cuban, Nate Silver, Adam Silver and too many more to cover. (My preview and recap of the 2016 conference offer some perspective, if you are not familiar with…

The Worldwide Leader strikes back. ESPN is trying to turn Fox Sports’ brightest star, Katie Nolan, into a turncoat and bring her entertaining, irreverent act to the sports media behemoth. According to a Sporting News report, ESPN has begun courting Nolan, holding a meeting with the star of “Garbage Time.” Included in the sitdown were ESPN president John Skipper, senior VP Connor Schell and, notably, Erik Rydholm, a producer who’s generated original broadcasting like…

CLOSE x Embed x Share Tim Tebow address the media after arriving at Mets camp. Chris Pedota/NorthJersey.com Tim Tebow is seen leaving on a golf cart after addressing members of the media.(Photo: Steve Mitchell, USA TODAY Sports) PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Tim Tebow was everywhere Monday at the New York Mets spring-training camp, but nowhere to be found in the actually place that mattered. You could find Tebow jerseys…

John Cena is the biggest box office attraction in professional wrestling, and he is just starting to make a dent in the entertainment world. Cena has already filmed two seasons of American Grit for NBC, guest hosted the iconic Saturday Night Live show in December, and is now a spokesman for the global brand of Nintendo. The sixteen-time WWE world champion is appointment viewing whenever he appears on WWE…

Sunday night at the Oscars got a late jolt — as well as one of the most awkward, memorable scenes in TV history — when the wrong card was accidentally handed to the Best Picture presenters. The mixup led to La La Land briefly being named Best Picture, before an insane moment when the speeches were stopped and the audience was informed that it was actually Moonlight that had won.  The auditorium gasped, four…

CLOSE x Embed x Share Tim Tebow address the media after arriving at Mets camp. Chris Pedota/NorthJersey.com Tim Tebow is seen leaving on a golf cart after addressing members of the media.(Photo: Steve Mitchell, USA TODAY Sports) PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Tim Tebow was everywhere Monday at the New York Mets spring-training camp, but nowhere to be found in the actually place that mattered. You could find Tebow jerseys…

NEVER MISS OUT

It didn’t take long for the sports world to weigh in on the Oscars best picture award mix-up that occurred late Sunday night. In case you missed it, “La La Land” initially was presented with the coveted award, only for the picture’s cast and crew to learn that fellow nominee “Moonlight” was the actual winner. WATCH: Moment where crew/cast of ‘La La Land’ realizes a mistake had been made and…

The Oscars may have been marred by a historic screw-up at the end of the ceremony, but in terms of historic human errors, remembering these terrible fails in sports may help ease the embarrassment: 1. Seahawks-Packers, 2012 It was the call that ended the NFL officials lockout. In 2012, replacement officials — as it was later widely acknowledged — botched a touchdown call, a moment that was so bad that…

It didn’t take long for the sports world to weigh in on the Oscars best picture award mix-up that occurred late Sunday night. In case you missed it, “La La Land” initially was presented with the coveted award, only for the picture’s cast and crew to learn that fellow nominee “Moonlight” was the actual winner. WATCH: Moment where crew/cast of ‘La La Land’ realizes a mistake had been made and…

It didn’t take long for the sports world to weigh in on the Oscars best picture award mix-up that occurred late Sunday night. In case you missed it, “La La Land” initially was presented with the coveted award, only for the picture’s cast and crew to learn that fellow nominee “Moonlight” was the actual winner. WATCH: Moment where crew/cast of ‘La La Land’ realizes a mistake had been made and…

This is the fourth essay in our series of 10 Lessons From 10 Years Of The World’s Most Innovative Companies. The National Football League is an amazingly successful enterprise, but these days it’s hard to think of it as a bastion of forward-thinking business practices. The organization’s blindness, or willful denial, of concussion risks could be a case study in mismanagement. Whether the edifice of professional football will eventually crumble…

When Adnan Virk was a guest on the Sports Illustrated Media podcast last May, one of the subjects that came up was Virk being the first Muslim anchor to work at ESPN. “There have been trailblazers in other disciplines much more important than me than being the first Muslim sportscaster at ESPN but it is pretty cool when I go to the mosque or when I meet kids and…

Attention, sports team owners – and anyone trying to make a buck off the supposedly ever-growing American thirst to watch athletic events. Game over. TV viewership of sporting events has seemingly reached – at a minimum – a cyclical peak. Ratings for most major professional sports are headed in the wrong direction. And in today’s media-saturated world, this will become a challenge for an industry in…

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wrecks just kept on coming in startlingly rapid fashion during Stage 3 of the Daytona 500 on Sunday. Within a handful of laps before the final 80-lap segment that was to determine the race winner reached halfway, there were three more huge multi-car accidents on a day that was full of them after a quiet first 60-lap stage. On the…

Getty Images When the NFL banned Barstool Sports from covering Super Bowl week events, PFT made an issue of it because we think independent media should be able to cover the sport without constraints from the league. Now the NBA has provided an example of what can happen when a sports league gets too heavy-handed with the media, and the media lacks the will to push back. Bleacher Report has…

Attention, sports team owners – and anyone trying to make a buck off the supposedly ever-growing American thirst to watch athletic events. Game over. TV viewership of sporting events has seemingly reached – at a minimum – a cyclical peak. Ratings for most major professional sports are headed in the wrong direction. And in today’s media-saturated world, this will become a challenge for an industry in…

A GRIP ON SPORTS • The quest for perfection ended on a not-so-perfect Senior Night at McCarthey Athletic Center. That’s the news flash. But there were a lot of reasons behind it. Read on. •••••••••• • We could count the reasons behind Gonzaga’s 79-71 loss to BYU last night but that would get really long. And we really don’t have the time. We could point to the 16-of-29 from the free…

Oregon Ducks forward Dillon Brooks (24) posts up on UCLA Bruins guard Lonzo Ball (2) during the second half at Pauley Pavilion. The UCLA Bruins won 82-79.(Photo: Kelvin Kuo, USA TODAY Sports) Gonzaga’s stunning loss to BYU doesn’t just ruin a perfect season. It likely ruins the chances of notching a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament now. Previously the fourth best No. 1, the ‘Zags (29-1, 17-1) fell…

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