It took until the midway point of the NBA Finals, but somebody finally said it.  Someone finally stood up in the haze of the nonsensical mainstream media and offered up his services as “voice of reason”.  Even though he doesn’t have the “legitimate mainstream media credentials”, he said it live on Rome is Burning.  
 
His name is Jalen Rose, and even though he once accepted the role of “feature reporter” for Best Damn Sports Show Period, we’re willing to absolve of him any previous or future wrong-doings in the field of television media.  
 
Monday afternoon, Rose took a stand for original thought when he refuted the notion held by Rome and countless other media clowns that LeBron James is the new answer to Michael Jordan:  

”There’s not a next Mike, people. So, retire that statement.  There will never be another Magic.  There will never be another Mike.  There will never be another Larry.  There will never be another Wilt.  Those players are timeless.  Let (LeBron) be the first LeBron.”

On behalf of clear-thinking sports fans around the world, we thank Jalen Rose for his commentary.  It’s our hope that should he ever return to Best Damn Sports Show Period, he’ll be the only Rose on set (zing).  

Crap that actually came from somebody’s mouth
“Everyone wants (LeBron James) to be the next big thing.  Everyone wants him to be Michael Jordan.” – Jim Rome
 
No Jim; only morons looking to fill air time “want” that.
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"Arizona Rises Again: Arizona repeated as softball champions Wednesday night -- the hard way.  The Wildcats beat Tennessee 5-0 in Game 3 of the WCWS Championship series to win the school's eighth national title.” – ESPN.com main page
 
We have no problems with coverage of women’s collegiate sports, but we do find it a bit ironic that ESPN landed the above text right next to the Anaheim Ducks winning the Stanley Cup.  It’s almost as if they gave the story the time of day because the women’s games were on ESPN and ESPN2 all week.   Like, seriously.
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"The Best Damn Sports Show Period... it's the greatest nightly sporst show on television." - Dan McLaughlin, FoxSports Midwest

It's our contention that Fox Sports has a very loose, liberal definition of the term "greatest".
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"There's a lot worse things in life than an accidental hit by pitch,"  - Reds Manager Jerry Narron on Tony LaRussa’s reaction to catcher Gary Bennett getting drilled in the back of the head with an Aaron Harang fastball.

Though we can’t speak from experience, we’re thinking that if you’re standing in a batter’s box watching as a 90 mph fastball is coming directly at your cranium, there aren’t a whole lot of worse things at that moment. 
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“(Harold) Reynolds will also interact with fans via weekly online chats and through his blog, giving MLB.com users unprecedented, round-the-clock access to one of baseball's most knowledgeable and popular personalities.” – MLB Press Release on Harold Reynolds joining MLB.com

We feel we’ve done our share to remind the sporting world what kind of analysis Harold Reynolds brought to the table on a regular basis.  We’ll just simply say, it’s amazing what qualifies one as being considered “knowledgeable” in today’s media.

Fun with Dot-Com Headlines
"Matt Mosley serves up some Morning Hash, including notes about Daunte Culpepper and Calvin Johnson, as well as a lot more Sopranos talk." - ESPN.com

Note to ESPN online medium: in the future, you may want to avoid the term “serve up some hash”. Especially around NFL players.
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"Dumars: Saunders is safe, so are players." -Foxsports.com
 
”They’re hiding out in a bunker beneath Rasheed Wallace’s house, so everything’s cool.”
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"Could Becks escape from L.A.?  | Agent: No" - Foxsports.com
 
You would have zero reason to click on the first headline about David Beckham leaving Los Angeles since, you know, the link right next to it pretty much answers the question. Brilliant execution headline guys.

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“Pentagon confirms it sought to build a ‘Gay Bomb’.” – CBS 5 San Francisco
 
There are no words to describe the collective reactions of the Media Circus upon reading that headline.  For the record, it’s a 100% true story.

The Best Receiver
With their new feature called “The Best”, ESPN’s football department has been loading up on analysis of the NFL’s best players at various positions.  Recently their gridiron heavy hitters took a look at the best wide receivers and the results were surprising not due to their choices, rather their omissions.  

The group of five writers polled was split – 3 viewed Marvin Harrison as the best receiver in football, 2 thought it was Steve Smith.  Chad Johnson garnered some consideration from multiple writers.  Certainly nothing wrong with those three choices as all have been elite receivers in the league for several years.  But at the risk of sounding like St. Louis homers, where was the love for Torry Holt?  Only Len Pasquarelli mentioned Holt’s name, doing so while supporting his choice of Harrison.  

We’re not saying that their analysis was wrong or misguided, just that any conversation about the best receivers in football needs to have Torry Holt front and center.  Of the four receivers mentioned – Holt, Harrison, Johnson, Smith – Torry Holt is either tops or second in the following career categories: average yards per catch (15.0), receptions per season (89), touchdowns per season (8), receptions of 20+ yards per season (20), receptions of 40+ yards per season (4).  (Note: to keep it fair, we excluded Steve Smith’s 2004 season from his career marks due to his season long injury)

In addition to those numbers, Holt also holds the distinction of being the only wide receiver in NFL history to post 6 consecutive seasons of 1,300 yards receiving or more and currently carries a career per-game receiving average of 84.72 yards, better than Harrison (80.57), Johnson (75.27), Smith (63.96) and even that guy from Dancing with the Stars, Jerry Rice (75.51).  

Tack onto those numbers the fact that he’s missed only two games in his eight year career and you’ve got yourself a pretty damn good wide receiver. 

Greatest Cliché on Turf: 2007 Edition
Speaking of Torry Holt-led teams, according to our research, the previous record for “earliest comparison to the Greatest Show on Turf ” for the St. Louis Rams was held by ESPN’s John Clayton in 2005.  Clayton broke it out on August 1, 10 days prior to the start of that year’s pre-season as part of his preview of a team that ultimately went 6-10 and scored 177 points less than the 2000 Rams. 

Consider that record shattered.

On June 9, 2007, St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Bill Coats leaned on the media’s favorite Rams cliché a full two months before the first pre-season game.  With his column entitled “Will the offense measure up to the Greatest Show?”, Coats delivered to what is estimated to be the 375,312th  version of a story comparing a post-2001 Rams team to the team that racked up record breaking point totals from 1999-2001.  Coats comes to a stunning revelation about the current Rams bunch…

“The Rams could be headed for their most explosive season offensively since the "Greatest Show on Turf" tore up the league.”

As we determined in a 2005 column on InsideSTL.com, “The Greatest Show on Turf” is like Michael Myers after being shot in the head and set on fire, it just won’t freaking die.

Memo to the media - The Greatest Show on Turf is gone. It was fun while it lasted; it provided us with ample video of Brenda Warner’s buzz cut, endless soundbites of Mike Martz saying he’ll “fix” something, a few Dick Vermeil tears and even a Super Bowl.

It’s time to let it go.

Belichick Implements Scheme to Take over Internet
Considering they’ve won 3 Super Bowl championships this decade and had the most notable off-season of any NFL team, it’s not surprising that a lot of the focus for the NFL media is on the New England Patriots.  But all of the focus?  Like, all the time?
 
As noted by The Big Lead on Monday, a screen shot of the WorldWide Leader’s Web site revealed the folks in Bristol are smitten for Bill Belichick’s locker room.

Okay, so maybe it was just an isolated incident.  After all, maybe the next day they changed things up again.  

Um, no, maybe not.  It should be noted that the “Tipsheet” toggle on the above picture featured Len Pasquarelli documenting Patriots’ tight end Benjamin Watson’s on field progression.   

It is believed that Pasquarelli later rolled in a pile of Belichick's and Brady's fecies to truly grasp the essence of the Patriots minicamp.

Bob Carpenter Memorial Snappy Line
Every once and a while, Bobby gets tired of the same old schtick.  Last week, he gave a very mild stamp of approval for Cardinals TV broadcaster Jay Randolph, so it was with extra effort that he kept his eyes and ears open for some good old fashioned hearty snap this week.  And when home-style snappiness is on the menu, Jeremy Schaap is usually just what the Bobber orders.  

While discussing Roger Clemens’ return performance, Schaap noted that while Clemens didn’t give a lights out, Cy Young type performance… 

"He was not Cy Old."

As Clemens’ performance went, so did the snappy line.  The Bobber isn’t very satisfied and has a message for Jeremy Schaap: “You’re nothing like your old man.”  Thumbs down from Robert C.

The Media Circus is written by Josh Bacott and Pat Imig.  They swear this stuff is real.  Email them at info@joesportsfan.com