Thursday’s Links

Still buzzing over the Lost finale from last night. And checking the blogs, there’s a lot of positive feedback, but let’s go to the main focus of this site.

Yesterday it broke that NFL receiver Keyshawn Johnson retired and signed with ESPN to become a studio analyst. Let’s check the fallout. The New York Post’s Pat Reichart has some quotes from Key stating that he’ll do more than just the NFL. Neil Best from Newsday has an article on Keyshawn as well. New York Daily News Jets beat reporter Rich Cimini has a story on Key.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News has some harsh words for Mike & the Mad Dog of WFAN for saying the report of Yankee Jason Giambi testing positive for amphetamines is no big deal. Are Francesca and Russo high?

As far as the Stanley Cup Finals are concerned, the matchup between Ottawa and Anaheim is not attractive for networks on either side of the US-Canada border. Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says the CBC is facing low ratings. William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail reports that CBC is putting analyst Greg Millen into the booth with Hockey Night in Canada’s A-team, Bob Cole and Harry Neale. In the same story, Houston says there will be two Saturday night games which benefits the CBC.

Fox Sports has signed a multi-year deal with XM Satellite Radio to carry the Bowl Championship Series starting in January.

Do you care that FSN has signed a deal to carry the Triathlon World Cup? Me neither.
Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram-Gazette writes about ESPN analysts giving the Celtics a lot of grief.

Bob Smizik of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says the worst thing for the NHL was to dump ESPN for Versus. I gotta agree. The NHL has not been served well. And Smizik gives an update on the Mike Lange situation. Apparently he’s talking about staying on with the Penguins.

Are you a tennis fan? Maybe not, but I enjoy watching it. This blog has the schedule for the Tennis Channel’s coverage of the French Open which starts this Sunday.

If you live in the Maryland area or have MASN on your sports tier on DirecTV or the Dish Network, you may have seen Amber Theoharis. She works Orioles telecasts as a sideline reporter. She does a very good job and is a rising star. Here’s a profile of the Maryland native.

Speaking of DirecTV, several Regional Sports Networks will be part of its 100 HDTV channel lineup which launches this year.

More links later as they warrant.