As indicated, when the TV numbers hit the wires, the reaction was largely negative, with the main thought being a bad game deserves lower ratings. That is, however, until ESPN got a chance to spin the numbers to their favor. It should be noted, however, that pointing out facts about the BCS Championship viewer ratings isn’t necessarily spin, either.

The title of their related press release demonstrates ESPN’s commitment to a positive light — BCS National Championship: Cable’s Second Biggest Audience of All Time — as does the content:

ESPN’s telecast of the Allstate Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship – Alabama’s 21-0 shutout of LSU — posted a 16.2 fast national household coverage rating, according to Nielsen, representing an average of 16,072,000 households, the second highest of any program in the history in cable television (records go back to 1987). The average of 24,214,000 viewers (P2+) was also second best in cable. It also is ESPN’s second-highest rating of all time.

The only telecast in cable television history with a larger audience was last year’s BCS Championship on ESPN (17,718,000 homes and 27,316,000 people, based on a 17.8 rating), a 22-19 Auburn victory over Oregon decided by a field goal as time expired.

To all the naysayers, downplaying the TV ratings, take that. While the viewer reception of the broadcast can be spun to represent both positive and negative reactions, one place where spin isn’t necessary is when dealing with ESPN’s online audience, otherwise known as the folks who watched the game on their PC, laptop, or other mobile device. As is the case with CBS’ March Madness On Demand, ESPN experienced a ratings increase for their online broadcast of the BCS Championship Game:

Across all WatchESPN platforms – computer, smartphone, tablet, Xbox – the average minute audience for the BCS National Championship game totaled 261,000 people, up 40 percent over last year’s game, and a record for college football on ESPN’s digital platforms. More than 523,000 people watched the game on WatchESPN.com, generating 39.6 million minutes and an average minute audience of 227,000 people, which is up 20 percent compared to last year [Emphasis added]

Not only did ESPN experience a noticeable ratings increase for their BCS Championship online broadcast, their audience for the entire BCS Bowl Game slate showed substantial increase as well, showing a 27 percent increase when compared to last year.

It’s pretty clear there is a sustainable business model for online broadcasts of live sporting events, but yet, the traditional entertainment industry stalwarts, especially those that depend on an viewing audience for success, are still hesitant to embrace online distribution of new content.

Apparently, the only time CBS thinks the idea is worthy is during the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament. Otherwise, you’re stuck with reruns of episodes that have aired at least a day before they are made available online.

Anyway, last Sunday, when the Jets played the Buffalo Bills, Bills wide receiver Stevie Johnson imitated the Burress incident after he scored a touchdown, which actually led to Johnson receiving a $10,000 fine for his antics. The celebration in question:

It’s a weird world we live when LeBron James, one of the most criticized athletes of our time, is treated as a sympathetic figure because the people going after him are doing so in a buffoonish manner. To be honest, my expectation was one that saw LeBron being pilloried across the social Internet. To see the opposite happen, that is, people attacking his critics, is not normal behavior for the Internet crowd.

ESPN had been promoting the event with the hashtag #WhenSkipMeets Tebow. As I’m sure you can imagine, it started off harmless… but as with anything else on the Internet it veered toward NSFW and quickly began trending worldwide.

You can check out some of the funnier ones below:

The comments in question compared President Obama to Adolph Hitler, something ESPN clearly disapproved of, and so, they removed Williams’ opening. The Worldwide Leader even released a statement confirming their decision:

“While Hank Williams, Jr. is not an ESPN employee, we recognize that he is closely linked to our company through the open to Monday Night Football. We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from tonight’s telecast.”

As for the comments in question, someone captured the “Fox and Friends” segment and posted it to YouTube, where the video has already surpassed 700,000 views, even though it’s been live for less than 24 hours:

It should be noted, however, that before Limbaugh was shown the door/“voluntarily” resigned, the suits at ESPN actually defended Limbaugh’s statements.

So maybe this level of consistency I referred to isn’t so consistent after all.

Nevertheless, Hank Williams Jr. is the latest “victim” of ESPN’s politically correct agenda — when it suits them, apparently — and much of the speculation is focused on whether or not Williams’ song will be heard again. Considering Williams’ response, it sounds like the words of a man resigned to his fate, even though the response was prepared by a publicist:

Williams issued a statement through his publicist, saying: “Some of us have strong opinions and are often misunderstood. My analogy was extreme — but it was to make a point. I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me — how ludicrous that pairing was. They’re polar opposites and it made no sense. They don’t see eye-to-eye and never will. I have always respected the office of the president.”

So did Williams mean to compare Obama to Hitler or not? Seeing how his statement reads like a “taken out of context” reply, who knows? As indicated, the subject is a pretty popular Twitter trend right now, and while there are a lot of responses to the story, a few of them come from established personalities like Scott Ian and Richard Roeper.

Interestingly enough, it takes a person of color to inject a little common sense into a conversation that we probably wouldn’t be having if President Obama wasn’t himself a person of color:

That, however, does not represent the majority of the Twitter feedback, which hammered Williams for his “Fox and Friends” appearance:

As of this article’s posting, Speaker Boehner still hasn’t responded Williams’ statements, nor the tweets aimed his direction. Speaking of politics, apparently, Williams is thinking of a bid for the Tennessee senate. Will his haberdashery choice come back to haunt him?

For those of you who missed Williams’ opening song during the Tampa Bay/Indianapolis game last night, here a couple of videos to tide you over, including a behind the scenes look:

Little did Texans running back and very high pick in my fantasy draft Arian Foster know that his tweet earlier today regarding his hamstring injury would result in a diagnosis by ESPN and a Twitter debate regarding the severity of said injury.

When Foster limped off the field Saturday night during a preseason game with the 49ers, people took to Twitter to express their concern about his condition. And yes, more than a few of those tweets discussed the upcoming fantasy football season.

Seeing this flood of tweets regarding his injury, Foster took offense to those concerned about his ability to rack up points in their office league –

This tweet garnered the attention of many in the sports world, ESPN’s Colin Cowherd in particular. He tweeted this soon after –

Foster countered with this –

Foster has stuck by his statement that he will be ready to play by the time the season opens. Earlier today, he tweeted a pic of his Hamstring MRI, saying that it showed a bunch of “anti-awesomeness.” (The pic is the article lead image)

The pic caused Twitter to explode with speculation: How severe is the injury really? Is Foster being overly optimistic about his chances to play on opening day? Apparently, the folks at ESPN decided to diagnose Foster through the twitpic. Their diagnosis differs slightly from Foster’s –

Foster is maintaining his story, however –

I guess we will have to wait to find out if Twitter is a good doctor.

That’s not all though. Google has expanded its NFL-related search results to include even more information, thanks to a partnership with ESPN, which already expanded upon its MLB results.

In a message posted to Google’s Inside Search Blog, software engineer Itay Maman writes:

Just as the NFL season kicks off and you have your fantasy football league ready to go, you’ll be able to get useful information such as the latest scores, schedules, standings and stats for football-related queries in your search results. Last week, we started showing MLB results in partnership with ESPN and we’re now expanding sports live results to include the NFL. In addition to information on the football league, teams and players, you’ll also have direct links to previews, live streams, updates and game recaps. We hope to add more and more sports information on google.com, so stay tuned.

The first game of the season kicks off at 8:30 PM (Eastern) on Thursday, September 8 on NBC. The New Orleans Saints head to Lambeau to face the Green Bay Packers.

However, the story of interest, at least in relation to Internet-related news, has to do with Ochocinco’s offer to stay with a New England Patriots fans for the first few weeks of the season, as he acclimates himself to his new city. Ochocinco is a prolific Twitter user, and, naturally, he made his intentions known there:

Normally, especially when you consider Chad’s (to avoid typing the ridiculous last name anymore) Twitter history, that post could and probably should be overlooked as more Twitter shenanigans, but in this case, you’d be wrong. There’s even a news report video:

The criteria [for the roommate] hasn’t been identified, but the mandatory requirements are simple. “I’m not sure how it’s going to work, but they have to have Internet and have to have Xbox,” Ochocinco said. “That’s about it.”

Considering Chad’s love for McDonald’s, there will probably be a lot of fast food consumption, too. That doesn’t sound like the kind of an environment a woman who appeared on Basketball Wives would be accustomed to.

Regardless of Chad’s intentions for staying with a Patriots fan–camaraderie, reaching out to the people that make all that money-making possible; he’s even made t-shirts for the occasion–his decision hasn’t gone over well with everyone in the media, including Skip Bayless. See for yourself:

Can’t we all just get along? More to the point, what’s the big deal about Chad staying with a Boston Patriots fan for a few weeks? Does it somehow make a mockery of fan/player relationship Bayless seems so hellbent on defending? Whatever the case, social media and outspoken athletes go together like bees and honey.

Speculation, however, centers on a book Feldman took part in, one that told the story of Mike Leach, the former head coach of Texas Tech’s football program. Leach was fired from his position for the apparent mistreatment of a player, Adam James. James’ father, Craig, is a prominent, yet oft-lampooned, announcer for ESPN’s college football broadcasts. After he was fired, Leach put some of the blame towards the senior James use of ESPN’s reach as the story progressed played no small part in his termination. If you’d like the comprehensive background, the details are available all around the Internet, including Wikipedia.

Suffice to say, Leach, James and ESPN were no longer on each other’s Christmas card list. Enter Feldman, who was commissioned to write a book from Leach’s perspective, something ESPN apparently gave Feldman permission to do.

Both the SBNation’s college football page and the SportsbyBrooks blog are front and center for coverage of this developing story, and the idea is Feldman was suspended for, well, taking down and organizing content from a former head coach who doesn’t see eye to eye with a current ESPN employee. Furthermore, ESPN is not talking about the Bruce Feldman situation, making it appear as if the speculation concerning Feldman’s apparent suspension hits the nail on the head.

Now, support for Feldman has spilled over into the Twitter world, with, as pointed out by SbB, Sports Illustrated college football scribe Stewart Mandell leading the charge:

It’s safe to say Mandel is championing Feldman’s cause, something the following retweets demonstrate quite well:

Vitale’s tweet also appeared in Mandel’s Twitter stream. Clearly, Mandell is quite adept at rousing the masses, because, as indicated, #freebruce is now a trending Twitter topic, and ESPN is taking a beating.

Some highlights, seeing how that’s what made ESPN famous in the first place. You may notice a trend of sportswriters changing their profile pictures to Feldman’s as well:

I doubt this story will make the evening SportsCenter…

While Twitter trends normally receive all kinds of responses, what’s a little more unique about this one is other prominent sportswriters following Mandel’s lead. People like Jason Whitlock, Greg Doyel, Andy Staples, and others. While Whitlock’s issues with ESPN have been well documented, which helps explain him taking the opportunity to throw gasoline on the fire, seeing the outcry from others in Feldman’s field is refreshing.

For another great look at the Feldman situation, and that part Craig James plays, or perhaps should play, check out the excellent article by perhaps the best college football blogger/writer in the business, Spencer Hall. Until then:

#FreeBruce.

She’d won a number of “hottest sideline reporter” contests — not that that mattered to Andrews — and was quickly transitioning from attractive sideline reporter to sex symbol. So much so, in fact, Michael David Barrett decided the best way to serve the public was to film a naked Andrews through her hotel peephole and release the video to the public. This story has been well documented, and unfortunately, the aftermath seems to have lessened the natural zeal Andrews had during games she covering. It’s hard to blame her, however, knowing her privacy was violated so completely, the resulting sex offender punishment for Barrett seems just and reasonable.

The following quote from Andrews, taken during Barrett’s trial, demonstrates her disposition:

“I am subject to crude comments,” she told the court in December. “I walk into stadiums, and fans make crude comments to me. I have nightmares about this sexual predator.”

Those comments were made during March of 2010. Thanks to a video that appeared on Deadspin, it’s clear Andrews still has to deal with morons who are trying to be cute and funny:

What an effective way to prove Andrews’ point, guys, because if there’s one thing I’m sure of in this life, it’s how women like to be reminded, nay, heckled, for situations that resulted in sex offender punishments for the guilty. It’s actually surprising Andrews was as calm as she was, but then again, going back to the comments she made during Barrett’s trial, she’s probably used to it by now, and that’s almost as unfortunate as her invasion of privacy — one the Internet reveled in, including this particular writer.

That’s right, I’m just as guilty as anyone else who saw the video. The difference being, I’m not trying to remind her of her ordeal. Making fun of something so obviously painful just to be witty for your buddies filming their latest user-generated content submission is awfully weak. Good thing the YouTube comments called them out, as well:

Made fools of yourselves now did ya – all you accomplished was to show Erin Andrews has more professionalism and class than you clowns ever will.

And:

Awful human beings

There’s also some contention about the video’s title — “Erin Andrews vs 12yr old about video” — because, it seems, the video’s title was done in such a way as to portray Andrews as the bad guy here. Um, yeah. About that… While it’s doubtful the mouthy fan was as young as the title suggests, that isn’t the point. If he can dish it out, he damn well better be able to take the consequences, 12-year old or no.

The network, based in Bristol, Connecticut, said this to Bloomberg in an email:

“We are aware of the indictment only through what has been announced publicly. For the immediate future, we are making efforts to remove related advertising and programming pending further review.”

Of course this announcement comes on the heels of “Poker’s Black Friday.” Eleven executives were indicted for fraud and violation of internet anti-gambling laws and 76 bank accounts associated with PokerStars, Absolute Poker and Full Tilt Pokerwere frozen.  The FBI also seized five different .com domains associated with the companies.

The extent of the content scheduled to be pulled by ESPN is unclear.  Removing advertising is an obvious move, as much of it is related to online poker sites.  What poker programming will stay and what will go is of great concern to poker fans, as the popular World Series of Poker is set to air on the network this summer.

ESPN.com’s poker editor Andrew Feldman has tweeted that WSOP events will not be removed, only North American Poker Tour (NAPT) events.  NAPT is a fledgling professional tour sponsored by PokerStars.

Many professional players show up to the WSOP basically dressed as walking billboards for online poker sites.  I wonder how many of them will be dressed this year.  Will ESPN have any sort of limit to this type of advertising?

What do you think of ESPN’s move? Let us know.