Larry Brown Sports

The person claiming to have hacked Dana White’s personal information and the UFC’s website supposedly is a 13-year-old boy from Australia.

Softpedia interviewed the person who goes by the online alias S3erver.exe. The hacker is part of the Anonymous hacking group and says he began hacking when he was 11. He says he is self-taught and that he has learned many tricks by reading information online.

Though it appears as if his actions are nefarious, he sees it another way, saying “I like helping out people who are in trouble.”

He says apart from the hacking, he does pretty typical kid activities like skating, surfing, scooting, and building things. Though he hacks sites now, he is planning to take an ethical hacking class and potentially work as an ethical hacker in the future.

It’s hard to know whether this is the person who hacked the UFC site and Dana White (@JoshtheGod was taking credit for the hacks), but it’s certainly interesting to learn about the people who claim to be responsible for the acts. And if this is true, it’s sad to think that at 13 I was trying to figure out how to use hair gel while this kid was taking down major corporations.

H/T Cage Potato

Tony Grossi used to be the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Browns beat writer. Cleve Scene says Grossi was pulled from the job because of a spiteful tweet directed at team owner Randy Lerner. Here’s what he wrote about Lerner last week:

Some people figure that message was intended to be private but it ended up shared on his Twitter feed. Apparently the paper didn’t like how the tweet showed a negative bias towards the team’s owner and he apparently lost his beat because of it. Grossi did reach out to Lerner to apologize but it looks like it didn’t matter.

Good thing columnists and radio hosts don’t lose their jobs for hatred towards team owners — there wouldn’t be any left.

H/T Sports by Brooks Live, Cleveland Frowns

I’m sure you haven’t thought about Sean Salisbury for years. You probably had no idea what he’s been up to. I’m right there with you. Well you’ll probably be pleased to learn that he’s right back where he was a few years ago: getting fired from a football analyst job.

Salisbury was “relieved from his duties” as an analyst on Lingerie Football League games with three weeks left in the regular season. The reason will come as no shock.

“Our expectations were not met in terms of broadcast protocol and we were not pleased with the overall lack of respect toward our producers, which primarily drove the decision,” league commissioner Mitchell Mortaza said.

Oh Sean, I wouldn’t expect anything less of you. The good news for Sals is that the reason could have been much worse.

Colts owner Jim Irsay fired off a few tweets Sunday to dispute the reporting of ESPN’s Adam Schefter, but Schefter made him look foolish.

Irsay was irked with Schefter’s report that Patriots director of player personnel, Nick Caserio, turned down overtures from the Colts to remain with New England. Irsay fired both Bill and Chris Polian and has a vacancy to fill.

“Adam S, not true about “first candidate we wanted to hire..” There is not any candidate we “wanted to hire” I haven’t interviewed … That’s the way people get false promo about being so coveted just because they don’t interview somewhere;SHELL GAME..leave us out of that BS … Adam, don’t say I wanted to hire someone I never talked to or met..MISLEADING..come on,your better than that..get your head in the game, son!”

Those were three tweets sent by Irsay, edited for clarity. It sounds like he’s making Schefter look bad, until you read Adam’s response.

“Excuse me Jim Irsay,” he wrote, “NFL told me your general counsel Daniel Emerson emailed request for Nick Cesario on Tues before he opted to stay in NE.”

Burned. See, the thing you need to note is that Irsay says he never interviewed or met Caserio. That doesn’t mean he didn’t reach out to Caserio about an interview. That doesn’t mean he didn’t have interest in hiring him. I’ll trust Schefter’s reporting more than Irsay’s angry words. And that’s what this really comes down to. It’s not that what Schefter reports is inaccurate; it’s that people are upset when insiders report information people want to keep private. That’s what’s going on here, in my opinion.

Thanks to Sports by Brooks for the heads up.

Media members beware: You come between ESPN reporter Holly Rowe and her interview subjects, and she will hit you with the elbow of death. One journalist presumably looking for a post-Sugar Bowl victory quote from Michigan coach Brady Hoke learned that the hard way. Observe the video:

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LBS had the pleasure of speaking with Curt Menefee, the host of the FOX NFL Sunday pregame show, recently. We talked about what makes the pregame show so successful, and what makes football shows work. He also gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the show and its hosts. Our conversation follows.

LBS: When you were hired for the pregame show to replace James Brown, what were your thoughts then and what are your thoughts now?

Menefee: Being 100% honest, I never looked at it that I was hired to replace James Brown. I was hired to be Curt Menefee. There’s always an opening somewhere, and I was hired to be me, not to replace someone. So that was my approach from day one — to try and fit in with the unit that was there, and to be the perfect teammate to make the team successful.

Going into it, obviously with James Brown having been there before, and knowing JB, I talked to him and he was helpful giving me some insight with what they were looking for. There was a relationship that helped me along, but I never looked at it that I was replacing him. I viewed it that I was hired for a great gig and that I had to do what I needed to do.

LBS: The pregame show has had a lot of success over the years. In your eyes, what goes into making a successful pregame show?

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Earlier on Wednesday, we posted a video of ESPN SportsCenter anchor Stan Verrett appearing to use the n-word on a highlight. Verrett responded on his Twitter account shortly thereafter to clarify what he said while reading a highlight of a Stanford guard sinking a buzzer-beater.

“Time, distance, NEITHER one was a problem. Listen carefully next time.”

I had watched SportsCenter Tuesday night and didn’t hear anything funny while watching it live. It wasn’t until the video was passed along to me that I thought anything of it. Sure enough, after listening to the highlight several times, it sounded to me like he had said the n-word on the highlight.

I wrote a post charging Verrett with saying the word on-air. As soon as it was brought to my attention that he was likely saying “Time, distance, neither one a problem,” I quickly revised the post and its tone to indicate that there was disagreement over what he said.

Many people heard the n-word, while many others heard “time, distance, neither one a problem.” It’s obvious that, regardless of what came out, Verrett’s intent was not to use the n-word. Based solely on knowing that, we should not have posted the video and helped create a controversy.

As someone who has broadcasted for years, I wouldn’t want people overanalyzing my misspeaks and charging me with an explosive claim like that. For that, I apologize to Stan for playing a big role in the confusion.

I would also like anyone reading this to know that that’s not what LBS is about. We pride ourselves on accuracy, avoiding mistakes, and being careful when treading in serious subject matters. My judgment was off on this story. I hope this mistake will not change your opinion of LBS, and that it will not adversely affect Stan’s reputation.

Jim Armstrong, a former Denver Post sports writer and columnist, has lost his job with the newspaper after it was learned that he bet on sports.

Armstrong was one of several people who bet on sports through a local bookmaker that was pinched. Some of the bookie’s clients had weekly limits as high as $50,000. The person who is alleged to have run the operation, Daniel Dinner, is a 70-year-old who has been doing it for nearly four decades.

Armstrong left The Denver Post Friday after being with the paper for 27 years.

“Readers have to believe and trust that all of us at The Denver Post cover events impartially and without a stake in the outcome,” said Gregory L. Moore, editor of The Post. “We take this very seriously.”

Say Armstrong were writing about baseball, but only betting on basketball. Would that affect his coverage? There are some fair questions to be asked, but when you’re involved with illegal activity that can alter the way you do your job, it’s grounds for dismissal.

Let me just say that I’m glad the sports radio networks where I worked didn’t have the same standards. If they did, half the people on staff would be out of work.