Whitlock may be able to spin the tweet since no names were named, but nearly everyone who saw it viewed it as a racist joke about Asian penises made against Jeremy Lin.

For someone whose entire writing schtick is based on stirring the racial pot, that was about the dumbest thing he could have said. It will be interesting to see if he gets reprimanded for the tweet, spins it, or apologizes for it. No matter how you view it, Whitlock’s credibility on racial issues just took a major hit. I thought Whitlock preached that we shouldn’t deal in stereotypes, right?

In addition to the above “bulls***” bomb, The Rock also said at the beginning and end of his interview that his foot was going to meet Cena’s ass. The second one came after he realized he made a mistake by swearing during a live segment, so obviously he didn’t really care. Maybe ESPN needs to consider a delay and/or wake up if they already have one. If The Rock was hoping to make a repeat appearance sometime in the near future, I’d cancel those plans.

Believe me, we do everything in our power here at LBS to not feed the beasts that are Stephen A. Smth and Skip Bayless.  Both guys are annoying, and we generally try not to talk about them unless one of them flips the other one off. Well, that happened on Thursday morning’s ESPN First Take. The above screenshot comes to us courtesy of @BDPFOLIFE. If you don’t believe it actually happened, we’ve got the NSFW shot waiting for you after the jump.

Stephen A. and Skip were arguing about whether Eli Manning or Tom Brady needs a win more on Sunday for their legacy.  Per usual, all we heard coming out of their mouths was noise.  Between Terrell Suggs calling him a douchebag and now this, Skip is finally starting to get what he deserves on live television.

Do we really need to say anything about this? I know two weeks off between conference championships and the Super Bowl is tough, but you have the Patriots and the Giants playing in the big game.  With the history behind those two franchises and all the star power we’re being treated to, that was the best question ESPN could come up with on media day?  When Tom Brady saying he hopes the Patriots win on Sunday becomes bulletin board material and SportsNation starts asking hypothetical questions about coaches and quarterbacks switching places, there’s nothing left to do but just kick the ball off.

Last week, Mike Francesa claimed to listeners that before Super Bowl XLII, he picked the Patriots to beat the Giants, 20-17. With the Pats a 13-point favorite, that would have made Francesa a winner.

In fact, though, it was with great conviction and authority, that Francesa predicted, on the air, a 35-17 Pats win. The tape must be right there, at WFAN for all to again hear. What’s that? It seems to have disappeared? Not again!

Fortunately, nothing is ever lost for good in the age of the internet.  Our friends over at Bob’s Blitz did some fine investigative work after a reader sent them an email about Francesa lying days before the Post published their blurb.  Sure enough, Mike picked the Patriots to blow the Giants out back in 2008.  Have a listen:

Having heard that, you have to wonder if Francesa really did think he picked the Giants to cover the spread in Super Bowl 42 or he just assumed nobody would get a hold of the audio?  In any event, shame on him.

“I wish I could take all you guys to Indy with us,” Brady told his fans. “We’re going down there, and we’re going down there for one reason. We’re going to give it our best and hopefully we have a lot more people at our party next weekend.”

On Sunday night and Monday morning, every New York newspaper and news station was buzzing about how Brady had guaranteed a Patriots victory.  CBS New York called the comment “bulletin board material.”  Gary Myers of the NY Daily News says Brady “should know better.”  Steve Serby of the NY Post says the “Giants will make Brady pay for planning Patriots victory party.”  Seriously?

Brady was asked about the comment on Sunday night, to which he responded: “Well, it was a pep rally. People were pretty excited.”

The fact that Brady’s innocent comment is literally driving the news cycle in New York this morning goes to show you how rare it is that a Patriot player would do anything to hint at a victory.  When 25,000 people give up their day just to cheer for you as you board a bus, you have to give them something to be excited about.  Nobody wants to hear that you’re going to Indianapolis to try to win a Super Bowl, and if you don’t — well — oopsies.

When Mario Manningham said he hopes Julian Edelman covers him and Justin Tuck said Brady’s chuckle before Super Bowl 42 is what cost the Pats in 2008, it wasn’t national news.  That’s because it is expected from the Giants.  If New York wins Super Bowl 46, it will now be because Brady “guaranteed” the Patriots would come home victorious.  What’s that?  The Giants are a more balanced team and should probably be favored?  The New York tabloids didn’t hear you.

We learned in July from Leach’s book that Adam James didn’t want Mike Leach to be fired for the whole closet incident. What we discovered was that former SMU player, and then-ESPN broadcaster Craig James had hired a PR firm to help get Leach fired for allegedly mistreating his son, Adam, who supposedly had a concussion. Now we’re learning the depths of how inappropriate Craig James was as a parent and broadcaster.

Leach’s lawyer told Paul Finebaum’s radio show that James was calling Texas Tech coaches during games telling them to play his son.

“He was calling (Texas Tech) coaches from the booth during games and telling them to put Adam in and let him play. Disrupting games,” Steve Heninger told Finebaum. “Then at night he was leaving voicemails that he was upset that Adam wasn’t …”

Here’s the audio from the interview (via Sports by Brooks):

We share this information out of fairness to Mike Leach, who was treated unfairly by Texas Tech and ESPN. We hope this will persuade you not to vote for James, not that you were going to anyway.

Here’s what Costa tweeted to start the mess:

Well buddy, if you’re stressing this has not been confirmed, then don’t throw it out there. That’s pretty simple. You don’t mess around when it comes to proclaiming someone’s death.

Now here’s the worst part. Costa, who undeniably was trying to break some news, went on to blame the rumor on the person who called into his radio station.

“I just arrived home & was on the phone with various people entire time-thankfully it appears that the news on TYSON is not as was reported. To the person who phoned into ourstudio with report, how you could play games with news concerning someones life in that manner is sickening. Its beyond my comprehension how any individual could so recklessly & irresponsibly report something so tragic as though life was a movie…”

I have a better point: to the media member who took a phone call into a radio station and circulated the rumor on Twitter without verification, it’s beyond my comprehension how you could recklessly and irresponsibly do that. You’re not some radio station caller, you’re a radio host. You’re supposed to have some sense of news judgment, and you’re playing the role of gatekeeper. If you tweet about it, you’re making the rumor true.

Some things aren’t worth being first to report the news on … like Mike Tyson being dead. The dude already has enough problems, bro. No need to bury him six feet under before his time. But nice attempt to break some news.

Shaq learned his lesson about microphones the hard way: never cuss when you’re around one. You can’t trust that they’re off and not picking up sound. When Shaq thought his mic was off and the TNT crew was headed to commercial, he dropped an s-bomb that was still picked up and aired on TV. Of course, any company that prominently features Charles Barkley and all his antics surely won’t mind one s-bomb slipping out.

First, we need a little background. Hebert is the former Saints and Falcons quarterback. He’s a current sports talk radio host in New Orleans, and his son, T. Bob Hebert, is the center on LSU’s team.

So not only is Hebert one of those shouting sports talk hosts, but he’s also a parent. Keep that in mind.

Bobby was the first person to address Les Miles in the coach’s postgame press conference, and rather than asking a question, he ranted like an angry sports talk radio caller.

Here’s what was said:

Q. Coach, did you ever consider bringing in Jarrett Lee, considering that you weren’t taking any chances on the field? Now, I know Alabama’s defense is dominant. But, come on, that’s ridiculous, five first downs. I mean, so it’s almost an approach, I’ll tell from you the fans’ standpoint, that how can you not maybe push the ball down the field and bring in Jarrett Lee? So what if you get a pick six. It seems like the game plan that‑‑ not pushing the ball down the field, considering it’s like a Rueben Randle or Odell Beckham, Jr. I know the pass rush of Alabama, but there’s no reason why in five first downs‑‑ you have a great defense, LSU is a great defense, but that’s ridiculous.

THE MODERATOR: Do you have a question?

Q. That’s the question. Do you think you should have pushed the football more down field?

COACH MILES: I think if you watch our calls that we did throw the football down the field. We didn’t necessarily get the football down the field.

And I can tell you that the pass rush‑‑ we did consider Jarrett Lee. But we felt like with the pass rush that we were getting that we needed a guy that could move the seat and not sustain that pass rush.

——

Updated to include the video:

That sort of behavior is inappropriate for any member of the media covering a game, but it’s nothing new for Hebert. You may recall this infamous clip of Bobby cheering from the press box during a Saints game, giving the Jets the old “F U” sign with his arms:

You don’t want any behavior like that? There’s an easy way to solve it: revoke his credentials. Problem solved.