Larry Brown Sports

Tim Tebow may have absolutely nothing to do with the upcoming Super Bowl between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers, but that never stops the folks at ESPN from talking about him. The World Wide Leader usually has no shame about forcing Tebow into its programming schedule, but this time it was an accidental behind-the-scenes clip that appeared to reveal he was a topic of discussion.

During the Ravens’ media day on Monday morning, cameras accidentally caught Hannah Storm and Mark Schlereth talking about a player that was almost certainly Tebow. What were they doing? Doubting his NFL future, of course.

“He’s like a tight end, H-back,” Schlereth explained as Storm listened attentively. “He’s not a quarterback. I’ll tell you, I talked to a bunch of Broncos coaches and they’re like, ‘I just don’t know if he’s a fluid enough athlete to play tight end.’ They said he doesn’t catch the ball naturally, either.”

At that point, it appeared that somebody informed Storm that her conversation with Schlereth was being shown on the air. With all the story lines developing in New Orleans between Ray Lewis allegedly using a banned substance and the statement Randy Moss made about himself, you would think even Tebow couldn’t work himself into the discussion. Perhaps that will never be true.

H/T Deadspin

Hannah Storm returned to work on New Year’s Day after a three-week absence to recover from severe burn injuries following a freak propane grill explosion at her home.

Storm was part of ABC’s telecast of the Rose Parade Tuesday, and she shared her story of the incident. ABC also showed graphic images of the injuries Storm sustained.

Storm sustained second-degree burns on her chest and hands, and first-degree burns on her face and neck. She lost her eyebrows, eyelashes, and roughly half her hair in the explosion.

Storm says the explosion was so violent, a neighbor literally thought a tree crashed into his roof.

Storm nearly began crying as she retold the tale.

“It is a long, hard road for burn victims,” Storm said. “I was by far the most fortunate person in my burn unit.”

Storm says she was wearing false eye lashes and hair when she appeared on ABC Tuesday. She looked great, and we hope she is able to make a full recovery from such an awful incident. We also encourage you to watch the video to learn how to avoid such an accident when you’re using a propane grill.

Below are more photos of the injuries she sustained:

Read The Rest of the Story…

If you watch ESPN regularly, you may have noticed that Hannah Storm has been missing from the network the past three weeks. That’s because she was treating injuries from a serious propane gas grill accident at her home.

According to The Associated Press, Storm suffered second-degree burns on her chest and hands, and first-degree burns to her face and neck. She lost her eyebrows and eyelashes, and roughly half her hair after being burned in a freak gas grill explosion.

Storm was making dinner at her home in Connecticut three weeks ago when the flame on the grill went out. She went to reignite it, and then a big wall of fire exploded at her, burning her and blowing the doors off the grill. She was treated at a trauma and burn center, and she has hardly gone out since.

Storm will be working on Tuesday as a host for ABC’s New Year’s Day Rose Parade. I’m sure we speak for everyone when we wish her well and say we’re glad she’s back to work.

Photo credit: Twitter/Hannah Storm

We’ve been down this road several times before, even to the point when Tony Kornheiser was suspended for making cracks about Hannah Storm’s outfits. But let’s get this straight once and for all: what Storm wears on air is inappropriate and unprofessional, and I have no idea how and why she’s allowed to get away with it. Just check out her outfit from Friday night on ESPN:

We’ve seen her wear go-go boots and short skirts before and wondered how that was deemed acceptable. Those outfits were bad. But this is a flashy dress cut low at the chest and high at the thighs. It’s provocative and sends the message you’re trying to meet a sugar daddy at the bar more than trying to have intelligent conversations about NBA games.

Wearing outfits like this and having it approved does a disservice to women in broadcasting. This sort of display makes the focus on looks rather than information and it’s not okay. This isn’t even outfit watch for the sake of tuning in to see what wacky outfit Craig Sager is wearing; this is quite simply inappropriate and it should be changed.

The wardrobe of Hannah Storm has been a topic of discussion for quite some time.  ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser was suspended in February for comments he made about the way the Sportscenter anchor dresses.  He said some things that were pretty inappropriate — such as “she looks like she has sausage casing wrapping around her upper body” — but Tony was just calling it like everyone sees it.

Obviously ESPN doesn’t have a problem with the way Hannah dresses, because she hasn’t changed a bit.  As you can see in the photo to the right, she’s still sporting the same knee-high leather boot and tight-dress look while on camera.  Like we said before, if the men at ESPN have to wear shirts and ties, it doesn’t seem appropriate for Storm to be able to dress like that.

According to The Big Lead, a source at ESPN says some of Storm’s coworkers were pretty shocked about the way she was dressed at the NBA opener the other night between the Celtics and Heat.  One ESPN employee allegedly said, “Tony Kornheiser made her a martyr.”  Sounds like somebody’s jealous.

I can certainly understand why some of Hannah’s fellow employees would feel like she’s getting special treatment.  After the whole Kornheiser ordeal, people are probably afraid to speak up.  However, I don’t work for ESPN and you know what that means?  I don’t care.  She can dress like that all she wants.  I’m not going to say I prefer it, but…okay, I prefer it.

Watching Pardon the Interruption on Monday, I was surprised that Tony Kornheiser was off while Dan LeBatard was in. There were no sports-related activities on Sunday that would have precluded Tony from being on the show so I was could not figure out why he wasn’t on. The reason, as The Big Lead tells us, is pretty weak. According to TBL, Kornheiser was suspended for his comments about Hannah Storm’s outfit last week on SportsCenter. That is wrong on two different levels.

First, ESPN should have addressed the wardrobe of Hannah Storm a long time ago (her pictured outfit is from last year). Short skirts and long boots have no place on TV where a professional appearance is emphasized. All the male anchors wear suits and ties; the females should be similarly dressed (Erin Andrews should take note). Secondly, ESPN is sending the wrong message to its employees by discouraging them from commenting on their coworkers. They’re so large as an entity that they should be challenging each other. While this should be limited to discussing opinions and reports for the most part, I don’t see where Kornheiser was wrong to discuss Storm’s poor choice of dress considering it’s a reflection on his company.

There should have been two outcomes of Kornheiser’s comments and a suspension is not one of them. Tony should have apologized to Hannah for invoking her age (whether Storm is young or old has nothing to do with the inappropriateness of her outfit). Tony has already done that. Next, ESPN should have realized they need to tell Storm to dress more professionally. I just want TK back on PTI!