Back Porch Sports Media

Bill Simmons', ESPN's most popular Twitter personality, once shunned the medium but now clocks in at well over 1,000,000 followers. But now it looks like he'll be seeing significantly less Twitter action over the next two weeks: he's had his Tweeting privileges yanked by ESPN for some aggressive remarks he made to ESPN-affiliated radio station WEEI in Boston.

Well, kind of -- he's still apparently allowed to tweet about his book tour, which has only one stop remaining in Las Vegas for early December.

It's rivalry week in college football, which means Ohio State will play Michigan on Saturday. But while Michigan students got in the spirit by smashing a car painted in Buckeye colors, Fox News Channel apparently wasn't sure what campus the above video clip came from.

As Media Matters notes, Fox News put a graphic on the screen saying it came from Michigan State. Not quite the same thing, but there are a lot of other storied college football rivalries that Fox News Channel should report on. I look forward to hearing what Fox News has to say about Florida vs. Georgia Tech, Auburn vs. Alabama State, Pittsburgh vs. Virginia, Stanford vs. Cal State-Long Beach, Notre Dame vs. UCLA and Army vs. Coast Guard.

Buffalo Bills wide receiver Terrell Owens was addressing reporters after Sunday's game when someone's phone started ringing. He didn't seem to like it.

The above video shows the ending of Saturday's Villanova-Richmond game, which was regionally broadcast on Comcast SportsNet. And it includes the microphone picking up someone -- apparently a worker for the TV station -- getting very angry at the missed field goal that sealed Richmond's fate, uttering an expletive on live television.

Comedy Central and The Onion have long dominated their respective venues in terms of satirizing the tar out of the general news. There has been, however, a distinctively awkward void in the world of sports -- Versus attempted to fill this with their production of "Sports Soup" but when the best moment of that show includes Brandon Marshall hosting, well, it's pretty much doomed.

But it seems as if the humorous basic cable take on sports that we have all pined longingly for is about to emerge: CC and The Onion are joining forces to create a show. And, yeah, if you didn't just scream, "HOLY YES!" then you're a total, well, um, something.

Stephen Colbert announced -- in case you missed it or thought it was fake like his Republican-y shtick-- on Monday night that Colbert Nation would become the new primary sponsor of the US speedskating team for the Winter Olympics.

Colbert jumped in because, as is happening all over the country, the former main sponsor for the speedskating team, DSB Bank NV, a bank of sorts, had to back out of their sponsorship. (Oddly, banks aren't doing well right now in this fantastic financial time.)

But you know who apparently is doing well? Colbert Nation -- Stephen announced on Tuesday night's show that, despite Canadian hackers allegedly going after the donation link, on the first evening of sponsorship, his viewers had raised over $40,000 (!!) to back up the speedskating team. Moving picture happy funtime after the jump.

CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz has been ordered to pay alimony and child support totaling nearly $1 million a year in a divorce case that the judge ruled was the fault of neither Nantz nor his wife of 26 years, Lorrie.

Is it all the rage to make silly comments in the announcing booth these days? Because, between Bob Griese's taco pop and what Gus Johnson dropped on Sunday, well, it sure seems like announcers are becoming less aware of what they say these days.

Oh, you didn't hear what Gus dropped as Tennessee's Chris Johnson was ripping off a long touchdown run? How about: "First down and 10. Johnson ... gets his shoulders square! Watch out! He's got gettin' away from the cops speed! Touchdown!" Emphasis there was mine (as much as it can be with Mr. Johnson, anyway) and sure, he's got a pretty good reason to think that CJ might be running from the cops -- after all, the Titans running back did attend ECU (I kid, I kid). But my pro-Wolfpack biases aside, if Gus happens to be -- as Brian Powell pointed out -- say, Jim Nantz, this probably doesn't go over quite as well.

Vid after the jump, natch.

Bill Simmons is becoming like Brett Favre in the sense that ESPN is shoving him down our throats.

(Except in Simmons' case, it's for his new book, not for his annual coming-out-of-retirement announcement. Unlike Simmons, however, Favre doesn't block random bloggers from following his Twitter account. Moving on...)

And last night he landed on the Colbert Report to talk about his new 700-page basketball book with the world's favorite "fundit."

What resulted was a pretty fantastic interview, particularly when you consider that Simmons managed to stop Colbert in his Air-Bud-mentioning tracks with an "I've got two pages comparing Teen Wolf to Kobe Bryant" line. You could even tell that Colbert was asking if that was real as they cut away, and he somehow managed to let the interview run long, which almost never happens.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was on the Hill Wednesday talking to Congress about "Legal Issues Relating to Football Head Injuries." So, naturally, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) used the forum as an opportunity to grill Goodell about Rush Limbaugh's interest in becoming part owner of the St. Louis Rams.

Video after the jump, but here's all you need to know: After King warmly welcomed the commissioner he got right down to business.