Press Coverage: Dog Fighting, Nicknames, Marino's Slip and SAS Plans to Save Papers

After our country went to war nearly eight years ago, there seemed to be a concerted effort by those in the media to dissuade athletes and coaches from using that term to describe something as trivial as a sports competition. "It was a real war out there," a go-to phrase for athletes after a hard-fought game, became eternally taboo and 'war' eventually morphed into the far more generic 'battle.' Undoubtedly there are still athletes who call their games 'wars' but with an actual war still going on, most of us are socially aware enough to cringe when we hear it.

Can we do the same with dog fighting references in football, please?

Twice during Sunday Night Football on NBC, there were references to dog fighting. You can make a case that the second – where Reggie Wayne referenced the win over the Patriots as a 'dog fight' – is unfortunate but somewhat excusable in the sense that he had just finished the game and was being interviewed on the field, speaking extemporaneously. As much as the situation with Michael Vick in the last three years has brought dog fighting to the forefront of football conversations, for athletes, old colloquialisms die hard.

But there's no excuse for Al Michaels using the term 'real dog fight' during his scripted opening monologue. You can see Michaels trip over the term in the video above, seemingly realizing as he's saying it how terrible it must sound. But his hiccup just made the reference that more noticeable.

Michaels isn't the only broadcaster to use the term in the last few years. I recall hearing a former player-turned-radio host, who played with Vick, use the term just weeks after Vick was arrested. It happens in games every week. But Michaels is the best – he really should know better. Let's hope he doesn't make a similar comment next week, when Vick will be on the field.

The Transformation of Rodney
Before the SNF game, Dan Patrick hosted a point-counterpoint segment with Rodney Harrison and Tony Dungy, which seemed more appropriate than most weeks considering Harrison played for the Patriots and Dungy coached the Colts, each for many years before they found themselves in the NBC studios together.

When Patrick asked Harrison to prognosticate the outcome, Harrison said that "we" were going to win. Patrick quickly shot back, "We are? Who is we ... " before Harrison corrected his statement to say, "the Patriots." It was a cute moment, but illustrated the fact that retired players still think they're players first, especially just a few months after leaving the locker room.

So if Harrison wants to be considered a professional analyst, and not just a former player, the transformation came on Sunday night when he questioned his former coach's (terrible) decision to go for it on fourth-and-two.

"I've been around Belichick a long time and he's made a lot of great coaching decisions, but this is the worst coaching decision I've ever seen Bill Belichick make."

That could not have been an easy thing to say, whether you're paid by NBC to say it or not. Cris Collinsworth took note of that comment in the show's closing moments:

"I have a lot of respect for Rodney Harrison. I know how tough it is to come out as a first year broadcaster and blast your former team and your former head coach, but he was dead on the money."

FOX Wants to Give Vikings D-Line a Nickname
If you watched the Vikings host the Lions on Sunday you assuredly noticed the fact that FOX was actively pushing viewers to go to their website to send in a nickname for the Vikings defensive line. Not only did FOX show a graphic of their website during the first half, asking fans to participate, but coming out of halftime they did a recap of some of the better names sent in, with Sam Rosen boasting that they've gotten "more than 8,000 hits" to that point.

The idea was a smart way by FOX to get viewers to their website during the game, but the conspiracy theorist among us had to wonder if there was more to it. Was this a clever marketing scheme between the NFL and FOX, or perhaps between the Vikings and FOX? Would you click on the page and it would be adorned with links to buy Brett Favre jerseys and other purple merchandise? From FOX PR man Dan Bell:

This was simply a fun idea the crew came up with for viewers to vote on a new name for the Vikings d-line which happens to be arguably the best in the league. Nothing to do with a sponsorship.

Rats. That would have been a tinfoil-hat wearer's dream to uncover. I asked Bell if FOX was concerned about some level of impartiality in the game. Remember, most announcing crews won't pick a winner – offering keys to the game instead – in an effort to sound neutral while calling the game. Isn't promoting a contest, using one team to drive traffic to your website during a game that team is playing, just as partisan and just as much a conflict of interest for the announcers, and the network?

Absolutely not. The reason we did this is because the Purple People Eaters were one of the great d-lines in NFL history as well as one of the most popular nicknames. I can assure you we would have done the same thing for the Lions if there was a similar scenario.

I'd hate to read some of those nicknames right now.

The Dolphins Finish WHAT Off, Dan?
Dan Marino had a little slip up during CBS' halftime highlights on Sunday, telling viewers that the Dolphins 'finish the s--- off here."

Marino actually keeps his composure enough to finish the highlight, but you can clearly hear the rest of the CBS crew smacking the table in laughter. James Brown and Shannon Sharpe then have a good chuckle before moving on to the next game. What, he could have said 'finishshsh it off,' right?

Stephen A. Smith Will Save Newspapers
Or so he hopes. For those who don't know, Stephen A. Smith won his lawsuit against the Philadelphia Inquirer for wrongful termination and not only was court-ordered back into the pages of Philly's biggest newspaper, but sent back with the ruling that he's to be re-instated as a general columnist.

SAS boasted about his return on Twitter last week:

Fyi.....the reports are true. Today at 12 Noon I RETURN TO THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER as a full-time General Sports Columnist. Details later!

It's four days later and the details have yet to come. On a weekend where three of the four teams in town were in action and one of the town's biggest stars – Brian Westbrook – may have a career-ending injury, SAS was nowhere to be found in the Inqy or on Philly.com. (For full disclosure, I am an occasional contributor to the Inquirer, including a discussion today about Westbrook's future.)

A look at the columnists for Philly.com and as of this morning, Smith's mugshot and archives do not appear. Yet the fact that he hasn't written anything for the paper since his return hasn't stopped him from talking about it to his fans, telling one Twitter follower, "Always tried to hold onto my roots, Kwame. Never should've been gone in the first damn place, honestly," while offering to another who questioned why he'd be going back to a newspaper that is bankrupt, "Hopefully, better times are ahead once I get back."

Quite frankly, nothing else has worked. Maybe Stephen A. can save the newspaper industry, whenever he returns.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.