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College Gameday (Saturday, 9 a.m. ESPNU; 10 a.m. ESPN)
Outside the Lines (Sunday, 9 a.m. ESPN)
In a two-part series, Tom Rinaldi examines the life and death of Owen Thomas, a captain of the University of Pennsylvania football team. Part 1, on Saturday’s College Gameday, reports on Thomas’ April suicide and how the Quakers are facing a new season, trying to move forward, while carrying a captain’s memory. Sunday’s Part 2 on Outside the Lines examines the medical issues surrounding Thomas’ death. Doctors studying the brain tissue of several former NFL players also studied Thomas’ brain tissue and found signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). This connection raises the question about young football players being at risk of the same disease suffered by several NFL players.
State of Officiating: Big 12 Basketball Refs
Outside the Lines (Sunday, 9 a.m. ET, ESPN)
Sunday’s Outside the Lines, which will have a piece focusing on Big 12 referees, visited a three-day camp in suburban Dallas where some 70 college basketball officials were evaluated and instructed by a handful of the game’s top referees. Part of the ongoing “The State of Officiating” series, this story notes that the NCAA employs no full-time officials, offers no health plan, benefits or pension, and that the average official calling 40-60 Division I games a season can make $50,000 a year. Virtually every referee also maintains a full-time job. Additionally, Mark Fainaru-Wada also reports that Synergy Sports Technology has developed a video-based analytics system (subscribed to by every NBA team and more than 200 Division I NCAA programs) which catalogs and indexes every official’s call, making them easily retrievable for evaluation purposes. Excerpts:
“I feel like over the last seven or eight years we’ve kind of stayed in neutral, and we, maybe as officiating crews, haven’t done enough to keep up with the changes in the game, with the size of the players, with the speed of the players, coaching styles. We might have gotten a little lax in keeping up with the trend.” — Curtis Shaw, the coordinator of officials for a consortium of four Division I conferences, most notably the Big 12
“Whenever anyone asks me what’s my goal for each year: it’s to keep our referees off SportsCenter.” — John Adams, NCAA coordinator of men’s basketball officiating
ESPN.com (posted today)
Six days of unprecedented access to the University of Texas football team revealed to ESPN.com senior writer Pat Forde that Mack Brown is more than just head coach of the Longhorns. He is the CEO of one of college football’s biggest brand names. Forde attended coaches meetings, team meetings, team meals and practices, and traveled with the program to and from its season-opening game against Rice. In addition to Brown’s X’s and O’s responsibilities, he is also a father figure, a disciplinarian and a motivator to his players, and the face of the program to recruits, boosters, media and fans.
Sunday NFL CountDown (Sunday, 11 a.m. ESPN)
What is the difference between a Rex Ryan press conference and a Bill Belichick press conference? Their public personalities are polar opposites in how they present themselves to the media. What effect do their respective pressers have on the media covering both the coaches and their teams? Rachel Nichols reports.
Denard Robinson: Red-Hot Wolverine
College Gameday (Saturday, 9 a.m. ESPNU; 10 a.m. ESPN)
Erin Andrews discusses Denard “Shoelace” Robinson’s early success as the University of Michigan quarterback, the most explosive player in college football this season.
Where it all began for Yankees’ Mariano Riviera
ESPN Deportes SportsCenter (Sunday, 11 p.m.)
ESPNDeportes.com (Reportajes Especiales piece)
With future Hall of Fame pitcher Mariano Rivera attempting to lead the Yankees in defense of their 27th World Championship, ESPN Deportes visited “Mo’s” home in a small fishing village in Panama where his journey to the majors began.
