Giving You Saturday Links

After going out for morning errands, I'm here to provide some Saturday links.

First, Newsday football beat writer Bob Glauber has a video of his fellow bloggers as elves and you can even spot Neil Best!

Speaking of Neil, he has a transcript of an interview former Giants running back Tiki Barber conducted with ex-teammate, Super Bowl winning QB Eli Manning for NBC's Football Night in America. Neil writes that former Giants LB Lawrence Taylor kept the censors busy at WFAN yesterday. And Neil links to Newsday colleague Ellis Henican who blasts "some self-absorbed nitwit sitting in front of a computer in his bathrobe" for "stealing" material from hardworking newspape writers. Hey Ellis! Fuck you! I never wear a bathrobe and I always credit the people I link to. Go ahead and make generalizations about bloggers. Not all of us live in our mother's basement and we aren't elitists like you. Asshole. It's a good thing I don't hold this against Newsday and stop linking to Neil and Bob as a consequence.

Over to CNBC's Darren Rovell who says the New York Mets are stating that the Bernard Madoff scandal will not have an affect on the team. Madoff is the former NASDAQ chairman who lost $50 billion of investors' money.

The Albany Times Union's Pete Dougherty writes that Heisman hype can lead to big ratings for games involving Heisman Trophy candidates.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette says college bowl season leads to some really undesirable matchups.

Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News previews the ESPN and HBO football documentaries that will air over the next few days.

Ed Sherman of Crain's Chicago Business says the Bears scored in the ratings for the NFL Network and TV station WPWR which aired the game locally. And Ed previews what Wrigley Field will look like for the NHL Winter Classic on New Year's Day.

Sarah Schorno of Deadspin writes that the Washington Capitals' website producer got to live a dream Friday night when he got to suit up as the team's backup goalie for half a period.

Yesterday, I linked to Dave Darling of the Orlando Sentinel, but only his news and notes portion of his column appeared. Today, the entire column regarding the NFL's Greatest Game documentary is there, so I'll link to it again today.

Jerry Garcia of the San Antonio Express-News asks "are we ever really tired of watching the Cowboys?" Apparently not according to the ratings.

Barry Horn from the Dallas Morning News talks with Fox Sports' Troy Aikman about the soap opera known as the Dallas Cowboys. Barry also has Troy clarifying his comments at the end of the Cowboys-Steelers game from last Sunday. Barry says the newest sports radio station is changing its call letters. Barry also delves into the ESPN vs. T.O. controversy.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News reviews the week in blogging.

Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times says CBS begins its first college basketball season without Billy Packer since it started broadcasting the sport full-time in 1981. That's 1981.

Lisa Guerrero has a suggestion for Playboy on whom to add to its Sexiest Sportscaster poll.

The Sports Media Watch looks at the primetime ratings for NFL Week 14. Paulsen says the SEC Championship last week garnered extremely high ratings for CBS. However, the CBS presentation of the Army-Navy game fell from last year. The SMW looks at the ratings of the other conference championships from last Saturday. And here are the SMW's weekend ratings predictions.

The Eye on Sports Media notes that Billy Packer and Bob Knight are teaming up on a college basketball website venture. And Christopher Byrne notes that while the SEC Championship was the king of college football TV ratings this season, the Big 12 did very well.

Multichannel News says Versus kicks off its Mountain West basketball coverage today.

Sam Thielman of Variety says actress Helen Hunt will direct a Super Bowl ad for Frito-Lay. Note to any bloggers wearing bathrobes, make sure you give me credit for finding this.

That's going to do it for today. And as promised, my review of HBO's college football documentary will be coming on Sunday.