A Wisconsin Badger and an Oklahoma Sooner walk into a bar ... and proceed to talk cordially and respectfully about sports. With the occasional rant, riot or hot chick pic thrown in.
Showing posts with label TNEA of the Month. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TNEA of the Month. Show all posts
. So I had a girl in place for 'The Next Erin Andrews', somebody I saw on television who fit the bill quite nicely. However, I had never heard of her before, and when I went to find pictures online, I couldn't find any. Unfortunately, that's kind of an important aspect to this monthly feature. So, I'll have to keep her in mind, and perhaps get her in for a future honor. Let's just say she's in the volleyball world, and again, she has appeared on television as an analyst.
Now, I owe pictures. Well, how about I do you one better and go with video? But first, a picture. Without further ado...The Dallas Stars Ice Girls.
And now, a video daily double.
Enjoy. (I know B-Dubs will. That Dallas rascal.)
They can grab a microphone and replace EA anyday...you know, if tragedy struck and they were needed.
There are three basic principles for what will get people to consistently watch your television programming - and no, none of them involve a ghastly overload of "reality" or "dramatic" TV.
1) Physical comedy (and lots of it) 2) Some element of competition 3)
The latter is our TNEA of the Month, Jill Wagner of ABC's Wipeout, one of the true can't-miss shows out there. Some may recognize her as "The Mercury Girl" as well.
Jill's an easy choice for this award - and a potential TNEA of the Year candidate - because if you've seen her on Wipeout, she does a lot of the same things Erin does, only with more flair and humor. Granted, nothing against Erin, since Jill has a script and can always "Take 2", but one could definitely see Jill on the sidelines for ESPN someday (especially with the ABC relationship.)
Jill's an easy choice for this award - and a potential TNEA of the Year candidate - because if you've seen her on Wipeout, you know she does a lot of the same things Erin does, only with some cool flair and a lot more humor (and is fairly flirty as well). Granted, nothing agianst Erin, since Jill has a script and can always "Take 2" and is supposed to be flirty where EA is supposed to be professional, but still. One could definitely see Jill on the sidelines for ESPN someday - particularly considering the ABC-ESPN relationship and the fact that SportsCenter anchor John Anderson is one of "The Two Johns" who host Wipeout.
Here is a few clips of Jill working the Wipeout sidelines, so to speak:
Yeah. Throw in a TON of physical hilariousness alongside Jill's stunning...uh, reporting...and you've got yourself a fun hour of TV right there. Hey CBS - yeah, you with all the reality TV - take note.
We're going outside the box for this month's The Next Erin Andrews candidate (and for those who haven't been following along, here's a link to get you up to speed). The August candidate needs but one word of introduction...everybody now, haaaaaaaaiiiiiiii...
MAJIDE!!
I got hooked on I Survived A Japanese Game Show! this summer, mainly for the silliness and the mini-drama between contestants (but never out-of-hand-reality-show drama). Yes, there were a few cute girls on the show, like Jamie whose smile lights up a room but romance with Drew lit up her team, or Linda who's like that classic girl that doesn't turn your head the first time or the tenth, but you eventually realize she's a cutie. Either of these ladies would actually make a fine candidate for this monthly honor based on their looks and spunk.
But we're going with the oldest member of the 12-person competition, 36-year-old Cathy, for two reasons. One, she's a soccer mom who live for her children's sports, so we know she could hold her own on the sidelines. And two, um...SHE NEVER LOST.
Even the Japanese version of the game show (Majide!) recognized that she was impenetrable in all the team games. You see, there are two teams of 6 players, and one contestant goes home each week. Should one team lose two more players than the opponent at any given time, then the larger squad must give one of its players to the other side. Cathy went from the Green Tigers, over to the Red Robots and back...and no matter what, the team Cathy was on ALWAYS WON. This, I guess, is the equivalent of, say, Robert Horry who goes from team to team and might not be the star player or the MVP, but always seems to win.
. Since I'm really more interested in having people check out my melancholy Sportsman of the Month, I'll just give this month's honor to someone who's overdue. Brooklyn Decker may be better known now as one of Sports Illustrated's top swimsuit models (excellent) or as Andy Roddick's wife (not so excellent...Murray's gonna drill you, dude), I'll always remember having first seen her as Paul Zimmerman's cute little sidekick on SI.com's weekly video feature "She Says, Z Says". Sadly, with Dr. Z recovering from a November stroke, the segment has been postponed indefinitely. I mean, that thing would have to bring in approximately 6 billion viewers now if they continued production.
The four-minute segments were pretty entertaining, chock-full of NFL picks - I mean, who doesn't love NFL picks? - and gave a damn gorgeous supermodel some real personality alongside one of the greatest football minds of our time. Some people may have found the feature cheesy and beneath "Dr. Z", but I loved it.
Here's a few photos of those two yammering around on the set...
...and one of the old videos. Some of the others are on YouTube but can't be embedded.
Now here's a, well, appropriate postable picture of Brooklyn...
This next installment of The Next Erin Andrews of the month is a little contradictory for yours truly; as a faithful contributor and reader for Scout.com, we're picking a Rivals.com lady. Sort of like a Brewers fan lusting after a Cubbies chick, or a tried-and-true Sooner checking out a Texas belle, or a Nuggets fan eyeing...um...do we have a real rival? The Lakers, I guess? Phoenix, maybe? Let's go with the Lakers. You suck, Kobe. No means no.
Anyway, you don't care about my blather when you click on the monthly TNEA. You just want pictures. You know you do. Fine. Be that way.
Ashley Russell hosts the site's 'Rivals Minute', which I will not link to because, well, like I said, I'm a Scout guy. So to be honest, I'm not even sure if I can get into Rivals because I'm not a subscriber and those little devils over at Badgerblitz.com might have us BN guys locked out. But I'm sure it's pretty easy to find. Here's a video sample:
She's 29 years old, based out of Nashville, a Hoosier fan by nature (I notice the boos aren't as loud as they used to be. Poor Indiana), and went to Middle Tennessee State. Of all our candidates to this point, she's probably the most similar to Erin Andrews, so we may have an actual winner here as far as potential goes.
Speaking of EA, anybody seen her lately? I suppose the woman needs vacation time some time or another. But let me ask you, ESPN folks: would it kill you to have Erin Andrews, Rachel Nichols, Michelle Tafoya, Lisa Salters, Suzy Kolber, Linda Cohn, Sage Steele...ANYBODY BUT DORIS BURKE doing your sideline work for 'The Finals'? Look, Doris does fine work with women's sports, namely the WNBA and the women's college tournament. She's actually not a bad basketball analyst either; she can hang with Jeff "see, now this is what I would have done if I were actually coaching" Van Gundy any day. But she just doesn't strike me as a sideline girl! Her investigative stuff is all right, but her question-and-answer periods with the coaches after the first and third quarters, and with the players at the end of each half, are just pain-full.
And let's put this out there; she's not exactly Jennifer Aniston with the facial, ya know? America likes a cutie-pie asking Sasha Vujacic why he insists on wearing a shoelace around his head, Adam Morrison if he'd like to trade lives with J.J. Redick, or Stan Van Gundy if he has considered Xanax. It's gotta be either a cute girl, or a strangely odd man wearing a bright purple suit with orange trim (*cough Craig Sager). Just the way the biz has evolved. Salters in particular is good at this, and I'm partial to Tafoya too. I don't know why this bothers me, but it does.
Anyway, that's my mini-rant. Ashley Russell, everybody.
. A moment of silence, for the end of the month-long reign of NBA-TV siren Melanie "Who should be on the calendar cover? Hmmmm...me." Collins. We shall miss thou, and thy rocking body.
OK, moment over. No, seriously, stop ogling those pictures. Moment OVER!!!
Let me help. For your viewing pleasure, May's TNEA: Maria Sansone.
Well, we've gotten plenty of suggestions on who to go with for May's TNEA, and I'm hoping we will get to most or all of them in good time. Definitely some great considerations for a Erin Andrews replacement - not that she needs replacing: you know, we're just looking out for you sideline hottie-loving folk out there just in case. For this month, we shift from a TV chick to a young lady who's made her mark online. Not many of you may have heard of "PopTub", but it's a Pepsi-sponsored segment on YouTube that makes fun of other YouTube videos. You might call it a version of "America's Funniest Home Videos", except the program is online and only rips material from fellow YouTube materials.
Poptub is entertaining for many reasons (most of them, humor), but the show's host, Maria Sansone, ranks right up there at the top. She's bubbly, a little edgy and risque, funny, fun to watch, and really, really, really, really, really, really, ridiculously cute. She reminds me of a young 'Aunt Becky' from Full House, with perfectly hot hair and flattering makeup, in high definition.
What I like about Maria is that she and her program are, indeed, quite entertaining. You watch the show, you watch the pulled YouTube videos, and it's easy to come back for more simply for the humor. But, hey, nobody would blame you to come back and watch more of HD Maria, too.
Admittedly, what Maria has over Melanie in popularity (there are hundreds of videos on YouTub, most with views in the hundreds of thousands), she lacks in sports-savvyness. There's not a ton of sports-related talk on Poptub: most of the content is devoted to either internet news or to goofy videos like this one. (That's kind of how I stumbled across Poptub, so I thought I'd post it. Not to mention, I have a good friend who, I swear, was that kid about 15 years ago.)
So maybe this is reaching, but give her props for showcasing one of the greatest football-related commercials of all-time: the one where innocent office workers get destroyed by Terry Tate.
What's that? You want one more? OK, here you go, another HD video that makes you kneel down and worship the men and women who created HD. Try not to stare.
If you want to see more, just click on any of the three clips while they're playing, and you'll go right to the YouTube page where you can link to all the other Poptub videos.
OK, now for those who actually scrolled down this far and made it past the picture...
April is widely considered the best sports month of the year. Opening Day; NFL Draft; NBA and NHL races heating up; Final Four (love how March Madness has turned into April Absurdity); and of course, the birthday month of yours truly.
Thusly, April deserves a strong candidate for this month's TNEA, or The Next Erin Andrews if you're new to the club. Every month, Tributewill pay respects to a young woman out there, preferably in the world of sports, who just might have the the good looks and good charm to one day take over for the lovely Erin Andrews, should she ever choose to leave her ESPN gig and spend the remainder of her days throwing down the Gator Chomp in Gainesville. Or lusting into the hands of another man in SEC land.
Now, if you had to guess which one of the lovely ladies at the top of this post is the focus of our fawning this month, it'd be tough, now would it? It's a good month indeed; three good candidates right there.
But alas, one must portray more than just babe-like symptoms to take over for EA; experience is a must, too. The blonde on the left is Melanie Collins, of NBA.com League Pass (discovered her during halftime of the Nuggets-Mavericks game), of Big Ten Network (where's your hot correspondents, Big XII Network? What up?) and most importantly, of the Tempe12 models.
Now we love Charissa Thompson, March's nominee. She's also with the BTN. (Seriously, B-dubs, scoreboard. 2-0) But Charissa, the smokin' ex-Rockies sideline girl, doesn't have a lineup of pics like these...
What more can you say? Melanie's a Penn State grad (B-dubs needs a shovel to dig out of this Big-Ten-stomps-Big-XII-like hole) and is our age. Yep, the 22-year-old Nittany Lion graduated last year, and is already working along the likes of Gary Payton, Chris Webber and David Aldridge for NBATV.
Hot damn. Now that's setting the bar high for future TNEA candidates. But we'll do our best, starting again on May 1.
. This blog will be mostly reserved for just sports talk, but in the good name of many bloggers and ESPN writers before us (ahem, Matthew Berry), there's gotta be a little risque factor to Bucky and Boomer as well. So we're gonna start up a monthly feature, in which we pay our respects to some woman in the sports atmosphere that might have the goods and the gusto to one day take over Erin Andrews' current post as all-time sports goddess. Nothing against EA - we still love ya up in Wisco - but fads change more quickly than an orderly man's socks, so we must be prepared for Erin's understudy! I call it "The Next Erin Andrews of the Month", or "TNEA of the Month" for short. Well, for kind of short. TNEAOTM just looked weird.
March's nomination (how sad, it's just for a week) is a bit of an obvious one, since many people in both Colorado and Wisconsin know about her: Charissa Thompson, formerly of Fox Sports Rocky Mountain (the Rockies' sideline girl during the World Series season of 2007) and currently of the Big Ten Network and FSN's Best Damn Sports Show Period. She's an obvious choice in that, uh, she's clearly being groomed as one of the top up-and-comers to perhaps one day succeed EA as the loveliest sideline girl of them all. But nonetheless, she dons the first crown for this monthly honor. Check back on April 1st for April's nominee, and we promise you will not be disappointed.
