Watchdog

Jason Collins, the first gay active male athlete on a U.S. pro team, appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" with his twin brother, Jarron Collins, on Wednesday night.

Watch the interview below, in two clips.

Part 1

Part 2

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Difficult to believe we are coming up on five years since Mike Francesa and Chris Russo parted ways after 19 years together on WFAN.

It was so long ago that the day Sirius XM Satellite Radio announced Russo's hiring at its Manhattan studios, I walked by Lehman Brothers headquarters and observed a line of employees waiting to get into the building to clear out their desks.

Anyway, I've...

ESPN NBA analyst Chris Broussard was less that accepting of Jason Collins' decision to announce that he's gay.

On ESPN's "Outside the Lines" on Monday, Broussard called it "a sin" and "walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ."

Watch the clip below.

(Newsday's app users can watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCOXBgBjDgY)...

Giants running back John Tuggle was the last pick taken in the NFL Draft, an "honor" commonly referred to as "Mr. Irrelevant." His importance to the Giants franchise and coach Bill Parcells is profiled in Grantland's 30-for-30 shorts series.

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As the NBA demonstrated last season, playing a lockout-truncated schedule is a good way to boost ratings, since each game takes on added importance.

So it has been in the NHL this year, with many teams posting big increases. But even taking that into consideration, the three teams in the New York area have been particularly impressive.

The last time Sports Business Journal studied all...

The seventh Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival opens next week, highlighted by the much-anticipated premiere of Kevin Connolly’s “Big Shot,’’ about the brief-but-notorious reign of John Spano as the Islanders’ owner.

But that is only one of nine sports-related films that will be shown, four of which are from the “Nine for IX’’ series that is part of the network’s celebration of the 40th anniversary...

Having the Knicks reach the Eastern Conference finals against the Heat would be all sorts of fun, one reason being this: TNT would carry the series, giving Charles Barkley regular opportunities to annoy Knicks fans – and, even better, give me writing material.

Barkley, the most prominent Knicks skeptic working in media, was at it again Thursday, saying that the Nets would beat the Knicks in...

The storyline for "Off the Rez" reads as follows on IMDB:

"The story of a Native American family in Oregon that leaves the reservation in pursuit of the American dream on behalf of one of their 8 children, a 16 year-old girl who is one of the best high school basketball players in the country. Four generations of strong Native American women from the Umatilla Nation struggle...

Skip Bayless of ESPN’s “First Take’’ is one of the most strident gabbers in sports media, but he insisted he does not come by it naturally.

“It’s funny, but I’m shy by nature,’’ he said after a live edition of the show at the Hard Rock Café in Manhattan Monday. “But from my mom I inherited a dynamic audience personality. My mom was a great public speaker and she took me at age 8 to speech...

Now that WFAN’s Mike Francesa is under contract through 2017 – just like A-Rod, but for less money and more production – those of us who spend far too much time thinking about local sports radio can turn our attention to two other matters.

First, whither Chris Russo, whose contract at Sirius XM Satellite Radio expires in September? I don’t know. I do know what is best for media writers: Having...