The hotly-anticipated book, Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN, goes on sale today.
Along with the juicy feuds involving Chris Berman, Tony Kornheiser, Bill Simmons, Mike Tirico and others, there's a little piece of career advice for ESPNers to follow. Save the Adolf Hitler analogies for something besides sports.
Two ESPN personalities, Lou Holtz and Jemele Hill, found that out the hard way when they used the Nazi leader to punctuate their points. Both tell the authors they got into hot water over it with the brass at ESPN.
While talking on-air about leadership on losing college football teams, Holtz said Hitler was a good leader for a bad cause. The former Notre Dame coach says he didn't want to apologize because he didn't think he did anything wrong. Sorry Dr. Lou. His bosses wrote up an apology for him and make him read it on-air. But Holtz still thinks his Hitler analogy is accurate.
Then Hill, a Detroit native, wrote in a column that Detroit Pistons rooting for the rival Boston Celtics to beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2008 NBA Final was as bad as rooting for Hitler. The line blew up into a national story. She was suspended for a week. Although embarrassed and humiliated, she says she got what she deserved. The Hitler comparison was the stupidest thing she's ever written, Hill admits.
For some excellent reviews of the book, read media critics Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated here and Neil Best of Newsday here and CNBC sports business reporter (and former ESPNer) Darren Rovell here.
See photos of: ESPN
Reid Cherner and Tom Weir have been with USA TODAY since 1982 and they have written Game On! since March 2008.
Reid has covered everything from high schools to horse racing to the college and the pros. The only thing he likes more than his own voice is the sound of readers telling him when he's right and wrong.
Tom has covered every Summer and Winter Olympics since 1984, and has made numerous trips to the Super Bowl, World Series, Final Four and NBA Finals. In 2009, he put more miles on his bicycle than on his car.
Michael McCarthy and Michael Hiestand have more in common than their first names.
Both have covered sports media and marketing for USA TODAY. Both have tackled the sports biz ranging from what's behind mega-events such as the Olympics and Super Bowl to the sometimes-hidden numbers behind the sports world's bottom line.
But they usually come at things from different directions, and it's no wonder. Hiestand is an Oregon native who went to Stanford while McCarthy is a native New Yorker who went to St. John's.
