Watchdog

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...

Stan Isaacs didn’t take himself too seriously, which is an excellent trait for a sportswriter, and one reason he has been celebrated in a series of tributes since dying Tuesday at 83.

The guy was an original, including in the field of sports media criticism, although when he became the first person to do it full time in the New York area in 1978 the simple column title “TV Sports’’ sufficed.

Isaacs...

MSG is premiering a series Monday called “The Lineup: Best Sports Movies,’’ taking it one sport at a time in eight nights, thus highlighting an age-old verity: There are baseball and boxing movies, and there is everything else.

For example, Monday’s five baseball finalists, all from the fertile period 1984-92, include “Field of Dreams,’’ “The Natural,’’ “Bull Durham,’’ “Major League’’ and...

For most Americans old enough to remember it -- or who saw the recent ESPN documentary --  the story of the 1983 NCAA Tournament forever will be the upset of Houston by Seaford High’s own Jim Valvano and North Carolina State in Albuquerque.

But CBS’ Jim Nantz experienced that event from the opposite perspective, as a recent Houston alum who watched in horror as the final play unfolded.

“I...