The Rock, aka Dwayne Johnson, was a guest on SportsCenter today. And he found time to curse on live TV! Yes folks, The Rock was cooking something on ESPN this morning. Video here.

The Ravens’ Terrell Suggs has turned into a somewhat regular foil for Skip Bayless on ESPN 2′s First Take. It works because Bayless will spew his intentionally inflammatory opinions (including those about the Ravens), and in return, Suggs will be his incredibly intense self. Ratings GOLD, we tell you.

For the last few years, there’s been a great hullabaloo made over the “War on Christmas” — basically, the belief that companies, networks, and other public entities have phased out “Christmas” and replaced it with “holidays.” Fox News — led in the movement by Bill O’Reilly — has been a leader in the resistance of the movement, but we wanted to see if there were any other networks keeping “Christmas” in the lexicon, possibly in a more understated manner.

Hank Williams Jr. has been at the center of a controversy after he likened a golf game between Barack Obama and John Boehner to a meeting between Hitler and Benjamin Netanyahu during an appearance on Fox and Friends. Since then, he has been fired by ESPN as a pregame questioner of the nation’s readiness for football, and has released his own song which raises his middle fingers to to his foes (in particular Fox and Friends and ESPN.) Today he appeared on The View to explain himself in a roller coaster of a segment.

Oh, ESPN and Fox & Friends, you messed with the bull and now it’s time for you to get the semi-coherent horns!

The Associated Press is reporting that spurned country singer Hank Williams, Jr. has recorded a new song that trashes the sports network and morning show as well as warning that the nation is becoming “The United Socialist States of America.” Basically it sounds like we’ve got a perfect addition to the next Mediaite office karaoke night.

ESPN is officially terminating their relationship with Hank Williams, Jr. after initially pulling his introduction to Monday Night Football following the controversial remarks he made about President Obama earlier this week.

Yesterday, Hank Williams, Jr. made a silly comment on Fox & Friends comparing Barack Obama and John Boehner golfing together to “Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu.” Soon after, his iconic theme song got pulled from ESPN’s Monday Night Football broadcast. Today on The Five, Williams Jr. got very little sympathy from anyone on the panel except for Bob Beckel who said he recognized the addiction behind Williams’ ever present sunglasses.

Earlier today, Mediaite Managing Editor Colby Hall gleefully reported that ESPN had pulled Hank Williams Jr.’s iconic “Are You Ready For Some Football” song from last night’s Monday Night Football broadcast, in response to remarks that Hank made, on Fox and Friends, in which he compared President Obama’s golf outing with Speaker John Boehner to an outing [...]

Hank Williams, Jr. has released a statement explaining his comparison of President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler during an appearance on Fox and Friends yesterday morning. The hyperbolic metaphor led to ESPN to pull the remarkably lame opening song for Monday Night Football that acts as cold open (and viewer intellect reducer) for the weekly iconic NFL game.

ESPN announced they were dropping Hank Williams Jr. from Monday Night Football following his controversial comments this morning on Fox and Friends comparing President Obama to Adolph Hitler. “While Hank Williams, Jr. is not an ESPN employee, we recognize that he is closely linked to our company through the open to Monday Night Football,” ESPN [...]

Much has been made about just what Glenn Beck’s plan has been in moving to the Internet from Fox News. Due to some of his own comments, it seemed like maybe Beck was merely trying to go younger. However, during a set tour yesterday with other reporters, it became clear that the real plan was to go bigger. Never was that more clear than listening to Beck compare his brand new network to such cable big boys as HBO and ESPN.

Current TV host Keith Olbermann, writing for The Guardian, describes the experience of being hired–and fired–by Rupert Murdoch. “From my vantage point,” Olbermann writes, “the most important fact remains that, after my exit, Rupert had to keep paying me not to have to work for him: $800,000 over the next eight months. It was the best job I ever had.” Olbermann, who was hired by Murdoch to be part of an expanded Fox Sports cable effort that included Olbermann hosting a nightly show to compete against ESPN’s legendary SportsCenter–an effort Olbermann describes as one of Murdoch’s “first abject failures in American television.” Olbermann says the failure was the result of multiple mistakes on the part of bosses at News Corp.: “for once, Murdoch’s mafia failed him.”

Former NHL player and current ESPN hockey analyst Matthew Barnaby pleaded not guilty yesterday to five charges (including one felony) stemming from a domestic incident on Friday with his estranged wife.

In a segment titled “Barack-etology 2011: The President’s Picks,” President Obama appeared on ESPN to make his annual prediction of which college basketball team could go all the way in the NCAA tournament. This year Obama thinks Kansas will defeat Ohio State in the finals to win the title and joked that now Kansas will be motivated because any team he picks “always [feels] bad about losing when the President picks them.”

Last we checked in, we knew the site would include Bill Simmons, Deadspin contributor Katie Baker, Chuck Klosterman, and Lane Brown, late of New York Magazine. In the linked USA Today interview from earlier this week, however, two new hires were mentioned – Molly Lambert of This Recording, and Chris Ryan of GQ.

ESPN college basketball analyst and legendary former coach Bob Knight cursed loudly and audibly during College Gameday today, proving once again that there’s nothing like accidental anchor profanity to spice up your Saturday afternoon.

While many media companies are struggling to adapt to a changing environment and emerge from the economic recession, Disney seems to be doing well. Not shockingly, the money-making machine driving the corporation’s success is ESPN.

Stuart Scott returned to SportsCenter last night for the first time since announcing he was diagnosed with cancer. The popular SportsCenter anchor appaeared to be a few pounds lighter, but still seemed on top of his game.

Former NFL offensive lineman Kyle Turley appeared recently on ESPN’s Outside the Lines, and extolled the benefits of marijuana in a bizarre interview.

Since Keith Olbermann’s departure from MSNBC, there have been a number of rumored destinations for him, including ESPN. Well, you can scratch that off the list.

During a segment from yesterday’s Kansas – Kansas State game, a large Jayhawks fan got up, pointed at Erin Andrews, and mouthed the word “hot.”

Keith Olbermann abruptly ended his run on MSNBC last night, and in addition to piecing together exactly what happened that led to his departure, much of the Olbermann-related speculation has been about his next destination. One place he probably won’t end up: his former home, ESPN.

Football announcer Ron Franklin won’t respond to his firing from ESPN, but told the New York Times’ Richard Sandomir that he’s gotten an outpouring of support since his dismissal.

ESPN and the NFL are in the midst of finalizing a television and media rights megadeal that is worth upwards of $16 billion (some estimates put the deal’s value at $19 billion). It is, without a doubt, the biggest sports television deal in history, and ensures another revenue stream for two companies that are already printing money. Here’s what it means, and how it happened.

ESPN announcers Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski, and Jon Gruden are apparently a very chatty and broey bunch. That much we learned during a commercial break for Monday night’s Orange Bowl, when the three announcers’ microphones were left on during a commercial break.