Best PR Slogan

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WE HAVE NOTHING TO ANNOUNCE, ESPN: The e-mail-obsessed folks in ESPN's communication department dropped this slogan so often in the hours leading up to the announcement of Joe Theismann's departure from Monday Night Football that March 25 is now officially declared "We Have Nothing To Announce" day.

Honorable Mention: "Billy [Packer] used the phrase as defined in the American Heritage Dictionary," CBS Sports. For those of you in the future who plan on telling Charlie Rose not to "fag out" on something, you now have precedent thanks to CBS Sports.

Best Hour of Sports Television

REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL, HBO, August episode: Over the past decade Real Sports (full disclosure: it has partnered with SI on certain stories and employs SI's Frank Deford) has produced quality sports journalism, but its August episode embodied the show at its best. A Bernard Goldberg-fronted piece on dog fighting's underworld was equal parts disturbing and illuminating. Then, there was Bryant Gumbel's interview with a not-so-contrite Adam (Pacman) Jones, Andrea Kremer's sit-down with Javon Walker on the death of teammate Darrent Williams and a compelling behind-the-scenes look at the marriage of Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi. As I wrote in August, it remains the best hour of sports television I've seen this year.

Honorable Mention: Premier League Review Show (Fox Soccer Channel)

Rating of the Year

PATRIOTS-COLTS, CBS: It was dubbed Super Bowl 41½ and it attracted an audience worthy of, well, American Idol. CBS drew a 20.1 rating and 33.8 million viewers for the Patriots-Colts game on Nov. 4, the highest-rated regular-season Sunday-afternoon NFL telecast on any network since Fox drew a 22.2 for a Cowboys-49ers game in '96. The game was the highest-rated program since the Academy Awards. If only those viewers would tune into Katie Couric.

Rant of the Year

MIKE GUNDY, Oklahoma State football coach: Do you fall in this camp or this camp regarding Gundy's now-famous outburst against a Daily Oklahoman columnist?

Honorable mention: ESPN's Lou Holtz, channeling his inner Isiah Thomas.

Toughest Loss

The 'ol left-hander and beloved Reds broadcaster Joe Nuxhall died Nov. 15 at the age of 79. "Nuxhall's home was every major-league broadcast booth in America, and it won't be the same without his homespun style and his shouts in the background of, 'Get up, get up, get out!' when a Reds player drove one deep to left-center -- although Nuxy might have said the ball was headed for right-center," wrote Dayton Daily columnist Hal McCoy last month. Nuxhall again is on the ballot for the broadcasters' Hall of Fame, and there's been a big push by Reds fans to get him in. If you read the above piece by the respected McCoy, it seems Nuxhall was a Hall of Fame guy as well.

They Said It In '07

The Yankees led the world in home runs this season.
-- Chip Caray, TBS baseball play-by-play announcer, bypassing the Brewers, Phillies and Reds.

Get back in the kitchen and fix me some bacon and eggs!"
-- Cedric Maxwell, color analyst for the Boston Celtics and wannabe Iron Chef, on NBA referee Violet Palmer.

It was painted. Doug Mirabelli confessed up to it after. It was all for PR.
-- ESPN's Gary Thorne, on Curt Schilling's bloody sock. (Thorne later called it a misunderstanding arising from a brief clubhouse conversation with Mirabelli.)

Don't go outside if you have a wallet or anything else.
-- Barry Melrose, ESPN hockey analyst and sociologist, on Newark, N.J.

"That's some nappy-headed hos.
-- Don Imus, fossilized broadcaster

It's hotter than [bleep]. We get our [butts] kicked every time we come here. I'm not coming back next year.
-- Matt Vasgersian, Padres TV play-by-play man, on the joys of traveling to St. Louis. To his credit, Vasgersian e-mailed the blog Awful Announcing and offered a humorous mea culpa.

Broadcasters (Not listed above) Viewers Deserve More of in '08

Jay Bilas (ESPN), James Brown (CBS), Doris Burke (ESPN), Mary Carillo (HBO, ESPN, CBS, NBC), Ed Cunningham (ESPN), Ian Eagle (CBS), Josh Elliott (ESPN), Chris Fowler (ESPN), Ron Franklin (ESPN), Ron Jaworski (ESPN), Eric Karabell (ESPN), Mel Kiper (ESPN Radio), Mike Mayock (NFL Network), Pam Oliver (Fox), Jimmy Roberts (NBC) and Jeremy Schaap (ESPN).