The media learning curve: More on the NFL salesmanship, soccer balls and poker faces

Following up today's news and notes (linked here), we also need to throw out these things that otherwise would fall between the cup holders in our new Ford F-150 truck:

==More on the NFL Network's status as far as "Smashmouth Cable Football" goes from a New York Times piece (linked here), a Wall Street Journal story (linked here) on the introduction of game video on Sprint phones, and more of NFL Net COO Kim Williams talking to MultiChannel News (linked here).

== Fox really needed to interrupted its NFL pregame show last Sunday to drive a new truck into the studio and pimp it up? It was as if the '09 Ford F-150 was the infomercial, and the NFL commentary simply wrapped around it. It started after a commerical break about 15 minutes into the hour-long show, when NASCAR analyst Jeff Hammond came onto the set pretending to do the weather report by showing cards with words like "comfy" and "sweet" and "perfect" that supposedly described the conditions in different cities -- but really to set up the pitch. Terry Bradshaw had to ask: "So how'd you get out here?" To which Hammond responded: "I'm glad you asked. Come on and I'll show you the new F150!" The truck was parked on the green lined practice field as Hammond acted like a saleman pitching all the benefits of the truck to Bradshaw and Michael Strahan for three minutes. They even got Strahan in the back seat to show its legroom. "Howie can get in there with you," said Bradshaw. But Howie Long, who does Chevy commercials, wouldn't go near it. Coincidence? "One thing we try to do at Fox is work with advertisers," said Fox studio producer Scott Ackerson in USA Today. "Ford came to us and said, 'This is important to us, could you make something happen?' " Money talks.

== British soccer ball maker Mitre has reportedly filed a federal lawsuit against HBO, claiming the network misrepresented the makers of their equipment in a piece on Sept. 16 for "Real Sports" that discussed children in sweatshops. The story, with Bernard Goldberg reporting, showed how children in India miss school and work long hours stitching soccer balls. The suit claims that HBO paid the children to go on camera and exaggerate stories about their working conditions.HBO's Ray Stallone said: "We are not going to comment on pending litigation."

==Dr. Jerry Punch and analysts Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree will call the next-to-last Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race from Phoenix, with ABC carrying it live at noon on Sunday. ESPN2 has qualifying today at 2:30 p.m. with final practice Saturday at noon.

==NBC has a 90-minute documentary on the 2008 Paralympic Games, directed by David Michaels (Sunday, 11:30 a.m., Channel 4). As a story in today's Sports Business Journal points out, this may be quality programming, but it's really a way to drive viewers to the new Olympic channel Universal Sports, which has 28 hours of Paralympic coverage from Nov. 10-16. NBC bought a stake in the channel last June and has it in about 30 million homes, but mostly as a presence on the Internet.

==Craig Hummer, Justin McKee, Ty Murray and Donna Brothers cover the 2008 Pro Bull Riders Final from Las Vegas for NBC (Sunday, 1 p.m., Channel 4)

AND THE CLOSING ARGUMENT:

Lon McEachern and Norman Chad will be back on ESPN with same-day coverage Tuesday of the 2008 World Series of Poker championship (the ESPN link here). A one-hour preview show starts at 5 p.m., leading into the two-hour presentation from the Rio in Las Vegas.

Chad's analysis (via ESPN) on the nine competitors left in the game:

==Dennis Phillips (linked here) of St. Louis (the leader with 26,295,000): "Perhaps no player could be more negatively affected by the 117-day final-table delay. When play was halted in July, Phillips was in a zone. He was running hot and reading well, getting all the right cards and pushing all the right buttons. Poker is a streaky game, and he was on a week-long streak. Heck, 3½ months later, he might not even be able to find his St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap."

==Ivan Demidov of Russia: "In recent years, Russians are making a bigger impact in poker. Demidov is seldom recklessly aggressive like other twenty-somethings; rather, he's smart and measured and overcomes his lack of live tournament experience with a steady countenance and solid reads."

==Scott Montgomery of Perth, Ontario, Canada: "Another improbable product of the now-famed University of Waterloo poker factory in Canada - if it's such a good engineering school, how come everyone there is playing cards?"

==Peter Eastgate of Odense, Denmark: "Ah, to be young, fearless and playing for $9.1 million. In Europe, the poker community talks about uber-aggressive Scandinavian players like Eastgate. He is calm and icy at the table as he continues to shove big bets into the middle."

==Ylon Schwartz of Brooklyn: "He says if he wins the Main Event, he wants to go somewhere no one will find him 'like Tim Robbins in "Shawshank Redemption."' He gets another point there."

==Darus Suharto of Toronto: "At 39, the second-oldest player left in the field, which speaks to the youthful state of no-limit tournament hold 'em in 2008."

==David Rheem of Los Angeles: "He could go out first or he could end up first. He's not afraid to mix it up, he goes with his reads and he'll risk it all early if the spot feels right. Even when he bluffs off most of his stack, he has a great ability to not let the moment destroy him - he'll brush it off and move on. And, of course, most of the established pros are rooting for him."

==Craig Marquis of Arlington, Texas: "I like him because he started playing in January 2007 after going to a New Year's Eve party and realizing how much money Tom Dwan and David Benefield were making at cards - on New Year's Eve, most people just get silly and make stupid resolutions."

==Kelly Kim of Whittier: "He has to feel like he's on a free roll - he was the short stack when they got down to 10 players - but that doesn't mean he'll play recklessly. In fact, with a big gallery of friends and family on hand, he'll probably play it snug - you don't wait 117 days and bring all your supporters into town to go bust in 15 minutes."