My mom likes college football. Favorite team is ND, but she liked Penn State too (Specifically Paterno). She had pretty much all the ND merhcandise one would ever need so in like 99 or 2000 I bought her a Penn State sweatshirt



It feels good to get that off my chest. I guess Ill see some of you in hell

This is such an obvious, obvious point, you'd think it almost wouldn't need to be said. But it does, I guess. Besides, if I were on the prosecution, I'd want every member of the jury to be made up of Penn State grads, fans, professors, former football players, anything.

Also, hey Bernstein, where do you think the jurors for the federal trial are going to come from, goober?

_________________
Fire Phil Emery

Deadspin really taking it to TEAM BERNSTEIN today


How A Teenager With A Fake Escort Service Duped Darren Rovell And CNBC [UPDATE]

An 18-year-old high school senior named Tim was bored one day last November when CNBC's sports biz guy, Darren Rovell, sent out the following tweet:

If you are losing a paycheck/business because of the NBA, I want to tell your story. Email me at

— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) November 17, 2011

The NBA lockout was still on, and Rovell was looking for a new angle. Tim decided to have a little fun with him. He created a fake email account with the name "Henry James" and the handle hankinthebank1@gmail.com. He sent a note to Rovell's Gmail:

I run an escort service in New york, mostly for away teams players after games but I get some knicks and nets players also. They are the high rollers and im not getting the constant business that I need to stay running .

Rovell was into it, according to their email exchange, which Tim has kindly sent to us. Rovell replied:

Henry,
I can keep you quiet but can you at least give me financial details — how much do players pay typically? what do they get?

Tim/Henry:

Ya I appreciate you keeping me quiet. Some girls are few hundred dollars an hour, some can be a few thousand dollars per hour, they get anything and everything, especially the younger guys. They mostly have their people contact me to arrange it so I rarely deal directly with players.

Rovell:

what percentage of your business is nba then? and how much money would say you're losing? what cut do you then get?

Tim/Henry:

Well its a high profile operation so I get a lot of athletes depending on the season but between entertainers, athletes and just wealthy people 30 percent roughly is NBA related during NBA season. This far into the season ive probably lost 25,000 dollars maybe more, its hard to tell because were working with lower profile clients in replacement for less money. I take anywhere from 65 to 80 % of the cut depending on how long the woman has been working for me.

Rovell:

this is so fascinating to me. so it's either players or people who come into town to see games that the business is coming from. is there virtually no replacement or you are so tapped into the nba players and their managers that it's harder to get other business because you've done it for so long?

one more thing, typically what is the cheapest woman and what is the most expensive woman? i assume it's by the hour and what is the typical # of hours?

Tim/Henry:

There are replacements but they aren't as consistent and not nearly as high paying. Cheapest girl is around 350 or 400 an hour most expensive is 4,000, anywhere from 2 to 6 hours usually

Are you doing a report on this?

He was indeed. The 18-year-old's gag made its way into Rovell's CNBC.com report a few days later:

A 30 percent decline seems to be the magic number, even for Henry, who runs an escort service in New York that he says charges between $400 and $4,000 an hour, depending on the woman.

Henry says he takes between 65 and 80 percent of the total cut to match the players and other high-profile fans, who are with the client an average of four hours.

"There are replacements but they aren't as consistent and not nearly as high paying," Henry said.

Where did Tim come up with these prices? "I came up with that completely off the top of my head," he tells me. "I didn't even Google it." The 30 percent figure, he adds, was "made up and it turned out to be the magic number!"

Rovell used the escort story as Twitter bait:

The real stories of the NBA Lockout including NY escort service whose biz is down 30% bit.ly/sYC8nh

— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) November 21, 2011

The story took off. Business Insider picked up the escort angle and turned it into a post of its own. So did Yahoo, Slam, Pro Basketball Talk, and many others. (Somehow, we missed this one.)

On Monday, Tim sent us an email, explaining what he'd done. Why had he waited all these months? He says he had forgotten about it, until a friend had texted him out of the blue and told him to send it to us. And what did his friend say?

"He said he's just such a douche on twitter all the time he just got fed up," Tim says in an email, "which I agree with."

We asked Rovell for comment. We'll let you know if we hear anything.

Update, 3:06 p.m.: CNBC has removed the passage from Rovell's story and added a correction. Here's a screengrab of "Henry's" anecdote, pre-correction.

Rovell has issued an apology:

In a story I wrote here on CNBC.com on November 21, 2011 about the NBA Lockout called, "Small Business Owners Getting Squeezed by NBA Lockout" I was duped by a "source" and I'd like to explain to you my readers what happened.

The upside of Internet is that it gives a voice to millions of people that otherwise might not have a platform. In this case I used Twitter to crowd source a story about the real people affected by the NBA lockout. I got hundreds of responses from ballboys to ushers who chose to share their very personal stories. I tried to verify all stories by peppering people with questions to test their knowledge. The downside of Twitter is that the voice can hide behind a wall of anonymity.

The escort story made the cut because I thought it was different. As you can see in the published exchange I went back and forth with "Tim" in an attempt to ascertain whether his story was genuine. Feeling satisfied that the answers seemed real, we included it in the story.

He duped me. Shame on me. I apologize to my readers.

As a result I will do fewer stories on the real life impact of big events which I do think the public enjoys.

There will always be people out there who want their 15 minutes of fame and not really care how they get there.

Wait, how can Dan cackle with DELIGHT when he reads his Twitter feed which told him that some 50 year-old white married dude was not only a Penn State grad, but his wife was the chair of some organization, and when he walked into the court room he smiled widely at Sandusky???

ISN'T THIS THE BIGGEST SPORTS STORY OF ALL TIME? How can he laugh when all of these victims are still paying the price of what this monster did? How can an entire state being so backward be SO funny while these poor kids (now men) still bear the burden of the horrors allowed by Paterno???

What a disingenuous prick! If you're outraged, be outraged. Stop acting like an old lady being tickled with every plot twist in her favorite soap opera, DAN.

Has anyone ever asked Bernsie why (outside of any concern the general population would have on this terrible situation) he has such an interest and hard on (so to speak) for this? Has ever answered?

_________________
Elections have consequences.

BernSTINE's sick obsession with child rape and the glee he takes in this whole sick tragedy is quite troubling. I understand this story has all the BernSTINE jack-off material....destruction of the college coach mystique, college athletics, college football fans, the ability to pretend he knows what he's talking about and the opportunity to lie, extrapolate, misrepresent and paint large swaths of people any way he'd like, BUT the way he giggles, how excited and happy he gets when there is another child rape victim is uncovered, it's just sick. I think BernSTINE needs to be locked up.

OK, even I think you're a little nuts.

_________________
Fire Phil Emery

Oh, my statement took some liberties, but there is an element of creepy truth to how obsessed and giddy he gets over this story.

MLB Network/MSG Network's Jim Kaat talking baseball right now with the guys...Cool!

No, you're kind of going off the wall with that one.

EDIT: that was to SomeGuy, not SHARK. SHARK's post was 100% factual.

_________________

I'm going off the wall?

No way, man, you're off the wall!!!!

If you've ever wondered why the guys always mention "surprises along the way", MLB Network's Jim Kaat being on moments ago qualifies.

No one has ever wondered that

Well, I didn't expect to hear Jim Kaat either, but guess what? He was on...

Meanwhile, Bernsy's going over the jurors in the Sandusky trial. C'MON MAN!

This is awesome.

_________________
Fire Phil Emery

Shark, you're like a puppy dog that keeps coming back for more.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

If Connor McKnight wants to start "Xfinity Feedback Zone Live" right now instead of 6p, I'm all for it.

DAAAAMNNN

SHARK just ripped Bernstein's head off

RP Bryan, I understand "B & B" are planning to cover the upcoming Sandusky Trial like a blanket, but it's a little too much to know about these jurors.

Dovetailing off of Dan's SNL mention .... how many days into the trial before a juror wears something branded by Penn State?

_________________
Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

He always talks very fondly about the time he spent as a child at summer camp and how much he advocates it (which I always thought was odd because in any other similar situation it seems like he'd imply the kids were probably being molested), so maybe it hits home for him because he imagines these things happening to either he or his fellow campers and how they trusted the counselors and those in charge to NOT let something like this happen.

Whatever the reason, this show clearly beat this topic into the ground last year and his vacillating being between being outraged by it and making jokes about it is bizarre.

In case you really care, @Dan_Bernstein has plenty more where that came from on Twitter...

After these very important messages, there will be a RED ALERT! RED ALERT! direct from Halas Hall. You've been warned.

Assuming 5 roses pub is in rosemont and not Des Plaines like the cbs chicago website says is anyone worth meeting going? I will be in the area...probably.
http://events.chicago.cbslocal.com/desplaines/events/bud-light-who-needs-two-tavern-tour-five-roses-p-/E0-001-048543842-9

Google Maps says that address is a house.

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

A chance to meet Boilermaker Rick?

Definite maybe!

_________________

Terry thinks Kate Upton is a skank because she's in pictures with her tongue hanging out.

_________________
-- source

Yeah Terrence needs a refresher on the definition of skank.

_________________

It will be largely dependent on who is going that wants to punch me in the face. Hopefully Bucky Chris is busy.

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I'm in.

_________________