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PGA Tour Tax Breaks Questioned
Outside the Lines (Sunday 8 a.m. ET, ESPN2, 9 a.m.)
Several pro sports leagues generate millions of dollars tax free because the Internal Revenue Service allows them to operate as nonprofits. The PGA Tour has been able to benefit more from its nonprofit status than any other league, according to Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, who has introduced legislation in Congress that would strip the leagues of their tax-exempt status. Paula Lavigne examines the PGA Tour’s tax-exempt status and the finances of all 25 U.S. tournaments on the Tour that operate as charities.
“People are surprised. They’re amazed. ‘You mean there’s a place in the tax code for the PGA or the NFL to hide and not pay money?’ And the fact is, yes.” — Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma)
“The lion’s share of the money (from PGA Tour Tournaments) is going to big prizes, cash prizes for athletes, and all the promotion around it. So it’s really pathetic actually.” — Ken Berger, president of Charity Navigator, a nonprofit watchdog group that rates the effectiveness of charities
“The objective of a for-profit corporation is to enrich its owners. We prefer to enrich communities.” — Ty Votaw, PGA TOUR Executive Vice President of Communications and International Affairs
The 2,000 Rushing Yard Club
Sunday NFL Countdown (Sunday 10 a.m., ESPN)
Four decades ago, Buffalo Bills’ running back O.J. Simpson became the NFL’s first rusher to eclipse 2,000 yards in a single season. The six backs who have since reached that milestone tell the stories from their historic seasons.
“I think obviously O.J. is the original guy and what made him so impressive with what he did is that he did it in 14 games. Anytime you can rush for 2,000 yards and only play in 14 games, that’s getting it done.” — Terrell Davis, two-time Super Bowl champion
“It gives me cold chills thinking about it. I haven’t really thought about it since this much, ‘cause I haven’t really talked about it. But, you know, it was a great day. It was a great moment in history for me.” — Eric Dickerson on the day he eclipsed 2,000 yards vs. the Houston Oilers
“It’s kind of like experiencing an out of body experience. It’s kind of like someone is doing the work for you. I’m big on faith, so I say my guardian angel was activated during that season and you just get into a feel and you just roll with it.” — Adrian Peterson, Vikings RB, on reaching 2000 yards in 2012
What Maya Moore Learned
espnW.com
ESPN The Magazine (December 23 issue)
As part of its inaugural power ranking list — the espnW Impact 10 recognizing 10 female athletes who made a significant impact on and off the field during the past year — Anna Katherine Clemmons interviews WNBA Finals MVP Maya Moore of the Minnesota Lynx. Topics covered include how Moore’s life is different now that she’s a pro, and her looking back at her championships at every level.
John Kruk’s “booth” at MLB’s Job Fair
ESPN had 20-20 vision throughout its multi-platform coverage of the Baseball Winter Meetings: 20 on-site commentators and reporters had their eyes open for breaking news this week in Orlando, filling the 20-scheduled presentations with the latest trades, rumors and analysis.
“I worked closely with production coordinator Rebecca Preston and producers Gregg Colli and Mark Schuman about the Baseball Tonight needs, and with news editors, SportsCenter, ESPN.com and other platforms to get their wish lists during the meetings,” said coordinating producer Fernando Lopez. “Then, you close yourself in a padded room and come up with a plan that makes sure BBTN is ready to react to any breaking news.”
Preparation began in November, but plans were blown up when Robinson Cano decided to take his talents to Seattle.
Producers (R to L) Fernando Lopez, Tom Archer, and Mark Shuman in their “office”
“We brainstormed what features and video we wanted and needed to cover the meetings, but things changed a lot when the biggest free agent came off the board and teams made a ton of moves,” Schuman said. “So our guys Buster (Olney), Tim (Kurkjian) and Jayson (Stark) worked on smaller moves. I think the best thing we did was cover the proposed rule change on home plate collisions — we had a ton of sound to cover the story, and had very passionate opinion from (John) Kruk and (Curt) Schilling.”
Lopez went from stalker to Santa, explaining, “My personal story was how I stalked Roy Halladay the day he announced his retirement for about an hour so we’d get him for a BBTN interview. I ended up meeting his family and found out that one of his sons loves ESPN. He asked if he can come to Bristol for a tour, so early next year, the Halladays could be walking down our Building 4 halls because I stalked Roy for an interview.”
While most visitors to Disney World talk of the rides or characters, Schuman said, “The most fun we had was Kruk doing a feature in the job fair where he gave free advice. It was supposed to be all laughs — and we had many of those — but there were tons of people who showed up really wanting to talk to John, so he helped people as well.”
Baseball Tonight’s “Starting Lineup” of on-the-set managers
Just as Cano impacted the start of ESPN’s coverage, he’s also impacting how coverage concludes.
“The one big moving part will be coming today with the Cano announcement in Seattle,” Lopez said. “We have Pedro Gomez doing an interview prior to the press conference, then we have to turn around sound for the 6 p.m. SportsCenter, plus feed the conference back to Orlando for our crew to listen to and react.”
Lopez anticipates it all to happen smoothly because, “Everybody on the team is willing to do whatever we ask them for the four days – this is their “Super Bowl” for baseball information and news.”
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