Quick Hits

- I love how ESPN has really thrown themselves into soccer coverage, especially with the last two World Cups, so I was somewhat distressed a few years ago when FIFA awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Fox Sports. I wasn't sure soccer would be in good hands with a new, relatively unknown quantity. I feel much better about the decision now, for two reasons:

1) Soccer is here to stay. Sure MLS may not draw well outside of Seattle, but top-level soccer? Networks can't get enough of it. Whether it's ESPN, Fox Sports, Fox Soccer, NBC Sports, there is plenty of great soccer out there. And ESPN has set the standard in terms of making the content available. No network can possibly bid on soccer packages and NOT make the game available. 10 years ago? Sure. But soccer is too big here now.

2) The one thing I didn't like about ESPN is how they wrote off an entire country of announcers for the 2010 World Cup. All of their play-by-play people were from across the pond. Not one play-by-play man was American. Now, I understand that British announcers are better versed in calling soccer than Americans. And ESPN had tried shoehorning an American baseball announcer (Dave O'Brien) into the role in 2006 and he was terrible. But there was no one in your American stable of announcers able to competently call soccer games?

Fox Soccer has chosen its voice for the 2018 World Cup. It's Gus Johnson, who called his first big-time soccer game this week (Real Madrid-Manchester United Champions League action). You may remember Gus from countless March Madness calls. Is he rough around the edges calling a soccer match? Sure. But as long as he buys in, and reports are he's doing exactly that, I'm looking forward to hearing him call a big US game in the 2018 World Cup. And I'm very glad Fox is grooming at least one American voice for its World Cup coverage.

- If you have some time, read this ESPN the Magazine story on Michael Jordan as he turns 50.

- The Oscar Pistorius story is baffling. It's terrible, and baffling. Pistorius was one of the non-American stories NBC latched onto because it was so inspirational. A double-amputee fighting his way into the Olympic races to run alongside Usain Bolt and everyone else. Apparently, and tragically, there seems to have been much more to this story than that.