OLBERMANN SPEAKS OUT ON PATRICK'S COORS SPOT: On his
"SportsFan Radio Minute," Keith Olbermann said that ESPN's
Dan Patrick's appearance in a Coors ad with John Elway has
"become material for the squawking parrots of sportswriting,
the men who do no reporting nor thinking, but who just want
to take a shot at a TV guy." Olbermann said that the N.Y.
Post's Phil Mushnick "made a reasonable argument" against
Patrick, and "since then, some other writers have also been
fair and analytical. But hypocrisy abounds." He noted that
the Chicago Sun-Times' Ron Rapoport "simply rehashed
Mushnick's column," but on the Sun-Times Web site, "right
next to Rapoport's column, is a link to a service where you
can buy a book by Rapoport. ... That kind of erasing of the
line between journalism and personal profit not only renders
Rapoport a hypocrite, but also makes doing a TV beer
commercial look like charity work" (Winstar, 7/26).
NOTES: BRANDWEEK's Terry Lefton reports that Japanese
automaker Suzuki is "close to finalizing a three-year deal,
for around $1.5 million, that would make it a Heisman Trophy
sponsor." The deal would allow Suzuki to "execute a
promotion that would include the public in Heisman balloting
for the first time, with the aggregate public vote
equivalent to one of the roughly 920 ballots" sent out by
the panel. Lefton adds that Wendy's, the "longest" sponsor
of the Heisman, is "renewing for another three years." The
U.S. Post Office "is also close to renewing" (BRANDWEEK,
7/26 issue)....Nike's recent ad campaign for its cross-
trainers, created by Wieden & Kennedy and featuring MLB
players and the "chicks dig the long ball" tag, was voted
the "second most-popular of five Nike campaigns measured"
since '95 in USA TODAY's Ad Tracker (USA TODAY, 7/26).
