ESPN's Chris Berman has signed a multiyear deal to stay with the net. He will continue in his myriad roles, including as the host of "Sunday NFL Countdown," "Monday Night Countdown," the NFL Draft, the MLB Home Run Derby and the U.S. Open. Berman's extenstion will officially begin in '13. He joined the net in October '79, one month after it launched (ESPN).
SEEING, AND HEARING, RED: YAHOO SPORTS' Adrian Wojnarowski reported free agent F Brian Scalabrine "has agreed to broadcast 11 early season Boston Celtics games for Comcast Sports New England on what he called 'a trial run.'" Scalabrine will do color analysis on "three preseason and eight regular season Celtics games, as well as some studio work, through January" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 9/6). In Boston, Chad Finn notes the games Scalabrine calls will be "most likely on road trips when Tommy Heinsohn does not travel." Sources confirmed that he is an "addition rather than a replacement," with Heinsohn and analyst Donny Marshall "continuing in their current roles." Scalabrine earned "good marks for his work as a guest analyst during pregame and postgame programming on CSNNE last spring" (BOSTON GLOBE, 9/7).
BACK BEHIND THE MIC: MLB Rangers announcer Dave Barnett, who has been "off the air since ... rambling comments during a June game" will call two Univ. of North Texas football games this season, including Saturday's game against Texas Southern. Rangers Exec VP/Communications John Blake said that Barnett, a UNT alum, "informed the club about the UNT commitment and the baseball team has no issues with it" (AP, 9/5).
THE MEXICAN CONNECTION: Comcast-owned Spanish-language network Telemundo followed through on a promise to remain a player for Mexican league soccer Thursday, landing multi-platform U.S. rights to Club León, a historically popular team that was promoted to the first division for '12-13. The acquisition comes six weeks after Telemundo competitor Univision swept in to secure all-platform rights to popular Liga Mx soccer club Chivas de la Guadalajara beginning next year. Earlier this year, four other clubs -- Monterrey, Toluca, Tigres and Puma -- moved from Telemundo to Univision (Bill King, SportsBusiness Journal).
