ESPN's Taylor Twellman "has signed an eight-year deal with the network to be the lead analyst" for its soccer coverage, according to Richard Deitsch of SI.com. The deal "is one of the longest at the company for a front-facing talent -- and likely one of the longest for any sports broadcaster at a national outlet." As part of the deal, Twellman will appear on "SportsCenter" and "likely do some sports radio work in his hometown of Boston." Fox Sports, which has the rights to the next two World Cups, "had significant interest in Twellman." He met with Fox execs in L.A., and they "offered him the framework of an eight-year deal that would have included him working on the World Cup as one of the lead analysts." They also "kicked around the idea of Twellman working on future golf coverage." But Twellman said the relationships he has formed at ESPN over the "last three years were important to me." Twellman: "If it's not broke, why try to fix it? What I wanted was a commitment, I want to do this for the rest of my career. More important to me than money was to grow as a broadcaster." With ESPN not having World Cup rights during the length of his contract, Twellman said that he "is unsure whether he would cover" those events from the net's Bristol HQs or on location (SI.com, 11/13).
THE IMPRESSION THAT I GET: On Long Island, Neil Best profiles comedian Frank Caliendo, who joined ESPN in October '12 from Fox Sports. Caliendo in an e-mail wrote he is "100 times happier at ESPN." Caliendo: "I was very stale at Fox. Much of it was my own fault. I was lazy and didn't fight for things I wanted to do at other times." He added, "ESPN takes itself very seriously, but for some reason I'm allowed to be the court jester." Best notes Caliendo lists Jon Gruden, Ron Jaworski and Mel Kiper Jr. as his "favorite current sports-related impressions" (NEWSDAY, 11/14). Caliendo appeared on CBS’ “Late Show” Thursday night and said, “ESPN lets me do a little bit more of what I want to do." He said, "When I first went to ESPN, they were like, ‘Can you do anyone from ESPN?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know if there’s anyone to do.’ Then I started watching ESPN more closely and realized there are more characters on ESPN than there are on Cartoon Network” ("Late Show,” CBS, 11/13).
