In Birmingham, Tom Green notes Andy Burcham has been named the "new Voice of the Auburn Tigers." Burcham succeeds the late Rod Bramblett, who was killed in a car accident on May 25. Burcham has been part of Auburn radio broadcasts for the last 31 years in "various roles, including the last 25 on Auburn baseball alongside Bramblett." His newest role will see him "take over as the lead announcer for Auburn football, men’s basketball and baseball" (BIRMINGHAM NEWS, 8/13).
HIGHLIGHTING HEROICS: In Pittsburgh, Kevin Gorman notes ESPN2 will air a 30-minute documentary about former NFLer Rocky Bleier's first visit to Vietnam since the war. The film, titled, "The Return," will debut on Aug. 20 -- 50 years to the day since Bleier was "wounded by gunshot to his left thigh and grenade in his right foot and both legs." ESPN producer Jon Fish said, "It just happened that we were able to be in Vietnam on the 49th anniversary of when it happened. It just came together. ... The timing was really, really fortuitous." The Steelers are scheduled to get a "sneak preview" of the film in a private screening on Thursday (TRIBLIVE.com, 8/13).
A LITTLE BIRD TOLD ME: NBCSPORTS.com's Peter King wrote NFL Network reporter Mike Silver's 20-tweet thread detailing Raiders WR Antonio Brown's helmet story on Friday "was exquisite." It was "essentially an 800-word news story, broken in real time on Twitter instead of being broken on NFL.com with a Twitter link to the story." NFL.com most likely now "regrets the loss of traffic on a heavily read story." King: "I found it easy to digest just by scrolling up on my phone. ... Social media is still the Wild West, but Silver showed you can break news with a story broken into 20 easy bites" (NBCSPORTS.com, 8/12).
