Dishing The Dirt On ESPN

January 1, 2008 -- WILL Leitch was banned from ESPN in October 2006 after he reported various scandals involving the network's anchors on his Deadspin sports Web site - prompting the cable channel to circulate a memo banning any mention of the site on its shows.

Now Leitch has compiled all those anchors' peccadilloes in a book, "God Save the Fan," in which he strikes back at ESPN with tales of bizarre off-air behavior by Chris Berman, Scott Van Pelt and Sean Salisbury, among others.

In "God Save the Fan," due out from HarperCollins on Jan. 22, Leitch recalls the time back in the '90s when Berman, who goes by the nickname "The Swami" on air, walked into a bar, "waddled up to a woman clad in leather, pointed at her, and bellowed, 'You're with me, Leather.' And it worked." In the wake of Deadspin's posting the anecdote, "a catchphrase was born," complete with its own T-shirt line.

Then there's Salisbury, who holds the No. 3 spot on Leitch's list of "Ten Most Loathsome ESPN Personalities." He writes, "This blustery, mentally deformed NFL analyst reportedly took a picture of his penis and sent it out to female colleagues encouraging them to meet 'Lil Sean.' " After the incident, Salisbury "was suspended by the network" for one week but "has never publicly denied the incident."

"SportsCenter" anchor Van Pelt had his own issues with women - and with Leitch after he shared with his Web site readers a voicemail Van Pelt left for a girl he'd met at a bar, according to the book.

The message went, "Hey, it's Scott Van Pelt. We shared a brief but exceptionally meaningful relationship last Saturday. For what it's worth, you did pass everything on my checklist . . . as if I have any business having a checklist. At this point, I should talk to any woman who doesn't have a club foot or an amputee. If you have four limbs and you don't have Bell's palsy, I probably better just be signing up."

However, Leitch reserves his No. 1 "Loathsome" spot for Stuart Scott, who "chastised fans for booing professional athletes."

ESPN declined to comment.
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Might be a fun read. This just in. Boomer's got game. Van Pelt, not so much.

I might just have to check that out when it hits the shelves. Sounds interesting, especially he and I seem to share contempt for the same ESPN anchors (Berman, Scott, Salisbury).

Yeah, I'll be checking that out.

Famous people using their names to pick up women? This I gotta see!