FanHouse Michelle Tafoya

Considering Kevin Garnett once broke down in tears during an interview while talking about how much he hates to lose, it shouldn't have surprised anyone to see his reaction after finally winning a title last night. The "anything is possible!" scream seems a tiny bit contrived, but everything after is just raw emotion to the point that it's a little uncomfortable to watch.

Stick with it, though, because it gets a little funny right around the 1:39 mark when he compliments Michelle Tafoya (ahem, at least the second time he's done so on the air this playoffs). He may be borderline insane, but he's always the gentleman.

After last night's ranting and raving from Buzz Bissinger, you might think members of the mainstream media would re-evaluate their feelings toward blogs. After all, respectable journalists don't want to be associated with the idiotic ramblings of Bissinger, do they?

Well, maybe and maybe not. On Mike Tirico's ESPN Radio show today, he and Michelle Tafoya discussed what Bissinger had to say.

Tirico was fair in his assessment. "The marketplace spits out what doesn't work," Tirico said. "There's a reason that Deadspin and The Big Lead and those blogs have traction: People read them, people go to them, and they have some quality there."

But then when Tirico was finished giving his view, Tafoya said, "While you were talking I went to Deadspin, just to take a glance, because I don't frequent that site by any stretch of the imagination. I see very quickly why it is popular with a certain audience, and it disgusts me. And that's all I'm going to say."

And then, after Tafoya trashed that filthy, disgusting web site Deadspin, she proceeded to talk about men picking up other men at urinals. I kid you not. Literally two minutes after she pronounced that Deadspin disgusts her, she and a guy who works on the show named Phil had the conversation about urinals that you can read after the jump.

Following today's report that Suzy Kolber and Michele Tafoya are out at Monday Night Football in 2008, I received the following statement from an ESPN spokesman:

"Michele and Suzy will still be assigned to our multiplatform Monday Night Football presentation, including the game, pre-game and post-game. Their precise roles are currently being determined."

I have also been told that both Tafoya and Kolber will still travel to the Monday Night game all 16 weeks of the 2008 NFL season. But clearly, if their "roles are currently being determined," that means that, as Pro Football Talk reported, there are some changes afoot, and that Tafoya and Kolber will presumably no longer fill the traditional roles of sideline reporters.

Most likely, they will instead have an increased presence on things like the pregame show, and interviewing players for SportsCenter and/or ESPNews after the games. If it means more time for Xs and Os analysis from Ron Jaworski, I'm in favor of it.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk is reporting that ESPN Monday Night Football sideline reporters Suzy Kolber and Michele Tafoya will not return to MNF in 2008.

Kolber has been ESPN's NFL sideline reporter for several years, dating back to before ESPN had Monday Night Football. She is the last holdover from ESPN's Sunday night team, which featured Kolber on the sidelines and Mike Patrick, Paul MaGuire and Joe Theismann in the booth.

Tafoya was the Monday Night Football sideline reporter when the franchise was on ABC. When MNF moved to ESPN two years ago, Tafoya moved with it.

It's not yet known whether Monday Night Football will find a new sideline reporter or reporters, or whether it will just get rid of them altogether, as CBS has done on its NFL telecasts. The latter may be the wisest move, as no one seems to miss them on CBS, and many viewers think sideline reporters just distract from the action on the field.

UPDATE: ESPN Says Suzy Kolber, Michele Tafoya's 'Roles Are Being Determined' for MNF in 2008 Sorry, No Photos