Source: USA TODAY

I suppose there’s more than a little truth to the cliché that covering sports media is like James Bond going about his business.

But after my final USA TODAY Sports column, the last thing I want to do is decamp to some exotic locale to place enormous casino bets on, say, overnight TV sports ratings. Not that it wouldn’t be easy money, as I’m keeping the secret decoder ring programmed to decipher even the best ratings spin.

Nope, nobody should walk away from the sports business now: It’s more fascinating than ever.

But be wary of believing what everybody tells you is about to happen. I remember hearing that Olympic action would never be on cable TV – after all, that might cut into the almighty prime-time TV ratings – and that it was even more improbable that live video of big-event sports action would ever be streamed digitally.

After all, live action online kept freezing up – until, that is, broadband came along.

And live action online would be impossible because it would interfere with local TV deals – until technology made it possible to target digital users geographically.

And go figure: Viewers buying increasingly more gigantic TV sets wanted to use them. So when sports action went online it didn’t cut into TV ratings – it just reached viewers who weren’t near their TV sets.

There were lots of visions that sort of made sense at the time. Sports agents hoped technology would someday allow their athlete-clients to bypass pesky reporters and speak directly to fans via (carefully-manicured) personal websites. Technology finally allowed such direct give and take with fans but – oops! – it came through the sometimes-chaotic world of Twitter.

But despite the spotty track record for predictions about sports media, I’ll offer one up now: Its future will be shaped as much, probably way more, by the people behind the sports media rather than by their machines of the moment.

And while this wasn’t supposed to be declassified until at least 20 years after my demise, I’ll say it anyway: The people in sports media aren’t a bad bunch.

That’s easy to overlook as videos quickly pop in cyberspace to chronicle on-air gaffes. But don’t forget the on-air types aren’t just animated characters in a magic box. And the TV sports programmers don’t actually wake up in the morning bound and determined to produce TV sports coverage that is not exactly how you’d like it to be. As far as I can tell any way.

Thanks to USA TODAY allowing me to write columns and features on sports business and media since 1989, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know lots of sports industry people who are funny, creative and idiosyncratic. And entertainingly odd. I don’t want to name names about the many people I’ve admired and who’ve done their jobs with panache. Full personal disclosure: Wouldn’t it be awkward if I ended up working with somebody whose name I left out?

Now isn’t the time for anybody to get nostalgic in sports media. (Or, for me to necessarily toot my own horn by reminding everybody that I broke the story that mini-blimps were about to be floated above arena crowds and drop coupons. Just sayin’.)

It certainly isn’t the time for media strategists to blow smoke about the heritage, or supposed hipness, of their brands. This might seem hopelessly 20th century, but if websites just see their users as Ms. and Mr. Page View, and TV networks just see their viewers as feed lots of 18-49 year-olds, they’ll end up in trouble.

Thanks USA TODAY Sports, thanks Mom, thanks kids, thanks third-grade teacher, but the orchestra has been cued and I’m being led by both arms to the photo op room — and feeling pretty darn lucky about the past 24 years.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

First, let’s clear up the really big picture on ESPN’s Digger Phelps: He almost certainly won’t be running for president.

President, that is, of the United States. Really.

Phelps, 71, actually considered that idea afters serving in the Office of National Drug Policy in the George H.W. Bush administration, where he headed the so-called Operation Weed and Seed that was meant to help develop struggling urban areas. He had never run for elective office but in 2006 he says he “gave serious thought to running (for president) as a Reagan Democrat. But in 2007, I stopped before everything kicked in. Funding was the issue. But as I said then, ‘the nation needs a coach.’ ”

So, you think a guy who thinks like that is going to get too worked up about battling cancer?

That’s what the ESPN college basketball analyst is dealing with after having surgery for bladder cancer April 18, with months of follow-up treatment to go near his home in the South Bend, Ind., area. This is his second bout with cancer — he had successful treatment for prostate cancer three years ago — and talks about his current challenge almost as if he’s drawing up plays in a timeout.

“They got it all. I have no more tumors in my body. So that was a relief,” Phelps, 71, tells USA TODAY Sports. “Now it’s, when does the game start and here’s the game plan. Let’s go after it!”

Seems almost like Phelps — who went 393-197 in two decades coaching Notre Dame basketball before retiring in 1991 — is ready to tell everybody to take a lap.

His treatment will include being given Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), which is also used to prevent tuberculosis. Yet he still will coach the Canadian men’s over-35 basketball team in Israel’s Maccabiah Games in July. That came about after a request from ESPN play-by-play announcer Dan Shulman, who’s on that team roster.

“At first, I thought, ‘You want an Irish Catholic from Notre Dame to coach a Maccabiah team from Canada in Israel?’ ” Phelps said.

Having agreed, Phelps says Shulman better not expect any special treatment: “If he does, he’ll be on the bench.”

Viewers today might best recognize Phelps as a TV analyst who color-coordinates his ties with the highlighter pens he waves on-air. And he long ago committed to TV and put aside the idea of a return to coaching. The turning point, he says, was turning down the DePaul coaching job in 1995: “I felt that job was a sleeping giant because of its (Chicago TV) market. The job was mine. But I decided my lifestyle on TV was what I liked doing.”

Phelps isn’t minimizing his current cancer bout. On overcoming prostate cancer, he remembers the first days as “a living hell because of the fear of the unknown.” The first clues of the bladder cancer were occasionally getting blood in his urine — although initially he thought it might just be a side effect of the blood thinner he took. His condition was detected quickly.

“When I turned 60, being an undertaker’s son, I started to be smart — and got physicals every six months,” Phelps says.

Phelps also has plenty of extracurricular activities, such as staying involved with various grassroots educational efforts, painting — “I’m a Matisse and Van Gogh freak! — and playing a female character in an annual production of The Nutcracker in South Bend. Phelps doesn’t hesitate to add that the role involves being “dressed up in drag.”

He’s also candid about his involvement in one of the more memorable gaffes in modern American history.

In 1992, Phelps was next to Dan Quayle as the then-U.S. vice president prodded a grade-schooler in New Jersey into spelling potato as “potatoe” — with Phelps, at his side, apparently giving his blessing. Phelps recalls Quayle was misled by an aide’s notes, and “it wasn’t his fault.” And he admits when the famous misspelling was in progress, he didn’t exactly try to save the day: “I said, ‘It looks good to me, so let’s go with it.’ ”

Phelps has a rather obvious conclusion about his personal game plan: “My life is about much more than X’s and O’s.”

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

ESPN college basketball analyst Digger Phelps has had surgery for bladder cancer, the network announced.

Phelps, who has been with ESPN since 1993, will start follow-up treatment next week near his home in South Bend, Ind.

Before joining ESPN, Phelps coached Notre Dame’s men’s basketball team for two decades.

Phelps was not available to comment Friday, but a statement released through ESPN suggested Phelps plans to return on-air since it says that he’s now “(preparing) for the 2013-2014 college basketball season.”

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.