Former Ravens coach Brian Billick will be analyzing as part of the NFL Network's draft programming tomorrow. He appeared on ESPN Radio 1300's Mark Viviano Show yesterday and flashed some of that entertaining sarcasm that we hope he doesn't lose on TV. Asked about quarterbacks, Billick said he wasn't sure he was qualified to speak because, after all, he apparently was responsible for every bad quarterback who has come through Baltimore.
WBAL Radio (1090 AM), the Ravens' flagship, starts its draft coverage tomorrow at noon. Sun columnist Peter Schmuck will be part of the proceedings until the free food runs out.
Game 7 of the Washington Capitals-Philadelphia Flyers series set a record for a Comcast SportsNet hockey telecast in Baltimore, averaging 40,000 households - 95 percent of which believe the second Flyers goal should have been wiped out by goalie interference.
Even when the game isn't good - or maybe especially when the game isn't good - it's worth watching TNT's halftime to show to hear Charles Barkley. On Wednesday night halfway through the noncompetitive Boston Celtics-Atlanta Hawks game, he said (according to a TNT transcript): "I was actually watching House of Payne. I wasn't watching this game. I'm just waiting for the second game with the Lakers and the Nuggets."
And don't mention that the strained back of the Celtics' Paul Pierce might give Atlanta hope. "If [Pierce] has got a back strain, hamstring, hemorrhoids, migraines, it doesn't matter," Barkley said, "[the Hawks] still can't beat the Celtics."
ESPN Radio has named Scott Van Pelt co-host of Tirico's afternoon show (1 to 3), which now will be known as Tirico & Van Pelt. Van Pelt, a University of Maryland grad, had been serving as one of the three rotating co-hosts along with Herbstreit and Michele Tafoya on Tirico's show. ESPN says Herbstreit and Tafoya "will continue to contribute" to the T&VP show and will still fill in for either of the regular hosts.
In addition, Van Pelt will fly solo as host of a one-hour show at 3 p.m. (not aired in Baltimore), replacing Stephen A. Smith, who ended his radio program on ESPN's New York affiliate earlier this month. Of course, Van Pelt always could do his Screamin' A. impression.
ray.frager@baltsun.com
