CBS Sports rejects ad featuring Pledge of Allegiance: Report

The CBS Sports Network will air a portion of the recent Horse Heaven Round-Up Rodeo from the Benton Franklin Fair in Washington this Sunday — but might have stunk up the corral with their own little cow pile as well.

The network rejected a local real estate commercial, featuring a cute 4-year-old girl reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, because it is too political, according to KVEW-TV.

After Windermere Real Estate submitted the commercial to the network, fair and rodeo director Lori Lancaster received an e-mail stating that the commercial was rejected by CBS due to its political nature.

A CBS spokesperson said that is not the case and whomever sent that e-mail must have had false information.

The spokesperson said the commercial was rejected because it was too local.

At the end of the ad, the Windermere logo features the company's Tri-Cities address. A CBS spokesperson said this doesn't appeal to a national audience — like a celebrity butchering The Star-Spangled Banner or some sort of wardrobe malfunction.

Windermere then submitted a second commercial.

This one was accepted according to CBS because it did not feature the local Tri-Cities address.

The Horse Heaven Round-Up is one of the premiere rodeos in the Northwest and part of the Big 4 Rodeo Association, along with the Pendleton Round-Up, the Walla Walla Frontier Days Rodeo and the Lewiston Round-Up.

The Pledge of Allegiance commercial in question has been running locally and local Windermere agent Dave Retter said that it will continue to run. His granddaughter is the girl in the 30-second spot

Renner claims the commercial isn't about his granddaughter or selling real estate, but a patriotic message of hope.

Chris Simms lands football analyst gig at CBS: Report

Former NFL quarterback Chris Simms will continue following in his father Phil's footsteps and into the TV booth for CBS this fall.

Simms — who played in parts of five seasons for the Buccaneers, Titans and Broncos, but never fully recovered from a life-threatening ruptured spleen early in the 2006 season — will be analyzing three relatively low-profile games for the network, beginning with the Titans-Bengals matchup in Week 3.

The 34-year-old New Jersey native has never worked a minute in the booth of an NFL game but did work a few college games for Fox last season.

But dad thinks his son is a natural and has a lot of football knowledge under that shock of familial blond hair.

"I think he has great potential,"' Phil said. "He was raised to do it in this way. Him, me, my wife, anyone who walks into our house, most likely the conversation is going to center around football and we're going to talk about it. That's the way we've been our whole lives."

CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus went even further: "He's better looking and more articulate than his father is; he got his good looks from his mother . . . We're starting him very slowly on a few small games and we'll see how he grows, but he's got a great football mind and has worked not only as a player but as an assistant coach also." 

Simms had worked as a coaching and scouting assistant for the Patriots, but with two young children he sought a more family-friendly schedule. 

"I struggled with that," he said. "I was offered another job in the NFL, and that sparked a discussion with my wife: Are we going to live this life and move every two or three years to climb the ladder? This is a little more stable.

"My kids can grow up. This is still work. but I get home at a decent hour and see my kids every night."

Younger Simms' current job is as an analyst for Bleacher Report so he's knows what is going on around the league.

"I have to know everybody," he said. "I really know, I'm not going to say everything, but a lot about every team."

The big question remaining now is whether or not he'll say Redskins?

Marino told his wife about 'love child' in 2005 but didn't tell CBS

Dan Marino was so desperate to keep his All-American image intact that he told no one but his wife that he had fathered a baby out-of-wedlock with a CBS production assistant back in 2005.  The former NFL quarterback never told his bosses at CBS Sports or even his longtime lawyer-agent about the baby for seven years until Wednesday.

Marino, the shamed CBS Sports football analyst, paid his mistress Donna Savaterre hush money and even signed several lucrative contracts with the network over that period until he confessed about the love tryst that produced the now seven-year-old girl named Chloe,  a source told The New York Post.

"Danny did, as difficult as it was, tell his wife in 2005, when this occurred," said a source close to Marino, referring to Claire Marino, who has six children with the Hall of Famer.

Marino, who has been an analyst for CBS's "The NFL Today" since 2003, kept his longtime lawyer-agent Marvin Demoff on the sidelines while he paid the hush money to Savaterre — amounts that are reportedly in the range of millions of dollars.

"CBS was not involved in any way, shape or form back in 2005," when Marino made the deal with Savaterre using another lawyer," the source said.

When asked about when CBS heard about the affair, a network spokeswoman Jen Sabatelle said, "CBS Sports executives first learned of this yesterday [Wed.]."

The 51-year-old Marino also told Demoff about the hush money deal on Wednesday, telling him he hired other people to handle the payout to Savaterre, now 40.

The Marino source said he believed Marino did not use Demoff to negotiate the deal with his mistress because of "embarrassment" over his adultery.

Marino's explosive scandal comes right before CBS is set to broadcast Super Bowl XLVII on Sunday in New Orleans.  The network said Marino will still be a part of the Super Bowl pre-game show.

"Dan has said all there is to say on this matter and he'll be in his usual role on our broadcast Super Bowl Sunday," Sabatelle told USA Today.

Dan Marino involved in shocking 'love child' scandal

Despite a longtime marriage and and respectable image,  NFL Hall of Famer Dan Marino is involved in the shocking revelation that he fathered a "love child' with a CBS network underling and then paid her millions of dollars to keep quiet.

Marino, who will be broadcasting this Sunday's Super Bowl in New Orleans for CBS, reportedly got  Donna Savattere, a then 35-year-old production assistant at CBS Sports' Manhattan studio, pregnant, according to an exclusive story in The New York Post.  She gave birth in June, 2005.

"They had an affair, and she had a baby," said a source.  "Everything was on the down-low and secretive."

At the time of the affair, the ex-Miami Dolphins quarterback was married to his wife, Claire, for 20 years.

The 51-year-old Marino agreed to pay Savattere millions to care for the child named Chloe, said sources.  She moved to Texas as part of the deal.  It was not disclosed exactly how much he paid but Savattere has apparently been living large and was a fixture on the Hamptons social scene, said The Post.

Yesterday, Marino — who has six kids with his wife —  owned up to the dalliance.

"This is a personal and private matter. I take full responsibility both personally and financially for my actions now as I did then," Marino told Page Six of The Post. "We mutually agreed to keep our arrangement private to protect all parties."

Marino said the marriage was still intact, despite the the affair and baby.

"My wife and I have been married for almost 30 years and have six children together," he wrote yesterday — which happens to be their 28th wedding anniversary.

Sources said Marino was in touch with the 7-year-old Chloe.

"They would have impromptu meetings, as was part of the deal," a source said.

Savattere later married Nahill Younis, whom she met in 2009.

The birth of the baby Chloe came about two months before Marino was inducted into the Hall of Fame — where his son Daniel paid a moving tribute to his father.

Marino, a pre-game analyst with CBS since 2003, will be doing the Super Bowl broadcast this Sunday.

CBS Wants Tebow For Playoff Studio Show

Think you've seen the last of Tebow-time after the 45-10 thrashing of the Denver Broncos quarterback at the hands the New England Patriots?  Don't count on it.

Hoping to cash in on the Tim Tebow craze, CBS is trying to put the TV ratings-maker on television screens next Sunday even though he won't be playing in the AFC Championship game.

USA Today reports that the network has asked Tebow to appear as a guest analyst in its studio show.

"We've had conversations with his people,' said Sean McManus, CBS Sports chairman.  "We have a request in.  We haven't heard back."

CBS said they are expecting to get an answer from Tebow by mid-week.

The network may have to get on one knee and Tebow to lure in additional viewers.

The much ballyhooed rematch between Tebow and Tom Brady was, relatively, a ratings bust— probably due to the one-sided dominance by the Patriots.

While Tebow-mania was building over the past few weeks, so were the Nielson ratings until Saturday.

Early stats reported by USA Today that the audience for the Broncos-Patriots AFC divisional playoff game peaked early between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET, during the game's first half.  Viewers turned away as Tebow floundered and Brady helped the Patriots build up a big lead.

The blowout drew a 20.6 overnight rating, slightly behind the New Orleans Saints-San Francisco 49ers game it followed.  Still, the game was up 14% from the Green Bay Packers-Atlanta Falcons game in the same time-slot last year.

"If it [the game] had a chance to build [drama], it could have been a record rating," said McManus.  "But I'll take it."

CBS analyst— and former Broncos tight end— Shannon Sharpe said he thinks Tebow should take advantage of a national stage (pulpit?) while he can.

"The fans love this guy," said Sharpe.  "I don't know if (another player) can come in there and get an honest shake at beating him out for the starting job."

Not so fast says ESPN analyst Merril Hoge— a frequent Tebow critic.  He thinks that Tebow-mania will fade away like other trends.

"It's kind of like barbed-wire tattoos or bell bottoms.  (Tebow has been) a fad." Hoge said.

Doesn't Hoge realize that tattoos don't disappear and Jordache jeans are already making a comeback in hipster neighborhoods?