ESPN NIXES COLLEGE SPORTSCASTER’S TIES WITH BREWER

ESPN has blocked Jenn Brown, a reporter for its College Football Primetime and College GameDay, from becoming a spokeswoman for MillerCoors’s Icehouse brand, the Milwaukee Tribune reported on Wednesday, citing a spokesman for the Disney-owned cable sports network. A spokesman for MillerCoors told the newspaper that the company believed that ESPN had approved the deal with Jenn Brown. ESPN’s decision came just days after Richard Deitsch, a columnist for Time Warner’s Sports Illustrated, posted an online column questioning the deal, given her association with college football. “If the sideline reporter were assigned to a pro sport, I’d have zero issues with her decision,” he wrote. “But there’s a large percentage of athletes and fans Brown will cover this year who cannot drink legally. For me, it’s a matter of figuring out what you want [to] be in sports television: If you are serious about making a name for yourself in news gathering, you politely turn down this fame and money grab because students are involved.”