Kevin Burkhardt lands MLB gig with Fox, Fox Sports 1, more

Kevin Burkhardt (left), will continue to cover the New York Mets for SNY this season, in addition to his Fox duties.

Alex Trautwig/Getty Images

7. This week's sports pieces of note:

• Michael Kruse of Tampa Bay Times on the most marketed 12-year-old basketball player in the world

• The Onion reports that cancer has been diagnosed with Skip Bayless.

• Bloomberg Businessweek on how North Carolina failed its student-athletes.

• Eagles linebacker Connor Barwin wrote a tremendous piece for The MMQB on the culture of an NFL locker room:

• espnW's Jane McManus on the late NFL lineman Roy Simmons, a gay rights pioneer ahead of his time.

• The New York Times writer David Segal examines what happens next for Sochi.

Non-sports pieces of note:

• The New Yorker's David Remnick on Vladimir Putin going to war.

• New York Times writer Margalit Fox wrote a brilliant obit on a 110-year old survivor of the Holocaust.

• The New Yorker's Elizabeth Kolbert on taking the SATs as an adult.

• The Washington Post offered 150 journalism clichés — and counting.

• Michigan Daily editor Amy Henson wrote a great piece on the perils of attending a job fair.

• The New Republic's Julie Ioffe on Putin's War in Crimea.

8. Sensational move by the Tennis Channel to extend the contract of analyst Mary Carillo through 2016. In addition to current French Open, Wimbledon and US Open assignments, Carillo will cover the Sony Open Tennis tournament in Miami in March and additional tournaments.

9. Was this the slowest news day in the history of American newspaper journalism?

9a. How ESPN turns an analyst's opinion into a multi-platform news story, Exhibit 327.

9b. ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale picked the six best games he has called during his career.

10. TNT NBA analyst Steve Kerr on the Miami Heat: "I know it is the end of February and it is probably foolish to prognosticate, [but] I feel like watching Miami now, if they are healthy in May, I don't see anyone in the West beating them. The West is incredible deep and they are going to beat each other up in the playoffs. I don't see any team in the West beating them four times. If you look at the East, the only team standing in their way is Indiana, which we know can give Miami a lot of trouble. I really believe that if healthy, Indiana is the only team standing in their way of a third straight ring."

10a. In a killer Sunday timeslot against NBC's documentary on Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding (12.7 million) and Fox's rain-delayed Daytona 500 coverage (which drew 9.3 million viewers), ESPN's Outside The Lines special on the "N-Word" drew 641,000 viewers

10b. NBC said February was the best viewership month in U.S. history for live game telecasts of the Premier League. The network said the 17 Premier League matches on NBC, NBCSN and USA Network averaged 609,000 viewers -- up from the prior mark of 492,000 viewers for 14 Premier League telecasts on NBC and NBCSN in January.

10c.Here's ESPN plans to recognize the 100 Days out mark to the 2014 World Cup.

10d. The Bills and Giants will play in the NFL's Hall of Fame Game, which NBC will broadcast on August 3 at 8:00 PM ET. Two of the seven members of the Class of 2014 have ties to the participating teams including Andre Reed, who starred for the Bills, and Fox NFL analyst and former Giant defensive end Michael Strahan.

10e. An IOC infographic on social media activity in Sochi.

10f. The second installment of The Finish Line, the terrific Grantland and Hock Films short series featuring Lakers guard Steve Nash, has been released.

10g. The NBC Sports Group and Churchill Downs have extended their agreement through 2025 which means NBC will air the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks through that year.

10h. Former Stanford basketball star Nneka Ogwumike will make her broadcasting debut March 8 on the Pac 12 Networks when she serves as an in-studio analyst on pregame, halftime, and postgame coverage of semifinal games of the Pac-12 women's basketball tournament. The network said from March 1 to March 15, DISH and Time Warner Cable will be offering a free preview of Pac-12 Networks, featuring telecasts of five different conference championships including men's and women's basketball tournaments and coverage of the Pac-12 Women's Swimming & Diving Championships, headlined by Cal (and Olympic champ) Missy Franklin.

10i.Here's the current roster of Nate Silver's upcoming 538 site. It's an impressive armada of 20-something brainpower.

10j. Michelle Beadle returns to ESPN this week with guest spots on SportsNation.