Ozzie Guillen Offends Again; Fox Kills 'COPS' for Sports

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Today in sports: FOX Saturdays are going to be sports heavy, Ozzie Guillen wisely has decided to apologize for saying he's a big, big Castro fan, and Bill Parcells is negotiating through the media again.

Attention sports fans and COPS fans: according to Sports Business Journal, Fox Sports' production teams were informed last week that the network is planning to "carry sports programming in prime time for 28 of the next 32 Saturday nights." The news essentially that means that fans of Fox's cops-and-sprinting-criminals show shouldn't hold their breath for first-run episodes in primetime until 2013. Per SBJ, Fox plans to air four NASCAR races, three UFC events, 13 college football games, and nine baseball games. And boom, that's it, that takes you to 2013. Where does the time go?  [Sports Business Journal]

Uh-oh: Florida Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen -- who previously picked a fight with Sean Penn over his position that Hugo Chavez is a decent fella -- is going to fly back to Miami today, after the team's game against the Phillies, to apologize for comments he made about Fide Castro in an upcoming interview with Time magazine. Specifically, he's going to apologize for saying "I love Fidel Castro. He's a good guy." That seems wise. Not exactly the kind of sentiment that would go over terrifically in Miami. [South Florida Sun Sentinel]

The NFL has denied the New Orleans Saints' appeal of the various Bounty-gate-related penalties. The decision was hardly a surprise -- this is what happens when you file an appeal with the very same people who decided your head coach needed to be suspended for an entire season and your franchise needs to be docked two second-round draft picks -- but the decision should reignite the chatter about former blonde Bill Parcells (above) possibly coaching the Saints next year. [ESPN]

Speaking of which: minutes after commissioner Roger Goodell's ruling on the Saints, Gary Myers of the New York Daily News tweeted that he received a text message Parcells, letting him know that he hasn't been in contact with the Saints for the past six days. Never let it be said that Bill Parcells does not keep the media abreast of potential career moves. Parcells added that he knows "absolutely nothing" about who will coach New Orleans next year, which is Parcells-speak for "My asking price just went up 20%."  [@GaryMyersNYDN]

Quietly, on Thursday afternoon, the NFL executed NFL the Magazine. The tonally uneven league-sponsored publication lasted all of four issues, but a spokesman told Ad Age the league still believes a monthly magazine is a "viable product." That raises all sorts of interesting questions that we don't have answers to, namely: why would you pull the plug on a viable product? Unclear! [Ad Age via Fishbowl NY]

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