I don’t know which rock I was under when this came out, but back in late February, Matt Mosley announced he was leaving his post as the official ESPN blogger for the NFC East.

I’ve listened on ESPN Radio Dallas to him interact with acclaimed radio personality and columnist Randy Galloway for several years now, and it’s a pretty good matchup up. Randy brings the Fort Worth, gambling hick good-ol-boy attitude and Mosley brings an upbeat,  preppy, Lake Highlands, tech savvy (though late to the Twitter party) attitude. Throw in a little Ian Fitzsimmons as the occasional referree and you have some entertaining sports radio.

Reminds me a bit of the even more popular combo on 1310 AM The Ticket. The Hardline has a gruff, bass voice old guy, a young tenor metrosexual hipster (with an extraordinary laugh), and a everyman’s man referee. It’s a match that seems to be working.

Mosley’s not just radio now, though. He’s taken his blogging talents over to FOXSports.com and Fox Sports Southwest.

To hear Mosley on ESPN Dallas’ daily sports radio show online, go to ESPNDallas.com and click LISTEN at the top right.

If you ask ESPN Radio, the official word is that Michael Irvin’s contract expired this week. According to Dallas Morning News columnist Barry Horn, Irvin’s radio show contract expired January 10th, 2010. The show was two years old.

Irvin’s show continued an extra month (a little bizarre) and just happened to be officially canceled following the press release that Irvin has been accused of rape. It’s apparently a two year old charge, but one which, nonetheless, will garner a lot of attention during Super Bowl Weekend.

In case you’re inclined to believe ESPN that it was a simple matter of not renewing a contract, let me reference again Barry Horn’s DMN article where he says:

On the flip side, rumors have been circulating for weeks that Irvin and ESPN soon would be splitting. Never a threat to overtake The Ticket in the 11 a.m.-to-2 p.m. time slot, Irvin’s show has found itself in a ratings battle with Newy Scruggs and Richie Whitt of “The Fan” KRLD-FM (105.3).

Irvin has heard the rumors, too. So he walked in to his bosses at ESPN radio and asked if they had plans to end his show.

“They said they did not,” Irvin said.

Pete Dits, 103.3′s general manager, confirmed the conversation.

“We both agreed that we like being on the same team,” Dits said Friday afternoon. Dits acknowledged that better ratings remain a goal but that the show has drawn a “very healthy” number of total listeners.

As of today, Ben and Skin now fill the lunchtime slot. While this is purely conjecture, I assume that the reason the show is gone is because the radio ratings weren’t worth the headache of Super Bowl Week scandal.

Would ESPN Radio send Michael Irvin and Kevin Kylie to Miami to broadcast live from radio row this week if they planned to cancel them before week’s end? I don’t think so. This is controversy laden.

Despite Michael Irvin’s statement, “Radio is my pleasure and purpose. I am going to grow my show. I am not going to let anyone stop my show” – Irvin’s radio run in Dallas is over.

Best of luck to Kevin Kylie, Irvin’s cohost.

According to Barry Horn at 10am this morning, “Irvin’s other employer, NFL Network, told me earlier this morning they had not decided if Irvin would work any more Super Bowl studios.”

Those of you who loved the Ben and Skin Show on your drive home via 105.3 The Fan will be thrilled to hear that the boys are making a comeback, and this time they’re on a REAL sports radio station!

According to ESPNDallas.com,

Ben and Skin, who have made their mark on the Dallas sports radio market over the past decade, will move into the 6 p.m.-9 p.m. slot and will also anchor local Mavericks pregame and postgame programming for ESPN 103.3 FM.

“We’re beyond excited to have the opportunity to join what is clearly a rocket ship in 103.3 ESPN,” Rogers said. “We’re coming into an ideal situation where we already have great relationships with our new teammates, and we are joining them at a time when they have tremendous momentum and synergy on the heels of launching ESPNDallas.com.”

Unfortunately, I don’t get much time near a radio from 6-9pm, but I’ll be sure to make up an excuse to go for a drive sometime this week to catch the boys back in action.

If you eliminate spanish stations, these are probably the ONLY three sports radio stations in the metroplex. But who’s counting?

1310AM The Ticket

103.3FM ESPN

105.3FM The Fan

Reviews of each station coming soon.

Which station is your #1 stop for sports? Rank them in the order of time you spend listening to them in the comments below.

Michael Irvin shared the story of his near carjacking on his ESPN radio show Tuesday. He was then interviewed by Channel 5, the local NBC station for the nightly news. Michael tells how he was driving to the gym for a workout when a black pickup with tinted windows sped up beside him, rolled down the window, and pointed a gun at him.

The Hispanic individuals instantly recognized Michael as the former Cowboys wide receiver and put the gun away. Michael says he nervously talked with them buddy/buddy about the Cowboys until they drove off.

My question to Michael, ESPN, NBC, and you the reader is: why is this newsworthy?

It’s not that it wasn’t an interesting story. It was actually entertaining to hear Michael tell the story. But when I stopped to think about it, I’m irritated. Michael is using a near tragedy to build ratings and to promote his radio show. Telling it on his ESPN radio show is one thing. That’s his time slot and he can talk about what he wants. But to then go on NBC with a giant logo of his radio show and tell the story again… isn’t that a bit much for a story that has absolutely NO evidence? It’s Michael’s word (which historically hasn’t been that reliable) that this event took place, with no corroboration, and that’s why it isn’t newsworthy.

Kidd Kraddick, syndicated morning radio personality, added logical perspective this morning. Does this mean that tomorrow morning Kidd can show up to work and announce that he was surrounded by a gang of thugs with knives and chains who then recognized him as a celebrity and let him go, and expect that story to be aired on local television news? Where’s the story? Some guy says something bad almost happened to him. That’s all. It’s funny. But that’s it. It’s good enough to make it on his own radio segment, but clearly not newsworthy.

We don’t know whether NBC contacted Irvin or if Irvin or his people contacted NBC. If NBC initiated contact, shame on them for losing another speck of news reporting integrity. If Irvin’s camp initiated contact, shame on them for the mediawhoreness.

Then again, Michael Irvin is no professional media personality, so we shouldn’t be surprised. But I’ll save that rant for another time.

Where did Matt Mosley come from, all of a sudden? I’ve been listening to ESPN radio religiously for more than a year, and I can tell you that someone is suddenly pushing Mosley onto the public in a major way. You’d think he was a superhero, the way his name pops up everywhere, all of a sudden. Perhaps it was just the coinciding of his transition from the Dallas Morning News to ESPN, but whatever it was, the entire ESPN network apparently drank the Mosley Kool-Aid.

He’s funny enough, I’ll give him credit. Mosley has more personality than 90% of the people I hear on ESPN Radio every day. I have nothing against the guy. He makes me laugh every time he talks about his latest conversation with Tony Romo or some other celeb that we all know he has almost no contact with. The guy actually exudes a kind of charm you wouldn’t expect on a sports radio network. Mosley fits more with my people… the internet marketing, blogging, SEO, social media peeps.

I love how Randy Galloway refers to Matt Mosley as “the ESPN blogggg man.” Randy exaggerates the word “blog” so much that you have to wonder if he even knows what he’s talking about. Perhaps he’s trying to figure out what the term means. Either that, or we have to put Randy in the same pitiful category as those other Dallas Morning News writers who have a chip on their shoulders against bloggers because the blogs are stealing their readers.

That’s what Mosley is… a blogger. He’s a new generation of sports personality. He is the fresh, young blood. Nice. Now if only he’d replace Dale Hansen from 6-7pm so I can drive home in peace. Don’t be surprised if our young Mosley finds himself in a prominent place on daily ESPN Radio. Whether it’s the morning slot vacated by Jennifer Engle or the all too valuable slot currently taken hostage by the pathetic Dale Hansen, he’s welcome to take his pick as far as I’m concerned.

So Matt, if you’re reading this (and let’s face it, we all know you are), best of luck to you in your budding career. May you replace Hansen swiftly and completely. In the meantime, the rest of you go check out Mosley’s Hashmarks blog on ESPN.