With all the talk about Deadspin and ESPN following the news of Steve Phillips affair with a PA, we thought it made sense to hop on the AJ Daulerio reaction tour and get the Deadspin editor to talk about the posts, the , simply, what he was thinking when he exploded on Wednesday. Daulerio has been doing interviews for the better part of the last two days, but he’s always been very candid with us, so  hopefully we got him to say something other interviewers didn’t. And no, we do not tell him how awesome and wonderful and right he is like some of the other interviews in the blogosphere from yesterday. Blogsniffers.

We do ask him about the reasoning behind his barrage of posts geared toward freaking the hell out of many inside the stone walls of ESPN. Was this all just a petty feud (one-sided by all reports) between Daulerio and ESPN PR? Was there more to it? Did Daulerio post three under-the-radar stories as a message to his informants to come with the goods or they’re next? Was Erik Kuselias the equivalent of a horse head in the bed?

And is Daulerio concerned about his standing in the blogosphere? Page views bring in dollars, but is he concerned that the method by which he’s getting those page views, in some recent cases, may be turning off his core constituents? Is he afraid of falling into the trap that other prominent sports blogs have fallen into: more eyes but less respect?

I will say this, whether you agree with what he did or not, Daulerio is answering all the questions. And I thank him for answering mine.

------

Here is ESPN’s official response, from Chris LaPlaca, ESPN SVP, Corporate Communications:

"Deadspin's self-admitted rumor mongering is despicable behavior by any standard and shows callous disregard for its impact on people's lives.  It is not worthy of response and those responsible should be called to account.  ESPN is home to thousands of hard working, creative and caring people who are the key  to our success.  Our company is not perfect but we will continue to do all we can to provide each of our employees with a positive working environment."

------

Next up is Josh Zerkle, better known in blog circles as Monday Morning Punter from KSK and With Leather. We get his reaction to the Deadspin vs. ESPN situation -- he has a very different opinion than others in the blog world -- and try to get some perspective about whether or not the inner-workings of ESPN at the VP level is of interest to the average sports blog reader (or writer). Would With Leather have done was Deadspin did?

Then, we talk at length about Vegas and Blogs with Balls 2.0. Of all the people to recap the event, I thought Zerkle was the best person do to so. He wasn’t a panelist or a sponsor. He was just a paying participant of the discussion and not only took photos and video, but recorded copious notes and asked insightful questions at basically every panel.

We talk about some of his favorite moments from the weekend and what he took out of the conversations both at the panels and at the schmoozefests that followed. We discuss the theoretical future of our industry and wonder that if in the few months between the first and second Blogs with Balls we’ve gone from pie in the sky thinking about what the future will hold to, well, being the future. Looking around the room at the State of the Union panel, it was obvious that the people in that room are the future -- and in many cases current -- decision makers for sports journalism.

But how long will that last? Are we, as I said yesterday, the mini disc of online media? Will a bunch of 20 year old kids come up in two years and blow us out of the water? Are we already behind the times just as we’re getting ahead?

Enough theory. Let’s talk Vegas. We get Zerkle’s favorite moments of the weekend (poker poker poker poker poker poker and poker) and talk about, yes, his beer pong adventures with a clown. Fantastic stuff.

Thanks for listening. Annie Duke will be back on the show on Tuesday.