The interview was for Thursday's Jim Rome show. White's response led the host to say, "White's comment was a complete non sequitur." To which White responded, "Hey, homie, I ain't gay." If only. Actually they talked about why Jim Rome loves him some McDonald's chicken. Or something. Ohio State-USC can't get here soon enough.

LenDale White says Ohio State sucks [Sports by Brooks]

But certainly, in the world of sports talk radio, Rome is the biggest name. But since we don't listen to the radio, we mostly just know him as the guy who who got pushed by Jim Everett, which we'll never stop enjoying.

Regardless, anytime we're ever in a rental car during the day, it's either this guy or Rush Limbaugh, so we have heard him. You know, talkin' smack, or something.

So: Do you like the Jim Rome? Do you not like the Jim Rome?

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But we do have the Fred who is not the standout Brazilian striker, as well as Jay Nolly, Facundo Erpen, and the human highlight reel that is Greg Vanney. Shrewd, MLS. I'm pumped.

Oh, and you know who else is going to be featured? Julie Foudy. She steps in for Eric Wynalda on the broadcast, because Eric Wynalda got himself suspended by inviting Jim Rome to engage in oral sex with him. Rome declined. Had Rome just accepted the offer and pleasured the man, all of this could have been avoided. That's just selfish, Jim Rome.

If you're wondering about the rest of the coverage, this comes from Michael Heistand at USA Today:

This season, [ESPN producer Tim] Scanlan says, coverage will "try to make connections to other sports" — like somehow working mentions of John Elway into Saturday's game in Denver — and will have the only Sky-Cam TV shots of soccer in the world. Elsewhere, there's been skittishness about balls hitting overhead cameras.

ESPN will add a superimposed graphic showing the offside line — like TV football's virtual first-and-10 line — and replays showing the speed of kicks.

What, no robots? John Elway would play with some goddamn robots out there.

Sportscasters go comical in 'Blades'; Ripken, Gwynn join TBS [USA Today]
Soccer Guy Throws Down On Jim Rome In Dorkiest Feud Of The Week [Deadspin]
United visit Rapids for MLS First Kick [MLSnet.com]

"You will never get a guy, in me, who is more of a believer in the American player. Jim Rome can suck my dick! And he should be very afraid, because I'm the kind of guy, if I get too many drinks in me, I will club his ass. I've been on with Jim Rome, and I said, 'Let me get this straight, you're more impressed with water polo?'"

We always find it strange that athletes like Wynalda and Jim (Chris) Evert are always threatening to get in fights with Jim Rome, who's about as athlete-friendly as a radio guy gets. We guess when there's just so much smack, you can't ignore it, all that smack.

Eric Wynalda Attacks And Threatens Jim Rome Verbally During Soccer Blog Interview [Sports By Brooks]

All kinds of examples of this, with the ultimate being Ahmad Rashad's daily backrubs for Michael Jordan. But Kobe Bryant has Jim Gray. Terrell Owens has Michael Irvin. LeBron James is clearly grooming Stephen A. Smith for this role. And yesterday, in his first public comments since his accident, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger graced Jim Rome with this spot. (Sorry to "Good Morning, America," which is trumpeting a Roethlisberger scheduled for tomorrow as an "exclusive," even though, uh, we just saw him on ESPN.)

We suppose that it makes sense that Roethlisberger would choose Rome. They're clearly both rebels who buck the system; you can tell by the goatees! And if we had to guess who would be the chosen radio host of people who drive around fast on motorcycles without something to protect their brain, Rome would probably have to be our pick.

(UPDATE: Roethlisberger says he was making it up to Rome for missing his show because of the crash. Good thing Rome didn't call him "Chris.")

As our brother at Defamer noted yesterday, if you can't find something fascinating on YouTube, you're just not trying. Henceforth, we're starting a new feature here at Deadspin: Random entertainment you can find on YouTube in, like, five seconds. It'll run every Wednesday, because Wednesdays are traditionally slow sports days.

Today: The famous clip of Jim Everett on Jim Rome's old ESPN2 talk show, when Rome calls Everett "Chris" one too many times. Enjoyable not just for the "violence" — which has long been rumored to be staged — but also for Rome's Albert Brooks perm. You're in the jungle, baby!

ESPN Attack [YouTube]

You can do a lot with $25,000. You can provide food for starving Africans before Sally Struthers eats them first. You can buy 1,518 copies of Bill Simmons new book (not counting shipping, which is probably a bitch). You can even join 2,500,000 of those record clubs where you get 11 CDs for a penny.

You can also hire ESPN anchor Stuart Scott to come speak at your corporate function. The site HireSportsSpeakers.com allows you to bring your favorite ESPN personalities to come talk to you and your fellow corporate drones about leadership, teamwork or, you know, just how to read off a Teleprompter. The site serves as a broker between corporations and sports personalities, negotiating their fees and putting together their schedules.

One would think that paying Stuart Scott $25,000 plus "travel is almost always on top of the fees, usually something like first class for two, ground transportation and hotel" to do anything other than promise never to use the terms "pillow," "cool," "boo" or "yah" again would be somewhat excessive. But Scott isn t even the most expensive anchor on his own network. In fact, he s not even close.

Full list of top ESPN anchors/sports personalities and their speakers fees after the jump. Start saving those pennies for Tom Tolbert now!

The appearance fees for major "sports personalities."

$15,000 and below
Mitch Gaylord - $10,000
Greg Gumbel - $15,000
Ron Jaworski - $10,000
Tony Kornheiser - $15,000
Tom Tolbert - $15,000

For a guy who has a sitcom based on his life — albeit a pretty unwatchable one — we think that's a pretty good price. Well, relatively speaking. By the way ... Mitch Gaylord! Still alive, we guess. Good for him.

$20,000-$30,000
James Brown - $30,000
Rich Eisen - $25,000
Roy Firestone - $22,000
Marion Jones - $20,000
Jim Nantz - $25,000
Dan Patrick - $30,000
Rick Reilly - $25,000
Stuart Scott — $25,000

We don't know how much Dan Patrick made for his Hair Care For Men ads, or, for that matter, how much Rick Reilly got for encouraging his readers to become drunken idiots, but it couldn't have been too far from this amount. By the way, Reilly's amount is probably around the starting salary for entry-level print journalists in this country, if you were wondering what that collective "pounding-head-against-desk" sound was.

$40,000-$50,000
Mitch Albom - $40,000
Chris Berman - $50,000
Jim Rome - $40,000

You know, we wonder if Mitch Albom actually has to be there giving the speech to collect his cash, or if he can just say he was there.

$50,000 and above
Bob Costas - $60,500
Al Michaels - $75,000

For an extra 10 grand, Bob Costas will promise not to lecture you about your lack of class and decorum. Don't worry, though; he brings his own stepstool for the podium.

Just For Fun
Leslie Nielsen - $70,000

Enrico! Pallazzo! Enrico! Pallazzo!

HireSportsSpeakers.com [Official Site]