Was it really that slow of a sports weekend?

Sometimes ESPN does some weird shit on Sunday nights for its extended sports feature pieces. But the one they did Sunday night takes the cake. This story was originally dug up on True Hoop a year and a half ago. Here was Deadspin's take on it as well, and you'll quickly notice we stole their excellent photo. Anyway, the story involves former NBA player Clifford Ray, a dolphin, and a huge sharp screw.

Seems like Mr. Spock - that was the dolphin's name - swallowed a fairly big screw in 1978 that had dropped to the bottom of his pool at Marine World and Warriors center Clifford Ray got called in to pull it out because he had really long arms. He also isn't the only person to ever do this.

But here's my question. Why the hell did ESPN devote almost 1o minutes to this story on Sunday? There were a lot more important, and I would deem "newsworthy", sports stories going on.

ESPN spent more time on the dolphin story than it did on the the French Open, the first victory in F1 racing history by a black driver, and the former Duke lacrosse coach finally talking about last year's cancelled season.

The story also came out of left field. And while I realize there's no easy way to transition to a story about a basketball player sticking his hand down a dolphin's throat - unless maybe you're using the Chad Johnson horse racing story as the feeder - wasn't this the kind of story you save for deadest moments in the sports calender? Not a major sports weekend. Somebody needs to call the ESPN Ombudsman pronto.

-WCK