oswald the lucky rabbit

Well, it wasn't the proverbial bucket of balls, but it was close. A day after ESPN announced a Monday Night Football team from which Al Michaels was consipcuously absent comes official word that NBC has signed Michaels to rejoin John Madden in the booth for their new Sunday night football package.

But NBC didn't get Michaels for nothing. According to the SI.com article, ESPN and its parent company, Disney, received the following items in exchange for Michaels, who was under contract with the cable network: the cable rights to the Friday broadcasts of the next four Ryder Cups, "increased usage of Olympic highlights" (whatever that means), and the rights to the cartoon character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which appeared in silent Disney cartoon shorts in the late 1920s.

(More detailed information can be found in this USAToday.com article.)