What, No Draft Picks?

Last Thursday, in what might be the shittiest trade in history, Al Michaels, longtime play-by-play man for ABC Sports, was traded to NBC for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. "What's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit," you ask? Why, it's an old Disney cartoon character. Yes, one of the greatest sportcasters ever got traded for a fucking cartoon. (And no, this is not a joke.)

For Disney, the parent company of ABC, this is a huge coup. Oswald the Rabbit was probably the first character ever drawn by Walt Disney. (Yes, it predates even Mickey Mouse.) But, while Disney did produce the cartoons, they didn't own the rights. Those were held by Universal (which is also owns NBC), who distributed the cartoons. In fact, Disney only produced the cartoons for about two years before Universal took over production altogether. Oswald hasn't been a Disney cartoon for nearly 80 years, and hasn't made an appearance in any cartoon in over 50 years.

For sacrificing this valuable character, NBC Universal gets Al Michaels, a 20-year staple of Monday Night Football, and the most recognizable play-by-play man in all of sports. He rejoins John Madden, who also defected to NBC.

So, to recap: NBC Universal gets the man who uttered the "Do you believe in miracles?" call, and Disney regains a cartoon character that no one under, say, 80 even remembers. This deal is about as lopsided as the Yankees trading A-Rod to the A's for the rights to Ty Cobb.

There may be one positive to come out of this, though. Maybe while Disney is in a trading mood, they'll trade Miss Piggy and Kermit to Fox for Arrested Development, a show they've expressed interest in if Fox doesn't renew it. It's win/win for everyone: Arrested stays on TV, and Fox gets yet another couple of "dummies" to put on TV.

Sounds like a fair trade to me.