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No one in the lead-up to the 2026 NFL Draft went further out on a limb than ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky. The longtime backup quarterback, now one of the top football commentators at the Worldwide Leader, caped hard for Alabama’s Ty Simpson throughout the offseason, even placing him ahead of Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, the widely presumed…
On Thursday, the New York Post published photographs of NFL reporter Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel kissing at a bar in 2020. Vrabel, now head coach of the New England Patriots, was head coach of the Tennessee Titans at the time. Hours later, and less than an hour before the first round of the 2026…
The Holiday Bowl will be looking for a new broadcast partner this upcoming season. Fox Sports, which has televised the game each season since 2017, will reportedly not bid on rights for the Holiday Bowl this season, according to college football insider Brett McMurphy of On3. The bowl game will now take its rights to…
As ESPN’s Nick Saban has ventured into the media since leaving Alabama, he has remained a confidante and mentor to many across the college football world. Notably, Saban was closely entwined in Lane Kiffin’s move from Ole Miss to LSU last year. Beyond his vast coaching tree, Saban also frequently goes to bat for the…
Mike Vrabel apparently didn’t get the memo that his public relations strategy surrounding his apparent affair with NFL reporter Dianna Russini was not doing him any favors. On Thursday night, less than an hour before the first round of the NFL Draft, Vrabel held a seven-minute press conference to address new photos published earlier in…
After Page Six published its newest bombshell images of NFL reporter Dianna Russini and New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel on Thursday, which featured the pair kissing at a bar in March 2020, subsequent reporting from Russini is now being viewed through a different lens. One specific report now looks particularly suspect given the…
First Take attempted to avoid covering Mike Vrabel’s relationship with Dianna Russini, but it became unavoidable once football got involved. Stephen A. Smith has covered Vrabel’s relationship with Russini on his SiriusXM Radio show. But First Take successfully avoided the topic for weeks. First Take avoided the topic when Page Six published the first batch…
On Wednesday, LeBron James scored 28 points to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a 101-94 win over Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets, taking a 2-0 series lead in the process. We’ll see where it goes from here, but considering how the 2025-2026 NBA season started for James and the Lakers, their run towards…
Despite a “Legendary February” which saw NBC broadcast the Super Bowl, the Olympics, and an NBA All-Star Game, the network’s media unit still ended up well underwater in its first-quarter earnings report. Comcast’s media business, which includes NBCUniversal and streaming service Peacock, posted losses of $436 million in Q1 2026, per a report by TheWrap.…
Trey Wingo was once synonymous with the NFL Draft. And while he might miss hosting the draft for ESPN, he doesn’t miss the preparation that went into it every year. Wingo joined this week’s episode of the Awful Announcing Podcast to discuss a variety of topics, including his reporting on the future of LIV Golf and…
The Justice Department appears to be casting a wide net in its investigation into whether sports leagues are upholding the terms of a longstanding antitrust exemption as games increasingly migrate from broadcast television to streaming services. As part of that investigation, the Justice Department reportedly met with executives from local station groups at the National…
On Wednesday, Cleveland.com wanted to highlight its Cleveland Cavaliers podcast, Wine & Gold Talk, as it discusses the team’s NBA Playoffs run. So, they posted a video of host Ethan Sands, presumably, from the podcast, discussing Donovan Mitchell’s poise in big moments. It also included a link to an article on their site where people…
Last year, Pablo Torre found out about a potential salary cap circumvention tactic orchestrated by the Los Angeles Clippers, in which star player Kawhi Leonard received compensation through Aspiration, a now-defunct green banking company. Joseph Sanberg, the co-founder of Aspiration, is scheduled to be sentenced on April 27 in a Los Angeles federal court after pleading…
If there was any shred of hope that Dianna Russini could stage a comeback in her career as an NFL insider, surely it has all but evaporated now. On Thursday, the New York Post published photos of Russini kissing then-Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel at a bar in New York City from March 2020. That…
ESPN will televise Super Bowl LXI next February. And in true ESPN fashion, you’re going to hear it a lot from ESPN that ESPN is televising their first Super Bowl on ESPN. Now, if you want to get technical, the ESPN broadcast is actually going to be a simulcast on ABC, which has televised many…
Charles Barkley might be on the verge of mending his relationship with Michael Jordan, but his seemingly one-sided feud with Tiger Woods remains. Barkley recently revealed he’s speaking with Jordan again after their friendship deteriorated over a decade ago. The falling out stemmed from Barkley publicly criticizing Jordan’s work as owner and head of basketball…
When Mike Vrabel announced he would enter counseling on Day 3 of the NFL Draft, it sent shockwaves through the football world. And the announcement’s abrupt timing and surprise led to speculation that a new bombshell report was about to drop on his relationship with Dianna Russini. That speculation indeed proved true. On Thursday afternoon,…
The Phoenix Suns find themselves in a 2-0 hole against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, and Devin Booker believes the referees have something to do with it. Booker scored 30 points to go along with six rebounds Wednesday night, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Suns from losing Game 2 of their playoff…
WrestleMania 42 has come and gone and Pat McAfee has said that he is no longer part of the wrestling business after taking a starring role in WWE’s showcase event. And according to top wrestling reporter Dave Meltzer, it was his decision. McAfee was controversially inserted into the main event match between WWE champion Cody…
A version of this column originally appeared in Thursday morning’s edition of The A Block, Awful Announcing’s daily newsletter with the latest sports media news, commentary, and analysis. Sign up here and be the first to know everything going on in the sports media world. In last Thursday’s newsletter, I shouted out crisis and reputation strategist…
There is never a dull moment in college football, especially when it comes to the growing civil war between the SEC and the Big Ten over the future of the sport. For months now, the two superconferences have been on opposite sides of the debate over where the College Football Playoff and the sport’s postseason…
Mike Vrabel made a stunning revelation that he would be entering counseling during Day 3 of the NFL Draft. And nobody can quite believe what to actually make of it. The news was shared in quotes given to ESPN’s Mike Reiss in an article published at midnight on the eve before the draft. Vrabel first…
After denying that the story was even a thing, the New England Patriots are in full damage control mode trying to deal with the fallout of Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini’s excursion to an Arizona resort. Both Vrabel and Russini tried to deny that any improprieties happened as the two married individuals were photographed together…
There is a very small and elite list of the most momentous changes that have transformed the world of sports as we know it. The establishment of the three-point shot, the legalization of the forward pass, and now the New York Yankees wearing alternate uniforms. There hasn’t been a moment like this in baseball since…
