Stadium News
Breaking News from the Bench to the Bleachers
Nick Saban accidentally told the world how he really felt about the Dallas Cowboys selecting Malachi Lawrence in the first round of the NFL Draft. The NFL can look down on pick tipping all they want, but if fans want to know who’s being drafted before Roger Goodell announces the pick, it’s not hard to…
Thursday night’s NFL Draft broadcast in Pittsburgh was supposed to be the most watchable version of the event in years. The NFL trimmed the first-round clock from 10 minutes to eight back in December, convinced that a leaner show would keep viewers through the back half of the first round rather than losing them to…
Amazon’s Prime Video has technically been a WNBA broadcast partner since 2021, airing the championship game for the league’s Commissioner’s Cup in-season tournament and select regular-season games. But as part of a new, expanded 11-year broadcast rights deal with the NBA and the WNBA, the streamer is airing 31 national games and portions of the…
If you were watching to see how ESPN and NFL Network covered the drafting of Fernando Mendoza by the Las Vegas Raiders with the top overall selection, you may have thought you were seeing an optical illusion. Mendoza was unanimously expected to be the first pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. And instead of attending…
The Patriots have finally encountered a scandal they can’t control. For two decades, Bill Belichick stonewalled the press and the team’s allies on the airwaves created enough doubt and clouded the narrative. There was never any hard evidence of malfeasance, and besides, Tom Brady won every big game imaginable. Though the Patriots are back in…
The Philadelphia Eagles made a trade with the NFC East division rival Dallas Cowboys that ruined the Pittsburgh Steelers’ plans during the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft on Thursday night. Dallas sent pick No. 20 overall and a 2027 seventh-round pick to Philadelphia in exchange for the No. 23 selection and two fourth-round…
WWE and ESPN, we thought we had a deal. You guys have a $1.6 billion arrangement for ESPN to promote WrestleMania and other major events. That’s fine. Do what you need to do. Is it a bit much to inundate ESPN programming for an entire week to promote a pro wrestling event? It is. But…
All Times Eastern Australian Rules Football AFL Men’s — Round 7 Hawthorn Hawks vs. Gold Coast Suns — FS2/Fox One, 10:20 p.m. Essendon Bombers vs. Collingwood Magpies — Fox Soccer Plus, 1:18 a.m. (Saturday) Port Adelaide vs. Geelong Cats — FS1/Fox One, 4:25 a.m. (Saturday) Fremantle Dockers vs. Carlton Blues — FS2/Fox One, 6 a.m.…
The Miami Dolphins traded up from the No. 30 overall pick to No. 27 in a deal with the San Francisco 49ers during the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft on Thursday night. With that 27th overall pick, the Dolphins selected San Diego State cornerback Chris Johnson. ESPN host Mike Greenberg had no idea…
Shortly before the 2026 NFL Draft began on Thursday night, ESPN’s Mike Greenberg interviewed NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. And in a bit of a surprise, Greenberg asked Goodell about the apparent affair between New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and NFL reporter Dianna Russini, though Greenberg did not name Russini. “I’m going to ask…
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…
