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Breaking News from the Bench to the Bleachers
Jeff Passan is the latest ESPN commentator to get a new podcast as part of the network’s partnership with Omaha Productions, and it sounds as if the show is just about ready to roll out. In a new interview on The Varsity podcast, the MLB insider revealed that the debut episode will drop in mid-April, and…
Leave it up to John Kruk to take the ketchup vs. mustard debate on a hot dog and throw it completely off the rails. Kruk and play-by-play partner Tom McCarthy were joined in the booth by the Phillie Phanatic and Hatfield mascot Smiley during Philadelphia’s 3-2 win over the Washington Nationals Tuesday night. Smiley was…
Two of the NFL’s marquee franchises are heading to Brazil. The Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys will travel to Rio de Janeiro for a matchup in Week 3 of the NFL season, The Baltimore Banner reported on Wednesday. It will be the first of three games set to be held in Rio over the next…
In the modern world, pulling off a good April Fools’ joke is harder than ever. It’s a bit like the Slam Dunk contest. All the good ones have been done before and really the only reason you’re watching is to see how disappointed you can be. When you combine that reality with the fact that our…
When ESPN hired Jason Kelce, it was one of the biggest talent acquisitions, both in salary and in star power, in recent memory. The future Hall of Famer had just completed a fantastic career with the Philadelphia Eagles. But more importantly, he had proven himself to be a multi-dimensional personality by hosting one of the…
Like the rest of us, the voice of the Final Four was nervous about the impact that NIL and the transfer portal would have on college basketball. That’s Ian Eagle, who calls the final rounds of the NCAA men’s tournament for CBS and TNT Sports each year, and who worried about the chaos this era…
Netflix’s first foray into Major League Baseball delivered a rather ho-hum audience. Per multiple reports, Netflix averaged 3.0 million viewers for its Opening Night MLB telecast between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants last Wednesday. That delivery fell a bit short of NBC’s primetime MLB broadcast the following night, which was billed as…
Boston Bruins CEO Charlie Jacobs is surprisingly bullish on the regional sports network industry, even as the business seems to be crumbling all around him. In a story by Evan Drellich of The Athletic, Jacobs acknowledged the struggles the industry is facing on account of cord-cutting, but believes regional sports networks still play a vital,…
April 1 marks NFL Network’s first full day under ESPN ownership and operation. Tuesday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell bid farewell to his NFL Network colleagues. On Wednesday, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro and his senior leadership team sent a memo to all ESPN employees, welcoming the addition of NFL Network to the larger ESPN portfolio. In…
For anyone concerned about Jason Kelce intruding on the Masters later this month as a correspondent for ESPN, Pat McAfee has a message. While applauding Kelce for getting the assignment after a strong performance at a TGL event last month, McAfee revealed that he has tried to get The Pat McAfee Show approved to air from…
UConn’s thrilling comeback win over Duke during last Sunday’s Elite Eight delivered on the court, but wasn’t a ratings monster by any stretch. Braylon Mullins’ last-second three to lift the Huskies over the Blue Devils and complete a 19-point comeback averaged 13.4 million viewers in the Sunday evening window on CBS, the network announced on…
Adam Ottavino is joining ESPN as an MLB analyst, per Front Office Sports. Ottavino pitched for five teams over a 15-year career as one of the better relievers of his generation, last playing a full season with the New York Mets in 2024 before retiring. The 40-year-old has been one of the more compelling voices…
Gerry Sandusky is retiring. The voice of the Ravens and WBAL-TV sports director announced Wednesday that he is stepping down after 42 years in broadcasting, ending a run that included 20 seasons as Baltimore’s radio play-by-play announcer and nearly four decades anchoring sports coverage at the NBC affiliate he joined in 1988. He was named…
Tiger Woods is asking for privacy in the wake of his latest DUI arrest, and Stephen A. Smith doesn’t think he deserves it. Woods was arrested last Friday when two hydrocodone pills were found in his pocket at the scene of his rollover crash in Jupiter Island, Florida, where police said he showed “severe signs…
Roger Goodell is confident NFL players will be in Los Angeles competing for gold in 2028, even if his own coaches aren’t so sure. At the NFL owners meetings on Tuesday, Goodell pushed back on comments from Broncos head coach Sean Payton, who said at the same meetings that he would be “surprised” if even…
Luka Dončić, leading the NBA in scoring and averaging close to a triple-double with improved defense while leading the Los Angeles Lakers to more than 50 wins, might be MVP worthy to some, but not to Rachel Nichols. On a recent episode of Open Floor: SI’s NBA Show, co-host Chris Mannix asked Nichols whether Lakers…
ESPN has revealed what is replacing The Bird & Taurasi Show at the Women’s Final Four. The network announced Wednesday that its new altcast for the Final Four and national championship will be called Courtside, hosted by Jess Sims with a panel that includes Ilona Maher, Natisha Hiedeman, Courtney Williams, Chelsea Gray, and Katie Feeney.…
This Week in Baseball is coming back. MLB announced Wednesday that it’s reviving the iconic TWIB franchise as a short-form weekly series, with new episodes dropping every Friday at noon ET on the @MLB account on X starting April 3. The series will run through the 2026 postseason and is being produced by MLB Studios…
Bailey Johnson is back covering the Capitals. Johnson announced on social media Tuesday that she has returned to the Washington Post to cover Washington’s push through the final stretch of the NHL season, which is a development that felt unthinkable two months ago. The Post eliminated its entire sports department in February, ending a relationship…
SiriusXM radio will have a new yet familiar lead play-by-play voice for the 2026 Masters. Taylor Zarzour is stepping in when the tournament tees off at Augusta National on April 9. Zarzour is replacing Mike Tirico, who is taking time off after a hectic schedule that included calling Super Bowl LX and hosting NBC’s Winter Olympics…
A common complaint among Major League Baseball fans this season is that watching their favorite team has become much harder. With MLB’s new agreements with NBC Sports and Netflix this season, there are now exclusive baseball games on three different streaming services (Peacock, Apple TV+, and Netflix), along with three different cable channels (ESPN, FS1, and…
Last week, we asked you to rate how happy you were with the largest sporting events that have an exclusive long-term media-rights partner and whether or not you wanted to see those relationships change. Over 2,000 votes later, the results are below. For those of you unhappy with the broadcast quality of any of these events, we…
Florida Panthers fans with Comcast got a rude awakening when they sat down to watch Tuesday night’s game against the Ottawa Senators. Due to a carriage dispute between the cable giant and the E. W. Scripps cable network, Xfinity dropped coverage of dozens of stations owned by Scripps TV, including the ones that broadcast Panthers…
The Monday Night Football doubleheader is no more. On Tuesday, NFL executive vice president of media distribution Hans Schroeder told media at the NFL’s annual league meetings that the league would return to airing one Monday night game each week, ending a period of experimentation with the timeframe. In recent years, the league would sometimes…
