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The Golden State Valkyries were surprising WNBA champions, hanging a banner this fall in just their second year of existence. As you might expect, Golden State’s players kept receipts of the doubt they faced along the way. And at the team’s championship celebration on Wednesday, veteran center Kiah Stokes literally wore one of those receipts.…
Those turning to Fox News on Wednesday to see how the right-wing griftosphere was handling the absolute shellacking Republicans took during Tuesday’s midterm elections might’ve been left wondering if the Blue Tsunami was all a dream. Because if you were watching Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning, Fox News was already back to its regularly scheduled…
In late September, Jordan Rodgers encouraged Pittsburgh Steelers fans to have patience while opining about Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, though he was “not trying to be a homer.” Rodgers, a college football analyst at ESPN since 2016, backed his formerly estranged older brother again on ESPN’s First Take on Wednesday. First Take host Shae Cornette teed…
The dust has cleared from the strange story of Pat McAfee and the University of Utah, but SiriusXM host Katie Nolan has more to say. Last week, McAfee ranted on his daily show that he was “very, very uncomfortable” hosting College GameDay from the campus after an official university account posted a video in which students…
On Friday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling overturning a judge’s decision to toss a jury verdict levied against the NFL over antitrust violations associated with its packaging of NFL Sunday Ticket to DirecTV. The case, which has been in the courts for about a decade, addressed whether the league violated antitrust…
LIV Golf, even in its diminished post-Saudi opulence form, is in dire straits as of Wednesday evening. A new report by Sujeet Indap in the Financial Times indicates that BC Partners, the private equity firm that was prepared to provide LIV with a league-saving capital investment after Saudi Arabia’s private investment fund (PIF) ceased financing the…
Dianna Russini has apparently kept herself on the sidelines long enough. The former top NFL insider for The Athletic, who became embroiled in scandal this offseason after numerous photos surfaced showing her cozy and seemingly intimate relationship with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, is set to return “next week,” according to a report by…
A thoughtful college football viewership analysis by The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel, published Tuesday, has been circulating in sports media circles. The top-line figures don’t look great for the sport through the first eight weeks. Average viewership is down by 6% for games airing on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and ESPN. Last season, games on those…
Fox is hyping Sunday’s matchup between the New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers as Tom Brady’s return to Foxborough, and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo wants to know who cares? Brady admitted he’s emotional about returning to New England to call his first game for Fox from the stadium where he led the Patriots to…
If Indianapolis Colts owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon is going to remain in her gameday post on the sideline, then Stephen A. Smith wants to see her do something productive. The Colts got some run on First Take Wednesday morning because they’re playing the Dallas Cowboys this weekend. And while surmising the Colts might be a bigger…
News coverage in America now looks a lot like sports coverage with its focus on horse races, battlegrounds, numbers, and analytics. So it was only appropriate that Peter Schrager paid tribute to America’s leading elections expert, Steve Kornacki, on Election Day. Kornacki has become a cultural phenomenon on NBC’s election coverage, thanks to his touchscreen…
Say what you will about Connecticut Huskies basketball coach Dan Hurley, but he is never going to win anyone over with a charm offensive. Hurley has been incredibly successful at UConn, but he’s also drawn criticism for his antics and outbursts, especially his treatment of referees. But when it comes to his press conference escapades, Hurley can sometimes…
This originally appeared in Wednesday 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. On the first Tuesday in November, with control of Congress riding on the evening’s returns,…
The final episode of Intentional Talk is no longer the final episode. According to The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, Major League Baseball has abandoned its plan to take the long-running MLB Network studio show off the air. Comssioner Rob Manfred, his top lieutenant Noah Garden and other league executives relented after fans and players lobbied vociferously…
It’s another year of College Football Playoff rankings being unveiled on a weekly basis and another year of those rankings being torn apart for being entirely incoherent, irrational, and illogical. ESPN debuted the 2026 CFP rankings on the first Tuesday in November, which also happened to be the night of midterm elections. It was probably…
When Jack Campbell lay motionless on the turf at the start of the fourth quarter of Sunday’s Lions-Vikings game, Erin Andrews inherited the unwelcome responsibility of updating Fox’s national audience on his condition, despite knowing little more than the viewers she was informing. Andrews revisited those moments on the latest episode of Calm Down with…
As Troy Aikman and Joe Buck head toward a divorce, Phil Simms knows “these things happen,” because it happened to him. After 25 years together, setting the record as the longest-tenured broadcast team in NFL history, Buck and Aikman appear destined for a breakup at the conclusion of this season. ESPN signed Buck to a…
The NBA is facing an injury crisis unlike anything we have seen in major professional sports early in the new season. And Bill Simmons wants commissioner Adam Silver to do something about it. In just a few weeks, the league has already seen a shocking number of stars sidelined with long-term injuries. Tyrese Haliburton, Anthony…
The NFL heads to Spain in Week 9, with the Cincinnati Bengals and Atlanta Falcons facing off in Madrid on Sunday. Bob Wischusen and Louis Riddick will be on the call for NFL Network (9:30 a.m. ET). A rather weak Sunday slate will at least feature a strong edition of “America’s Game of the Week”…
Former NFL kicker and CBS analyst Jay Feely looks to be one of many names caught up in the blue tsunami on Election Day. The midterm elections were widely seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump’s second term and Republicans across the country. With Trump’s campaign promises of controlling inflation and no new foreign…
Two Sundays into his tenure as an analyst on CBS’s The NFL Today, Russell Wilson could hardly get the words out when discussing one of his alma maters, NC State. The day before, NC State quarterback CJ Bailey was supposed to kneel out the final seconds of a 31-28 win over Vanderbilt. Instead, he fumbled…
A Troy Aikman-Joe Buck divorce seems inevitable. The rest of the sports media world has been watching this drama unfold slowly with great interest, because we rarely see something like this happen in real time. Buck has his contract extension, while Aikman does not, making an already strained 25-year relationship even more fractured. When you…
Michele Tafoya won multiple Sports Emmy awards during her time as a sports reporter for NBC, ABC/ESPN, and CBS, but she did not win the Minnesota Senate race. Tafoya lost to Democratic candidate Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and called Flanagan to concede. “I just got off the phone with Lt. Gov. Flanagan and congratulated her…
It’s Election Day, but it’s also College Football Playoff ranking reveal day, and strong reactions to the ranking would have you believe those are the results determining the future of democracy. On Tuesday night, Rece Davis hosted ESPN’s College Football Playoff rankings show alongside Booger McFarland, Greg McElroy, and Joey Galloway. As the show wore…
