The Sports Media Thread

[GDAWG]

6 hours ago, JayMac said:

I saw that Kenny Mayne is doing a Olympics show with Cari Champion (I think that was her). Does NBC just pull a car up to the ESPN HQ and wait for the anchors to leave or be let go so they can hand them a contract?

 

They also have Rich Eisen and Dan Patrick do shows on Peacock.  

[Crabcake]

21 hours ago, GDAWG said:

 

She debuted on the Olympics coverage for NBC.  She'll be doing Football Night in America (as there are rumors that Al Michaels will be headed to Amazon Prime and Mike Tirico takes over for Michaels) and probably Notre Dame Football.

As much as it would hurt for Al Michaels to step away from SNF, I think this is about the right time to do it.  He's obviously an all-time great and still better than a lot of the play-by-play guys you hear on TV, but I feel like over the last few years it's become increasingly clear that he's lost a step or two.  Feels like most of the enthusiasm comes from Collinsworth, which can work, except when it's Cris Collinsworth it's super annoying.

 

It's funny, I feel like each of the four "A" NFL broadcast teams have issues, so I always find myself bouncing between them as to which one I like the best.  There have been stretches where I seriously was thinking about Buck and Aikman as the best duo in the NFL, although that thought eventually passed.  I think right now you'd have to give the edge to Nantz and Romo but there are a lot of times over the course of a 4:30 CBS game that Tony Romo says something that makes me roll my eyes.

[Sport]

On 7/21/2021 at 5:39 PM, JayMac said:

I don't watch ESPN much at all but I thought she was, at the least, decent on College Gameday. What don't you like about her?

 

I didn't dislike her. She was fine on College Gameday. This probably isn't even fair to her, but she has this "HERE I AM!" energy that I find off-putting. 

[JayMac]

1 hour ago, Sport said:

 

I didn't dislike her. She was fine on College Gameday. This probably isn't even fair to her, but she has this "HERE I AM!" energy that I find off-putting. 

Fair enough. I really don't know her from anything other than College Gameday so I can't speak on it.

[spartacat_12]

On 7/24/2021 at 11:43 PM, GDAWG said:

This will likely be the NHL on ESPN Studio crew:

 

 

Which likely means we'll see Kevin Weeks and Jeff Gorton on Sportscenter every week during the NHL season.

 

Bucci did a great job, but the rest of them felt like a B team. Hopefully they can include Ray Ferraro in as much content as possible. 

[monkeypower]

Portnoy says Barstool is in talks with one of the Big 4 to air games.

 

Quote

“Do you know we’re talking with major leagues? When I say major leagues, like the four major sports. Ever since we announced the Arizona Bowl, major leagues are like, ‘We can give you the rights. We can give you the rights to call one of the major four leagues games.’ Not gonna say which one. We’re looking at it.”

 

Now this being Portnoy, "talks" could be anything, but still something.

 

It's got to be the NHL right? Hoo boy, I can't wait to see the storm on Hockey/Blue Checkmark/Hockey Blue Checkmark Twitter if this does happen.

[The_Admiral]

Portnoy talks like someone else we know.

 

Yeah, it'll be the NHL and make the blue-checks even madder at a league they already didn't like anyway. NOT A GOOD LOOK! RETHINK THIS!

[RyanMcD29]

Eh, put my money on MLB if anything, if only because ESPN ain't letting the NHL streaming rights bounty they just paid for go to anyone else. MLB on the other hand has been pretty liberal in giving away games here and there between YouTube, Facebook, and other services

[Ridleylash]

The NHL already has their nice meaty new media deal in hand, and it's with ESPN and TBS; they don't need Barstool when they have those two much bigger fish.

 

Plus, MLB is out of touch enough that they'd think Barstool is a perfect platform for them to be "hip" and "with it", so I could absolutely see it being them.

[The_Admiral]

26 minutes ago, Ridleylash said:

Plus, MLB is out of touch enough that they'd think Barstool is a perfect platform for them to be "hip" and "with it", so I could absolutely see it being them.

 

Barstool's crap is orders of magnitude more popular than Drew Magary scolding people for insufficient moral rectitude or Bill Simmons doing an eight-part podcast series about the Denise Richards/Neve Campbell movie Wild Things; as usual, I have no clue what you're talking about

[The_Admiral]

 

[RyanMcD29]

One other thing given I mentioned the NHL, don't be surprised if you start seeing TNT finally announce some NHL personnel moves this week. Have a feeling a lot of the NBC guys that were rumored to go there are still tied up with the Olympics obligations before they're free to go

[goalieboy82]

they moved the headstones but not the bodies:

https://www.tampabay.com/news/breaking-news/2021/08/06/3-possible-graves-located-under-tropicana-field-parking-lots/

 

[The_Admiral]

On 8/6/2021 at 9:53 PM, RyanMcD29 said:

One other thing given I mentioned the NHL, don't be surprised if you start seeing TNT finally announce some NHL personnel moves this week. Have a feeling a lot of the NBC guys that were rumored to go there are still tied up with the Olympics obligations before they're free to go

I think Kenny Albert is headed there. They'll probably get Olczyk. For the most part, though, the NHL on NBC was defined by Doc Emrick (retired) and Pierre McGuire (making a mess of the Ottawa Senators), so Turner has the opportunity for a bit of a clean slate here.

[GDAWG]

So now that ESPN has the NHL again, will Stephen A Smith and Max Kellerman be forced to talk about the NHL?

[See Red]

14 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

So now that ESPN has the NHL again, will Stephen A Smith and Max Kellerman be forced to talk about the NHL?

 

Stephen A Smith already has. He's had rants about McDavid/Draisaitl getting swept and the Maple Leafs choking already where he prefaced by saying he doesn't know anything about hockey and then had an angry rant about hockey. That guy sucks. ESPN sucks. 

[Ridleylash]

1 hour ago, See Red said:

 

Stephen A Smith already has. He's had rants about McDavid/Draisaitl getting swept and the Maple Leafs choking already where he prefaced by saying he doesn't know anything about hockey and then had an angry rant about hockey. That guy sucks. ESPN sucks. 

I mean, so did NBC when it came to promoting the sport; as cringy as ESPN takes can be, it's the kind of exposure the NHL NEVER got on NBC.

 

Social media loves that kind of hot take stuff, and if the NHL wants to keep up in the sports sphere, it kinda has to be on a network that encourages that kind of thing from its talking heads. Stephen A. drives attention to ESPN, even if it's people saying "lol look at this idiot", and that's his job.

 

And honestly, I'd rather a Stephen A. than a Mike Milbury when it comes to cringe-inducing figures in hockey media; because for as loud and annoying as the former is, he's still not as grating as Milbury was. 

[Sport]

On 8/6/2021 at 9:22 PM, the admiral said:

Portnoy talks like someone else we know.

 

He has the same hand mannerisms when he talks. It makes me physically sick. 

 

On 8/6/2021 at 9:22 PM, the admiral said:

Yeah, it'll be the NHL and make the blue-checks even madder at a league they already didn't like anyway. NOT A GOOD LOOK! RETHINK THIS!

 

Sounds like it'll be Major League Baseball. Who's gonna be the analyst, Curt Schilling, Aubrey Huff, etc.? 

[RyanMcD29]

On 8/6/2021 at 9:32 PM, RyanMcD29 said:

Eh, put my money on MLB if anything, if only because ESPN ain't letting the NHL streaming rights bounty they just paid for go to anyone else. MLB on the other hand has been pretty liberal in giving away games here and there between YouTube, Facebook, and other services

*pats self on back*

[neo_prankster]

Can someone explain why MLB is partnering with that cesspool of misogyny known as Barstool?