Father of twins; fan of Toronto/NYC/Buffalo; Host of Sports Media Podcast; SBJ contributor; Alum: SI/The Athletic/Sportsnet. Part of two countries 🇺🇸🇨🇦
I think ESPN should broadcast the CFP national championship for the love of the game. Go commercial free. Accept no ad dollars. No promoting Disney products. No executive takes a paycheck that week. On-air talent does it gratis.
Do this for the love of the game.
Congratulations! NABJ names Jemele Hill as its “Journalist Of The Year”; the award recognizes The Undefeated's columnist for her "distinguished body of work" es.pn/2s3wtJP
I covered 17 U.S.Opens for Sports Illustrated. This is just my opinion: There is no way a men’s player with Serena resume (multiple GS titles, economic driver of the sport) is getting a third code violation for that language in the finals of a major. No way.
ESPN Films and Netflix are partnering for a multi-part 10-hour documentary about Michael Jordan. Coming out in 2019. Jordan has signed off on his participation.
Soccer fans:
NBC says Arsenal’s 3-2 win over Manchester United on Sunday is the most-watched Premier League match in U.S. history with 1.92 million viewers across NBC, Peacock and NBC Sports Digital platforms.
Telemundo had 382,000 viewers.
Via sources: TNT will no longer air the Players Only NBA broadcast. Turner Sports will likely do some Players Only content but as far as games for the 2019-20 season, the Players Only broadcast on TNT is no more.
Tonight is a night you really want thoughtful people on air. You want people who don't speculate. You want people with basic humanity. Lisa Salters, Booger McFarland, Ryan Clark, Joe Buck, Scott Van Pelt and pretty much everyone on ESPN so far has really done this tonight.
Holy hell:
The U.S. Men’s Basketball Team’s win over France averaged 19.5 million viewers on NBC and Peacock. The most-watched gold medal game since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The game peaked at 22.7 million viewers from 5-5:15 p.m. ET.
ESPN is going to have a new Monday Night Football booth. Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland will not return, via sources. The successors will be internal. No decision has been made yet. Both Tessitore and McFarland will remain in prominent roles at ESPN.
No bullshit reality: McAfee/his show can book pretty much anyone in sports right now. He could easily go high-profile NFL/CFB guest daily.
So him putting on a newspaper columnist who covers Caitlin Clark is excellent.
And this was leading into a game on Peacock and not ESPN.
"Caitlin Clark has so much spotlight on her all the time..
She's averaging 32 plus points a game this season and she needs 8 points to break the record" ~ @ChadLeistikow#PMSLive
