Latest news with #AwfulAnnouncing.com
NBC Sports
2 days ago
- Politics
- NBC Sports
Could the NFL draft eventually go away?
For years, I was as brainwashed as anyone by the NFL's version of the sorting hat. The draft was the ultimate offseason experience. The great bastion of hope for a brighter, for every NFL team. Then, during the lockout, NFL Players Association attorney Jeffrey Kessler explained that, in the absence of a league-wide union, the draft is an antitrust violation. At first, I didn't want to hear it. Over time, I started to like the sound of it. As explained in one of the 100-plus essays in Playmakers, the draft is fundamentally anti-American. Thirty-two independent businesses come together and control the entire labor market, parsing out employees based on a system under which the most inept of them get dibs on the best of the players. My 86-the-draft take has been dubbed derisively as a 'crusade' by others in the media, whose relevance and income are coincidentally tied to its ongoing existence. And I've come to accept the simple reality that, over the past decade, the draft has become too big to die. Understandably, then, I nearly fell out of my chair this morning when Peter King (making a return for the full two hours of PFT Live) suggested that the draft could go away in our lifetime. Personally, I don't buy it — but I like the sound of it. The folks at typed up the key quotes so I didn't have to. Peter's broader point is that, if the draft would at some point go away, the NFL would come up with something to replace the draft. And that thing would become as big, if no bigger. At some point, I'll lay out my idea for how talent would be distributed in a way other than rewarding the worst teams with the best players. Maybe this weekend, when things will be slow. If things will ever be slow again. For now, I won't rule out the possibility that the draft will die. While the NFL enjoys an antitrust exemption by virtue of its multi-employer bargaining unit, the current chief executive could tuck an elimination of that law in the next iteration of the big, beautiful bill. Or maybe the union would shut down in the face of the next lockout, and not settle the ensuing antitrust litigation. However it may play out, it's not impossible. Peter thinks it's very possible. And while that will rile up many who are under the honor-and-a-privilege spell, the NFL would find a way to make a post-draft existence work — and to make whatever replaces it the league's biggest offseason event.
NBC Sports
7 days ago
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Jim Nantz believes Chiefs-Cowboys will set viewership records (and he's right)
It's one thing for a bozo like me to say it. It's quite another when it comes from the guy who will be calling the game. Appearing this week on Rich Eisen's show, lead CBS play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz expressed a belief that the Thanksgiving game between the Chiefs and Cowboys will establish a new standard for regular-season NFL football. 'K.C. and Dallas, to put those two gigantic brands together on the most-watched day of the regular season in the NFL, it's gonna set records,' Nantz said, via 'That's not what I'm out for it to do. I just hope it's a great football game. It will be a wonderful matchup to call on Thanksgiving. K.C. at Dallas, it's the game we wanted.' It's hardly a stretch. The Cowboys are America's legacy team. The Chiefs are the flavor of a month of Sundays. Put them together, and the record won't just be broken. It'll be shattered. Especially on Thanksgiving. Three years ago, 42.1 million watched the Cowboys beat the Giants, 28-20. That's the current record. And seven of the top nine games happened on Thanksgiving. The other two? The 1990 Monday night game between the 10-1 Giants and 10-1 49ers, and the 1985 Dolphins-Bears Monday night showdown that gave Chicago its only loss of the year. The NFL could have dropped any Cowboys game on Thanksgiving and generated a huge number. By giving the captive audience a game involving two destination teams, the league wants — and will get — its biggest regular-season audience ever. Our guess is that it will be at least 45 million, if not 50 million. Especially since Nielsen rolled out earlier this year some new kind of technique for measuring out-of-home viewership.
NBC Sports
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC Sports
Jordon Hudson attacks Pablo Torre's reporting on her relationship with Bill Belichick
Jordon Hudson is getting upset. Her very public relationship with North Carolina coach Bill Belichick has created the attention she craved. But, like many public figures, she would prefer maximum attention with minimal scrutiny. In recent weeks, Pablo Torre of Pablo Torre Finds Out has carefully scrutinized the most weirdly compelling story in all of football. On Friday, Torre dropped another episode delving into, among other things, the shirtless Belichick Ring camera video that first put the possibility of an early May/late December romance onto the radar screen. Torre also explored various details regarding where and when the images of a shirtless Belichick came from. Torre even went to the precise spot and made a video of his own. (With his shirt on.) Hudson wasn't happy with that. As preserved by Zoey Lyttle of and noticed by Sam Neumann of she called out Torre with language suggesting that litigation is possibly under consideration. The Instagram comment, which was posted then deleted, said this: 'Pablo Torre's 'findings' have been nothing short of factually incorrect, slanderous, defamatory and targeted. Can y'all please stop giving credibility to this 'reporter'?' (Hey, she said 'please.') It's a page right out of a playbook that has become all too common in post-truth America. Attack those who are trying to cut through the smoke and get to the flickering flame of fact. Belichick did it to CBS, accusing the network of editing his disastrous interview to create a 'false narrative' about the extent to which she tried to control the sit-down. (Meanwhile, Channing Crowder has admitted that she successfully 'choreographed' Belichick's recent interview on The Pivot Podcast.) She separately complained about the fact that an Airbnb owner 'distribut[ed] security footage and information about tenants/their stay.' Some will dismiss Torre's reporting as salacious. But it's relevant to the unanswered question of whether and to what extent she and Belichick were an item while he coached the Patriots — and in turn whether and to what extent she was exercising influence over him. (It would be wild, to say the least, if it turned out that the crackpot scheme to put a lifelong defensive coordinator in charge of the offense in 2022 was her idea, given Torre's reporting that her presence at Patriots games dates back to 2021.) On Tuesday, Torre will join me for a special episode of #PFTPM, during which we'll discuss these developments plus whatever else we can get to. (I promise that it won't be a rambling, meandering, 184-minute dialogue that ricochets through batshit conspiracy theories after starting in the middle of conversation regarding smokeless tobacco and nicotine pouches. That said, Torre strikes me as a Skoal man.) The reporting on Belichick and Hudson won't end, any time soon. Too many outlets from the sports world and well beyond have realized the audience is interested, the audience is curious, and the audience wants to know more about how this unusual relationship came to be, and where it's heading as Belichick inches toward his first season as the head coach of a college football program in which she was previously involved, currently isn't (supposedly), and potentially could be again. Especially as of next Sunday, when Belichick acquires the contractual ability to leave the Tar Heels high and dry by writing a $1 million check and walking away.
NBC Sports
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC Sports
Channing Crowder: Jordon Hudson "choreographed" Bill Belichick's interview on The Pivot Podcast
Something seemed a little off about Bill Belichick's recent appearance on The Pivot Podcast. Or, more accurately, something seemed a little on. The episode began with Belichick and former Inside The NFL colleague Ryan Clark in a one-on-one interview. It felt scripted, specifically when Belichick explained why he mentioned his 24-year-old girlfriend/handler/publicist/idea mill/creative muse in the 'acknowledgements' section of his book. Like Vincent LaGuardia Gambini working his way through the list of questions to be posed to a star witness on direct examination, Clark followed Belichick's explanation that she had made specific suggestions that improved the book with this: 'The first thing you did was the CBS interview. That question wasn't asked about Jordon in that interview?' Said the witness: 'It was asked. No, it was asked. They asked about her — the same, similar question that you asked about her acknowledgement in the book. And I explained that in the tribute pages that she did, but that wasn't shown.' The exchange bolstered Belichick's claim that the CBS interview was edited to present a 'false narrative,' and it dared CBS to release the full interview. (Please, CBS, release the full interview.) Co-host Channing Crowder, who along was Fred Taylor was left out of the opening exchange, later spilled the beans on his WQAM radio show. Via Ben Axelrod of Crowder said Jordon Hudson 'choreographed the open' to the interview. 'She kind of coordinates and brand manages,' Crowder said. 'She has her paws on the situation. It's different . . . It was weird to be around Belichick and Jordon. . . . I don't see Belichick in that light. But he just smiles and nods.' Added Crowder: 'His old lady is different. . . . She lurks. It's weird to know him as Coach Belichick running the entire organization as G.M., head coach, talent coordinator, all that stuff, and then to see this tiny, little 95-pound girl kind of — pretty much telling him what to do.' Crowder's disclosure contradicts the impression Belichick has been trying to create since Hudson interrupted his CBS interview and instructed him not to answer the very simple question of how they met. Belichick insisted that CBS edited his interview to lead the viewer to believe 'Jordon was attempting to control the conversation.' Meanwhile, she didn't just attempt to control the conversation on The Pivot Podcast. As Crowder tells it, she succeeded.
NBC Sports
18-05-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
ABC audience misses thrilling UFL finish after game is bumped to ESPN2 for NBA pregame show
For potentially various reasons and no particular one, the second season of the UFL hasn't moved the needle. In most markets, attendance is down. In all windows, viewership is down. The overriding reality is that football played not in football season remains a tough sell, even in an age when people are looking for anything and everything on which to bet (and lose) their money. The UFL had a moment on Sunday, thanks to a Heidi-style move by ABC. Via Andrew Bucholtz of ABC shifted a late-season game between the Arlington Renegades and the D.C. Defenders all the way down the dial to ESPN2, with under two minutes to play. The move was intended to accommodate a pregame show for an NBA playoff game. Not a game. Not a game. Not a game. A pregame show. Play-by-play announcer Joe Tessitore made the announcement of the switch as the NBA pregame show began. Which would be fine for any ABC viewers who have ESPN2. For cord cutters pulling the signal from the free, public airwaves, the switch from ABC left them SOL. And those who didn't (or couldn't) change the channel missed quite the finish. With Arlington driving for a potential game-tying field goal and lining up to spike the ball and kill the clock as the seconds remaining ticked under 10, quarterback Luis Perez ran a fake spike and threw a quick pass. Which was intercepted by defensive back DeAndre Baker. Game over. The victory clinched a playoff berth for D.C. The defeat clinched a playoff berth for the St. Louis Battlehawks. It would have been great for the UFL to get some exposure to the folks who had tuned in for the NBA pregame show. And in a showdown between an actual game and the chatter and hype before a game starts, it seems as if the real game should always win. On Sunday, the UFL and anyone who was watching the game on ABC without access to ESPN2 lost, big.
