[ad_1]
1. The published crews for NFL wild-card weekend are set.
SATURDAY:
Seahawks-49ers, 4:30 p.m. ET, Fox: Joe Davis, Daryl Johnston
Chargers-Jaguars, 8:15 p.m. ET, NBC: Al Michaels, Tony Dungy
SUNDAY:
Dolphins-Payments, 1 p.m. ET, CBS: Jim Nantz, Tony Romo
Giants-Vikings, 4:30 p.m. ET, Fox: Kevin Burkhardt, Greg Olsen
Ravens-Bengals, 8:15 p.m. ET, NBC: Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth
MONDAY:
Cowboys-Bucs, 8:15 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN: Joe Buck, Troy Aikman
The entire crews have labored collectively this season aside from one: Michaels and Dungy, who’ve the decision of Chargers-Jaguars on Saturday night time.
Should you’re questioning why Michaels’s broadcast associate this season, Kirk Herbstreit, isn’t calling the sport, it comes all the way down to Herbstreit being an worker of Amazon (and ESPN) and never NBC.
An NBC spokesperson instructed Sports activities Illustrated, “Early within the season, we determined to have Tony, who has referred to as many soccer video games, function the analyst for one in all our NFL wild-card video games. That is an NBC Sports activities presentation, so the plan was all the time to make use of an NBC Sports activities broadcaster within the sales space.”
NBC bumped into bother final season when it used Drew Brees, who had by no means referred to as an NFL recreation, on the Bengals-Titans playoff recreation. Brees was merely not prepared for the task, and critiques throughout the board had been ugly.
Dungy has some expertise calling video games and will certainly carry out higher than Brees, however he doesn’t have any expertise calling video games with Michaels, so who is aware of how they’ll mesh.
It might’ve been good if, after struggling by way of a fairly brutal Thursday Night time Soccer schedule, Herbstreit had been rewarded with the playoff recreation, however that may’ve required a separate deal between NBC and Herbstreit and permission from ESPN.
Talking of ESPN, Buck and Aikman additionally suffered from a subpar schedule this season, so it’s good to see them get rewarded with the sexiest recreation of the weekend. Cowboys + Tom Brady is the right components for giant viewership.
2. A 65–7 recreation means catastrophe for rankings, and that’s what occurred Monday night time to ESPN. Georgia’s thrashing of TCU generated 17.2 million viewers. That’s the lowest viewership quantity for a nationwide title recreation for the reason that BCS period started in 1999.
3. Bush-league transfer from Kentucky final night time, as a fan was kicked out of Rupp Enviornment for holding up signal that requested coach John Calipari to “Please go to Texas.”
4. For some folks, birthdays are an enormous deal. For different folks, birthdays are simply one other day on the calendar. Golfer Ian Poulter appears to be firmly entrenched within the first class, as a result of he really referred to as out the Ryder Cup for not wishing Sergio Garcia a cheerful birthday. Sure, it is a actual tweet.
5. We had some traditional Chris “Mad Canine” Russo on First Take right this moment.
6. The most recent SI Media Podcast contains a dialog with creator and reporter Jim Miller. The majority of the dialogue is about ESPN’s protection of Damar Hamlin’s damage on Monday Night time Soccer and why the community deserves nothing however reward.
You may take heed to the podcast under or obtain it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You too can watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Should you’re an NFL fan, I assure you can be riveted to this video of Chris Berman narrating what occurred on the ultimate day of the common season in 1999.
Make sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and take a look at the Sports activities Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You too can comply with Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
[ad_2]
Source link