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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🏈 Buffa-low. Taking the podium for an end-of-season press conference, Bills owner Terry Pegula and general manager Brandon Beane addressed McDermott’s departure. The meeting with the media, however, seemed to do little to reassure Buffalo fans that the team is heading in the right direction, with Pegula’s comments, in particular, going viral for all the wrong reasons.

🏅 Tirico time. NBC will air Winter Olympics coverage immediately after Super Bowl LX on Feb. 8, according to Variety, passing on the chance to boost an entertainment show with the massive Super Bowl audience. Mike Tirico will host Primetime in Milan from the field at Levi’s Stadium right after awarding the Lombardi Trophy, and then fly to Italy to host the rest of the Games.

🏛️ From sidelines to senate. Former NBC Sports sideline reporter Michele Tafoya officially launched her campaign to run for the United States Senate in Minnesota as a Republican. In her first campaign video, Tafoya tried to make the case to Minnesota voters that her experience as a sideline reporter for football games has prepared her for the weighty job of being a United States Senator.

📺 Miniscule minutes. Just as the new leadership at CBS News intended, 60 Minutes captured a minuscule audience (by its standards) up against an instant classic between the Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Bears on NBC. According to Jeremy Barr, a media reporter for The Guardian, Sunday’s episode of 60 Minutes averaged just 4.9 million viewers, well below the show’s average of 8.32 million viewers during the 2024-25 season.

🚨 LEADING OFF 🚨

Aaron Rodgers’ marriage media mousetrap

We don’t know yet if Aaron Rodgers will finally shuffle loose the NFL coil, but I, for one, hope he does.

Not because his best years are behind him, though they are, but because he’s become a negative force in our culture. A black hole of smug, faux-intellectualism, who simultaneously makes everything about him while also playing the victim when convenient.

He is very much the kind of man for the moment we find ourselves in.

Rodgers’s reputation started souring several years ago when he became one of the public faces of anti-vax and anti-science sentiments during the COVID-19 pandemic, all while he was also in a cold war with the Green Bay Packers over his future. His appearances on The Pat McAfee Show are now the stuff of legend. So are his appearances on many conspiracy theory podcasts.

He’s also crafted a relationship with the media that can best be described as a pre-pubescent boy flirting with a girl by punching her in the arm and then shaming her publicly when she asks if he likes her.

The four-time NFL MVP quarterback and Super Bowl champion’s media rivalry pièce de résistance might just be the mystery surrounding his marriage, which somehow lasted an entire NFL season.

During a December 2024 appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers casually mentioned he was dating a woman named Brittani (he specifically spelled it out) but offered no further details. Then, this past June, the 41-year-old was seen sporting a ring on his left ring finger at Steelers practice, telling reporters that he’d gotten married "a couple months ago.”

Beyond that, Rodgers not only refused to provide further details but also scolded the media and public for wanting to know more. "It's a sick society, isn't it?" he pondered during a McAfee appearance. “My private life is staying private. The entitlement to information about my private life is so f*cking ridiculous and embarrassing.”

Loose lips sink ships, and Rodgers also let it slip in August that his sister-in-law’s name is Mia as part of an anecdote about why he decided to join the Steelers.

Speculation ran so rampant that rumors ran wild that she was actually an artificial intelligence chatbot. What it says about Aaron Rodgers that this was a believable outcome to so many people, we will leave to you to decide.

Still, whether no one was able to figure it out or because his ornery warnings were respected, the mystery of Rodgers’ wife remained.

Until this week. Sort of.

On Tuesday, Madeline Hill and Charlotte Wilder of The Sports Gossip Show announced they had almost certainly figured out the identity of Rodgers’ wife. Capitalizing on the breadcrumbs the quarterback left along the way, they pieced together who is who and are fairly confident about it, though they have no plans to announce the specifics (unless Brittani decides she’d like to reach out and come on the podcast).

Beyond that, Hill and Wilder said they also don’t want to publicly announce their findings because, in doing so, they would be giving the cantankerous Rodgers exactly what they think he’s been wanting this whole time.

“I will say that it seems to me that Aaron Rodgers would like nothing more than for us to dox his wife and her sisters so that he can say, ‘Look, the media is awful and inappropriate and out to get me,’ even though I would argue he has given the public just enough information to be able to find them,” said Wilder. “He's baiting media. He's giving breadcrumbs that are going to make people curious and then preparing to use that as ammo to get mad at them if they find out where the trail of the breadcrumbs ends up.

“We think he's just waiting for someone to put the pieces together so he can get mad at them. So we're not going to give him the satisfaction of telling you what the pieces are, except that we're pretty sure she's real.”

We at Awful Announcing have been documenting Aaron Rodgers’ media appearances and comments for many years now, and everything they said checks out. Rodgers has created an endless ragebait loop for himself: he discusses topics publicly or shares intimate details, then scolds the media (and the general public) for caring so much. It’s an unwinnable game to play with such a public figure, especially one who goes out of their way to give people things to talk about.

While the name of his Netflix documentary is “Enigma,” Rodgers is anything but. He’s a troll working under the guise of “a concerned citizen.” He acts as if he’s leading a grand societal experiment to uncover the darkness at the heart of media when he’s really just an egomaniac desperate for attention and control.

Again, he is very much the kind of man for the moment we find ourselves in.

🗣️ NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

"I wish we had been on more during the first half of the season" - Charles Barkley lamenting the lack of Inside the NBA reps so far on ESPN.

“I don’t want all these punk-ass reporters and clowns talking bad about me like they did that lady in Jacksonville who had a moment of humanity.” Also, Charles Barkley, taking a swipe at critics of Jacksonville Free Press reporter Lynn Jones.

“I don’t know, we’ll have to give him a call.” - Giants coach John Harbaugh on ESPN’s Rex Ryan becoming his DC.

“Let me assure you, nobody was more incorrect in understanding that process than me. Almost everything I said throughout the season, about him and about Indiana, was wrong. And it was an epic failure on my part. There was no question Indiana was the best team.” - Paul Finebaum’s Indiana mea culpa.

“I think there’s going to be a work stoppage… there’s no doubt there are major issues in disparity among the small market teams and the big market teams and it’s not going to be solved by a salary cap because there’s just no way the players are going to allow that to happen.” - ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian predicting an MLB work stoppage.

“What winning a National Championship taught me about B2B sales." - Human LinkedIn profile Fernando Mendoza’s cheeky post-championship LinkedIn post.

“In terms of demands, when you make a demand there needs to be demand in the market.” - Warriors GM Mike Dunleavy Jr. nuking Jonathan Kuminga’s trade value.

“I think he’s long-term for it, for sure… I would say right now he’s committed to doing this as long as he can, and he’s gotten damn good at it.” - Fox NFL producer Richie Zyontz on Tom Brady.

"I mean, you got a lot of folks out here — and I'm not calling him that — but you got a lot of folks out here who are mental midgets." - Stephen A. Smith, calling out Bears receiver D.J. Moore for not speaking with media following loss.

🎙️ THE PLAY-BY-PLAY 🎙️

Is it time to retire NFL rules analysts? Ben Axelrod and Drew Lerner discuss on the latest episode of The Play-By-Play!

📺 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 🎬

• Regular-season MLB games will return to ABC for the first time since 2021 through ESPN’s new broadcast agreement with the league. ESPN announced that three games will air on ABC this season. ABC will air Cubs-Giants on Sunday, June 14, Yankees-Red Sox on Saturday, June 27, and Cardinals-Cubs on Sunday, August 16. The two June games will face competition from the FIFA World Cup.

• As Netflix looks to complete its purchase of Warner Bros.’ studio and streaming properties, the biggest question in pro wrestling remains: What does the deal mean for AEW? As noted by The Hollywood Reporter’s Tony Maglio, the revised offer required Netflix and WBD to jointly file a 519-page proxy statement. While the phrases “All Elite Wrestling” or “AEW” don’t appear in the document, Maglio reports that their absence indicates that the AEW rights deal will remain with the Discovery side of WBD, which isn’t being sold to Netflix. He added that AEW would maintain its presence on HBO Max through the remainder of its current deal, which will expire at either the end of 2027 or 2028, depending on an option year.

• A Divisional Round thriller between the Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos set a new high watermark for Saturday NFL viewership, while a blowout in the San Francisco 49ers-Seattle Seahawks game kept that audience predictably modest. The Broncos’ overtime win over the Bills during the 4:30 p.m. ET window averaged 39.6 million viewers on CBS, up 17% versus last year’s comparable game. Fox wasn’t so fortunate with its Saturday primetime window featuring a banged-up 49ers team and a dominant Seahawks squad. According to Fox, the game averaged 32 million viewers in the 8 p.m. ET Saturday window.

• Manchester United has agreed a deal with Lionsgate to create a dramatized retelling of the club’s storied history. While the project is still under development and has yet to be sold to a broadcaster or streamer, the concept is expected to be akin to The Crown, the Netflix historical drama chonicling the life of the Queen Elizabeth II. We can’t wait to see who plays David Beckham.

• Prime Video will premiere The Object Of The Game, a three-part docuseries about football’s values and why they endure, on February 4. The series features interviews with Bill Belichick, Tony Romo, Mike Tomlin, Urban Meyer, Sean McVay, Tony Dungy, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and more.

️‍️🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

“The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” rises

For those fed up with the oversaturation of self-serving, empty sports documentaries, here’s something to laugh about.

NBC and Peacock’s The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins debuted this week and is off to a promising start, skewering athlete-controlled documentaries.

The comedy is a sports mockumentary starring Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliffe. Morgan stars as Reggie Dinkins, a disgraced former NFL star trying to rewrite his narrative. He hires Arthur Tobin (Radcliffe), a disgraced director seeking to resurrect his career. Dinkins believes that by crafting the right story, people will see him differently, leading to an induction into the Hall of Fame and a TV career.

The first episode of The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins sets up the stakes while mixing in some terrific jokes, including one about a particular Muppet. (We won’t spoil it!) Pilots can be tricky because characters evolve, and not every episode has the same directors or writers. But so far, it has the potential to be a solid comedy.

Read our full review and check out the trailer here.