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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🏇 NBC’s Mike Tirico will interview controversial trainer Bob Baffert during Saturday’s telecast of the Kentucky Derby. Baffert is returning to Churchill Downs for the first time since 2021 after serving a three-year suspension resulting from his horse, Medina Spirit, failing a drug test after his Derby win. “It’s not going to be a constant drumbeat throughout the five hours, but if you’re watching the coverage, you’ll understand the perspective,” Tirico said of Baffert’s presence during the network’s broadcast.

⚽ The Athletic is parting ways with longtime soccer scribe Pablo Maurer, the writer revealed earlier this week. Maurer, who covered all things American soccer for The Athletic, is the latest writer with a significant following that the publication has parted ways with in recent weeks, joining college football writers Audrey Snyder and Jesse Temple.

📘 FS1 host Emmanuel Acho revealed that his book, “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man,” has been removed from select libraries and schools, including the Naval Academy public library. It seems to have been removed under the same initiative that saw Jackie Robinson’s biography removed earlier this year.

️‍🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

CBS defends itself against Bill Belichick’s allegations

Wednesday proved to be a strange one for CBS News. No, not because Paramount owner Shari Redstone reportedly asked CBS CEO George Cheeks to delay sensitive stories about Donald Trump for fear that his overzealous FCC could torpedo the company’s impending deal with Skydance, though that certainly doesn’t help.

It was a strange day because CBS News had to issue a statement refuting allegations made by North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Bill Belichick regarding his now-infamous CBS Sunday Morning interview last weekend in which his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, prevented anchor Tony Dokoupil from asking a question about how the couple met.

On Wednesday morning, the coach claimed that CBS “selectively edited” clips from the interview to create a “false narrative” that Hudson was attempting to exert control over the contents of the discussion. Belichick also asserted that the interview was to focus “solely” on the contents of his upcoming book, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football,” and nothing else.

The suggestion that CBS News was deceptive in its editing practices, or that it did not comply with the prearranged conditions of the interview, did not sit well with the network, which released a statement on Wednesday afternoon.

“When we agreed to speak with Mr. Belichick, it was for a wide-ranging interview. There were no preconditions or limitations to this conversation. This was confirmed repeatedly with his publisher before the interview took place and after it was completed,” the statement read.

Now, putting aside the obvious irony about CBS News facing a $20 billion lawsuit from the Trump administration over similarly dubious claims of deceptive editing, it’s incredibly bizarre to see Belichick use this playbook.

During his long tenure coaching in the NFL, Belichick never litigated anything through the media or via written statements, no matter what the press was saying about him. That’s no longer the case with Hudson by his side.

Belichick’s claims are also easily refuted. Even if we took his insistence that the interview was to focus “solely” on his forthcoming book at face value (which again, CBS refutes), the Hudson question would’ve still been fair game. Prior to Dokoupil asking how the couple met, CBS pulled a quote directly from Belichick’s book in which he calls Hudson his “creative muse,” which would seemingly make the question in-bounds.

If you’re going to sing her praises in the book, feature prominently on her public social media profiles, and allow her to identify as the chief operating officer of “Belichick Productions,” answering a simple question about how you both met seems like it should be fair game no matter what preconditions there were or were not to the interview.

The crazy thing about all of this is it could have actual football implications. Who is Bill Belichick if not for a pseudo-authoritarian, no-bullshit head coach that will demand total fealty to the “Tar Heel Way?” Is it possible that his primary value proposition as a culture builder has already been thrown in the garbage because his girlfriend, who is the same age as the players he’s coaching, has destroyed what made Belichick a successful coach in the first place? How can anyone in the North Carolina locker room look at him with respect while knowing Hudson is pulling so many strings behind-the-scenes?

At least one of Belichick’s former players already thinks he should be fired.

The question from here on out becomes: will this story be the lens with which we view the Tar Heels’ upcoming season? Hudson is now a full-fledged tabloid darling and unless she fades into the background, which seems unlikely, she’ll be front-and-center for Belichick’s first season in powder blue.

Nobody could’ve possibly seen this coming when Belichick took the job. But now, it’s likely all people will be thinking about.

🗣️The Play-By-Play🗣️

On the latest episode of The Play-By-Play, Ben Axelrod and Brendon Kleen are joined by Awful Announcing’s Sam Neumann to discuss the Shedeur Sanders draft fiasco, Shannon Sharpe’s temporary leave from ESPN, and Bill Belichick’s CBS interview.

The Play-By-Play is available anywhere podcasts can be found, including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music, as well as in video form on the Awful Announcing YouTube page.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

Stephen A. Smith reprised his role as “Brick” on ABC’s soap opera General Hospital. I hate to admit it, but it was pretty amazing.

On Tuesday, SNY’s director John DeMarsico incredibly called a Mets home run before it happened, and made sure Judd Apatow’s reaction was caught for all to see.

📈💰INDUSTRY INSIGHTS🧐

• Two digital college football giants are partnering up. Wednesday, On3 announced it would purchase Rivals and partner with Yahoo Sports. According to the announcement, the deal is expected to close by the end of the second quarter of 2025. As a part of the deal, Yahoo will acquire an ownership stake in On3’s parent company and receive a seat on its board. Additionally, On3 and Rivals subscribers will gain access to premium content across both websites.

• The CW continues to add to its growing sports portfolio. Beginning next year, the Nexstar-owned broadcast channel will air 10 Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) telecasts as part of a two-year agreement that includes the league’s marquee inventory and the PBA World Championship. Fox has held rights to the pro bowling tour since 2018. The CW now holds rights for ACC football and basketball, most of the “Pac-2” football games, NASCAR’s Xfinity series, WWE NXT, and Grand Slam Track.

• Tennis Channel has tapped former Amazon executive Jeff Blackburn as its new CEO. At Amazon, Blackburn was involved in launching Thursday Night Football on Prime Video. Blackburn replaces former CEO Ken Solomon, who was fired by Sinclair last September over his role as an advisor to Dr. Phil.

🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

Is the death of the NFL pregame show upon us?

Earlier this week, ESPN’s newest talent, Peter Schrager, warned that the NFL’s desire to sell a full-season international rights package could have an unintended consequence. All of those early-morning kickoffs might kill the traditional Sunday pregame show.

Schrager would know better than most. For years, he appeared on Fox’s early pregame show Fox NFL Kickoff, before Fox NFL Sunday got started at noon ET with the familiar cast of Terry Bradshaw, Michael Strahan, Howie Long, etc. Beyond being iconic, those shows draw some not-insignificant viewership for Fox and CBS as viewers prepare for the NFL day ahead.

But early-morning games overseas would siphon many of those viewers away from the NFL’s two Sunday afternoon broadcast partners. It’s a theme that has held steady in recent years, and will likely continue for years to come: screwing over Fox and CBS.

The two networks have had to endure numerous expansions to flex scheduling, which takes games originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon and trades them to one of the league’s primetime partners on Thursday, Sunday, or Monday night. Other games are carved out of Sunday afternoon entirely; think the Friday night Brazil game in Week 1, Christmas Day games on Netflix, a Black Friday game on Amazon, any number of international contests during the season. Collectively, all of these games add up and diminish the quality of contest Fox and CBS get on a typical Sunday.

Now, with a full schedule of international games seeming inevitable, those networks can kiss their pregame audiences goodbye too.

While that’s not nearly as important as the quality of game inventory, it’s not nothing either. Last season, Fox averaged 4.4 million viewers for Fox NFL Sunday. That’s far more than almost any non-football sporting event can draw on the network, aside from some playoff baseball inventory and tentpole events like the Daytona 500.

But it’s hard to imagine who would continue to tune into these shows if they can watch an actual game instead. That’s the hard truth. And there’s really nothing Fox or CBS can do about it.