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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🏈 Terry…? During Fox’s halftime show of the NFC championship game, the network aired an interview from Sunday’s other game in Denver. When the show returned, Terry Bradshaw provided further commentary on Seattle’s Sam Darnold, completely missing the change of subject. Another rough day for the 77-year-old.

🛑 UFC’s strong debut. The MMA promotion held its first card on Paramount+ on Saturday night, and despite Dana White being forced to address the abundance of commercials on the broadcast, the card delivered in a big way.

🏈 Come on, Gene. Faced with a split-second ruling on what would be the turning point in the AFC championship game, CBS rules analyst Gene Steratore again left the audience confused. A fumble by Denver’s Jarrett Stidham was initially ruled intentional grounding, which Steratore confirmed on-air. When the game officials changed the call to a fumble, Steratore agreed once again. Kudos.

🗞️ No more sports at WaPo? The Washington Post abruptly canceled plans to cover the Winter Olympics after reportedly spending around $80,000 on lodging in Milan. Then, reports surfaced that looming layoffs at the paper could see the sports desk axed completely.

❗ Barkley speaks out. In Inside the NBA’s first show back on ESPN in weeks, Charles Barkley addressed the killing of VA nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis. The killing led the Timberwolves to postpone a game against Golden State. And Barkley weighed in on-air, saying Pretti and Renee Good’s killings happened for “no reason” and calling for political leaders to “be adults.”

🚨 LEADING OFF 🚨

Charles Barkley does it again

The list of people who could make the statement Charles Barkley did on Saturday is short.

In the aftermath of Minneapolis VA nurse Alex Pretti’s death at the hands of federal agents, Barkley found himself live on ESPN for the first time in many weeks. The stretch run of the NBA season means more Inside the NBA, but Saturday was not a time to celebrate basketball. The Timberwolves postponed their game, and suddenly the agency’s violence was an NBA story.

Barkley’s statement was simple:

“It’s just sad, man. It’s scary. It’s sad. I don’t know how… It’s going to end bad. It’s already ended badly twice. Somebody’s gotta step up and be adults. Two people have died for no reason, and it’s just sad.”

From the Inside crew, it is unsurprising that Barkley would speak. The former NBA MVP has long been politically engaged, even teasing a run for Alabama governor. As recently as 2024, he hosted a CNN talk show.

While Barkley does not always offer the party line on each issue, his place as the central voice on a beloved show gives him the freedom to go where most sports media talent cannot. At minimum, Barkley will always address the elephant in the room.

Whether it’s the industry’s surge in sports betting money or more serious issues like trans athletes or the 2024 election, Barkley is in a select class of sports media stars who have implicit permission — from his employers as well as the audience — to weigh in. Unlike many other commentators, Barkley rarely receives blowback.

Throughout the weekend, figures like Lane Kiffin, Kurt Warner, and Chris Broussard ran afoul of public sentiment over Pretti’s killing and faced backlash online. But Barkley was praised. Not for embracing the most anti-establishment position or for locking horns with the Trump administration, but merely for speaking truth to power.

Of course, it was one small moment, but opinions today are swayed by waves of thoughts and takes, adding up scroll by scroll. Some likely learned of Pretti’s death on ESPN, and Barkley’s thoughts may have been the first they heard. Even in our polarized, algorithmic national fugue, magnifying the truth still matters.

Across much of sports media during Trump’s second term, exhaustion seems to have taken hold. A far cry from the late 2010s, top sports hosts rarely weigh in on the news of the day or Trump’s latest social media posts. The industry has selected some, like Stephen A. Smith or Clay Travis, who foment further division with ragebait disguised as commentary.

Clearly, public sentiment is shifting following the death of Pretti and Renee Good before him during ICE’s crackdown in Minneapolis. Barkley is unlikely to be the last to address the killings.

The lesson in Barkley’s approach on Saturday (and the response to it) is that the hosts who have earned the trust of the industry and the audience can appeal to public sentiment and truth and see the other side. There will be mistakes as some fail to read the room, or others come in too hot. Yes, the media tends to lean left, though certain moments go beyond party lines.

What Barkley reminded us Saturday is that media figures can still make a difference, if in small ways, from the sideshow of sports.

🎺 AROUND AA 🎺

After an abominable segment on Friday in which Cam Newton appeared to forget that Notre Dame was in last year’s CFP title game and the rest of the First Take panel treated old info about the Playoff’s format as breaking news, Awful Announcing’s Ben Axelrod wondered why ESPN allows its signature morning show to routinely be so bad on what is clearly America’s second-biggest sport:

It doesn’t have to be this way.

ESPN possesses the industry’s deepest roster of college football analysts and reporters. Heather Dinich has been one of the best in the business when it comes to CFP reporting, Pete Thamel is arguably the sport’s top news-breaker, and you could take your pick from the College GameDay set of personalities who would improve First Take‘s coverage.

But for whatever reason — be it his lack of enthusiasm for the sport, preference to embrace debate, or something else — Smith seems content with his show’s college football segments often consisting of surface-level, fallacy-filled shouting matches. Maybe that’s simply the First Take formula. But such content typically fails to resonate beyond providing fodder for fans to dunk on once it’s proven wrong.

Click here to read the rest of Axelrod’s column on the state of ESPN college football coverage.

👏 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 🗣️

• ESPN’s chokehold on the Monday night slot for NFL Wild Card Weekend is loosening. The league’s EVP of Media Distribution, Hans Schroeder, said in a recent interview that the Worldwide Leader may air a game in a different slot for the first round going forward, now that its contract for the Monday night national window has expired.

• The internet’s favorite local MLB broadcast director is retiring. SNY legend John DeMarsico, who frequently goes viral for bringing an unparalleled level of cinematography to New York Mets broadcasts, is leaving the production truck after 17 years.

• Bob Costas is back on MLB coverage with his lifelong NBC colleagues, and the new gig could last a while. The 73-year-old Costas held a conference call last week and expressed optimism that he could anchor the network’s baseball coverage beyond 2026.

• Former First Take anchor Molly Qerim has resurfaced alongside her old co-host at Zuffa Boxing. On Friday night, Qerim anchored the inaugural card for the TKO-backed boxing promotion in Las Vegas. Notably, Qerim appeared alongside Max Kellerman in a reunion of recently ousted FT talent.

📣 NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

“I think these losers who made this show are cowards. This is the trash they make because it panders, it’s provocative, and it checks inclusivity boxes.” - Former NHL player turned podcaster Dan Powers, in a text message, on the hit HBO Max show Heated Rivalry. Powers has since stated the message was sent before he began watching the show and covering it on his podcast.

“When he jumped into the endzone there and extended the ball, I’m like, ‘Wildly unnecessary, he could have just run in.’ He did that because he knew the size of the moment. I didn’t think it was necessary.” - Miami alum Dan Le Batard on Fernando Mendoza’s game-winning TD to beat the ‘Canes in the CFP title game.

“In conditions like this, do paid protesters get hazard pay? Those are the things that I’ve been thinking about this morning.” - Vikings PBP announcer Paul Allen, Friday on his podcast, referencing the anti-ICE protests in Minnesota. After another civilian was killed by the agency on Sunday, Allen backed off the comment, which has also been deleted from the show’s feed, calling it a “cheap one-liner.”

“They haven’t been relevant for years. You take that one national championship with coach Freeman out of the equation, they have not been relevant for years.” - Cam Newton on Friday’s First Take, indicating he may have stopped paying attention to college football after he left Auburn.

️‍🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

A snow surprise in Denver

During the third quarter of the AFC championship game, CBS production staff suddenly found itself broadcasting in a snowstorm.

The result showed that even with all the technological innovations of the 2020s, showing a live game with a field covered in snow remains incredibly difficult.

First, CBS tried digitally imposed yard lines, which unfortunately obscured players during play.

As confused fans complained at home, CBS quickly removed the lines.

The game came to a screeching halt. Color commentator Tony Romo was reduced to analysis on which team’s jerseys were easier to see in the storm, and why he would not take shots on deep passes under nearly any circumstances.

The crew had to find some fun in the situation, with Jim Nantz teasing sideline reporter Evan Washburn about the snow accumulating on his coiffed hair.

Late in the game, CBS showed a time-lapse that illustrated just how quickly the storm had hit. Multiple missed field goals, slips, and slides later, Nantz still rose to the occasion for an admittedly meager game-deciding play by New England’s Drake Maye.

“MAYE GOT THERE” is a line that will ring Patriots’ fans’ ears forever.

The circumstances weren’t perfect, and the game became a dud. But CBS deserves major props for adjusting on the fly and making the best of a strange day in Denver.