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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🤯 “I’m suing you.” The never-ending feud between the First Lady of UNC football and Pablo Torre is hitting a new low (or high?) point. Jordon Hudson posted a photo of herself with a VIP pass for Kenan Memorial Stadium with a caption revealing her intentions to sue Torre.

💲 The Barstool lobby? A Pennsylvania investigative outlet has a report showing that Dan “Big Cat” Katz and other Barstool talent may have illegally been part of a lobbying effort when they posted videos to social media calling out potential new taxation on legal sports betting. The videos were reportedly timed to a new budget proposal in the state that is rumored to include these new taxes.

🦚 Collinsworth’s slide. To celebrate his 500th broadcast as an NFL game analyst, Cris Collinsworth brought back his signature rolling chair slide on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Collinsworth’s long media career has taken him from HBO to Fox to NBC and ownership of Pro Football Focus.

🏈 GameDay online. What began as a half measure during Disney’s carriage dispute with YouTube TV will continue through the rest of the college football season as ESPN airs College GameDay on the show’s X account and that of panelist Pat McAfee.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

Drew Brees much improved in return to full-time NFL broadcasting with Fox

The first time that Drew Brees got a job as an NFL broadcaster, the anticipation came from outside. Fans couldn’t wait to hear the insights of a legendary quarterback fresh off a historic career. This time around, the anticipation is all coming from Brees, who set expectations sky-high for his own debut at Fox.

Before Brees was hired this month to replace Mark Sanchez, the former New Orleans Saints star insisted he would be an ace commentator despite what NFL fans saw when he got a big chance at NBC three years ago. Not content to just voice his confidence, Brees went so far as to say he would be a top-three analyst when he got a chance to call games again.

Watching Brees this week back in the Big Easy on the call for Saints-Falcons, his second broadcast since joining Fox, I don’t think he’s there yet. Brees may have a top-three understanding of modern football of anyone calling NFL games for a living, but he’s not yet a top-three broadcaster.

Anyone who watched Brees break records and win games at the highest level in the NFL could have predicted he would enter the booth more prepared than almost anyone. Brees’ football knowledge pops even in the quietest moments of a game (and there were many, as Atlanta blew out Brees’ Saints).

During New Orleans’ two-minute drill late in the first half, Brees was fantastic. He pointed out that the Saints were playing no-huddle, so as to give Shough confidence and energy while keeping Atlanta from deploying its best blitz personnel packages. With Shough taking advantage of the Falcons’ prevent defense, Brees pointed out how the short passing game can help an offense get more players involved.

Late in the third quarter with Shough driving again, Brees really dug up gold. Whereas many former athletes preface their insights by reminding viewers of their playing careers, Brees slipped into a smart breakdown of why check-downs can be so valuable for a quarterback without any window dressing. At home, fans who watched Brees understood where his perspective came from. Nobody got more from check-downs than peak Brees.

Like the best analysts, Brees also showed he was plugged into the broader NFL conversation when he referenced Bijan Robinson’s now-famous jump cuts. After a big Robinson run midway through the second quarter, Brees stuck with the star running back for a moment to unload the clip, knowing he may not have a chance to talk about Robinson for a while. Many analysts take a while to learn those timing tricks (however, Brees seemed less aware of the narratives when a Charissa Thompson reference to Dak Prescott’s infamous “Here we go” snap cadence went over his head in the fourth quarter).

A great quarterback like Brees should be able to explain the game. The part that typically comes later for even the most brilliant NFL commentators is how to make the wealth of information they bring to the booth more digestible for the average viewer.

Watching Brees get his feet wet felt similar to early in 2024, when Brees’ new teammate Tom Brady was still green. Both had similar highs and lows. In the first quarter, Brees went to a replay and told the audience that he was “going to say something” about Kirk Cousins’ hard count before realizing Cousins hadn’t snapped the ball that way. Brees caught himself, but moments like these are confusing and muddy the water for when an analyst wants to actually make the point later on.

Still, Brees avoided the long pauses and pockets of silence that sullied his notorious playoff debut for NBC in 2022. Brees is far ahead of where Brady was in that regard after two calls.

Brees also avoided talking too much about his Saints days and connections to New Orleans, something national viewers do not want to hear but is difficult to avoid (just ask J.J. Watt).

The poor matchup and bad game script left Brees in a learning situation most of the afternoon. He and partner Adam Amin had to vamp and give viewers a good hang more than a football lesson. The two had an easy comfort on the call that belies their lack of experience working together, a good reminder that Brees is not the only potentially overqualified broadcaster on Fox’s No. 3 booth. Amin is fantastic and is developing a track record of bringing great stuff out of young, recently retired athletes, from Sanchez to Adam Wainwright and A.J. Pierzynski on baseball to, now, Brees.

All said, Brees was far better than I expected. Setting aside the flameout at NBC, Brees had an ease that exceeded his limited experience. The other veteran broadcasters who have worked hard to get to their perch probably don’t love the shade Brees threw at them the past year or so, but he was right to be confident.

If Brees can make a mediocre NFC South game between two backup quarterbacks informative and breezy, the future is exciting for an all-time great once hailed as a future media star.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

The worst call of the NFL season?

If you give Rick Barry a microphone, he will insult somebody

Thom Brennaman weighing in on a prominent sports figure’s reputation, more at 11

👏 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 🗣️

• Another carriage dispute: NBC Universal networks went dark on the Disney-owned MVPD Fubo on Friday as the two sides negotiate a new agreement. At issue, as with all recent carriage negotiations, are carriage fees and the “ingestion” of NBCU’s Peacock streaming app on what has become the sixth-largest pay TV service in the U.S.

• A year after Zach Lowe was shockingly laid off by ESPN, the popular NBA analyst is back on television in a contributor role for NBA on Prime alongside the popular roster of young former star players at Amazon. Lowe will make his first appearance on Black Friday, when the streamer is set to air an NFL and NBA doubleheader.

• As Netflix and NBC join the slate of MLB broadcasters ahead of a full new rights package in 2029, popular former Cincinnati Reds star Joey Votto is “generating significant interest” from content companies.

• The parent company of St. Elmo Steakhouse in Indianapolis is being added to the lawsuit filed by the alleged victim of a stabbing incident with former Fox Sports analyst Mark Sanchez. The restaurant, which is popular with sports reporters, allegedly served Sanchez alcohol before the stabbing incident that led him and the alleged victim to be hospitalized last month.

🎺 AROUND AA 🎺

Last chance to vote on the Awful Announcing local college football radio announcers!

Make your voice heard on each Power 4 team’s local radio broadcast booth (plus Notre Dame!) as we set out to rank each broadcast team for the first time ever.

Votes are due by 10 p.m. ET on Monday night (Nov. 24).

️‍🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

Adam Schein is a delightful throwback on CBS in-game updates

It’s time for an excerpt from a column published Sunday at Awful Announcing on Adam Schein, the first-year NFL in-game update man at CBS:

The NFL in-game update, as a part of the soundtrack to a Sunday afternoon, is so routine that a viewer might miss it entirely.

These highlights are the time for a quick peek at your phone, a nibble on a chicken wing, or a look down at the bottom line to check the scores. Most of the plays that Fox or CBS show when they break in for updates happened minutes prior, rendering them nearly irrelevant by the time they are shown in an update package. Many fans will have already seen them online or from a notification on their fantasy football app of choice. Football fiends don’t even see these highlights because they are watching at a sports bar or on NFL RedZone.

That is to say, most of the time the in-game update does not matter. The networks could axe them some week this fall and the majority of America might not even notice.

This set of facts may provide a solid explanation for why, this season, CBS hired radio man Adam Schein for the job.

An in-game update from Schein sounds like the last time viewers needed these highlights during a game broadcast. Schein’s approach sounds like getting your news from the speakers of the radio cabinet in the living room. It sounds like Chris Berman. It sounds like football.

A less sophisticated ear might be bothered by Schein breaking in mid-game. Some might believe Schein’s linguistic freewheeling is a blemish on CBS’ coverage of the NFL. They are wrong.

On Sunday during the fourth quarter of a big Chiefs-Colts game, Schein came in to show viewers a touchdown by the Giants in which quarterback Jameis Winston caught a long bomb from the tight end. “Trickeration,” Schein called it.

How better to describe the give-and-go by the desperate New York squad?

Read the full column on CBS’ off-beat first year update man here.