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🇫🇷 NFL in Paris. RMC Sport has the exclusive on the matchup for the NFL’s first game in Paris. The Browns and Saints will clash on Oct. 25 at the Stade de France. While the matchup is lacking, it is a major milestone as the league continues to tap into the European market.

🏈 Holtz in hospice. Beloved Notre Dame football coach and ESPN studio analyst Lou Holtz has been placed in hospice care, per numerous reports. However, the whispers quickly got out of hand, leading Holtz’s family to release a statement clarified that the college football mainstay is still alive and fighting for now.

🎙️ Travis out? The exclusive contract that Clay Travis signed with Fox when the company bought Outkick from him in 2021 is set to expire in June, he revealed last week. Reports suggest Travis could depart the company and start another new, independent venture while continuing to host his daily political radio show for Premiere Networks.

🤷 Mrs. Rodgers. Another reporter has claimed knowledge of Aaron Rodgers’ wife, Brittani, this time Jen Hale of Fox Sports. The sideline reporter said “everyone knows” of Brittani’s identity, but are respecting hers and Aaron’s privacy.

🏈 ESPN-NFL shocker. Despite reports suggesting the equity deal between ESPN and the NFL may not get through in time for the season, the two companies have reportedly secured regulatory approval. The deal will see ESPN take control of top NFL Media assets, including NFL Network and distribution for NFL RedZone.

Because of the long runway to get to the announcement this weekend that ESPN and the NFL have completed a deal that would see the league take a stake in ESPN in exchange for several top NFL Media assets, numerous news cycles have already come and gone around the transaction.

The first was outcry from the reporter class about what the deal would mean for journalistic integrity at the Worldwide Leader.

The next was about ESPN’s infringement on RedZone, every football fan’s favorite Sunday companion.

One of the next big dominoes will likely be the layoffs and redundancies that ESPN management identifies at NFL Media. Those go much deeper than the star talent, but that side of the deal sure is fascinating: How will Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport do as teammates?

Early indications were that ESPN would continue to operate NFL Network as a standalone business. Part of the deal sees ESPN take rights to a handful of games each season that will air on NFLN (and likely be available on the ESPN Unlimited app). Does that mean the network keeps all those draft broadcasts? How does coverage of the Draft Combine, for instance, evolve? What about Good Morning Football and The Insiders? Does ESPN simply fold those recognizable brands into its existing platforms, or reshape the slate?

My guess: Not much changes for the first year or so. The big underlying push to speed up the approval on this deal was to maximize promotion and content for ESPN’s first Super Bowl (which will technically air on ABC next February).

Between now and then, ESPN will get ample opportunity to push the game from morning til night on both networks. With the social media heft that ESPN brings and the added audience on the app, NFL Network should see at least a slight audience boost.

Beyond that, the games will be the big question. Typically, NFLN games have filled in gaps on the schedule: Overseas games early on Sundays, late in the season on Saturdays. With a closer relationship now, will the league award ESPN and NFLN juicier windows? If NFLN sticks in those spaces, ESPN will need to be creative to fuse that into its other programming (think: Sunday NFL Countdown live from Paris after the game).

Talent-wise, we are used to Rich Eisen and Kurt Warner as the top NFLN team. With Eisen now at ESPN as a daytime host, maybe that continues. But you can bet the many hungry game analysts at ESPN will be in management’s ear to get a shot on the NFLN games.

Now that the business is over, the parts of this fascinating transaction that most affect fans start to come into play. The game of musical chairs begins.

The return of Bob Costas, in the flesh on NBC

Strange day of Instagram stories from Mr. Tom Brady

Checking in on Tommy Tuberville

Hilarious highlight of Caitlin Clark’s appearance on “Sunday Night Basketball”

The timeline for regulatory oversight of the ESPN-NFL deal changed dramatically from its completion last year to its approval this weekend.

Because the deal included the NFL taking an equity stake in ESPN and numerous assets changing hands, some believed it could take up to two years to get a green light from the federal government.

After the deal went through on Saturday, Awful Announcing editor Drew Lerner explored how it got expedited to such an extreme degree:

This transaction has been in the making for many years. In other words, the NFL and ESPN have had time to nurture the relationships necessary to get a deal of this magnitude through with little spectacle. In the days immediately following the deal’s announcement, the league had already reached out to the offices of approximately 30 members of Congress to advance the transaction. While those are not the same people responsible for rubber-stamping a deal, it’s a testament to the NFL’s operational competence in its lobbying efforts.

Click here to read Drew’s entire column and get the background on the industry-changing agreement between the Worldwide Leader and America’s biggest sports league.

Failed drug tests always pose a tricky challenge for sports commentators, but this Paul George suspension is even trickier.

When the news of George’s 25-game suspension came down on Sunday, George quickly released a statement explaining that the failed test was a result of taking a medication he tried to help with mental health issues.

Time and further reporting will likely tell what types of mental health-related drugs are on the NBA’s banned substances list. But the question is pertinent: Philadelphia is surging, and being talked about as a possible dark horse in a wide-open Eastern Conference. George will be out most of the rest of the regular season.

While it does not sound as if the veteran forward will challenge the suspension, it is important to know what happened here both to understand George’s situation and to set a precedent for the league going forward.

Discussing the story on Inside the NBA, Charles Barkley called foul, saying he believes the league may have given George a “hall pass” if he truly was taking something to treat mental health troubles.

“It’s something fishy going on here,” Barkley said.

The NBA, of course, has not tested for marijuana since the Bubble in 2020. That leaves any number of prescription treatments that the average person might take to manage anxiety, depression or other troubles.

The same societal progress that opened a window for the NBA to stop testing for weed has continued in the years since. Many of the drugs that come to mind for mental health treatment have been destigmatized as well, even if they may be illegal or at least banned by the league.

While Barkley’s convoluted explanation seemed to imply some funny business on at least one side of George’s suspension, sports and sports media lead the way on some of these issues. But given that George chose not to share what he tested positive for and reporters are sensitive to releasing this information, we are in a gray area.

If George took something that the average person would also take in order to manage his mental health, perhaps the NBA and other leagues could alter their policy. Or if George took something that can treat mental health but might also give a player an advantage on the court, there should be a conversation about how to split the difference.

For now, commentators merely have to tiptoe around the topic. George’s privacy is the most important thing here, but the lack of information does create a vacuum where a deeper conversation in the media could actually lead to real change.