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🏎️ SPEED reborn. Fox is reviving the SPEED brand as a weekly video podcast hosted by Kevin Harvick and Will Buxton, launching Feb. 23 across FOX One and digital platforms. The move brings back a name that still resonates 13 years after Fox converted the 24-hour SPEED Channel into FS1, with Harvick promising to cover "all forms of motorsport" across NASCAR, IndyCar, F1, and anything else with a motor.

⚖️ PTI helped get a coach fired. Kansas State AD Gene Taylor explicitly cited "negative reaction from a lot of sources, both nationally and locally" as grounds for Jerome Tang's for-cause termination three days after Michael Wilbon said on Pardon the Interruption that Tang "might have to go" for trashing his players.

📺 Not the face. Stephen A. Smith says he's not "the face of ESPN" despite his $20 million salary, telling CBS Sunday Morning he doesn't "even try to consider myself that half the time." His nine-figure contract suggests ESPN might disagree, though Smith has stepped back from regular network duties to host SiriusXM shows, appear on cable news, and maintain his own podcast.

🎨 McQuade immortalized. The Simpsons' 800th episode paid tribute to late Philadelphia sports writer Dan McQuade by including his likeness in a crowd scene behind the Philly Phanatic and Gritty. The episode also namechecked ESPN's Jason Kelce on a list of things to do in Philadelphia.

🏈 12 more years. Jameis Winston wants to play until age 43, telling Pardon My Take that he plans to have a 24-year NFL career that matches Tom Brady's longevity. The Giants backup also outlined plans to perform on Broadway, record a rap album, and collaborate with an AI-generated Frank Sinatra, suggesting his media career happens alongside football rather than after it.

⛳ Permanent ban. Kenny Mayne revealed he's banned for life from Augusta National after joking about bringing "four saucy ladies out to play" at the Masters during ESPN's TPC Sawgrass coverage. The club called the ESPN truck directly during the live broadcast to declare that Mayne was "not coming."

The NBA All-Star Game drew 8.8 million viewers Sunday night, an 87% increase over last year's disaster on TNT and the best audience the game has posted in 15 years. The new USA vs. World format created actual stakes that players cared about, the basketball was competitive for three hours, and viewership nearly doubled. That should be the entire story.

Instead, by Monday evening, a significant chunk of the sports media discourse had moved on to explaining why these numbers don't actually mean anything. The Olympics lead-in did all the work, they said. NBC handed the NBA 22.5 million figure skating viewers, and the All-Star Game couldn't even keep half of them around. The 5 p.m. Sunday timeslot artificially inflated the audience. The network's programming schedule deserves credit, not Adam Silver's format overhaul.

The problem with this argument isn't that the Olympics lead-in didn't help — of course it helped. NBC scheduled the All-Star Game immediately after figure skating, specifically because they knew millions of people would already be watching. The problem is that nobody ever applies this level of scrutiny to any other sport when they benefit from strong lead-ins.

Only the NBA has to prove its ratings are legitimate before anyone will acknowledge that something worked. Only the NBA gets the "well, actually" treatment, where every success requires context explaining why it doesn't really count. And the reason is that many people have spent years insisting the NBA product is broken and that the ratings decline is permanent, so when the All-Star Game nearly doubles its audience in one year, the narrative needs protecting.

The afternoon timeslot that everyone initially complained about as proof NBC was burying the game to protect Olympics coverage turned out to be one of the highest-rated windows for sports on broadcast television. CBS and Fox both put their biggest NFL regional games at 4:25 p.m. ET because that window consistently outperforms primetime. NBC knew exactly what they were doing scheduling the All-Star Game there, and it worked.

The NBA improved the product, and NBC gave them the platform to showcase it. Both things can be true simultaneously. Lead-ins help every sport that gets them, but they don't create audiences for unwatchable content. The All-Star Game drew 8.8 million viewers because the format worked and players competed, not just because figure skating ended right before it started.

This doesn't need to be more complicated than that. The All-Star Game was a ratings embarrassment for years. Adam Silver completely overhauled the format despite everyone insisting nothing would fix it. Players bought into the new structure. Viewership responded. NBC scheduled it well. That's a win for everyone involved, and sometimes you can just let something be a win without immediately searching for reasons why it doesn't count.

The NBA had a legitimately good night Sunday. That's the story.

The NBA's tanking crisis dominated All-Star Weekend, prompting Adam Silver to address the practice of teams intentionally losing to improve draft position. While the commissioner floats fines and forfeiting picks, Awful Announcing's Michael Grant argues that the media should push to eliminate the draft.

Bomani Jones and Tom Haberstroh made the case on The Right Time, with Haberstroh explaining that making incoming rookies free agents is "the only thing that's going to actually fundamentally change the way teams operate and not try to lose." If teams had to compete to attract top prospects like AJ Dybantsa and Cameron Boozer rather than tank for them, there would be no incentive to lose.

The common objection — that big-market teams would dominate — ignores existing restraints like the salary cap and roster limits. Teams still only have five starters and one basketball. Not every elite prospect would choose Los Angeles or Boston, especially if smaller markets were competing harder and building better cultures.

Drafts exist primarily to suppress player costs, not promote competitive balance. The league has brainwashed fans into believing they're necessary for fairness, but they're really just cost-control mechanisms wrapped in tradition. Silver's willingness to at least consider abolishing the draft, as reported by The Athletic's Joe Vardon, suggests the conversation is shifting.

Drafts exist primarily to suppress player costs, not promote competitive balance. The league has brainwashed fans into believing they're necessary for fairness, but they're really just cost-control mechanisms wrapped in tradition. Silver's willingness to at least consider abolishing the draft, as reported by The Athletic's Joe Vardon, suggests the conversation is shifting.

Click to read the full piece on why more media members should stop tinkering around the edges and start advocating for the one solution that would actually end tanking.

"Can NBC please tell Reggie to stop telling us how hard everyone is playing? Or just cut off his mic? I'd settle for either option." - Bill Simmons criticizing NBC's Reggie Miller during the All-Star Game broadcast for constantly emphasizing player effort. "I was watching. I could tell they were trying."

"Conspiracy Bill has also noted that if you go on any ticket resale site for the Dallas March 6th game, the prices are way out of whack." - Bill Simmons speculating that NBC tipped off Jayson Tatum's return date after the network aired a three-minute comeback video during All-Star Weekend. Simmons thinks the Celtics star will return on March 1.

"What doesn't kill me doesn't bother me." - Giants coach John Harbaugh addressing the New York media for the first time, promising honesty despite the scrutiny. "At this stage of my life, I'm going to try to be honest and give them as real an answer as I can."

"The exact same f*cking play! The exact same play!" - Green Bay coach Doug Gottlieb slamming his desk four times and knocking over the mic during a postgame rant about officiating following a 75-72 loss at Milwaukee. "I need the new commissioner of the Horizon League to explain to me what a technical foul is."

"Fans can criticize me all you want; I got some f*cking equity. I got two national championships here in the last three years." - UConn coach Dan Hurley ripping into fans for empty seats at Gampel Pavilion despite the Huskies being 24-2. "It's not a f*cking social event. We need our fans to come to the game and be loud as sh*t from the start."

"I did a really damn good job at keeping that away from our team, our recruiting, and it was not a distraction." - Giants manager Tony Vitello is still upset about who leaked his interest in the San Francisco managerial job to the media, calling out San Francisco Chronicle reporter Susan Slusser for breaking the story.

"If there was one thing that stood out that was an embarrassing moment for the All-Star Weekend, that dunk contest was horrible." - ESPN's Kendrick Perkins calling for NBA stars to participate in the slam dunk contest. "You need the big, top players, the big names, Anthony Edwards, Ja Morant. Hell, I would even like to see Wemby in it at seven-seven participate."

The College Football Playoff was supposed to ruin the sport by devaluing the regular season. Turns out the real threat is teams deciding the regular season matters too much to take any risks.

First, Steve Sarkisian sparked rumors that Texas would abandon future games against Ohio State and Michigan. Now, Paul Finebaum reports Alabama may back out of its home-and-home with the Buckeyes.

Fans should be furious. Backing out because games are too hard is embarrassing. But too many fans are willing to eat it because ring culture has completely overtaken the sport. Getting to the playoff matters more than giving fans something worth watching.

ESPN doesn't help. Heather Dinich analyzes the committee before a ball is kicked. College GameDay spends half its time bitching about Group of Five teams getting playoff spots. Fox's Big Noon Kickoff complains the field isn't twelve Big Ten teams. The message is clear: nothing matters except making the playoff.

So now we've created college football's version of tanking. There's no incentive to lose, but there's also no incentive to schedule anything interesting. Why risk a tough non-conference game when members of the college football media will frame ducking challenges as 4D chess instead of pissing on paying customers?

If backing out becomes a trend, college football will quickly revert to a regional sport. What incentive would fans have to pay attention outside their conference? ESPN and Fox are already moving us down that path with their competing conference narratives. Eliminate the crossover games, and you've got “The Avengers” without the team-up movie.

Three power conferences required members to schedule at least one non-conference game against another power conference. Marketing message. The sport may be siloing into spheres of influence, but it would still cross over. Except that requirement rings hollow if it can't guarantee Alabama vs. Ohio State and only delivers Purdue vs. North Carolina.

The playoff won't ruin college football by making the regular season matter less. It'll ruin it by convincing everyone the regular season matters too much to schedule anything worth watching.

Click to read the full piece on why ring culture and TV money are killing what made college football special.