🏀 WNBA’s got a Fever. With a new collective bargaining agreement in place, two expansion franchises beginning play, and multiple young stars drawing national attention, the 2026 season is a new beginning for the WNBA. The league announced Wednesday it would air a record 216 games across ESPN/ABC, CBS, Prime Video, Ion, NBC/Peacock, USA Network, and NBA TV this season after joining in on the NBA’s 11-year broadcast rights deal and extending existing deals that have had the league on an upward viewership trajectory for several years running. The national schedule includes all 44 Indiana Fever games, ensuring that Caitlin Clark and Co. remain front and center for fans.

🏈 NFL v. FCC. According to a report by Joe Flint in The Wall Street Journal, the NFL met with senior officials at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday to justify its current broadcast distribution strategy. The NFL reportedly requested the meeting, which came after the FCC launched a probe into how sports leagues are increasingly selling game inventory to streaming services, a practice that, in the agency’s estimation, threatens the future of broadcast networks.

📺 Big Ten dispute. Despite NBC president Jon Miller proclaiming interest from streaming services in buying the upcoming Big Ten Championship game, it appears the network didn’t have much choice in the matter. According to a report by college football insider Brett McMurphy of On3, “NBC had no authority to keep Fox from buying back the [Big Ten Championship] game if Fox wanted it.” Previous reports indicated NBC had been trying to shop the 2026 Big Ten title game. However, earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that NBC was nearing a deal with Fox. That deal is now finalized, but it seems NBC would not have been able to sublicense the game to a streamer, even if it had found a willing dance partner.

🤠 Jonesin’ for Bill. While Jerry Jones was treating the local Dallas media to a pre-draft press conference at Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, on Wednesday, former POTUS Bill Clinton was at the Cowboys facility and wanted to say hello. As Jones got up from the dais, disaster almost struck as the Cowboys owner stumbled and almost fell to the ground. Thankfully, he managed to keep his balance as the two shared a laugh, saving what would have been one of the year's viral moments.

Read more of today’s top stories at Awful Announcing.

In last Thursday’s newsletter, I shouted out crisis and reputation strategist Molly McPherson’s thoughts on the Dianna Russini-Mike Vrabel controversy. While that came after Russini resigned from The Athletic but before the New England Patriots coach finally spoke to the media about it, McPherson said the reporter was destined to lose her job over the scandal.

“This is not an inequity story, or we’re punishing the female and not the male,” said McPherson. “No, she was given a position of trust with The Athletic, and she broke that trust. That’s why she lost the job.”

As for Vrabel, she said that while he was unlikely to receive any punishment, the “contempt” he showed in his initial statement was what would come back to bite him.

“Mike Vrabel saying that anyone thinking this is a story is ‘laughable,’ that’ contempt,” she said. “Contempt towards fans, anyone, the press. Anyone that found that to be a story. It’s ‘laughable.’ That’s the stuff that follows you.”

I’ve been thinking about all of that over the last few days. First, after Ben Strauss’s report at ESPN on what was happening behind the scenes leading up to Russini’s resignation. Second, after Vrabel finally spoke to the media, offering what was a prototypical non-apology apology. And third, when Page Six published even more photos of the two together at an Arizona resort, sans friends and alibis.

It made me think about how Russini and Vrabel made a classic blunder in their response to the initial story. They put all their energy into deflecting the first wave of information without taking into account that there were undoubtedly several more waves to come.

In retrospect, of course there were going to be more photos. And of course it was going to be revealed that their purported friends weren’t materializing. And of course it would leak that Russini hired a crisis manager, and that the Patriots tried to squash the story. And of course The Athletic would investigate the ethical concerns about all this. And of course Vrabel wasn’t going to be able to offer up a deflective statement and go about his business. And of course, even weeks later, this story was going to keep going and evolving and changing.

Not so “laughable,” when you think about it.

That’s all easy to say in retrospect, especially when you’re not one of the people in the eye of that storm. But from where we sit here in the future, you do wonder if Russini and Vrabel could have taken a moment to look at the big picture and how to authentically respond to the totality of their situation, rather than try in vain to squash interest in what was obviously going to be a national controversy.

I’m no crisis expert, but I’ve written about the sports world and the sports media world for quite some time. I’ve seen my fair share of controversies, read my fair share of non-apology apologies, and shaken my head many times as I watched someone try to wriggle out of the mess they made, not realizing that they made a fatal mistake in their initial response.

This isn’t to say that Dianna Russini would still have her job if she’d have been more forthcoming in the early days of all this, and there’s no way to know if Vrabel could have avoided much of the scrutiny if he’d initially responded in a more thoughtful way. But there’s a reason "It's not the crime, it's the cover-up,” is such a well-worn cliche.

As for what she thought Vrabel should have done, McPherson says the coach should have focused his statement on defending the Patriots organization rather than himself.

“Vrabel’s delivery, looking down, the ums, the fragments, the shame. It was meant to project authenticity while maintaining full deniability,” McPherson said in a video. “There’s so many problems with this PR operation from the beginning. Russini was indignant in her resignation letter, and now Mike Vrabel is saying it’s a private matter. They didn’t coordinate again.

“This is where I would have gone. ‘The photos published last week were real. They reflect a relationship that I should not have been in while leading this team. I’ve apologized to my family, to my wife, to this organization, and everyone affected. I understand the questions about my judgment, and I accept them. I’m here to earn back your trust in how I coach and how I conduct myself. And that starts right now.’

“Because the core problem with Vrabel’s statement, it was designed to protect him. His statement should have been designed to protect the reputation of the entire organization and him as the coach of that organization.”

Wednesday night, Vrabel announced he would miss the final day of the 2026 NFL Draft to attend “counseling” and spend time with his family. That sounds like the first authentic response he’s made to accounting for his role in the situation. Perhaps it’s later than it should have been, and a cynical view would see it as a calculated, but it’s something.

In the days ahead, more details, reactions, and possibly even photos will keep trickling out. And all the while, we’ll look back at the way Russini and Vrabel reacted out of the gate and wonder how they thought that was gonna stick (if they ever really did).

“Don’t ever say to my face if you’re an NFL executive or a club executive, ‘Oh, we care about health and player safety. You do not. Just be honest about it.” - Pardon the Interruption’s Michal Wilbon with a scorcher about NFL player safety.

“He was a junior when I was a freshman, and he was the sports director of WAER, the campus-run FM station. So I go in, and Bob is conducting the audition, and I was terrible… At the end of it, Bob says to me, ‘So what are your goals?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m kind of torn between trying to do something in radio or doing something with The Daily Orange.’ He goes, ‘Can I give you a bit of advice? I go, ‘Yeah, please.’ He said, ‘My advice to you is, after you leave here, you should walk over to The Daily Orange and see if they have any openings for you to start writing.” - Gary Myers reminiscing about meeting Bob Costas.

“I could not believe the 18th hole. When Scottie Scheffler was making a comeback against Matt Fitzpatrick… Did anybody see the crowd?” Russo asked. “They were singing ‘USA, USA’ walking down the 18th fairway! This is not the Ryder Cup, we’re not fighting Britain in a war for crying out loud! They’re singing ‘USA, USA’ in a golf tournament at the RBC?” - Chris Russo on USA chants at the RBC Heritage.

“It’s a mindset on how to run a business. It’s a scrappy approach to, I think, focusing on details, making people feel like everything matters. So, again, the idea that this guy [who] spent one of the highest prices for a professional sports team in history is being called cheap makes absolutely no sense to me.” - NBA commissioner Adam Silver defending Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon.

"It can't be a one-way street. Give me, give me, give me. Hal Steinbrenner says, 'Well, give me a championship. Give me the 28th title I want. I'm spending $350 million in payroll. Give me that, and maybe I'll give you other stuff.' All I've seen over these years, 'let's make things great for the players. Let's give the players everything they want.' And they deserve to have great things. It's not an easy job, but they're well compensated for it. But you pay top dollar, you have a state-of-the-art clubhouse, you travel in style, you stay in the best hotels. Ok great, that stuff should be. But the extra little things, 'let us grow our hair longer, can we wear beards?' Well then, win me a championship. Because if I'm going to move away from the Yankees and what the Yankees stand for, then I'm going to need something back from you." - Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay pushing back on players wanting alternate jerseys.

For over a decade, Bleacher Report has given sports fans an alternative NFL Draft experience. An experience that is continuing to reach new heights through their partnership with Micah Parsons and the NFL.

B/R NFL Draft Night returns for all three days of the 2026 NFL Draft, beginning 8 p.m. ET Thursday night on the B/R app, YouTube channel, and HBO Max. Night one will be led by Adam Lefkoe, Trevor Sikkema, Malik Nabers, and Micah Parsons, who returns for his third year covering the draft.

Bleacher Report head of content Tyler Price spoke with Awful Announcing’s Brandon Contes this week to discuss their growing partnership with the NFL, preview their draft show, and explain what sets it apart from the coverage fans get on ESPN and NFL Network.

Brendon Kleen and Drew Lerner discuss Mike Tomlin’s move to NBC's "Sunday Night Football" after nearly two decades coaching the Steelers. They also look ahead to Thursday's NFL Draft, where the clear loser has been The Ringer's Todd McShay, whose intel has been a rollercoaster, all while he touts FanDuel prop bets based on his reporting.

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify

We wanted to give a shoutout to the fine folks behind the EDSBS Charity Bowl, which has become an annual fundraising tradition for a special section of the online college football world. Staged by “the EDSBS extended universe,” which includes Spencer Hall, Holly Anderson, Jason Kirk, and many others, the annual fundraiser supporting Atlanta refugee resettlement nonprofit New American Pathways is in its 20th year.

The goal for this year’s version, which began on Monday, was to raise $1,000,000 by Friday. Thanks to over 3,000 donors, many of whom designated their donations to their favorite college football teams, they surpassed that goal around 56 hours in (all while talking a whole lot of smack at one another).

The fundraising continues through Friday, and you can see a scoreboard based on donors’ college football teams of choice. As of this writing, Michigan has a substantial lead. Surely there are plenty of college football fans who’d like to donate some money to ensure UM fans don’t win yet another thing this year…