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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

⛳ Amazon Prime Video is adding extra hours of Thursday and Friday live coverage from The Masters beginning next spring, in great news for golf fans.

⚾ MLB commissioner Rob Manfred gave his clearest signal yet that new deals with NBC, ESPN, and Netflix will soon be finalized.

🏀 ESPN has re-signed Malika Andrews to continue serving as one of the faces of the network’s NBA and WNBA coverage.

⚾ The San Francisco Giants lead Awful Announcing’s first-ever MLB local radio broadcaster rankings.

🚨 LEADING OFF 🚨

Molly Qerim's Last Take

On Monday, everything was business as usual in the First Take universe. But in just 24 hours, ESPN’s most successful morning show was turned on its head by the abrupt departure of longtime host Molly Qerim.

On Monday evening, it was reported by Sports Business Journal that Qerim would be leaving at the end of the year. By Tuesday morning, both Qerim and ESPN had confirmed her impending exit.

But then something happened. On Tuesday’s edition of First Take, it was Stephen A. Smith in the host seat, paying tribute to Qerim. He then announced that he would be hosting for the remainder of the week, and it was readily apparent that her time at ESPN was done after ten years on the program.

Somehow, things got even weirder. Smith elaborated on Qerim’s exit on his SiriusXM radio show. He curiously went on an extended monologue about valuations, leverage, his own worth to the network, and making himself and his bosses money. This came after Qerim said that she was in the midst of her own contract negotiations with ESPN and hinted that he suspected he knew why she was leaving, although he said it was up to her to share the details.

Even though he repeatedly said he wasn’t talking about Qerim directly, something did not add up. The timing and subject matter of the message could not have been coincidental.

Now, ESPN viewers are left with way more questions than answers. Compare Qerim’s goodbye to that of Lee Corso just a few weeks ago. Of course, you can’t compare the two in terms of longevity at ESPN, but don’t sell Qerim’s decade-long run as the steady, fan-friendly presence on First Take short. Corso got a long goodbye featuring several tributes, specials, and an epic College GameDay that was the perfect farewell. Meanwhile, Qerim was suddenly out without any announcement, explanation, or warning for First Take viewers in the middle of the week.

The only thing left to surmise is that this was unplanned, happened fast, and occurred as a shock to everyone involved. Was it a contract negotiation gone wrong? Did something drastic happen behind the scenes on Monday? Did Qerim grow frustrated about the leak and then walk? Established television stars don’t just quit high-profile jobs like this every day.

There’s more to this story; the question is just how long it takes to be told.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

Safe to say that Chris Fowler will not be tuning in to ESPN’s first WWE premium live event, considering John Cena is a complete stranger to him.

Both Boomer Esiason and Marcus Spears sounded the alarm about Tom Brady being spotted in the Raiders' coaches’ box, and Peter Schrager’s report that he is actively game-planning with offensive coordinator Chip Kelly. Surely this has to be a red line for teams worried about a conflict of interest between his Raiders ownership gig and NFL on Fox broadcasting job.

🗣️ NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

“We do view ourselves as kind of the unpaid marketing arm for all of our [league] partners. So we use our best judgment for what we think can make their sports more popular.” - Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks on the network’s relationship with rights partners. Don’t expect any critical, hard-hitting Fox coverage anytime soon.

“Kelce has been lazy. He’s getting lazy with his head, and he’s getting lazy with his eyes.” - Shannon Sharpe called out his fellow tight end, Travis Kelce, and the entire Chiefs offense after their 0-2 start.

"He’s trying to use this to build his career. Scumbag move to be honest." - Dave Portnoy spoke out about a former Barstool intern’s complaints about being fired for posting a tribute to Charlie Kirk.

“Between the boxing match, the announcement of WrestleMania, and Tom Brady’s announcement all happening this close to Sept. 11 is f*cking embarrassing for us as a country.” - Katie Nolan ripped Tom Brady and others for their flag football tournament in Saudi Arabia.

️‍🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

Reinventing the NBA broadcasting wheel

Many ideas have been tried over the years to enhance sports telecasts - glowing pucks, in-game interviews, comedian analysts, and alternate feeds - the list is endless. But no matter how many times networks try to tinker with how to present sports telecasts best, fans usually always come back to the gold standard of a play-by-play announcer and an analyst calling game action.

The latest experimentation comes from the NBA for its Peacock NBA Monday package of games. Peacock is going to try a whole new method of broadcasting NBA games, with analysts behind each team’s bench, in what could be a boom-or-bust proposition.

Instead of the traditional booth, play-by-play person Noah Eagle will be center court with Robbie Hummel behind one bench and Austin Rivers behind another for the October 23 debut of Peacock’s Monday games when the Cleveland Cavaliers play the Detroit Pistons.

The catch is that each analyst will be uniquely focused on one team, whether providing analysis, offering insights during shootarounds, or even compiling reports from the huddles.

While it sounds new, fun, and engaging in theory… it also seems like it faces an uphill battle for creating a unified, cogent broadcast. How are the three announcers supposed to build chemistry in three different locations? Which analyst is supposed to talk about his respective team when? How will this actually flow smoothly? Are we going to get some weird kind of forced homerism or not?

NBC is trying to channel the success of their hockey analysts by going inside the glass that they implemented for years. While that idea has been mostly successful, this one might be as awkward as a Chuck Hayes free throw.