Welcome to The A Block, Awful Announcing’s daily newsletter where you’ll always find the latest sports media news, commentary, and analysis.

Did someone share this newsletter with you? Sign up for free to make sure you never miss it.

🎤 QUICK START ✍️

😡 Mad at McAfee. After the mercurial ESPN star’s latest rant on Instagram about the feedback on his College GameDay, FOS’ Michael McCarthy reported that staffers at ESPN are growing tired of Pat McAfee and his “diva” behavior. “You are not a victim,” one source said. Yet McCarthy also notes that McAfee is a big ratings driver on GameDay, once offered to pay for catering out of pocket, and has the support of executives at ESPN like Burke Magnus.

🏀 Windhorst walks it back. While reacting to the shocking arrests on Thursday of NBA athlete Terry Rozier by the FBI, ESPN NBA reporter Brian Windhorst alleged that the league knew about the initial allegations in 2023 and quietly sidelined Rozier while he was playing for the Charlotte Hornets. By Friday, Windhorst released a statement walking back that claim, which he made on The Rich Eisen Show, and the NBA clarified that Rozier suffered a real injury that spring.

🏆 Battle over the Big 12. Right after TNT Sports host Adam Lefkoe shaded “other networks” for not caring enough about the Big 12, ESPN’s College GameDay announced it will travel to Salt Lake City for Cincinnati-Utah in Week 10.

🏈 Lamar’s status in question. In a great example of how quickly the FBI charges against active NBA athletes and coaches are going to raise doubt among fans and legal sports gamblers, the Baltimore Ravens came under fire late in the week after wrongly stating that QB Lamar Jackson was a full participant at practice and then amending his designation to “limited.” On Sunday Night Football, Mike Florio encouraged the NFL to handle the matter aggressively.

🚨LEADING OFF🚨

NBA enters Prime (Video) time

Whereas NBC leaned heavily on nostalgia and recognizable names and faces for its return to NBA coverage last week on Opening Night, Amazon Prime Video is betting that being new in every way will pay off on Friday nights.

Across the first night of the NBA on Prime this weekend, each facet of the broadcast was sleek and fresh. The massive two-story studio featured an LED floor where the studio crew can reenact plays and chart out basketball on-air. The studio talent is made up of mostly young, first-time broadcasters. Tthe games popped out immediately thanks to the incredible picture quality.

The newest thing on the streamer’s inaugural doubleheader, though, was the perspective. Blake Griffin in particular was effusive about how much more positive and informative Prime wanted to be than the existing NBA coverage under the previous contract, even going so far as to name the new show an antidote to Inside the NBA.

In the first go-round, there were a few moments in which Prime was able to be educational or go deep while still holding an audience. The sitdown between Dirk Nowitzki and his former teammate Luka Dončić was strong. A clip in which Udonis Haslem led a walkthrough of how the New York Knicks protect Jalen Brunson on defense made waves:

At times, however, this style came at the expense of energy. All four analysts spoke softly most of the night. It is possible to be entertaining without being loud or punchy, but it is much harder.

Too often, the analysts took their turns giving a balanced, thoughtful take on the opening week of the NBA and that night’s doubleheader on Prime. If the average fan could keep focus, they would learn something.

But in their debut, the NBA on Prime team appeared far too similar and far too mild-mannered to compete with Inside or even the best podcasts and YouTube shows around. The streamer’s talent and production quality will set it apart, but that talent needs to mesh to take the pregame and postgame show to the heights they want.

The network’s new point of view may be appreciated by the existing diehards and aficionados, but to pull in and keep the casual fans, NBA on Prime will need to find ways to make enough noise to cut through all of it that is already out there.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

Fox’s Terry Bradshaw is known to say outlandish things on the network’s NFL pregame show, but this one takes the cake:

Over on ESPN, Alex Smith delivered the most unlikely hot take of the weekend:

Pat McAfee gave a pretty interesting monologue on College GameDay this weekend; the type of conversation we don’t typically see on big network studio shows:

💻 TOO ONLINE 🤖

We have found the next great MLB athlete-turned-media star.

Just 28 years old and two full seasons into his big league career, Kansas City Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino went viral over the weekend as one of MLB’s player correspondents for the World Series. Pasquantino joined Shohei Ohtani’s press conference to ask “Why do you throw so hard to me?”

The back story, apparently, is that both of Ohtani’s hardest-thrown pitches ever (102 mph) both came against Pasquantino. First in the World Baseball Classic two years ago, and then this season when the Royals faced the Dodgers.

The moment was perfect to generate some online attention around Ohtani and the World Series, but it also highlighted Pasquantino as a rising media star.

Beyond the MLB correspondent gig for the Fall Classic this year, Pasquantino has been grinding on FS1 and MLB Network since Kansas City’s season ended. Earlier in the season, he joined Katie Nolan’s Casuals podcast for a sit-down. Anywhere he pops up, Pasquantino is fantastic. The slugger simply has a natural talent for describing modern baseball in an engaging and digestible way.

In one standout segment on First Things First, Pasquantino perfectly predicted how it would look if veteran Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer had it rolling in what ultimately became the vintage win of the fall for the future Hall of Famer.

Rarely does MLB get an active player who cares about media, is approachable, and generates attention. Pasquantino is a gift for the league, and anyone who cares about baseball has to hope that he keeps saying yes to appearances and before long, has his own podcast or recurring guest spot on one of the many great baseball shows around these days.

🎺 AROUND AA 🎺

From the Six Kings Slam in tennis to Zuffa Boxing to the forthcoming Tom Brady-led flag football game to the Riyadh Comedy Festival, the gradual efforts of Saudi Arabian leadership to “sportswash” its reputation has clearly worked.

In a new column at Awful Announcing, contributor Owen Lewis highlighted just how different the reaction was to LIV Golf and other early efforts versus the latest announcements:

Do people care anymore? Brady was in and out of the news cycle in a day after the flag football news. The comedians who participated in the Riyadh Comedy Festival have lingered longer, but that seems natural given that they discuss politics and free speech far more often than athletes, and openly contradicted their long-running screeds to go to Riyadh.

“They were talking about how they couldn’t joke about any religion or the Saudi royal family. I feel like that alone compromises the whole persona that a lot of these comedians try to project in their acts elsewhere,” Kalaf said. “I don’t think their careers are going to tank overnight, obviously, but I feel like the more they keep talking about why they did it, the worse off they’re looking. Bill Burr, on his podcast, was recapping his trip and talking about how he had seen all this Western culture in Saudi Arabia, as if he was the first person to ever see it before.”

You can read the full piece at Awful Announcing.

️‍🔥THE CLOSER🔥

Networks holding back on ugly NFL injuries

Watch an NFL game these days and you might be mistaken that the game has gotten less violent.

With Jacked Up-style hits regulated out of football and new rules designed to protect the offense, hits to the head are less common. But overall, the game is just as physical and dangerous as ever.

The disguise comes courtesy of the broadcasters, who appear to be holding back much more in recent seasons. When New York Giants breakout rookie running back Cam Skattebo seemingly fractured his ankle in Week 9, the top Fox crew determined not to show a replay. Instead, they allowed the reactions of Skattebo’s teammates, namely QB Jaxson Dart, to speak for themselves.

Gone are the days of Kevin Ware or Gordon Hayward, when nasty injuries would be imprinted into our minds because they would be thrown up everywhere for weeks. Now, you might have to see the play in real time or really seek it out online to even see what happened.

Whether it’s Skattebo on Fox or Mike Evans last week on Monday Night Football or Fred Warner on CBS earlier in the year, this has been proven out repeatedly as we cross the halfway point of the NFL season.

The explanation seems clear. Production crews have to know by now that their decision on how to air a replay (of any play, but especially an injury) has consequences across the content ecosystem. Occasionally, networks will go to the “just once” rule in which they replay an injury one time for clarity and then move on. To do so these days would be a joke. If a network airs a replay of an injury in slow motion or more zoomed in, they are making a decision to allow that to live forever on the internet.

Perhaps there is more sensitivity to the rigors of football than before, or a general conservatism around gruesome content. The more likely explanation, however, is that producers and directors in the production truck are getting hip to the wider consequences of their choices and keeping injuries as quiet as they can in our strange new world of constantly shared video.