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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🏈 Pass coverage. The NFL’s ownership stake in ESPN has many people worried that it could jeopardize the network’s independent coverage of the league. ESPN chair Jimmy Pitaro recently addressed it, and now NFL commish Roger Goodell has reportedly done so, telling ESPN employees the league would not get involved in the network’s journalism.

💸 Lead blocker. Matthew Belloni of Puck recently described the ESPN-NFL deal as “an unsubtle middle finger to Big Tech.” Why? He believes that by taking an equity stake in ESPN, the NFL is helping prop up one of Big Tech’s biggest competitors for live sports rights, thereby ensuring a robust marketplace for the league’s media rights when its current deals expire.

🏛️ House rules. Monday, two members of the House Judiciary Committee sent letters to the commissioners of the four major North American professional sports leagues — MLB, the NFL, NBA, and NHL — regarding the cost and difficulty of watching live sports as leagues transition from a linear-focused to a streaming-focused broadcast strategy. “everything’s on the table,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) told The Athletic.

🎙️ Rung out. When it comes to sports gambling coverage at The Ringer, Cousin Sal Iacono has been one of the outlet’s most prominent voices. However, Bill Simmons’ good friend announced that his Against All Odds with Cousin Sal podcast has been canceled as part of a reshuffling by The Ringer and its parent company, Spotify. Iacono will continue making appearances on The Bill Simmons Show and The Ringer’s Sunday pregame show during NFL season.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

New Heights never thought possible

Endless cascades of social media posts. Breathless live blogs featuring multiple writers. Minute-by-minute analysis of what’s been said and what it means. Memeification in real time. Live feeds crashing under the weight of an overwhelming audience size.

No, this wasn’t the Academy Awards or the Super Bowl or a presidential debate or the last episode of Breaking Bad.

All of this was for a podcast.

Of course, that’s underselling it a little bit. We’re talking about pop megastar Taylor Swift’s appearance on the New Heights podcast with her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, and his brother, Jason Kelce.

The most highly anticipated podcast episode of 2025 and arguably the most anticipated podcast episode of all time (all due respect to the “Assassin’s Creed” episode of Blank Check), Swift’s appearance, which included the announcement of her 12th studio album, attracted as many as 1.3 million viewers at its (new) height. The YouTube premiere stream apparently “glitched” and went dark, which some attributed to the overwhelming audience size.

The episode was pre-recorded, so it’s not as though there was much danger of any unforeseen PR missteps. Still, even so, the singer, her NFL-playing boyfriend, and his brother hit all their marks, helping it live up to the hype in the eyes of Swifties everywhere. As for Swift, she continued to endear herself to football fans and poke fun at the outsized coverage she’s received just for attending Kansas City Chiefs games.

Our own Matt Yoder powered through the whole two hours (including the glitch) to provide a handy rundown of all the highlights you need to know today. But perhaps what’s more important is what the podcast episode tells us about the trio’s futures.

Swift and her Kelce are clearly in this for the long haul. It is perhaps no coincidence to learn that her album, The Life of a Showgirl, will be released on Oct. 3, two weeks after Kelce’s Chiefs get a Super Bowl rematch with the Philadelphia Eagles, one week after they battle the Baltimore Ravens, and one week before they take on the hyped Detroit Lions.

As for the Kelce brothers, the episode helped to reconfirm just how popular both Jason and Travis are, and how they are not exiting the pop culture stratosphere anytime soon. Both brothers had big wins and media missteps last year, and the looming threat of overexposure hangs over them at all times. But there’s no denying their appeal across just about every quadrant, something very few football players can say.

📺 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 🎬

• The NBA and Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service revealed highlights for its upcoming schedule, with a doubleheader on October 24 featuring the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks, followed by the Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers. Prime Video also revealed its first five weeks of NBA Cup doubleheaders, which will begin on Halloween and go through Black Friday.

• TNT Sports is preparing to kick off its first year as a Big 12 football partner, with J.B. Long serving as their lead Big 12 football play-by-play announcer. Mike Golic Jr.’ll join him as the lead game analyst. Both Allie LaForce and Coy Wire will contribute as sideline reporters throughout the season. Adam Lefkoe, who received a multi-year extension to remain as a host with TNT Sports, is slated to lead studio coverage alongside analysts Champ Bailey, Takeo Spikes, and Victor Cruz.

• TNT Sports also announced Wednesday that former WNBA star Candace Parker has reached a multi-year extension and will continue her role as an analyst across the network’s several basketball properties.

• NFL Network star Kyle Brandt has a new show set to launch with Vice Sports. Produced in conjunction with Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions and NFL Films, NFL Classics: After Further Review will serve as a ManningCast-style show in which Brandt will rewatch some of the league’s most famous games alongside celebrity fans and the players who played in them.

• Comcast announced Wednesday it has launched a new product called World Soccer Ticket. This all-in-one bundle will give users access to nearly every major club and international soccer competition for one monthly price on one single platform, including Premier League, UEFA Champions League, La Liga, Liga MX, CONCACAF Champions Cup, and NWSL.

📣 NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

"She wants to be famous, but doesn't understand how it works." - The Sports Gossip Show’s Charlotte Wilder explaining her bizarre phone calls and almost-interview with Jordon Hudson.

"I don't know that I've ever wanted to cry for a guy more than I want to cry for Miguel Amaya right now." - Cubs color commentator Jim Deshaies after the catcher was injured just days after returning from the 60-day injured list.

"When ESPN is out of business with a sports entity, they essentially stopped covering that entity." - Ariel Helwani sounding the alarm for the UFC, which just signed a $7.7 billion deal to leave ESPN for Paramount Global.

"He was a genius and a magician… He was just the loveliest, sweetest, gentlest guy." - Orioles announcer Kevin Brown reminiscing about the late Bill Walton.

💬 AROUND AA 💬

Earlier this week, a CNBC report indicated that local broadcasting giant Sinclair is considering splitting or spinning off some of its assets, including that of Tennis Channel, the 24/7 cable network dedicated to the sport.

Sinclair purchased the network for $350 million in 2016 and has since solidified its position as the preeminent destination for live tennis in the United States. Tennis Channel currently holds the rights to all major ATP and WTA events into the 2030s, and recently re-upped media rights deals for the Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup through 2027 and 2028, respectively. Outside of the sport’s four Grand Slams, Tennis Channel is the singular place to follow the sport, and will be for the foreseeable future.

That makes it a pretty attractive asset, especially as streaming services continue to battle for market share among fans of live sports. As such, Tennis Channel would likely find several interested parties looking to partner or purchase the asset were Sinclair to move forward with a split or spin.

Awful Announcing’s Drew Lerner runs through several potential landing spots that would make sense for Tennis Channel in such a scenario. Click here to read all about them.

️‍🔥The Closer🔥

The Mets are making winners by losing

If the Major League Baseball season ended today, the New York Mets would squeak into the playoffs as the final Wild Card. It was not that long ago that the Amazin’s would have been the No. 1 seed in the NL and controlled their destiny. Just a few weeks later, they’re fighting for their playoff lives.

It has been a miserable stretch for the team, who have lost 31 of their last 50 games and are falling far behind the Philadelphia Phillies for the NL East lead. New York fans haven’t had very many places to look for solace and enjoyment.

So when Pete Alonso smashed a third-inning homer on Tuesday against the Atlanta Braves to break the franchise home-run record previously held by Daryl Strawberry, Mets fans poured themselves into the celebration. So did SNY announcer Gary Cohen, whose effusive call of the dinger was punctuated by the line “The Polar Bear on his own private iceberg,” a reference to Alonso’s long-running nickname.

Mets fans finally had something to feel joyful about. However, they’d forgotten that there’s no joy in Mudville, and there’s no better person to remind them of that fact than legendary New York sports radio host and part-time First Take co-host Chris “Mad Dog” Russo. The Mad Dog brutalized the Mets on Wednesday for caring so much about the statistic, specifically taking shots at Cohen’s call.

“I love Gary, I hate to do that. ‘Polar Bear on an iceberg?’ I mean, really now?” yelled Russo on First Take. “This is not Henry Aaron against Al Downing!”

That caught the attention of ESPN New York’s Don La Greca, who launched into a screed of his own, defending the Mets and Cohen and calling out Russo, a San Francisco Giants fan, for caring so much.

“I don’t need to hear a San Francisco Giant fan peeing all over it. It’s disrespectful to Gary. It’s disrespectful to the Met fans,” he said. “Chris, I love you. I don’t care what you think. I don’t. Your opinion doesn’t count because you’re not part of the club that that call was for. That call was for Met fans watching the game, living and dying with the team. Not a guy that’s a San Francisco Giant fan that doesn’t get it. Of course, you don’t get it because you don’t know because you’re not a Met fan.”

With the Mets set to honor Alonso again on Thursday before their game, we’re surely not done with New York sports media hot takes about the record, the reaction, and the call. And for what it’s worth, that’s a great thing.

The NY sports media is at its best when it’s making mountains out of mole hills, and they’ve been feasting on the Mets’ misery for weeks now. WFAN’s Boomer Esiason recently shredded Juan Soto over his apparent lack of leadership, while Evan Roberts roasted fans for applauding an opposing pitcher’s no-hit bid.

If the Mets continue to falter, it’s going to be a late-season hell for fans. But it’s going to be a goldmine for people like Russo, La Greca, Esiason, and Roberts. And if you’re a fan of the business, that’s incredibly obnoxious and ear-splitting music to your ears.