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 ✍️

📺 Pat McAfee thinks ESPN stars taking a pressure campaign to social media in the network’s fight with YouTube TV is doing more harm than good.

🐕 Tom Brady cloning his dog is weird. Like, really weird. But let’s be honest, it’s only like the 11th weirdest thing about Tom Brady.

🏀 ESPN’s Kris Budden has a new role as the network’s new top college basketball sideline reporter.

⛳ LIV Golf is moving from 54-hole events to 72-hole events next year. No word on whether they will change to LXXII Golf or keep their nonsensical numbering like they are a college football superconference.

🚨 LEADING OFF 🚨

NFL Network gets it all wrong

If the NFL Network trade deadline coverage was a team, it would be the Cleveland Browns.

The trade deadline usually gets a passing glance from even the most diehard football fans as the activity in the NFL pales in comparison to the other major American pro sports. But that was not the case this year. Teams like the Colts and Seahawks made major moves while the Jets entered a full rebuild and accumulated multiple first round draft picks.

So where could fans go for live trade deadline coverage on such an exciting and important afternoon? Well… it wasn’t NFL Network. Or was it? Actually, it was really hard to tell.

NFL Network scheduled replays of Good Morning Football and the previous night’s Monday Night Football game between the Cowboys and Cardinals during the early afternoon hours, where most of the major deals happened. But they also broke into those replays several times with live breaking news coverage for a few minutes at a time. Finally, NFL Network aired its actual trade deadline show at 4 p.m. ET right when it actually expired.

From a strategic standpoint, it made no sense, like trying to run the read option with Peyton Manning.

Cost-cutting initiatives have plagued NFL Network in recent years and is now no longer equipped to offer all-day live coverage. That’s a stark reality as they have tried to keep their bottom line as clear as possible in advance of the equity deal with ESPN. Even flagship show Good Morning Football was caught in the quagmire with their messy move to Los Angeles from New York, breaking up the show’s core.

But the thing about NFL Network on Tuesday was that they did have live coverage… just bits and spurts in the middle of replays. Their primary insiders and reporters were all at the ready with Mike Garofolo, Ian Rapoport, Tom Pelissero, and Judy Battista all used during the afternoon.

Why NFL Network didn’t just put them on the air with a moderator for a few hours in lieu of replays to cover all the deadline moves is hard to fathom. The decision to only use them sporadically while airing replays felt like neither a cost-cutting measure nor something designed to give quality coverage. Even if there wasn’t a ton of action, football fans would have certainly tuned in to get their fix with quality live programming.

If NFL Network can’t go all in for the NFL trade deadline, then it’s hard to imagine them making a case to football fans that they should be taken seriously for much of anything else…. at least maybe until the ESPN deal kicks in and they can find some way to reinvent themselves.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

An emotional Dick Vitale was moved to tears over Coach K’s tribute at the first-ever Dick Vitale Invitational.

A feisty Bill O’Brien wants more positivity from reporters with Boston College sitting at 1-8 on the season. Can you imagine if he were coaching the Jets?

Fox is still inexplicably using Roundball Rock for its college basketball coverage. Now that it’s back in its rightful home on the NBA on NBC, maybe it’s time to try something new? John Tesh doesn’t need the money anymore!

Hello, UEFA Champions League After Dark.

🗣️ NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

“Why is this a thing? Why do people think it’s a thing? It’s such bullsh*t. It’s called watching football. That’s what you do.” - Kirk Herbstreit is fed up with the claims of ESPN’s SEC bias.

“ESPN is f*cking everyone because ESPN has got a new app… and they also own Hulu and Fubo. They’re screwing over everyone who has cut the cord and went to YouTube TV. And it’s just f*cked up. It’s f*cked up.” - Dan “Big Cat” Katz thinks ESPN has an ulterior motive in their YouTube TV dispute.

“But I really have given it thought. I told our finance guys to start looking around for property, no joke. Take a principled stand. Thirty-something-year-old Communist running New York City who’s never had a job in his life, hates America, doesn’t seem like the best.” - Dave Portnoy said he would consider leaving New York if Zohran Mamdani were elected mayor. Time to start packing.

“I think anonymous sources are incredibly important. But the whole idea of, ‘league source tells me that sixth man on the Minnesota Timberwolves is going to get a contract extension,’ I’m like, ‘I don’t think we need to Deep Throat this one.’” - Pablo Torre is not a huge fan of insiders as copy-paste newsbreakers.

️‍️‍🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

Jeff Landry needs to geaux away

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry turned himself into the most talked-about person in college football over the last week, thanks to his personal involvement in Brian Kelly’s firing at LSU.

With the school at a crossroads, Landry started a public relations campaign that only he knew the rhyme and reason to, and quickly became a laughing stock in the sports world.

But the reaction to Landry’s meddling in the LSU coaching situation is being met differently throughout the state than it might be viewed nationally. As Demetri Ravanos writes at AA, locals in Louisiana may not see the humor in the governor turning LSU into a three-ring circus.

You may not have seen comments from Matt Moscona, the host of After Further Review, a sports radio show syndicated across Louisiana. He called Landry’s speech “one of the most disingenuous, absurd, self-serving, self-indulgent, vindictive moments I can remember in a program that has a long history of embarrassing moments.”

That’s the dichotomy of how this moment in LSU history is being discussed. If you aren’t connected to Louisiana or the Tigers, then this probably makes you laugh. You see an ego maniac that has more opinions than information and talks like Bill Dauterive’s cousin Gilbert. It’s the perfect recipe for comedy.

If LSU football matters to you, though, Jeff Landry is a clown and a roadblock. Even in ruby red Louisiana, a place Donald Trump won in 2024 with more than 60% of the vote, invoking the president’s name in connection with Tiger football earns a Liz Lemon-calibre eyeroll.