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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🏆 Modern dynasty comparison. Dan Orlovsky called Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts "the modern-day Bill Belichick and Tom Brady" on ESPN's Get Up, citing their "total alignment" and focused approach. One Super Bowl apparently makes you a dynasty now.

📺 Wilbon calls out ESPN. Michael Wilbon called out the "nonsense" from Get Up and First Take about quarterback pressure narratives, specifically targeting Dan Orlovsky's claim that Caleb Williams faces more pressure than any NFL player this season. The PTI co-host argued that proven quarterbacks like Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson face more genuine pressure than a developing second-year player.

🎓 Manning family privilege. Desmond Howard claims analysts won't properly criticize Arch Manning's struggles because "they want to stay in good favor with the Mannings" after the Texas quarterback's pedestrian debut against Ohio State.

🔥 Generational talent gatekeeping. Ryan Clark argued Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees weren't "generational talents" while debating Arch Manning's prospects on First Take. If seven-time Super Bowl winners don't qualify, maybe the term has lost all meaning.

🎙️ Radio rankings. Don't forget to get your grades in for Awful Announcing's 2025 MLB local radio broadcaster rankings. This is our first time ranking radio booths, so if there's an announcer or booth you love, cast your vote and spread the word before 9 p.m. ET on Friday, Sept. 5.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

Getting you primed for the 2025 NFL season

The NFL media landscape has never been more fragmented, more expensive, or more confusing for fans. As the 2025 season begins, the league continues its relentless push into streaming while traditional broadcasters scramble to justify massive contracts with unproven talent. Here are the six storylines that will define how we watch football this year.

J.J. Watt's broadcast debut

J.J. Watt moves from CBS's studio to the No. 2 broadcast booth with Ian Eagle, replacing Charles Davis. The three-time Defensive Player of the Year joins a crowded field of recently retired stars trying to prove they can actually analyze football on live television. CBS is betting on star power over broadcasting experience, just like everyone else.

Tom Brady's problem

Tom Brady returns to Fox’s lead booth for his second season after a rookie year that exposed the gap between playing football and explaining it. Fox bet massive money on star power over broadcasting experience. Now they need Brady to justify that choice, because name recognition only carries you so far when you're struggling to articulate what's happening on screen.

The NFL's media rights shell game

The league continues to fracture its content across streaming platforms, with YouTube debuts and Netflix exclusives, all while current deals don't expire until 2033. Every streaming experiment is market research for the next round of negotiations. The NFL is essentially running a live-action focus group with fan frustration as the primary data point.

YouTube's NFL experiment

Google's platform gets Chiefs-Chargers from Brazil as a free worldwide stream, marking another tech giant's entry into live sports. YouTube built its empire on user-generated content and algorithm-driven recommendations. Now they're betting they can make appointment television work on a platform designed for everything except appointment television.

ESPN's conflict of interest era

ESPN's expanded NFL coverage comes as the network prepares to become a business partner through their streaming venture. The same network that covers NFL controversies will soon depend on NFL success for subscription revenue. ESPN has never faced this level of editorial compromise, and it shows no signs of acknowledging the problem exists.

RedZone's money grab

Scott Hanson's "commercial-free football" catchphrase dies as RedZone introduces permanent advertising. The NFL found a way to monetize the last refuge from its advertising assault. Seven hours of uninterrupted football was the final selling point that differentiated RedZone from everything else. Now it's just another way to watch commercials with football breaks.

The 2025 season will test just how much complexity and cost fans will tolerate before the NFL's media strategy backfires. Every streaming exclusive and broadcast booth experiment is a bet that football fandom trumps convenience. We're about to find out if they're right.

📺 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 🎬

• Discovery Global CEO Gunnar Wiedenfels confirms a standalone TNT Sports app is in development following the Warner Bros. Discovery split. However, consumers will likely need separate apps for sports and entertainment content in the future.

• ESPN secures Jeff Darlington on a multi-year contract extension after the NFL reporter received "overtures from several suitors," with Darlington expanding into Masters, PGA Championship, and Wimbledon coverage while joining ESPN's first-ever Super Bowl broadcast team in 2027.

• Barstool Sports officially announces Ryen Russillo's hiring, with the former Ringer host starting in mid-October as a Barstool employee, hosting a new podcast while pursuing interests beyond traditional digital content.

• NFL RedZone will feature just four 15-second ads during its entire seven-hour Week 1 broadcast with split-screen formatting, though the minimal ad load could increase later in the season after last year's fan backlash over commercial testing.

• Fox NFL Sunday travels to Kansas City for Week 2's Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl rematch, marking the show's first season without Jimmy Johnson and continuing the trend of pregame shows going on-site for marquee games.

🎺 AROUND AA 🎺

The 2025 NFL season brings fresh speculation about which current players will eventually dominate sports media.

Awful Announcing's Ben Axelrod assembled an All-NFL Future Media Stars Team, featuring position-by-position predictions from Matthew Stafford at quarterback to George Kittle at tight end. The selections prioritize players already showing media savvy alongside their on-field credentials, offering a glimpse into the next generation of sports broadcasting talent.

Click to read more from Ben Axelrod on which current NFL stars are best positioned to make the transition from playing to broadcasting.

📣 NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

"The Super Bowl certainly will feel like a milestone achieved or reached, maybe. That hits you differently because… I mean, that's beyond your wildest dreams. Dreaming of the Super Bowl, it seems ridiculous because that will never happen, right?" - Mike Tirico on finally getting to call a Super Bowl after 10 years at NBC, reflecting on how far he's come from his original goal of just landing a local TV job.

"What I don't think I said properly is obviously it's not as good if we're adding commercials. Whenever it was just pure without commercials and we had paid for an upgrade of a product so we don't have to see commercials, that was better." - Pat McAfee walking back his claim that fans don't care about RedZone commercials, clarifying that fans will still watch, but it's undeniably worse.

"I can't imagine not sitting in that seat. It's a dream to have all three of these. I hope to be able to sign an extension at some point with both Amazon and ESPN." - Kirk Herbstreit on wanting to continue with College GameDay beyond his 2026 contract expiration, crediting Pat McAfee's energy with revitalizing his passion for the show.

"I would love to dip my toe into college football RedZone. I love college as much as every bit as I love pros. I played college football — that was as far as my football career could go." - Scott Hanson pitching ESPN on creating a college football version of RedZone, though he acknowledges ESPN doesn't have rights to every game like the NFL does.

"What's wrong with keeping the postseason alive for as many teams as possible?" - Ohio State AD Ross Bjork defending potential College Football Playoff expansion to as many as 32 teams while suggesting conference championship games could become part of the playoff structure.

"College football sucks. It is a bad watch. Cause you don't know who's good and you don't know who sucks. And even the good teams suck." - Former Virginia player Tiki Barber delivering a scathing critique of college football, though 16.6 million viewers watched Ohio State beat Texas last weekend.

️‍🔥The Closer🔥

ESPN kicks off the NFL season with an avalanche of bizarre hot takes

We haven't even kicked off the 2025 NFL season yet, and the hot takes are already flowing like lava.

Thursday should have been a celebration. The NFL season is finally starting after months of arguing about Dak Prescott's legacy, roster moves, and preseason games that don't count. Instead, ESPN spent the day relitigating tired legacy debates and manufacturing controversies that had nothing to do with the actual football being played tonight.

When the network's NFL analysts start dubbing Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts the modern-day Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, we officially need games to start being played. When Ryan Clark decides Tom Brady and Peyton Manning aren't generational talents, we've completely lost the plot.

This was like spending the morning of the Super Bowl debating whether Joe Montana was better than Johnny Unitas instead of talking about the game actually being played that night.

Click to read more from Awful Announcing's Sam Neumann on how ESPN turned the NFL season kickoff into a festival of manufactured controversy instead of celebrating the return of actual football.