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

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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🏀 Karl Havoc. It’s not baseball season yet, but ESPN’s Karl Ravech made headlines after he missed the memo on a trolling social media post and made it sound like SEC men’s basketball lacked dominant teams even though they currently have 4 of the Top 5 teams in the AP Poll. He took to X on Wednesday to clear the air and… somehow made it worse? As always, it’s okay to just say, “My bad.”

🏈 Barstool ain’t Mahomies. The mostly amicable Bussin With The Boys - Barstool divorce got a little awkward when Dave Portnoy was shocked to learn Patrick Mahomes wasn’t a fan of the brand. For their part, Will Compton and Taylor Lewan are shocked that Portnoy is shocked, especially given everything that’s been said about the QB’s brother… and his wife… and him. It remains unclear why any of this would be surprising. Barstool may have matured recently (a debatable claim), but it’s still Barstool.

🥇NBC goes for gold. NBC Sports has revealed its programming plans for Italy's 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. Not only are they planning a Winter Olympic record for hours of coverage on the NBC broadcast network, but they’ll still have a big cable presence on CNBC and USA Network and stream all events live on Peacock. Most importantly, the whip-around “Gold Zone” feed will also be back in full force.

🦋 NFL fans sue for Bluesky. We recently learned the NFL barred teams from starting Bluesky accounts, presumably until the league can figure out how to make money off of it. That’s not good enough for a group of fans who filed an antitrust lawsuit against the league, saying it’s a “refusal to deal with Bluesky in favor of X.” The odds of this suit accomplishing anything are slim, but the war between sports fans on dueling social media platforms is only intensifying.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

How bright is the Kelce Brothers’ media future, really?

In September, I wrote about how the 2024 NFL season would present Jason and Travis Kelce with their toughest opponent yet: Overexposure.

Between the games, the media appearances, the commercials, the podcasts, the gossip magazines, the game shows, the late-night shows, the viral videos, and their significant others, would these two larger-than-life football personalities come out with their reputations intact, or would football fans be breathing a sigh of relief that we’d finally get a break from them for a few months?

For Travis, the season was a mixed bag. Thanks to his relationship with Taylor Swift, he remained in the spotlight, even as the Kansas City Chiefs appeared mortal (and fatigue started to set in). The future Hall of Famer set some records and returned to the Super Bowl, but there were disappointments along the way, especially the ending. Now, he’s got a decision to make, but not before padding out his IMDB resume.

For Jason, he came into the season as arguably the hottest free agent in sports media (and got paid accordingly). While he did make a splash early with some wardrobe malfunctions and NSFW language, the novelty seemed to wear off. An ill-fated late-night talk show debut didn’t help either. As Awful Announcing’s Ben Axelrod wrote, “Despite being one of the most highly anticipated sports media hires of recent years, memorable moments from Jason Kelce's debut season at ESPN were few and far between.”

All of this isn’t to say that the Kelces won’t be successful sports media personalities. New Heights remains one of the most-listened-to podcasts in America. They’ve become a brand unto themselves. Both remain well-liked by many viewers and fans. And if Travis and Taylor tie the knot one day, it will be a pop culture bonanza.

But given Jason’s limited schtick and Travis’s obvious eye on the entertainment world beyond sports, perhaps they aren’t going to be the sports media juggernauts we assumed they’d be just six months ago. And that’s okay! But both brothers have a lot of decisions to make in the year ahead as they attempt to figure out what they want their post-playing careers to really look like.

📣 THE PLAY-BY-PLAY 🌟

On the latest episode, The Play-By-Play, Awful Announcing’s weekly sports media news podcast, Ben Axelrod and Brendon Kleen discuss Tom Brady’s Super Bowl broadcasting debut, the top NFL offseason sports media storylines, and Adam Silver’s recent media tour and proposed rule changes for the NBA. Click the video above to watch on YouTube or look for The Play-By-Play wherever you listen to podcasts.

👏 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 🗣️

• Sound the carriage dispute horn! YouTube TV subscribers risk losing access to CBS and other Paramount channels, potentially as soon as Thursday. Both sides released statements on Wednesday, which is never a good sign. Along with losing access to CBS Sports Network, the biggest concern for sports fans has to be potentially missing out on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, which is set to begin with the First Four on March 18 and 19.

• Speaking of carriage disputes, the ongoing drama between MSG Networks and Altice USA-owned Optimum has reached the “look at how much money their executives are getting in bonuses” phase. This comes after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul got involved earlier in the week to admonish both sides for not letting New York-area fans watch the Knicks, Rangers, Islanders, and New Jersey Devils.

• MLS fans, rejoice! As of Wednesday, Android mobile device users can download the Apple TV app from the Google Play Store, unlocking the MLS Season Pass for anyone wanting to watch games on an Android phone or tablet. Additionally, MLS is offering free Season Pass subscriptions to all T-Mobile customers, a nice double bonus for Android users who have T-Mobile as a carrier.

✍️ AROUND AA ✍️

2025 NFL offseason sports media storylines

While we may be just days removed from Super Bowl LIX, the NFL calendar never stops.

That also applies to the media covering the league, which will cover transactions and, in some cases, make their own moves.

From pending free agents to a major media rights deal to potential retirements and role changes, there will be plenty to watch from a sports media perspective between now and the start of the 2025 season.

With that in mind, here are the top sports media storylines of the 2025 NFL offseason.

Find out what might be next for Erin Andrews, Dan Orlovsky, Jimmy Johnson, and others in Ben Axelrod’s rundown. 

📈 DATA DUMP 📊

• The Dallas Mavericks might not want to be in the Luka Dončić business anymore, but his debut paid dividends for the Los Angeles Lakers and ESPN. Monday night’s game between the Lakers and Utah Jazz averaged 2.01 million viewers on ESPN — a figure 42% higher than the network’s average regular season contest last year.

• While the Luka-Lakers' impact is only beginning to help, the NBA was already crawling out of its ratings hole earlier this season. According to Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal, national NBA viewership is down 5% year over year, but that’s an improvement from before Christmas Day when it was down 19% year over year. The national average is 1.77 million viewers per game across ABC, ESPN, and TNT/truTV.

• Don’t cry for Fox because they got a blowout Super Bowl. A day after they announced they’d set a Super Bowl viewership record, the network announced Wednesday that it generated over $800 million in advertising revenue for the Big Game. That includes revenue generated from selling ads on Fox, Fox Deportes, and Tubi. Not too shabby for a day’s work.

️‍🔥THE CLOSER🔥

February 2026 is Mike Tirico’s time to shine

It has been noted how much Mike Tirico has waited his turn.

After joining ESPN in 1991 as a SportsCenter anchor, he worked his way up and served in many roles, including as the play-by-play announcer for Monday Night Football. He left for NBC Sports in 2016 for the opportunity to call some of the biggest events in sports, but he had a line in front of him. With Bob Costas serving as the primetime host of NBC's Olympics coverage and Al Michaels in the chair as their lead play-by-play announcer, Tirico wasn’t exactly slumming it, but he wasn’t immediately anointed either.

That changed over time. Tirico took over for Costas at the 2018 Winter Olympics and hasn’t looked back. After the 2021 season, Michael stepped into an emeritus role and left for Amazon, and Sunday Night Football officially became Tirico’s as well.

One thing that always eluded the Syracuse graduate was calling the Super Bowl. He’d worked as the pre-game host and handled the trophy presentation but never had the chance to be in the booth.

NBC has the rights to the Big Game next year, so Tirico will finally be able to check that box. However, that’s not all he’s doing.

The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics get underway in Italy on February 6, just two days before Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, California. You better believe Tirico will be racking up the frequent flyer miles as he jets between those two events. There’s just no way he’s missing either.

And we haven’t even talked about NBC’s NBA coverage, which begins anew next season with Tirico as their lead play-by-play announcer. It just so happens that NBA All-Star Weekend 2026 will occur in Los Angeles February 13-15. While the NBA All-Star Game is hardly on par with the Olympics and Super Bowl, it’s still a major event for the media rights holder, especially regarding advertisers and business partners. Chances are, Tirico is going to want to be there as well.

So there’s a very good chance that, between February 6 and February 22, Mike Tirico will be the voice of three of the biggest sporting events in the world, all of which will be on NBC platforms. And even if he skips the ASG, he will still speak to hundreds of millions across that stretch while defining their experience of these iconic games.

Mike Tirico has waited his turn. This is what he’s been waiting for.