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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🚨 Reali seeing red. Around the Horn host Tony Reali is set to become one of the most unique sports media free agents ever, and it seems like he’s already got his next job in mind. The man who has kept score on ESPN’s 5 p.m. ET show for the past 20-odd years now has his sights set on hosting NFL RedZone, per an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina. That seat, currently occupied by Scott Hanson, might become available if reports about NBC targeting the longtime RedZone host are true.

😢 Shedding a tear. Speaking of Around the Horn, the show’s long goodbye started yesterday when Harry Lyles Jr. dedicated his “Face Time” segment to the show’s winningest panelist, Woody Paige. “Whether you loved him or hated him, you always tuned into this show to see what that man was going to say,” Lyles said as Paige became emotional. The full video, which includes some behind-the-scenes footage, is worth your time.

🙏 RIP Andy Isaac. Beloved Detroit Lions superfan Andy Isaac, better known as “WorldofIsaac” on X, passed away on Thursday after a 19-year battle with cancer. In recent years, much of Isaac’s social media presence shifted from sports to health updates as he faced a battle with cancer. Last month, he shared a heartbreaking message, revealing that his condition had taken a turn for the worse and that he had decided to enter hospice care. His family shared that Andy passed away peacefully on Thursday morning with loved ones by his side.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

Stephen A. gets more for less

Many have spent the last several months, maybe even years, laboring over one vital sports media question: Will poor Stephen A. Smith be able to lay claim to the title of ESPN’s highest paid talent?

Fear not Stephen A. fans, the answer to that question seems to be an emphatic, yes! (Depending on how you account for Pat McAfee’s licensing deal and undisclosed College GameDay salary, that is.)

Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported Thursday afternoon that Smith has agreed to a new five-year, $100 million contract to stay with the Worldwide Leader. The agreement will see Smith continue to host ESPN’s flagship morning show First Take, but will see some of his other roles at the network pared back.

Smith will no longer be a regular member of NBA Countdown, the NBA studio show that’s set to become the network’s B-team next season when ESPN begins licensing Inside the NBA from TNT. However, Smith “could still make occasional appearances on top basketball studio programs, as well as the Monday Night Football pregame or during other big time events,” according to Marchand.

It’s a pretty sweet gig for Stephen A., who has carved out a deal that will pay him more (his current salary is a reported $12 million per year) while having him work less. That’s not unfamiliar territory for TV’s biggest stars.

Just a few years ago, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow got the sweetheart deal of a lifetime, cutting down from five shows per week to just one, and getting a raise in the process. That dynamic hasn’t exactly worked out well over there as the network cancels shows and lays off staffers, but it goes to show what “face of the network” status can buy you.

To ESPN’s credit, Stephen A. will at least still be hosting two hours of television daily. But his new deal will undoubtedly free up time for some of his other passions.

I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but Stephen A. Smith has been dabbling in political commentary recently. He’s frequently appeared on programs ranging from Hannity to The View, and loves to insist he has no interest in running for president. That is, unless the American people implore him to do so. A selfless man indeed!

That selflessness would actually be put to the test if Smith’s political ambitions are sincere. He’d be leaving a $20 million annual salary on the table to run for office, assuming ESPN doesn’t want to sponsor two hours of SAS28 campaign ads from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET each day. And if my mental math checks out, the 2028 presidential campaign will start smack in the middle of Stephen A.’s five-year deal, but I digress.

Smith’s presidential dalliance aside, what does this mean for ESPN?

Well, for one, it means that the Worldwide Leader likes being in the Stephen A. Smith business, even if he’s constantly in the headlines for what he’s saying on other networks or The Stephen A. Smith Show.

Two, it’s another sign that ESPN is in its superstar era. Much has been said about how ESPN’s so-called middle class has been gutted, and that’s probably true (if a bit overstated), but there’s no question that this is now a network built around stars.

Three, it shows that Smith is still critical to ESPN’s bottom line. At a time where the cable television business is in free fall, ESPN just agreed to a nine-figure deal for a single talent. And it’s not as if the network has been spending money willy-nilly recently. In fact, they’re doing exactly the opposite, recently cutting off deals with MLB and Formula 1 that will save them around $635 million per year.

Even though he was never truly rumored to end up anywhere other than ESPN, the thought of programming a morning lineup without Stephen A. Smith likely gave Bristol executives nightmares. That alone probably makes the $20 million per year worth every penny, even if that price no longer includes frequent appearances across the network’s other properties.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

👏 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 🗣️

🎙️ Layoffs hit Audacy. Multiple staffers took to social media yesterday to share they’d been let go by Audacy, the second-largest radio company in the United States. The company emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in September. The layoffs seemed to be particularly targeted at the BetQL team, recently rebranded as BetMGM Network.

📺 NESN slashes editorial team. Unfortunately, Audacy was not the only company to initiate layoffs yesterday. New England Sports Network (NESN) is eliminating its entire editorial department, with most employees being terminated on May 2. The optics here look particularly bad, given the financial might of Fenway Sports Group, NESN’s owner.

❌ ESPN won’t carry FDSN games. Contrary to reporting from the Wall Street Journal earlier this week, ESPN’s future streaming service will not be carrying FanDuel Sports Network games, per John Ourand of Puck. Rather, ESPN’s streamer will simply direct fans that select a game airing on FDSN to the network’s streaming app, where they can purchase a subscription.

🖋️ Wetzel to ESPN. Investigative reporter Dan Wetzel will be joining ESPN, according to an announcement by the network on Thursday. Wetzel spent the last two decades-plus at Yahoo Sports where he’s covered a number of troubling sports stories including Aaron Hernandez, Larry Nassar, and Jerry Sandusky.

🅰️ Grade the 2024-25 NCAA men’s college basketball announcers 🇫

The men’s college basketball regular season is wrapping up, and the conference tournaments are under way. To celebrate, we want your opinions on how some of the national announcing teams from this season stack up.

You can grade as few or as many teams as you desire, and you can Control-F to find a team you’re particularly interested in voting for. Once you’ve selected your grades, submit them. Feel free to add comments or explanations for your grades as well, but it’s not required.

Picking announcing teams to evaluate here was not easy, as there are a ton of college basketball games (more than 4,200 on ESPN platforms alone this season), and a lot of different people calling them. Many of those people work with several different partners week-to-week. We settled on 20 of the most-prominent pairings from across CBS, ESPN, Fox, NBC, and TNT broadcasts this regular season.

Place your votes here!

️‍🔥The Closer🔥

Chuck, tell us how you really feel

Charles Barkley might be sending some edible arrangements to Bristol this morning. The Round Mound of Rebound had a particularly fiery rant directed at one Kendrick Perkins during Inside the NBA last night, alleging the current ESPN NBA analyst has been gassing up the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors at the expense of covering the league’s other great teams.

“I saw a fool, idiot on TV saying the Lakers saved the NBA. He’s an idiot and a fool but he knows who he is,” Barkley said before directly naming Perkins.

“He said the Lakers saved the NBA season. That’s because them fools on the other network, which we’re going to be working for next year, that’s all they talk about,” Chuck said.

Barkley has not done much to ingratiate himself with his future employer this season. In fact, he doubled down on his “other network” talking points again during his rant.

“Hey man, the Lakers are doing great,” Barkley said. “Got a long way to go. But the reason the season’s been going great — the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder — y’all just want to talk about the Warriors and the Lakers. They’re both doing great. Don’t get me wrong. If I turn out to be wrong, I got no problem with that. But y’all are idiots ’cause y’all talk about the Lakers and the Warriors all the time. The Cleveland Cavaliers have won 12 straight games. Oklahoma City got the MVP and they are on fire. Y’all are talking about who’s in second place. That’s the reason I get pissed. Hey, the Lakers are doing great. I don’t mind being wrong. The Warriors are doing great.

“But that’s ’cause you fools on the other network, which we’re gonna become fools next year when we be working on that network, but Oklahoma City and the Cavs been balling for six months. Y’all talking about teams that had two great weeks.”

Don’t worry. ESPN’s finest didn’t take this lying down. Stephen A. Smith had a near-immediate response on social media. “Once you come over here, there’s gonna be some folks waiting to call YOU a fool,” Smith wrote.

I think I speak for everyone when I say, the first episode of Inside the NBA on ESPN next season will be must-see TV.