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 ✍️

⚖️ Collusion Cover-Up? A bombshell report revealing possible collusion between the NFL and NFLPA was made public on Tuesday thanks to an investigation spearheaded by Meadowlark Media’s Pablo Torre and Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio. Now, Florio is suggesting that NFL players have recourse against both the league and the union. “Multiple individuals who routinely interact with players tell PFT that multiple players have begun to inquire regarding their rights, and regarding their options both as to the league and as to the union,” he said.

🤼 McAfeelin’ Worn Down. On Monday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show, the former All-Pro punter explained why he’s been missing from WWE programming, saying, “I was getting pretty exhausted there.” Reading between the lines, it sounds like he’ll be at Saturday’s Night of Champions event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

🏈 Corso’s Last Stand. Lee Corso’s final College GameDay will be the marquee Week 1 matchup between Texas and Ohio State. Dan Corso, Lee’s son, said it was “disappointing” that it won’t be at Florida State, Lee’s alma mater, where many of his family members have attended. “At the same time, it will be fun to watch his last GameDay and headgear in Columbus.”

🏀 Wednesday, Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Dream sideline reporter Tabitha Turner addressed a recent incident involving an Uber driver, whom she accused of assaulting her during her ride. She also shared that she received threats on social media after discussing the incident. “I didn’t ask for this.” Police have put out a warrant for the arrest of the driver.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

We’re as tired of writing about Stephen A. Smith as you are of reading about him

We here at Awful Announcing are always thinking about what our role is. We’re constantly asking ourselves why we need to cover certain people or topics and wrestling with how much space we need to dedicate to any specific one.

This conversation comes up frequently regarding many people in the sports media realm, but perhaps never as often as it does around Stephen A. Smith.

On paper, it’s a no-brainer for us to cover Smith and his many exploits. He's the face of North America’s leading sports network, not to mention their highest-paid talent (even if he’s not their hardest-working). Beyond that, he has become ubiquitous, and that’s before he starts a new daily SiriusXM radio show.

However, we’re also not immune to feedback from our readers. Few topics engender passionate disdain quite like Stephen A. We’ve noticed that recent newsletters with Smith in the headline underperform. Last week, we asked you in a poll, “How much SAS is too much SAS for ESPN?” 66% of you chose the response, “The day he leaves ESPN will be a great day.”

Considering you are someone who cares enough about sports media to sign up for this newsletter, that’s saying something (and a point very much taken).

But this puts us in a bit of a conundrum. Believe us, we’re just as tired of Smith’s whole schtick as you are. We find his entire act tiresome, pointless, and degrading to the qualified broadcasters who are forced to endure him. Beyond that, we see his foray into conservative politics (whatever he might say about being a Democrat) problematic, especially as he seems intent on amplifying problems without ever offering solutions. His desire to be ever-present in our lives has us pining for the day he can be ignored.

However, given our role and his, we can’t not cover him. It’s just not possible. What he says and does matters, unfortunately, due to the platforms ESPN has given him and the prominence he holds in each of them. He is a sports media cottage industry unto himself.

Wednesday night was a perfect example. A night meant to be a celebration of draftees achieving their lifelong dream of joining the NBA instead became Smith’s personal shouting match against himself, launching into spirited rants on several occasions, often without knowing all of the information necessary to make any valuable point.

The social media comments were near-universal in the notion that we would all be better off without Smith being involved in ESPN’s NBA Draft coverage, and his presence detracted from the opportunities to learn anything of real value.

The takeaway was that we all wish we could ignore him for a while. However, the fact that he was on your TV doing all that yelling is something we, as sports media critics and commentary writers, can’t.

Again, trust us, we hear you. And I have a feeling more than one newsletter subscriber was dreading a headline with Smith’s name in it this morning. However, the fact that he’s in it speaks to just how critical he is to the sports media world, for better or worse (I think we can agree it's worse).

Much of that is attributed to ESPN’s desire to have him front and center as much as possible. They must see something in their data that indicates his presence has a positive impact. Or maybe they’d see this whole diatribe as a positive in an “all news is good news” way.

Whatever it is, it means we all have to listen to him yell, and Awful Announcing has to provide coverage of that yelling.

To a point.

As Smith continues to blur the lines between his ESPN job, his podcast, his radio shows, his acting roles, and his political ambitions, we’re keeping a close eye on which aspects of his persona fall within the purview of Awful Announcing and which ones we can leave for others to address. Given how much of him there is in our lives right now, believe me when I say we are going to “stick to sports” whenever possible, hard as Stephen A. makes it for all of us.

🗣️ THE PLAY-BY-PLAY 🗣️

Buy or Sell: NBA Finals edition

On the latest episode, Awful Announcing’s Brendon Kleen and Ben Axelrod give their final evaluations of ESPN’s 2025 NBA Finals coverage. The good, the bad, and the very ugly.

Click the video above to watch or find The Play-By-Play wherever you listen to podcasts, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

📈 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 💰

• Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter’s recent purchase of the Los Angeles Lakers is opening up all sorts of possibilities. Maybe. According to a report by Bill Shaikin in the Los Angeles Times, a joint Dodgers-Lakers channel “could be” a long-term solution for the city’s two preeminent sports franchises. Unfortunately, Shaikin believes any form of merger “appears unlikely any time soon.”

• The most dominant program in women’s college basketball is getting the docuseries treatment. Apple TV+ announced Wednesday that it’s producing a three-part documentary chronicling the UConn Huskies’ historic 2024-25 championship season. The untitled series is currently in production and will be helmed by filmmaker Matthew Hamachek, known for his work on The Dynasty: New England Patriots and Tiger.

• WWE and Netflix are teaming up with Omaha Productions for a new series, WWE: Unreal, which will provide a behind-the-scenes look at the pro wrestling giant’s creative process. And while the project was first announced in April (complete with a trailer that heavily features Levesque), we now know that the five-episode series will make its debut on the streamer on July 29.

• The WTA signed a new six-year deal with the Sinclair-owned Tennis Channel that will see all WTA 1000, 500, and 250 events played outside of the United States remain on Tennis Channel, the T2 FAST channel, and the Tennis Channel+ streaming service.

• ESPN announced on Wednesday that it has signed a five-year media rights deal with the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL), which will begin in the 2026 season. The deal also includes a minority equity investment by ESPN in the league.

📣 NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

“Apparently, I made a hell of an impact in Portland.” - Colin Cowherd, after ESPN’s Malika Andrews accidentally referred to Portland Trail Blazers draft pick Cedric Coward as ‘Colin Cowherd.’

“I want to live forever, but I’m not sure I want to go [forever]. I mean, I don’t know. I see the value in what Al Michaels is doing. I see the value in John Sterling staying around until he was 86.” - Yankees announcer Michael Kay on his broadcasting future.

“I would say that as the NFL’s monitoring my media appearances, which they are.” - Pablo Torre, following his bombshell report of potential collusion between the NFL and NFLPA.

“I think it’s going to hopefully lift up even ESPN, did a great job for a long time, but now maybe they’re going to be, ‘Hey, we’re going to look at it a little differently too.’” - ESPN’s John McEnroe on TNT’s foray into tennis coverage.

🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

The Detroit Tigers are in the midst of a magical year.

Earlier in the week, they became the first Major League Baseball team to reach 50 wins on the season and currently hold a commanding lead over the Cleveland Guardians in the American League Central. When Tigers fans tune in to watch their favorite team play, it’s often one of the highlights of their day.

The only thing that could be better is when their favorite team can’t play.

When inclimate weather delays the start or puts a pause on a Tigers game, that’s when one of the best broadcasting booths in the league really shines.

In recent weeks, there have been several instances where a weather delay has caused the FanDuel Sports Network Detroit booth to kill some time. But instead of scrambling or overcomplicating things, they’ve simply let their broadcasters hang out, which has turned Detroit Tigers rain delays into must-see TV.

A large part of the credit goes to play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti, who is as comfortable kibbitzing about TV shows and baseball factoids as he is calling the game action. Whether he’s puttering with analyst Dan Petry or dallying with reporter Daniella Bruce and analyst Andy Dirks, he’s a true master of soggy-day ceremonies.

Thanks to the smart usage of the #RainyDayQuestions hashtag, the booth can react in real-time to questions from viewers. Sometimes those questions concern the literal baseball team everyone is there to watch. Sometimes… not.

Bruce, Dirks, Petry, and others all bring a sense of fun to the festivities as well, which makes it all the more enjoyable. It’s like hanging out with a good group of friends you didn’t know you had—a quintessential baseball broadcasting experience.

So while Tigers games have given fans many sunny days so far this season, we’ll keep an eye out for the cloudy horizons to know when one of the best shows on TV is back.