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 ✍️

🏀 The Amazon Prime Video NBA lineup is firmly taking shape, with Stan Van Gundy as well as Steve Nash, Candace Parker, and Dwyane Wade all coming on board.

🏀 Incredibly, considering the early-season narratives, the NBA Playoffs are at a record high in ratings through 11 games on ESPN.

📺 The legal team of former Fox exec Charlie Dixon claims it was his wife’s freelance employment that got him fired and not the multiple sexual misconduct lawsuits against him.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

The Chapel Hill Circus

Did the University of North Carolina have any idea what they were signing up for when they hired Bill Belichick? That is one of the burning questions surrounding what has truly become one of the strangest, most enthralling stories in sports: the relationship between Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson.

The romance between the 73-year-old six-time Super Bowl winner and the 24-year-old Hudson certainly raised eyebrows when it was first revealed. But now it’s entering bizarro-world levels that have rarely been seen in major American sports.

After the CBS interview trainwreck, during which Hudson apparently repeatedly interjected herself into proceedings, she went on a social media spree, retweeting Belichick's defenders and sharing private e-mails about his upcoming book.

Wherever Belichick has been since taking the UNC job, Hudson has been there even if it’s on the practice field.

As strange as this has all been, what happens when North Carolina actually starts playing games? Does Jordon Hudson fade into the background? Or does her role as Belichick’s girlfriend/manager/handler/??? gain even more prominence?

There is reportedly a “growing sense this could become a problem” at Chapel Hill, according to TMZ. You think!?! This has the potential to make Urban Meyer’s tenure with the Jacksonville Jaguars look like he was Vince Lombardi.

Just imagine if Belichick gets off to a rocky start with his college football transition. How does College GameDay address the impact of a coach’s 24-year-old girlfriend on his job performance? How do you begin to talk about Belichick’s psyche and where his head is at? This is a man who famously had everything under control while winning national championships in New England. And now it’s fair to ask if he really has any idea what he is doing at all.

Bill Belichick showed up to what was the softest of softball interviews for the CBS Morning News weekend show in a ripped Navy sweatshirt, nobody from his current school in sight, and his girlfriend running riot. How is this real life?

What happens if the season doesn’t go according to plan at North Carolina - does Jordon Hudson start calling into Paul Finebaum to start fighting with the iconic host? It can’t be discounted as a possibility at this point!

There was already going to be a ton of intrigue about how well Bill Belichick would translate to the college game as one of the great coaches in NFL history this year. But never in a million years could we have predicted anything like this becoming an additional subplot in what could be one of the more surreal situations we have ever seen.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

The New York Mets paid tribute to superfan Seymour Weiner on social media. And yes, in case you were wondering, he was well aware of his name, which became a viral sensation. Rest In Peace, good sir.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson looks completely transformed as MMA legend Mark Kerr in the trailer for the new movie “The Smashing Machine,” which could be a career-defining role for the WWE star.

Every parent on planet Earth can empathize with Eli Manning when he tries to make a terrible dad joke about his daughter growing a playoff hockey beard.

🔦 IN THE SPOTLIGHT ☀️

The UFL was beaten by a 10-1 margin by Round 2 of the NFL Draft on Friday night. While that shouldn’t come as a huge shock, Year 2 of the UFL has seen ratings continue to slide, raising questions once again about the long-term viability of spring football.

🏄 _{CHANNEL SURFING} 🌊 

🎵 Fox Sports NFL/MLB play-by-play man Adam Amin goes from the microphone to the turntables as a DJ in Chicago. [Front Office Sports]

🏈 The Pac-2 has a new TV deal with The CW, ESPN, and CBS for 2025 as a reborn Pac-12 looks forward to a long-term deal in 2026. [Sports Business Journal]

🏈 Tom Brady may not be the only broadcaster/owner in the NFL, as Eli Manning is reportedly pursuing a potential stake in his former team, the New York Giants. [Bloomberg]

🗣️ NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

“Not on my watch, Ian Rapoport. You have 24 hours to fix this, to give credit where credit’s due with Bussin With The Boys, or I’m coming for your little ass in that A-gap.” - Will Compton to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport wanting proper credit for breaking the George Kittle contract news.

“Because if you didn’t play sports — if you weren’t a Super Bowl champion, if you weren’t Saquon Barkley — his reception of you would be a lot different.” - Jemele Hill on CNN addressed the double standard regarding Saquon Barkley’s White House visit.

“It’s going to be devastating. In the playoffs, my palms get sweaty. Memories come back. I get the chill bumps, because I always say, in the regular season you make your name and in the playoffs you gain your fame.” - Knicks legend Walt Frazier on calling his last playoff game for MSG.

🔥THE CLOSER🔥

NASCAR’s network disappearing act

NASCAR’s race this past Sunday at Talladega was a critical inflection point for America’s most popular racing series, and one of the most reliable ratings draws in sports.

NASCAR is taking an unprecedented four-month sabbatical from network television. After Sunday's race, which drew over 4 million viewers, the series will move to FS1 for the next three races. The Fox portion of the season will conclude at the All-Star weekend at North Wilkesboro.

Following that race will be the first on Prime Video with the Coca-Cola 600. After Amazon’s five races, TNT will air a new five-race stretch, followed by the first three races for the NBC portion of the schedule, which will air on USA. NASCAR finally returns to network airwaves on August 23 for the last race of the regular season on NBC.

NASCAR’s four-way TV deal with Fox, NBC, Amazon, and TNT was a bold move. Like most major sports leagues, NASCAR is betting on a future that relies on networks, cable, and streaming not only to survive but also to thrive. However, it is asking a lot of NASCAR fans to stay connected with the series as it transitions from one platform to the next.

Given the fragmented nature of viewing habits in 2025, NASCAR is certainly taking a risk. The industry as a whole significantly underplays the strength of their weekly ratings, even though they are well behind what the sport was doing at its peak. But let’s be honest, who isn’t experiencing that kind of effect except for the NFL?

Imagine, though, the NFL going exclusively to cable and streaming for Weeks 10-18 of the regular season. Fans would be in an uproar, and the rest of the industry would be watching to see how they would respond to the move. NASCAR is optimistic that Amazon viewers can match cable, but the real verdict may come when we find out how many fans are still around when the series returns to network airwaves in August.