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 ✍️

👀 Super Bowl sets new ratings record. As expected — and despite the game being a blowout — Super Bowl LIX set a new Super Bowl ratings record with Fox projecting an average of 126 million viewers across all all platforms, surpassing last year’s mark of 123.7 million viewers. While additional details won’t be available until Nielsen data is released on Tuesday, Fox has already announced that its free ad-supported streaming service, Tubi, accounted for an average of 13.6 million viewers.

🎤 Where was Lil Wayne? That was the question many football and music fans found themselves asking last week, as the New Orleans native was seemingly nowhere to be found as his hometown hosted Super Bowl LIX. But while the “Lollipop” rapper had hinted at being upset over being snubbed for the Super Bowl halftime show in favor of Kendrick Lamar, he managed to parlay his “sensitivity” into a new ad campaign for the skincare brand Cetaphil.

🏀 NBC Sports hires Austin Rivers as a college basketball analyst. The former Duke star and NBA veteran will make his debut alongside play-by-play man Paul Burmeister for Tuesday night’s Peacock exclusive matchup between Indiana and Michigan State.

📺️ Tubi records shortest Super Bowl streaming lag. As streaming continues to take up a bigger space in the sports media landscape, there’s been plenty of discussion regarding services’ lag times. And when it comes to Sunday’s Super Bowl, it was Tubi who reigned supreme, with the Fox-owned streaming service recording a 26-second lag from Fox’s national feed — a full 25 seconds better than the closest competitor, NFL Plus, according to TheDesk.net.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

Orlovsky hints at uncertain future

With the 2024 NFL season officially in the books, all eyes now shift toward the league’s offseason.

And it’s not just the teams that have to worry about losing departing free agents, but also the networks that cover them.

But while most media stars’ contract statuses aren’t public knowledge — could you imagine a Spotrac website for reporters and analysts — at least one has already hinted that he’s ready to test the open market. Signing off from First Take on Monday, Dan Orlovsky alluded to his uncertain future, noting that he’s not sure when — or even if — he’ll be returning to ESPN’s airwaves in the foreseeable future.

“You guys know this is the end of the season for me… I’m taking a break, won’t be on TV for a long time,” Orlovsky said. “I just want to say to thank you to you guys, Stephen A., Molly [Qerim], Shannon [Sharpe] for a great season. I love you all. You never know what the future holds, but I’m taking a break… so I just want to say thank you. I appreciate you guys so much.”

While it only behooves Orlovsky’s negotiating leverage to make such comments, it’s worth noting that Fox made a run at the former NFL quarterback before he ultimately opted to re-sign with ESPN in 2022. The 41-year-old also hasn’t been shy to openly discuss his coaching aspirations, something that has seemingly become an annual storyline each offseason.

Whether Orlovsky ultimately considers joining another network, actually makes the jump to the coaching ranks or merely uses his options to secure a new (and presumably better) deal at ESPN remains to be seen. In any event, it was interesting to see the former UConn star publicly allude to his contract status at the Worldwide Leader, setting the stage for what could ultimately wind up being one of the biggest sports media stories of the NFL offseason.

📱 SOCIAL MEDIA POST OF THE DAY 🏆️ 

OK, maybe the NFL is biased toward Patrick Mahomes.

Move over “Chris Paul hits a huge three to cut the lead to 42.” There’s a new unintentionally funny YouTube video worth mocking.

🎤 MEDIA MOMENTS ✍️ 

• Unlike many, Stephen A. Smith wasn’t a fan of Serena Williams’ cameo during Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show. Rather, the ESPN star questioned why the tennis legend would be concerned with trolling her ex, Drake, when she’s been married to Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian since 2017.

• It’s no secret that Bill Simmons is a huge New England Patriots fan and thus, a Tom Brady fan. And while even The Ringer founder couldn’t defend the 7-time Super Bowl champion’s performance in the broadcast booth, he did call Super Bowl LIX Brady’s “best moment” since retiring, as it put the GOAT debate between the Fox analyst and Patrick Mahomes on hold until further notice.

• Speaking of the GOAT debate, count Shannon Sharpe among those who needs to see more from Mahomes before even entertaining the conversation. And while that may be a valid stance, it also led to ESPN’s Ryan Clark pointing out the hypocrisy of the Hall of Fame tight end being an ardent supporter of LeBron James’ in similar debates involving Michael Jordan.

✍️ AROUND AA ✍️ 

Who will be in the 2025 NFL Kickoff Game?

While we may be just hours removed from the end of the 2024 NFL season, it’s never too early to start looking ahead to 2025. Especially considering that with the Philadelphia Eagles winning Super LIX, we can now narrow the list of potential matchups for next season’s NFL Kickoff Game.

Assuming the NFL sticks with its traditional format, the 2025 Week 1 season opener will see the defending Super Bowl champions hosting a home game in primetime on Thursday night. And thanks to the NFL’s scheduling format, we know that the Eagles will host the following teams during the 2025 campaign:

• Dallas Cowboys

• New York Giants

• Washington Commanders

• Chicago Bears

• Detroit Lions

• Denver Broncos

• Las Vegas Raiders

• Los Angeles Rams

As noted by Awful Announcing’s Drew Lerner, it wouldn’t make much sense for the NFL to waste an Eagles-Cowboys matchup on a game already likely to draw a massive number. Conversely, you still want a good game, so you can likely eliminate the Giants and Raiders from the equation.

That leaves the Commanders, Lions, Rams and Broncos, with Washington and Detroit standing out as the likeliest opponents. An NFC Championship Game rematch or a showdown featuring one of the NFL’s most high octane offenses and the defending Super Bowl champions? Sept. 4, 2025 can’t get here soon enough.

🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥 

There’s an obvious solution for Fox and Tom Brady

As I reviewed Tom Brady’s Super Bowl broadcasting debut in not-so-glowing terms, I couldn’t help but think about how silly all of this is.

Think back to when you first heard that Fox had hired Tom Brady to call games — you probably thought the idea was crazy, right? And if you did, you were ultimately correct, as the reality of the situation is that Brady has never been a fit for the broadcast booth.

That’s not to say that he doesn’t belong in sports media (please, don’t leave us), but all indications through Year 1 at Fox have been that he’d be much better suited for a studio show than calling the network’s biggest game each week. What’s more is that Fox NFL Sunday appears headed for a reboot with Jimmy Johnson and Terry Bradshaw each nearing retirement and it’s hard to think of a better path forward than a show centered around Brady and his longtime rival/certified media pro Michael Strahan.

Another bonus: Putting Brady in the studio would also allow Fox to reinsert Greg Olsen into its top broadcast booth. Rather than having a shaky top broadcast team featuring Brady and whatever it winds up doing with its studio show post-Johnson/Bradshaw, Fox could have the NFL’s top No. 1 booth while also recementing Fox NFL Sunday’s status as the league’s best studio show.

And yet, despite all of this seeming obvious, I don’t expect it to happen and I’ll never understand why. My best guess is that it’s a status thing — Brady and/or Fox see him in the broadcast booth as a bigger deal than a studio show. And to that, I would just reply with two words: Charles Barkley.

While I don’t think that Brady could be the next Barkley, the Hall of Fame power forward’s success on Inside the NBA has proven that you don’t need to be calling games for your star power to translate to your media career. My only hope is that somebody at Fox or in Brady’s camp has the same epiphany that I did and encourages him to give the studio a shot before he becomes disinterested in working in sports media altogether and it’s too later.