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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

📺 Stuck with a stinker. The NFL won't flex Washington's Week 13 game against Denver out of Sunday Night Football despite the Commanders entering their bye at 3-8 with six straight losses. Marcus Mariota will likely start against the 9-2 Broncos in a primetime matchup nobody asked for, but CBS auto-protected Texans-Colts, leaving NBC with limited options.

🌙 ACC After Dark chaos. Notre Dame will close its regular season at Stanford with a 10:30 p.m. ET kickoff on Nov. 29, sparking outrage from Irish fans and media who'll need to stay awake past 1 a.m. to watch a 10-1 playoff contender face a 3-7 opponent. This is the cost of quasi-independence: Notre Dame gets its NBC contract, but the ACC controls kickoff times.

🗳️ Finebaum's timeline. SEC Network host Paul Finebaum told Clay Travis and Buck Sexton he'll wait until after the college football season to decide whether to run for U.S. Senate in Alabama as a Republican. Finebaum thanked ESPN content president Burke Magnus for allowing him time to explore politics, suggesting his status at the network was never actually in jeopardy.

🛡️ Aggressive spin cycle. Josina Anderson repeatedly defended Shedeur Sanders' disastrous NFL debut, emphasizing his lack of first-team reps after the Browns’ rookie went 4-of-16 for 47 yards with an interception and fumble in Cleveland's loss to Baltimore. Anderson described a third-and-10 completion thrown eight yards short as "against-all-odds" because Sanders had no practice reps, not because Jerry Jeudy bailed him out.

🏆 Romo's hedged MVP take. Tony Romo said Matthew Stafford "should almost be the leader in the clubhouse" for MVP, using a golf term that suggests the race is over despite seven weeks remaining. Stafford leads the NFL with 27 touchdowns against two interceptions, but declaring a clubhouse leader with seven weeks left is like calling a winner on the front nine.

🚨 LEADING OFF 🚨

Tony Romo has become a parody of himself

Tony Romo burst onto the NFL broadcasting scene in 2017 like a revelation. The former Cowboys quarterback predicted plays before they happened, brought infectious energy to CBS's No. 1 booth, and made watching football feel like hanging out with the smartest guy in your fantasy league. The network rewarded him with a 10-year, $180 million contract in 2020, making him the highest-paid NFL analyst in television history.

Five years later, that contract looks like one of the worst decisions in sports media.

How did we get here? The answer arrived in Denver on Sunday afternoon.

Chiefs offensive tackle Kingsley Suamataia ripped Malcolm Roach's helmet off during Sunday's game against the Broncos, committing an obvious illegal hands penalty in front of 76,000 fans at Empower Field. Tony Romo, calling the game for CBS, decided this was the moment to perform a one-man comedy routine.

"Hey, that helmet. Take your helmet off. Give it to me. Give it to me. There you go, thank ya. Yeah, you can't do that. That's not allowed," Romo said on the replay, doing voices for both players as if he were narrating a children's cartoon instead of analyzing a 10-yard penalty in a critical AFC West game.

It's the kind of call that would've been quirky and endearing in 2017 when Romo was predicting plays before they happened and revolutionizing NFL analysis. Eight years later, it's just another example of an analyst who's devolved from must-watch television into background noise punctuated by weird sounds and forced humor.

The play itself deserved actual analysis. Suamataia grabbed Roach's facemask mid-rush, yanked his helmet completely off, and committed one of the more blatant penalties you'll see on an NFL field. Why did the Chiefs' offensive tackle resort to such a blatant foul? What does it say about Kansas City's struggling offensive line in a game they desperately needed to win against a Broncos team that had won seven straight?

Instead, Romo turned it into a bit. He did character voices. He performed a little routine. And viewers watching a critical AFC West showdown got comedy hour instead of the analysis CBS is paying him $18 million annually to provide.

The transformation didn't happen overnight.

The play predictions that made Romo must-watch television are gone. What's left is an analyst who praises Patrick Mahomes for throwing incomplete passes into the dirt, calling them "winning plays" that showcase "great instincts." He turns Bills games into Josh Allen love letters, gushing over scrambles that half the league's quarterbacks make every Sunday.

CBS knows there's a problem. The network reportedly conducted an "intervention" with Romo years ago about his performance. Romo himself admitted on Cousin Sal's podcast that criticism is "warranted," saying, "maybe I should do these things, maybe they're right in some ways."

The Athletic's Andrew Marchand said last week that Romo and Jim Nantz are "regressing" as a broadcast team, pointing to an "uncle-nephew dynamic" where Romo makes jokes and Nantz tries to figure out what he's talking about.

"You just don't necessarily feel it when you're watching the game," Marchand said.

CBS gave Romo that 10-year, $180 million deal in 2020 when ESPN showed interest, panicking and locking him up through 2030. At the time, it seemed necessary to keep the hottest name in sports media. Five years later, the magic is gone, and the contract is unmovable.

The network already solved this exact problem in 2017 when Phil Simms lost touch with viewers. CBS created a studio role for him on The NFL Today, and everyone moved on. The blueprint exists. Move Romo to the studio where his enthusiasm can work in shorter bursts, pair Nantz with an analyst who actually complements his style, and stop pretending this arrangement still works.

But CBS has six years left on Romo's contract. Six more years of character voices during penalty explanations, weird noises during critical moments, and an analyst who treats NFL broadcasts like comedy hour while the network pays him $18 million annually and acts like everything's fine.

Sunday's helmet call wasn't an isolated incident. It's who Tony Romo has become — an analyst who's fallen from revolutionizing NFL broadcasting to performing bits during penalties. And CBS is stuck with him through 2030, one comedy routine at a time.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

Colin Cowherd weighs in on economic doom-and-gloom:

Cam Newton thinks Kevin Stefanski is sabotaging Shedeur Sanders:

Rex Ryan questions Shedeur Sanders sitting alone on the Browns bench after his disastrous debut:

Howie Long keeps it simple on Caleb Williams:

🗣️ NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

"I think Barstool and myself has always had a pretty good moral compass. We've never stood for hate or anything of that ilk. Making jokes that you are trying to hurt people's feelings, that's never flown with us." - Dave Portnoy on CBS's Sunday Morning, defending Barstool's history despite documented instances including calling Sam Ponder a "f*cking slut" and comparing Colin Kaepernick to Osama Bin Laden.

"Never mentions the wind in the standup. Why bother?" - Mike Francesa ripping Fox sideline reporter Kristina Pink for failing to mention 38 mph wind gusts during her pregame standup at MetLife Stadium, one of the windiest stadiums in football.

"We can't lose sight of the fact that the regional networks are important to the fans. That's your connection to the team." - Mike Breen, urging the NBA to value local broadcasts despite commissioner Adam Silver pushing more games to national networks and streaming services.

"Shane Beamer right now, I hate to say it, just looks like a loser. There's no getting around it." - Paul Finebaum destroying South Carolina coach Shane Beamer after the Gamecocks blew a 30-3 lead against Texas A&M, noting he has a better chance of being fired than getting another job.

"I just got my ass kicked. This ain't funny to me. Do you understand that? I do this sh*t for a living. OK?" - NC State coach Dave Doeren snapping at a reporter who tried to lighten the mood by asking about his December 3 birthday after a 41-7 blowout loss to Miami.

"Did you say 'sprightly'? That is big for you, Tony." - Jim Nantz shocked by Tony Romo's vocabulary after Romo described Travis Kelce as looking "sprightly" this season, with Romo joking he read the dictionary for the first time this week.

📺 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 🎬

• The rebranded MS Now is reportedly eyeing an "expanded role" for Pablo Torre as the Versant-owned network pushes into digital audio, video, and subscription products. Torre has been a regular MSNBC contributor since leaving ESPN in 2023, positioning him as another sports personality crossing into political commentary alongside Stephen A. Smith and Michael Strahan.

• NBCSN launched Monday for YouTube TV customers with its live sports schedule coming into focus: Bucks-Cavaliers opened the network, followed by college basketball and the Hall of Fame Classic. The network will prioritize NBA, college basketball, and Premier League matches from Peacock's streams, with PFT Live, The Dan Le Batard Show, and The Dan Patrick Show filling daytime hours.

• Sinclair Broadcast Group has built an 8% stake in E.W. Scripps and is pushing for a takeover, per The Wall Street Journal. Scripps' sports portfolio — including WNBA and NWSL rights on Ion, plus local rights for four NHL teams — is driving the deal's value. The acquisition would require FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to change ownership rules, though Carr has publicly mulled loosening restrictions this year.

• Netflix announced that Jake Paul will face former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Dec. 19 in Miami, following the cancellation of the Gervonta Davis exhibition. The 36-year-old Joshua represents Paul's most formidable opponent yet, with ESPN reporting the fight will be sanctioned rather than an exhibition.

🎺 AROUND AA 🎺

College football's announcing landscape looks dramatically different from what it did just a few years ago. The sport's most prominent voices have scattered across networks, creating new booth combinations that range from inspired to utterly baffling.

Awful Announcing's readers ranked every major college football broadcast team for 2025, evaluating chemistry, play-by-play accuracy, analysis quality, and whether the booth actually enhances the viewing experience or fills dead air with noise.

Some tandems justify their prime time slots. Others make you wonder how they survived the offseason. And a few are so egregiously bad that viewers are better off watching on mute.

The rankings consider everything from the obvious star power of networks' top teams to the surprising competence of crews that fly under the radar. Who's actually good at their job? Whose coasting on reputation? And which broadcast team makes fans actively avoid watching certain games?

Click to read the full rankings and find out which booth readers crowned as college football's best — and which ones need to be reassigned immediately.

️‍️‍🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

YouTube TV won because Disney had no other choice

Disney and YouTube TV ended their two-week carriage dispute Friday night with a deal that tells you everything about where the industry is heading.

YouTube TV got what it wanted. All ESPN content, including everything on the new ESPN Unlimited tier, will be available directly within the YouTube TV platform. That means WWE premium live events, studio shows, and anything else ESPN puts behind a paywall show up natively for YouTube TV subscribers without switching apps. YouTube TV also secured the ability to build skinny bundles around ESPN sports content, giving them the flexibility to offer cheaper packages that will drive subscriber growth.

Disney protected Disney+ and Hulu as standalone apps, keeping that content separate from the YouTube TV platform. Users will still need to launch those apps individually if they want to watch scripted shows or Disney's extensive on-demand libraries.

The question is which piece actually matters. YouTube TV is the only pay-TV distributor still adding subscribers while cable and satellite bleed customers every quarter. Disney just handed the one platform that's actually growing everything it needs to keep growing faster.

The skinny bundle piece matters more than Disney wants to admit. YouTube TV can now offer sports-focused packages without all the filler channels nobody watches. That positions them to undercut traditional cable on price while providing a better product to the growing segment of consumers who care only about live sports.

Awful Announcing's Drew Lerner broke down the details of ingestion and bundling in his piece analyzing who won the carriage war. His conclusion: YouTube TV gets the slight edge based on publicly available information, though Disney did protect some core assets in the process.

The real winner comes down to price, which neither side will disclose. If Disney secured rates that prevent triggering lower-rate clauses in contracts with traditional distributors, that's a win. If YouTube TV got lower rates despite being the only platform adding subscribers, that's their win.

Without knowing the numbers, YouTube TV still comes out ahead on the surface. They integrated live sports natively, improving the user experience and keeping people on their platform longer. They got skinny bundle flexibility, which positions them to keep stealing market share from dying cable companies. And they got all of this while Disney celebrated keeping apps separate that nobody asked to stay separate.

The Friday night news dump timing said everything. Neither side wanted to explain the details, and Disney especially didn't want questions about why it just gave its most valuable sports content to the one distributor that doesn't need help growing.

Cable isn't dead, but these deals keep pushing it closer to irrelevance. YouTube TV is becoming the curator of streaming video, the one place people go to access everything without juggling apps. Disney just helped them get there.