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⚾ Who did ESPN’s Jeff Passan turn to in launching his new baseball podcast with Omaha? A man he’s never seen the face of.

▶️ The wait for YouTube TV subscribers to gain access to ESPN Unlimited moves past the WrestleMania 42 deadline.

🐴 The Preakness Stakes could move back a week to preserve more future Triple Crown chances and become more attractive to TV networks.

⛳ Jim Nantz defended the work of CBS Sports after its heavily criticized Masters Sunday coverage that featured a series of errors. One positive for CBS is that the tournament posted its highest final-round viewership in 11 years.

🏈 Netflix is pursuing a way to get the rights to the NFL season opener after having Opening Night in baseball.

Read more of today’s top stories at Awful Announcing.

The saga involving Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel hasn’t necessarily come to an end, but it has hit a major turning point. Photos published a week ago by The New York Post of the pair at a private resort have led to Russini’s resignation from The Athletic. The resignation ends her three-year tenure at the publication, following her departure from ESPN in 2023.

Although The Athletic first stood by Dianna Russini in the immediate aftermath of the photo dump, things quickly changed. She was sidelined in the midst of an actual investigation, and reports were made public about internal strife being caused by mixed messages inside the publication. Even the story from the New York Times, which owns The Athletic and uses it as the paper’s sports section, raised more questions than answers by citing an unnamed source regarding the investigation, rather than having anyone go on the record, as happened initially.

Russini posted her resignation letter on social media. It could be best classified as defiant. She says she chose to take this step before her contract expired in June and blames leaks regarding the internal investigation, as well as the rumors and innuendo that have exploded around it.

“I have decided to step aside now — before my current contract expires on June 30,” Russini wrote. “I do so not because I accept the narrative that has been constructed around this episode, but because I refuse to lend it further oxygen or to let it define me or my career.”

For his part, Athletic editor Steven Ginsberg’s message to staff about the resignation was also made public by media reporter Dylan Byers. And his view paints the picture of a reporter who hadn’t told her employer the whole story of her relationship with one of her sources.

“As additional information emerged, new questions were raised that became part of our investigation,” Ginsberg wrote. “While our investigation into Dianna’s conduct was ongoing, she chose to resign.”

With her contract expiring in June, there was no realistic prospect of Dianna Russini working for The Athletic to cover the 2026 football season. The question now becomes whether she will be working anywhere else.

It’s clear that Russini has tried to get ahead of the investigation's results and has left The Athletic trying to hold on to what is left of her public reputation. Her letter is part resignation and part public relations statement. Although she continues to proclaim her innocence of any improprieties, the specter of misbehavior, journalistically, ethically, and morally, will be nearly impossible to shake. Just look at the one football tweet Russini issued in the wake of the scandal, and at what happened in the replies and comments, as evidence of that. She turned replies off to the post about her resignation letter.

Could you imagine the public furor if a major network signed Russini as an NFL insider this season? How would fans be able to trust her reporting? Could she ever offer any insights into Vrabel and the Patriots again and be taken seriously? How would the company explain what happened with Vrabel, given that the leaked memo from Ginsberg suggests she may not have given The Athletic the full story?

That memo may prove to be the most fatal blow to any hopes of reviving her NFL reporting career. Others may disagree, but if she does try to push forward as an insider, it would probably have to be for a digital company like Barstool Sports that isn’t shy about giving lightning-rod figures a second chance. (See: Gruden, Jon.)

It takes years to build credibility, but it can be lost in an instant. Maybe we will never know the real story of her relationship with Mike Vrabel. But it’s raised enough questions among the public that she can’t be seen as a reliable news source. That may be the result of a double standard for women in the industry, it may be the result of pictures being taken out of context, but the perception is that Russini can no longer be trusted. And that is a very real problem for her moving forward.

But that does not mean her media career is over.

Russini’s own statement makes it clear that she does not plan to let the Vrabel saga define her time in the industry. While Dianna Russini may not report on the NFL anytime soon, she would be far from the first personality to go through a scandal and stage a comeback. We live in a world where Chris Cuomo and Bill O’Reilly still regularly appear on national cable television, somehow. Anyone and everyone is free to launch their own podcast. Given her fame and notoriety, there will certainly be an audience for whatever she does next. And given the number of friends she has in the industry, odds are someone will give her a lifeline.

We know she has at least one standing job offer already. Jon “Stugotz” Weiner says he has a seat waiting for her at Fox Sports Radio.

Longtime Toronto Maple Leafs announcer Joe Bowen was given an emotional sendoff in his final home game.

ESPN’s Buster Olney shared his thoughts on the current realities of “quid pro quo” in media and is sounding the alarm.

Joe Davis was as surprised as anyone by this very late timeout called up against the pitch clock.

"So your entire Masters coverage is a fantasy world. It's bullsh*t. Whatever we all watch has already happened seven minutes ago.” - Kevin Kisner may have launched a civil war between NBC and CBS over their respective golf coverage by burying the competition’s work at the Masters.

"If [the Bucks] spent as much time dealing with their own internal dynamics and problems as they do responding to accurate reports, they wouldn't be in the mess that they're in right now.” - Shams Charania fired back at the Bucks after they brushed off his reporting on the culture of the organization.

“I appreciate that you're focused on me as well. I wonder if you would ask that of a man, by the way, but I realize as women we get asked different questions than men do.” - Cathy Engelbert fell flat with her attempt to play the victim card as WNBA commissioner.

It would seem an unthinkable proposition. The most-watched show in network primetime the past 15 years, moving to a streamer? But the possible scenario of Netflix winning the rights to Sunday Night Football isn’t really that far-fetched.

It’s an idea that was floated by media analyst Michael Nathanson in an interview with Puck’s John Ourand. And it comes amid a swirling storm of the NFL seeking to renegotiate its current rights deals and pressure from the FCC and DOJ to prevent the accelerated move of NFL games to streaming services, even threatening the league’s antitrust protections.

How could NBC lose the NFL in such an environment? The reasons are both political and economic. While the Trump administration is keen to protect political allies at Fox and CBS, it might not share the same passion for NBC at Comcast. And NBC is already paying billions annually for the NBA and just added Sunday Night Baseball. If the NFL asks for too much to keep hold of SNF, especially given its ratings power and reliability, there may be a number NBC can’t mathematically match.

So let’s go down the rabbit hole. What could NFL media rights look like in 2030 if Netflix does the unthinkable and picks up Sunday Night Football?

CBS and Fox keep the status quo

If the powers that be in the Trump administration are going to be satisfied in keeping as many games as possible on over-the-air broadcast networks, odds are that CBS and Fox are going to be the biggest winners, given the ties of the Ellisons and Murdochs. It doesn’t hurt that CBS and Fox have relationships with the NFL dating back decades, including their AFC and NFC packages.

However, the NFL has slowly been chipping away at both deals in recent years by spinning off more and more games to streamers on different nights of the week, thereby somewhat devaluing the Sunday afternoon packages. If Netflix is going to pick up SNF, the NFL and Trump admin could find a detente in resisting the urge to further dilute Sunday afternoons.

CBS and Fox could renew their current packages while also adding Christmas Day games that would have been given to Netflix, as well as some of the other special games that have been pulled in recent years. The new five-game package of standalone holiday and international games could be a nice network sweetener to satisfy the authorities.

ESPN bolsters its position

If you want to put your most cynical hat on, there’s another network that has well-positioned itself to do business with the NFL in the next rights window — ESPN. Not only are they business partners with the NFL, but the NFL is also now a part-owner of the network. Are we for one second to believe that the NFL is not going to have games on a network it partially owns?

The question is, what package will it be? ESPN would be a mortal lock to continue broadcasting Monday Night Football, given the resources it has invested in the franchise, including rights and talent. If NBC gets locked out, you could see ESPN adding some of their big nights, like the season-opening game and Thanksgiving night. If you don’t need Peacock for its exclusive window and it’s a game on ABC instead, Roger Goodell can actually sell fans on needing fewer subscriptions in the new rights deals!

Google and Amazon play their part

It’s no secret that streamers want more NFL games. Amazon has had Thursday Night Football for a number of years, and the NFL just had its first YouTube broadcast last season, in addition to its Sunday Ticket deal with YouTube TV. To keep everyone happy, Google and Amazon could split the Thursday-night games, as we have seen in the past. Amazon can keep its Black Friday game and take the second half of the year, while Google can push forward with more international games in the early part of the calendar. Maybe Apple even gets involved for a one-off, as we saw with YouTube last season? Perhaps NBC gets given a bone with a small carve-out as well, so they aren’t completely shut out.

Of course, in all these scenarios, the NFL will break the bank with its new rights deals. But even if Sunday Night Football goes to streaming, the NFL will claim that it’s still the most accessible professional sports league every Sunday afternoon. The league can sell individual games to the highest bidder on whatever day they choose, but that may be the firewall that keeps them from any investigative harm. Especially if the current administration’s friends can benefit, the government authorities will likely be happy.

After seeing it spelled out, maybe it’s actually a lot more realistic than we think. Of course, the next question will be whether one of the streamers could also pick up Super Bowl rights. But that may be best served for a future negotiation instead of stirring the hornet’s nest any further right now.