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🏈 ESPN unveiled its college football announcing lineup for the 2026 season with teams switched up to fill a couple high-profile voids.

🏈 Not to be outdone, the NFL on Fox has helped out all of you early planners by already revealing their Week 1 announcing schedule.

🐴 NBC is holding on to the Preakness Stakes rights, preserving their hold on the first two legs of the Triple Crown.

📺 While YouTube TV subscribers finally have access to ESPN Unlimited, they are going to have to wait for full integration into their existing interface.

🏈 The Senate bill aimed at saving college sports has a huge ask: that the CFP National Championship Game would be played no later than January 8. If only…

🍺 When Mug root beer mascots are celebrating emotional title wins at SummerSlam, you know WWE’s commercial overload is getting out of hand.

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

Dianna Russini has made headlines once again this week, even though she hasn’t been heard from in months.

The former NFL insider was called out by Aaron Rodgers in his latest grievance-riddled appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. Rodgers wondered why ESPN didn’t cover Russini’s affair with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel in any detail. He was later backed up in that question by former NFL star LeSean McCoy on Speakeasy.

ESPN isn’t really in the business of covering the personal lives of NFL reporters. But it does beg the question when, or if, Russini will decide to tell her side of the story.

Russini issued her resignation letter on April 14 and then deleted or locked her social accounts on April 23 after another release of intimate photos with Vrabel.

With the football season upon us, now would seem to be the time when Russini would be preparing to tell her story if she has any interest at all in reentering public life. But where, and with whom, would that highly-coveted interview be? Here’s a look at the potential leaders in the field.

1) Good Morning America - Russini’s story - the rise, the fall, and the potential comeback story- would be perfect fodder for morning show television. And as we’ve seen recently, GMA has dove into some very personal sports stories. They landed an interview with former Michigan assistant Paige Shiver about her relationship and breakup with Sherrone Moore as well as former running back Chris Johnson, who shared his ALS diagnosis. If Russini wants something of a softer landing with a mainstream audience in the hopes of rehabilitating her image and career, this is the leader in the clubhouse.

2) Stugotz and Company - If Russini wants to give her story to a trusted friend and ally in the business, look no further than Jon “Stugotz” Weiner. The Fox Sports radio host has made no bones about the fact that he is still on Russini’s side in spite of the scandal that has seen her journalism collapse. Stugotz has said there is a seat waiting for Dianna Russini if and when she is ready to tell her story.

3) South Beach Sessions - Having to choose sides in the nasty split between Dan Le Batard and Stugotz might not be something Russini wants to engage with, especially after all that she has experienced this year. But the more personalized interview show with another friend in the business is most definitely another option. DLB would offer a more serious, personal reflection while also giving her a trusted person to open up to.

4) Pardon My Take - Russini has more friends with a wider reach at one of the top podcasts in sports on PMT. The former NFL insider was a frequent guest on the program. And if she’s looking to get back in the industry, or just restore her public persona, this would be a great opportunity to do so… especially if she is willing to look at the Vrabel affair and the job of NFL insider with a bit more levity.

5) Call Her Daddy - Then there’s the non-sports tell-all version. Russini told the New York Times, as part of its investigation, that she was a “former journalist.” Was that intentional? With Mike Vrabel seemingly untouched in his role as Patriots head coach and the football world moving on, this would be the platform for maximum shock and awe.

6) None - Then there’s the final option… Russini could choose to stay silent. If she is happier out of the public eye and focusing on her personal and family life, then perhaps the best course of action is to do nothing and stay out of the spotlight. Rather than trying to tell her story or set the record straight or reclaim a sports media career, maybe she’s made her own peace with the situation and just wants to put everything behind her. After her personal life became fodder for Page Six, who could blame her for that?

NFL analyst Gerald McCoy made quite the splash in his Get Up debut… or at least his broken fingers did.

Peter Burns of the SEC Network tried a little too hard to pass off conference propaganda as fact, as he was easily fact-checked.

Super Bowl winner and Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald has an old criticism from Rex Ryan always on standby to help him keep things in perspective.

"It was a joke. It was a f*cking joke. It's a joke," Marsh said. "How many more games does she need to go without getting a free throw? It makes no sense.” - Tyler Marsh of the Chicago Sky can expect to hear from the WNBA league office after this press conference rant.

"It’s about co-creating; what’s interesting to them, what’s interesting to us. How can we change certain things for their benefit?" - Larry Berg, incoming MLS commissioner, knows he has a tall order on his hands negotiating the league’s next rights deal.

"It's a miserable trade deadline. It's a failure of a deadline. There's no doubt about it. That's the only way to look.” - WFAN’s Chris McMonigle spoke for plenty of Yankees fans who were upset the team didn’t do more at the trade deadline.

Shut Up and Dribble
Born: February 15, 2018
Died: August 3, 2026

It’s been a long eight years, but we can finally stop the entire charade that was “Shut up and Dribble.” It died a slow, long, painful death after being excruciatingly inflicted upon the masses by Fox News host Laura Ingraham. But now, thankfully, we will never hear those words again when it comes to an attempt to shut down athletes and put them in their place.

Ironically, and maybe poetically, the movement was ended by the very same forces that started it.

It began when Ingraham told LeBron James that he wasn’t welcome to share his political, cultural, or societal beliefs because he was a mere basketball player. It ended when the same conservative media complex called Caitlin Clark a “coward” for refusing to pick up her sword and join the anti-trans rhetoric of the culture wars.

So which is it? Are athletes supposed to speak up and speak out? Or are they supposed to stay silent and just focus on providing entertainment in their chosen sport? As you have probably suspected from the beginning, it depends only on your political affiliation… not on whether you have a right or a responsibility to speak.

If you wanted further evidence of the game being up, look no further than another Fox News host in Jesse Watters, who broke the fourth wall on The Five by saying he was sick and tired of feigning interest in the WNBA. The network’s flavor of the month has been supporting Sophie Cunningham against unnamed and unseen transgender athletes, but Watters said he was ready to check out because, get this, he hates the WNBA.

You mean to tell me these people who have been whipped into a frenzy over “protecting women’s sports” aren’t actually fans and supporters of real women’s sports? Who would have thunk it!

Trust me, everyone would welcome it if Watters, Ingraham, and other political grifters stayed out of sports. Truth be told, though, we’re all guilty of this phenomenon. We all want athletes, movie stars, and everyone else to share our beliefs. It doesn’t matter if you’re a WNBA star speaking on inclusivity or Aaron Rodgers sharing any number of COVID-related conspiracy theories. If you agree with them, you’ll gladly get the pom poms out and cheer along. If you don’t, you want them permanently muted and banished from public life.

We’re nowhere close to solving or even bringing an iota of common sense to our toxic political discourse in this country. But at least we can finally agree that athletes have a right to say as much or as little as they please. And anyone who tries to feign otherwise can stick to politics, take their ball, and go home.