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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

Wrestlepadoozy.The rollout for ESPN’s new and improved direct-to-consumer app has been confusing, to say the least. And with the first major app-exclusive live event coming this Saturday, WWE’sWrestlepalooza, confusion will be at an all-time high. ESPN reportedly has no plans to offer any form of limited accessibility for pay TV subscribers who don’t currently have access to ESPN Unlimited, which means WWE fans who get ESPN through distributors like Comcast, YouTube TV, Cox, Sling TV, and others will need to, in essence, double pay for ESPN if they want access to Saturday’s event. Grab your popcorn for this one.

Malone Zone. After the Denver Nuggets made the shocking decision to fire Michael Malone with less than a week left in the regular season, it didn’t take long for the NBA champion head coach to find a new home. And it now appears that his stint on NBA Countdown wasn’t just for last season’s playoffs, with ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro revealing on Tuesday that Malone will be joining the network’s pregame show on a full-time basis for the 2025-26 season.

London not calling. Major League Baseball hascanceled its planned 2026 London Series, with Fox Sports’ World Cup broadcast commitments playing a key role in the cancellation of the international games. The Yankees and Blue Jays were scheduled to play on June 13-14, but West Ham’s final Premier League match against Leeds is on May 24, and the tight turnaround made converting the soccer field impossible. Additionally, Fox couldn’t accommodate a later June date due to World Cup coverage.

🚨 LEADING OFF 🚨

Why the Tom Brady Rules piss people off

We here at Awful Announcing will be the first to admit that we think it’s weird that Tom Brady gets to call NFL games and gain access to teams, coaches, and players across the league while also being a very hands-on owner of one of them.

We’ve been pretty adamant on that front, even in the face of all the eyerolls and deep sighs we heard from many in the sports media.

That was all before this past Monday night, when Brady, Fox’s lead NFL analyst, was seen in the Las Vegas coaching booth wearing a headset while ESPN’s Peter Schrager shared that Raiders OC Chip Kelly “talks to Brady two to three times a week” and that “they go through film, they go through the gameplan.”

That unleashed a tidal wave of fresh reactions (including ours) questioning how the NFL could possibly be okay with this (which they are, using the “there’s nothing in the rulebook that says a dog can’t play basketball” excuse).

The takes were intense. Marcus Spears called it “abhorrent.” Boomer Esiason said it was “complete and utter B.S.” Stephen A. Smith encouraged NFL teams to lie to him during production meetings. There was an equally strong backlash to the backlash, as people like Bill Simmons and Dan Orlovsky don’t think this dual role benefits Brady and the Raiders all that much.

Do we think Tom Brady would use inside information he gleaned from his Fox role to benefit the Raiders if he could? Absolutely. He’s a ruthless competitor whose desire to win at all costs has followed him into team ownership. He also recently made clear where he’s willing to bend ethical lines.

Do we think Tom Brady is likely to benefit in any meaningful way from the information he gets during production meetings and interviews? Probably not. About the best he can hope for is building rapport with players and coaches he might one day want to sign.

While many people get caught up in the logistics of the situation, the real reason this rubs many people the wrong way has nothing to do with production meetings, Chip Kelly hangouts, or coaching booth headsets.

We find ourselves in an era where there’s a particular stratum of individuals who act as though they are above reproach and devoid of any responsibility beyond enriching themselves, regardless of the cost paid by the rest of us. We live in a world where billionaires and certain politicians make decisions based on whims or grudges and never seem to have to deal with any fallout or pushback. This isn’t a new phenomenon by any stretch, but there’s an intensity to it right now that feels inescapable.

Tom Brady is part of that group. Rich. Elite. Unbothered by the daily machinations of the world. Constantly in our faces with a new role, endeavor, or event. Continually finding new ways to enrich himself, even though he doesn’t need any more money. Consistently dropping bon mots about grit and tenacity and perseverance while shaking hands with oil tycoons and Saudi princes.

Back when Brady was a player and he’d go away every offseason, you could recalibrate. You could appreciate all of the things that made him so successful without feeling smothered by it. Now, there’s no escape. And there are seemingly no rules for him as he moves from the NFL booth to the locker room to the coaches' box to the owners' box to the private jet to the corporate headquarters and back around again.

It’s annoying, quite frankly. He’s annoying. And that’s ultimately what all of this sturm und drang over is about. There’s simply too much Tom Brady these days. And every time we see that the freakin’ NFL, arguably the one entity in America that doesn’t need to bend for anyone or anything, consistently bends for him, it feels a little ridiculous while reminding us how things work around here these days.

And all of this for a guy who is just mediocre at his job. This truly is a metaphor for our modern times.

🎺 AROUND AA 🎺

We still don’t know the whole story regarding why Molly Qerim left ESPN.

But what is clear is that First Take won’t be the same without her.

That’s not a knock on whoever ultimately replaces her. ESPN has several capable and qualified candidates to host its morning debate show, and as long as Stephen A. Smith remains in the main chair, it will likely continue to be a ratings monster. The brand is strong, as is its timeslot and its biggest star.

Still, Qerim’s exit leaves a void that can’t be easily filled. Ben Axelrod digs into the legacy of First Take’s unsung hero and the void she leaves behind.

📺 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 🎬

• The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand previewed Stephen A. Smith’s new weekly political radio show for SiriusXM’s POTUS channel, which premiered on Wednesday night. In doing so, the sports media insider revealed that Smith’s contract with the satellite radio company is a three-year, $36 million deal — and that’s just his side gig. Between that, his ESPN deal, and his YouTube show, Marchand estimates that Smith is making approximately $40 million annually.

• Last weekend was another strong week of viewership for college football. Leading the way was Georgia’s thrilling overtime victory against Tennessee in the 3:30 p.m. ET window on ABC. The Bulldogs’ win averaged 12.6 million viewers. LSU’s win over Florida averaged 7.6 million viewers in the 7:30 p.m. ET window. In an interesting quirk, ESPN’s noon ET window actually outdrew ABC’s game in the same time slot this past weekend. Georgia Tech’s tight win over Clemson averaged 4.8 million viewers on ESPN, while Alabama’s blowout win over Wisconsin averaged 4.5 million viewers on ABC. Over on NBC and Peacock, Texas A&M and Notre Dame were the third most-watched game of the week, averaging 6.2 million viewers. Fox’s Big Noon Saturday window posted a lackluster viewership figure, averaging just 2.28 million viewers for the Oregon-Northwestern game.

• The initial returns for ESPN’s and Fox’s respective streaming apps are in. According to third-party data firm Antenna, ESPN Unlimited and Fox One generated approximately one million combined subscribers during the period from August 21 (when both apps launched) to August 31. These subscribers, Antenna suggests, are “genuinely new,” meaning they do not include existing Disney subscribers who switched plans or those who access ESPN Unlimited through a traditional pay-TV subscription.

📣 NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

"The greatest coach in the history of football is not Bill Belichick or Bill Walsh or Vince Lombardi. It's Jim Harbaugh.” - Colin Cowherd going full Colin Cowherd.

"We want to find the best storyline of the week… “I think (Miami) is the place to be this week.” - Rece Davis, defending College GameDay’s decision to go to Miami-UF over other Indiana-Illinois and other options.

“Stephen A. opens doors for so many people, and he opened the door for me to fill in. And every time I reach out to thank him, he responds immediately, saying something kind to me.” - UnSportsmanlike’s Evan Cohen on Stephen A. Smith’s professionalism.

“In no way, shape, or form do I condone animal cruelty or dog fighting… I saw how it affected people, and decided to take it down.” - Cardinals QB Kyler Murray responding to backlash from an IG post of him wearing a Michael Vick jersey with a dog.

️‍🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

Which MLB teams have the best & worst overall broadcasters?

This week, we unveiled the inaugural MLB local radio booth rankings. We’ve been doing local TV broadcasters for years, but it felt only fair to give baseball radio’s best and brightest voices their due.

It also gave us an interesting data set to consider. Along with those 2025 radio rankings, we did the 2025 MLB local TV broadcaster rankings last month as well.

It got us thinking. Could we combine the rankings to determine which MLB franchises have the best overall broadcasting teams? It wouldn’t be the most scientific analysis ever conducted, mainly since the rankings are based on fan votes; however, we received almost 38,000 individual grades between the two, which gave us a pretty strong sample size.

So, we combined the local TV and radio rankings in a handy-dandy Google sheet. Here’s where everyone shook out:

The Miami Marlins and Colorado Rockies broadcasters tied for the worst overall ranking with a composite score of 29, although the Athletics broadcasters weren’t far behind (28.5).

As for the top ten, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cleveland Guardians tied for 10th overall (with a composite score of 12th), behind the Milwaukee Brewers (9.5), Boston Red Sox (9), Toronto Blue Jays (8.5), and Detroit Tigers (8).

The Philadelphia Phillies came in 5th overall, with the Chicago Cubs in 4th and the New York Mets in 3rd.

The top two broadcasting squads, the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres, were also the heavy-hitters of each ranking. The Padres (Don Orsillo and Mark Grant) took home the top prize on the TV side while the Giants (Jon Miller, Dave Flemming, et. al) took home the top spot on the radio side. In the end, the Padres edged out the Giants thanks to also having the No. 2 overall radio booth, while the Giants’ TV booth finished third. It was a razor-thin margin, and perhaps the biggest takeaway is that both NL West teams have truly sensational broadcasters all around.