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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🏀 Tracy McGrady is the latest Hall of Famer to join the NBA on NBC roster as a studio analyst, joining cousin Vince Carter and Carmelo Anthony.

🏀 The Field of 68 is expanding their college basketball marathon this season with hopes of bringing the 24 hour version back next year.

🏀 The drama surrounding Marcus Morris isn’t going away with the ESPN analyst being accused of stealing six figures from Las Vegas casinos.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

YouTube's NFL quandary

Millennials know very well that whenever you’re in need of a fix or an answer on a how-to project, you go to YouTube for a quick tutorial. Whether it be putting together a child’s toy that you lost the directions for, installing a ceiling fan, or what the best prop bets are for a given game.

But now it’s YouTube itself that is searching for answers.

The streaming service has tabbed Kurt Warner as its lead NFL analyst for its first solo NFL game, a Week 1 Chargers-Chiefs matchup on Friday night in Brazil. But according to The Athletic, YouTube is having trouble finding a play-by-play man because the other NFL rights partners aren’t exactly playing ball as they may have in the past.

YouTube needs someone to call play-by-play. But with a full week of college and pro action a continent away, who are some realistic options that might be available? Let’s take a look at some contenders.

Dan Hicks - NBC is producing the game for YouTube and with Notre Dame not on the schedule, the play-by-play voice of the Fighting Irish makes all the sense in the world. He’s probably the best and first choice that would be available.

Rich Eisen - The NFL Network (and soon to be ESPN) host has called play-by-play before on NFL Network, although the reviews haven’t exactly been kind.

Chris Rose - The veteran sportscaster is most closely associated with MLB Network but could be another option that has previous NFL play-by-play experience here.

Chris Lewis/Beth Mowins - This pair has been called upon by CBS in recent years when they have an expanded slate of Sunday games. With CBS having six games in Week 1, one of them might be available. On the Fox side, announcers who have filled in on NFL games like Jason Benetti or Tim Brando will likely have college action.

Mike Goldberg - If all else fails, the former voice of the UFC has been waiting 11 years for his second chance at NFL broadcasting after his infamous debut. Maybe, just maybe, now is the time.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

It has not been a good stretch for MLB umpires with this strike three against Juan Soto being particularly egregious.

Former Marlins president David Samson had a fantastic reaction to the Hall of Fame speech from Ichiro Suzuki that had a great joke at his former franchise’s expense.

Stephen A. Smith had some very touching words for Colorado head coach Deion Sanders after the announcement that he had successfully gotten through a bout with bladder cancer.

🔦 IN THE SPOTLIGHT ☀️

The panic that fans are feeling about ESPN’s potential acquisition of NFL RedZone may be overstated given what we’ve seen from Bristol in recent years. But it does speak to a broken connection that the WorldWide Leader now has with its most dedicated viewers.

🗣️ NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

“And she knows that because she has the messages including text messages when I had her cell number. So the lying, Robin, it makes me sad to say this because I liked Cheryl Reeve. The lies are there. And anyone can find them and see them.” - Christine Brennan on her ongoing dispute with Team USA coach Cheryl Reeve over her book about Caitlin Clark.

“Scottie said he’d rather be a better father and husband than a good golfer. And my question is: why are those mutually exclusive?” - Tom Brady sounded a very different tune on sports, family, and life than Scottie Scheffler did.

“He’s at least talking to you. Would you have more respect if he didn’t say something to you? If he hid? I was disappointed in Bryce Harper. I was embarrassed for him.” - Dan Patrick was not a fan of reports for how Bryce Harper treated MLB commissioner Rob Manfred.

🔥THE CLOSER🔥

Happy Gilmore, Happy Returns

Although it may have received mixed reviews from critics, Happy Gilmore 2 was a huge success in terms of viewership for Netflix. It’s a remarkable story for Adam Sandler and for Netflix and their long standing relationship with the comedian.

Happy Gilmore 2 isn’t going to win any Oscars. But the fun callbacks, surreal mix of sports and pop culture, and a constant stream of laughs made for an entertaining 90 minutes. Who would have ever thought we would see John Daly living in Happy’s garage, Bad Bunny dreaming of a bear eating Travis Kelce, or Becky Lynch squeezing Rory McIlroy’s nipples? Hopefully those aren’t too many spoilers that will ruin it for you if you haven’t seen it.

But if it’s not so much about the cinematic quality of Happy Gilmore 2, it does speak to our culture’s ongoing love of anything nostalgic for the 1980s and 1990s. It doesn’t matter if it’s reboots of everything from Matlock to The Naked Gun or a thousand live action Disney remakes. It works. And more often than not it prints money. And when we’re talking about feel-good or cult classic sports movies, it’s a wonder why others haven’t gone to the well even more.

Sure there are some sports sequels and remakes that haven’t worked throughout the years. Caddyshack II may be the worst movie ever made. Major League 3 is an abomination to mankind. And the less we say about the modern day Space Jam, the better.

But after seeing the success of Happy Gilmore 2, surely someone will try to strike the right nostalgic note once again. If Kevin Costner ever finishes his western odysseys, maybe we can get a Tin Cup 2 to check in on Roy McAvoy.