| Last Sunday’s Lions vs. Bears game brought me back to my first on-air appearance with @NFLonFOX. Did Calvin Johnson complete the catch? And where’s my 3-piece suit? Take a look. pic.twitter.com/ | |||
| 12/10/20, 7:02 PM |
Chase Young, pass-rusher, Washington. With the NFC East lead on the line late Sunday afternoon in Arizona at the (temporarily homestanding) Niners, this is what Young did in the first half in leading WFT to a 13-7 lead:
- Scooped up a fumble and scored on a 47-yard sprint to the end zone.
- Dropped in coverage for a millisecond, then charged the backfield and sacked Nick Mullens for minus-8.
- Forced a fumble with a jarring hit on running back Jeff Wilson Jr. The fumble was recoved by WFT and resulted in a field goal.
In addition, for the game, the second pick in the 2020 draft had six tackles, two more quarterback pressures and two passes defensed in Washington’s 23-15 victory, a win that gave the team the lead in the NFC East with three games to go.
Dave Pasch. A strange 2020 got stranger Sunday for the Arizona Cardinals’ play-by-play voice. Starting from the beginning: Pasch was one of ESPN’s NBA broadcaster in the Orlando bubble; he did eight games in August and September. He’s also a college football play-by-play guy for ESPN, doing most of the games from his home in Chandler, Ariz. (with partner Mike Golic Sr. in Bristol at ESPN); how strange, to do Michigan-Penn State to a national ESPN from your house. “At least I don’t have to wait in line for the bathroom at halftime,” Pasch said Sunday.
In a quirk of the schedule, Pasch did the USC-UCLA game Saturday night at the Rose Bowl—and then, because he couldn’t be sure an early flight would get him back in time for the Sunday morning (Arizona time) Cardinals game, he drove home, 5.5 hours, after the USC win in Pasadena. The weirdness continued Sunday, when the vagabond Niners hosted Washington at the Cardinals’ home stadium in suburban Phoenix. At 11 a.m. local time, Pasch went on the air from his regular radio booth at State Farm Stadium to do the Cardinals’ game from New Jersey. (Many radio teams don’t travel this year because of the pandemic, doing all games from the home stadium. The road games are done using the TV feed.) So Pasch and partner Ron Wolfley did Giants-Cards with the window in the booth closed so the music and noise from pre-game warmups wouldn’t filter into the Cards radio broadcast.
| ProFootballTalk |
| @ProFootballTa |
As the Bucs emerged from the bye week, Antonio Brown's playing time dropped sharply, from nearly 75 percent against the Chiefs to below 50 percent against the Vikings wp.me/pbBqYq-bL0
| NY Daily News Sports |
| @NYDNSports |
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| James Harden is reportedly “unmoved and uninterested” after the Rockets traded for John Wall. The Beard still wants out of Houston, per @wojespnand @ramonashelbur | |||||
| 12/14/20, 6:01 AM | |||||
| New York Post Sports |
| @nypostsports |
LaMelo Ball's NBA preseason debut was all over the place trib.al/cNNVd6l pic.twitter.com/ESPN and Major League Baseball are closing in on a TV deal that would provide the network exclusive rights to the first round of the playoffs, The Post has learned.
Now all that is needed is a first round of the playoffs.
That needs to be negotiated between MLB and the Players Association, which is to say that, while an ESPN-MLB deal is close, they are still far from knowing when — and even if — there will be playoffs expanded from 10 to likely 14 teams to include a best-of-three first round.
In the deal between ESPN and MLB, the network would reduce the amount of national games it broadcasts, while increasing the number of marquee matchups.
While weekday regular season baseball will almost be eliminated on the network, “Sunday Night Baseball” will continue with ESPN in talks to keep Alex Rodriguez as the main analyst on the broadcasts, according to sources. His partner, Matt Vasgersian, is probable to return, but a definitive decision has not been made yet.
In the new contract, ESPN will pay a lower average value than its previous eight-year contract that was reported to be for $5.6 billion. Fewer games means less money. The exact dollars and length are not yet publicly known. It is likely to be through 2028 when the Fox and TBS baseball deals end.
MLB is engaging other networks about picking up what ESPN discards — likely a host of weekday games — to broadcast nationally, according to sources.
In 2022, when the new deal will begin, ESPN will broadcast 30 to 40 regular season games, down from around 90.
Of the 30 to 40 in the new deal, 25 will be in the exclusive Sunday Night window, featuring A-Rod. The rest of the broadcasts will be spread out across the season. The network will continue with the Home Run Derby.
PLAYOFFS:
The new playoff format could begin as soon as this year, as an agreement will have a rider that gives ESPN the rights to a new opening round if it were to start in 2021.
MLB and the Players Association agreed to expand last year’s playoffs from 10 to 16 teams for the 60-game pandemic season. But that was for just 2020. A bump up from 10 would require another agreement.
MLB has indicated it would trade a universal DH (which the union favors) to expand the playoffs, probably to 14 teams. The union believes MLB also wants to have the DH used in the NL also and has let it be known this is not a trade.
Plus, the union believes the playoff rights are worth considerably more to the owners than just the DH and would want a more substantial tradeoff plus more than the $50 million postseason pool they received last year for accepting expanded playoffs. The union has let it be known it is willing to do the 2021 playoffs as a one-off rather than tie it to larger collective bargaining. The current collective bargaining agreement concludes after the 2021 season.
MLB’s hopes for 2021 likely mirror what they want for a new CBA: Seven teams making the playoffs in each league, the top seed getting a first-round bye and the remaining six teams playing a best-of-three to advance to the Division Series along with the top seed.
MLB had previously reached deals with Fox and TBS to extend their relationships through 2028 for the regular season and the playoffs. Fox has the rights to the World Series, a league championship series, divisional series play and a weekly regular-season game of the week. TBS’ extension will see it continue with playoff rights, including a league championship series. In 2022, TBS will move its regular-season package from Sunday afternoon to Tuesday nights.
| Jeff Passan |
| @JeffPassan |
Sources confirm the @nytmike and @DavidWaldstei5- MAYBE????
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Bauer listed the Giants on his YouTube page as one of the five best fan bases who have pitched him this offseason. He broke down the criteria into three categories: Consistency, creativity and overall volume. He also noted the Cincinnati Reds, who he played for last season, didn't make the lists because they easily would have been No. 1 and that wouldn't have made for a fun video.
Overall, Giants fans came in as the fourth-best fan base for their offseason pitches to Bauer. The ace called the Giants a "sleeper" and has been blown away by their fans' creativity.
"One thing I have to say about the Giants is I personally haven't seen a lot from the Giants' fan base," Bauer said. "However, they've been super creative. And for this reason, I gave them a nine on creativity, because they've started going after agent Rachel Luba and giving their pitch to her."
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