SPORTS MEDIA COLUMN: FIVE WHO GET IT (ANDREWS), FIVE WHO DON’T (WHITLOCK)
A weekly analysis of the best/worst in media from a multimedia content prince — thousands of columns, TV debates, radio shows, podcasts — who receives angry DMs from media burner accounts
THEY GET IT
Anish Shroff and Tom Luginbill, ESPN — Almost impossibly, the Worldwide Leader In Dysfunction humiliates itself more with each passing week. This time, no one in management bothered to vet the bogus, farcically unworthy opponents chosen to play powerhouse IMG Academy in an ESPN-televised high school football game. The rogue outfit from “Bishop Sycamore’’ — an online-only creation — boasted top college prospects, but the claims were revealed as a scam early in a 58-0 crushing. Shroff and Luginbill might not have jobs for long, but they admirably served their live game audience by criticizing how this fiasco ever materialized. Said Shroff, noting how he’d attempted to verify Bishop Sycamore’s players: “They did not show up in our database; they did not show up in the databases of other recruiting services. So, OK, that’s what you’re telling us, fine, that’s how we take it in. From what we’ve seen so far, this is not a fair fight, and there’s got to be a point where you’re worried about health and safety.’’ Said Luginbill: “I think this could be potentially dangerous given the circumstances and the mismatch.’’ The only thing ESPN does well these days is pass the buck, blaming schedule-makers at Chicago-based Paragon Marketing Group. Tell me: How much longer will Jimmy Pitaro last as company president?
Erin Andrews, Fox Sports — As brave as she is candid, Andrews has been open about her many personal challenges. She spoke of her fear in battling cervical cancer. She spoke of her horror when a creep secretly filmed her changing clothes through a hotel-room peephole. Now, the veteran sideline reporter writes about her eight-year, seven-round experience with in vitro fertilization, vowing to be “vocal and honest’’ about a “time-consuming and emotionally draining process.’’ Writes Andrews in a Facebook Bulletin essay: “I'm now 43, so my body is kind of stacked against me. I have been trying to do IVF treatment for a while now, but sometimes it doesn't go the way you want it. … When this happens, it really makes you question: is it the future of my family or is it my job? I work in an industry where I think women feel the need to keep things like this quiet. I decided that this time around, I would be open with my show producers." As an Internet sensation early in her career, Andrews stayed strong through crude website and social-media behavior. Now, she’s leaving a legacy of courage and survival.
Maria Taylor, NBC — In some perverse way, she has benefited wildly from Rachel Nichols’ assessment that Taylor inherited the hosting role on ‘’NBA Countdown’’ as a diversity makeup call. Only weeks after fleeing the Bristol nuthouse, Taylor has landed as a co-host of the most-watched studio show on sports television, “Football Night In America.’’ The Sunday night platform will showcase Taylor as a rising star — and let’s hope she augments a strong telegenic presence with diligent NFL homework. Drew Brees also joins the program, biding his time on the lead desk with Mike Tirico until Al Michaels and, eventually, Cris Collinsworth are phased out in the booth. I would let Michaels and Collinsworth continue until they drop, but the network is fixed on a Tirico-Brees broadcast team that could be decidedly mediocre. Unlike Fox and CBS, which basically have stuck with the same studio lineups, at least NBC is experimenting with new faces.
Bob Nightengale, USA Today — While other baseball writers sit in press boxes and wait for Zoom interviews, Nightengale is found in the front row behind home plate at Dodger Stadium — in full view of the TV camera — as he chats up industry insider Dennis Gilbert. It’s part of a tireless, decades-long work ethic that continues to produce breaking stories and crackling columns, including a dead-on commentary titled, “MLB’s payroll disparity has become laughable, threatening the integrity of the sport.’’ He writes of the financial canyon between the Los Angeles Dodgers ($284 million) and Pittsburgh Pirates ($49.1 million): “It’s a monstrous and horrifying Great Divide that has long cast a shadow in Major League Baseball, but never before has the divide in team payroll between the haves and have-nots been so pronounced, and created such a deep impact in the standings. … The Dodgers are paying nearly as much money ($38 million) to starting pitcher Trevor Bauer, who has been on administrative leave since July 2, as the Pirates are paying to their entire 40-man roster. The Dodgers’ payroll is a whopping $200 million more than four teams.’’ In the mid-‘90s, Nightengale was the first to quote commissioner Bud Selig about steroids. It took almost 10 years for Bud Lite to fess up in front of Congress.
Joe Davis, Spectrum SportsNet LA — Rare is the baseball play-by-play voice who dares to knock the sport’s bosses for their ongoing debacle: games that average three hours and nine minutes, an increase of nine minutes since 2018. But when more than six minutes lapsed before the top of the eighth inning recently, as Dodgers reliever Kenley Jansen was having the grounds crew manicure the mound, Davis’ annoyance was palpable. “That’s not good,’’ he said, “for a game that wants to be snappier.’’ His partner, Orel Hershiser, said nothing. More broadcasters should speak up.
Patrick Soon-Shiong, Los Angeles Times owner — Sounding like a sports owner tired of losing, Soon-Shiong challenged his struggling newspaper — I know, that’s a redundancy — to improve its underwhelming digital profile and “expand revenue.’’ Appearing on Kara Swisher’s “Sway’’ podcast, he said he has invested $650 million over three-plus years and wants to see an urgent turnaround under new executive editor Kevin Merida — or else. “I do mind losing money,’’ he said. It’s mind-blowing that the nation’s second-largest media market, home to 18 million potential readers, could exist without a flagship daily newspaper. But Soon-Shiong reminds us that the Times almost died three years ago, when the biotech billionaire rescued a wrecked ship from Chicago-based Tribune Publishing: “I got a call from Mike Ferro and that board, the current board, and (they) said, ‘We’re about to shut down the L.A. Times and push everything to Chicago. You have about 48 hours with no due diligence to buy the L.A. Times for $500 million.’ ’’ If the Times goes away, I honestly don’t know where southern California sports readers would turn. The Athletic isn’t a factor. ESPN no longer has a local shop and is trying to unload its L.A. radio station. The other papers are ghosts. Thus, as a SoCal resident, I’m pleased to see an ultimatum, which qualifies Soon-Shiong as a sixth who gets it this week.
Sports Illustrated — As The Athletic tries to maintain footing amid two failed mergers and stalled subscription numbers, quality appears to be one-upping hype. Quietly, the Sports Illustrated Media Group has more than 42 million monthly users, reports Front Office Sports, making it the fastest-growing property in sports media. There’s a paywall arms race between the rivals, and, at $69.99 annually, SI’s edgy content is a better buy than The Athletic’s bulk at $71.99. You even get the fabled magazine — I know, what’s a magazine? — but you ARE familiar with the swimsuit issue. SI sneaks into the seventh slot when I vowed to do only five this week.
THEY DON’T GET IT
Dave Roberts, ESPN — Pitaro isn’t the only culprit in Bristol. As Stephen A. Smith’s enabler and the executive who helped dilute the ESPN Radio lineup, Roberts is contributing to the messes at Dysfunction Junction. How does Smith get away with rambling constantly about “white privilege’’ while Nichols is booted for criticizing — again, in the supposed privacy of her hotel room — the company’s past issues in diversity hiring? How does Smith mock Shohei Ohtani’s use of an interpreter and somehow come to work, without even a disciplinary wrist slap, the next day? These are hard questions for Roberts, now tasked with re-re-re-revamping the network’s long-problematic NBA coverage. Already, reports have Smith teaming with Magic Johnson (Magic Johnson?) on a prominent show. Gee, Dave, why not just let Stephen A. do everything — host the prime-time “SportsCenter’’ at night and “Get Up’’ in the morning, take over the “Monday Night Football’’ booth, moonlight on “College GameDay,’’ do 10 hours of radio a day and anchor the tennis, golf and hockey coverage along with his current role on “First Take,’’ where he successfully ran Max Kellerman off the show? Is there a fishing program Stephen A. can do? Bowling? Cornhole, even?
Jason Whitlock, lunatic — I hesitate to go here because, at this stage of his very bizarre career, he’s just screaming for attention at an extreme right-leaning site. But Whitlock lost me when he said Pitaro “is engaged in a prolonged war with the Taliban, commonly referred to in sports media circles as the "BLM-LGBTQ+ Alphabet Mafia." ” Worse, he wrote of Nichols’ fateful hotel-room phone conversation with influential public-relations advisor Adam Mendelsohn: “A year ago, Nichols, a white Jewish woman, gossiped with a male member of her tribe about ESPN management handing black colleague Maria Taylor a job that had been contractually promised to Nichols.’’ In the case of Taylor and Nichols, the black-white issue is relevant in a time when ESPN is dealing with ongoing in-house racial politics. But for Whitlock to drop the “tribe’’ line is just warped — and suggests Nichols was punished for being Jewish when, in fact, ESPN parent Disney has been run for years by Bob Iger, who happens to be Jewish. Can somebody please fit Whitlock with a straitjacket? Tell him to shut down social media, breathe some fresh air and enjoy life?
ESPN — It makes no sense to employ investigative reporters when the network is in bed with every sport, league and conference imaginable. As further evidence, ESPN is willing to cheapen its brand by licensing it to gambling companies, which would further distance Bristol from journalism that barely exists anyway. The bosses are eyeing more than $3 billion to slap their logo on major sportsbooks, and before long, I fear the lead story on “SportsCenter’’ won’t be who won a big game … but which team covered the spread.
Trey Wingo, desperado — Former ESPN sportscasters have to make a living somehow, I understand, but Wingo has fallen hard. Once a prime-time face of the network’s NFL coverage, he now looks unrecognizable and cheesy in a photo illustration announcing him as Caesars Sportsbook’s “chief trends officer and brand ambassador.’’ What that means exactly, I’m afraid to ask, but Wingo joins the cavalcade of media professionals shilling for casinos. “Mind your own biscuits and life will be gravy,’’ he tweeted about the move. Problem is, he’ll have to take three showers a day in that racket.
My ego — Yes, it runs amok sometimes. But here goes anyway: Unlike coaching trees with mixed results — the Belichick tree, the Krzyzewski tree — my kinda/sorta radio tree is surviving the test of time quite well. Not that they needed my help, but I’m happy to report that three enduring sports-talk careers started alongside me in the wayback days. Dan Bickley was just moved to morning drive in Phoenix. Mike Mulligan is a morning-drive rock in Chicago. And Anthony Gargano, who made his unforgettable radio debut after an all-night rager, is the renowned “Cuz’’ in his native Philadelphia. As for me, my last local program was scuttled — despite ratings that trounced my Chicago competition — because I refused an executive order to sign a document promising not to criticize the White Sox and Bulls. Know what’s crazier? The station was trying to appease a sports owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, who wound up taking those teams to the other station anyway. Some of us sleep well at night. Others must not.
Dan Le Batard, M.I.A. in MIA — Predictably, the host has faded from the mainstream after leaving ESPN and launching his own podcast and company. Other than diehards, is anyone listening? How do you find him? No amount of DraftKings sponsorship money can compensate for the loss of buzz, which leads to fewer listeners and waning impact. He has his much-sought editorial freedom, but his old TV show — while grinding to an eventual halt — still trumps him in relevance. I know, this is Item No. 6.
ESPN — I tried to go for an ocean bike cruise, but the WWLID wouldn’t let me. So, this is Item No. 7. “Sources: Patriots cut Newton; Jones to start’’ blasted the headline atop the website, implying ESPN broke the story. You have to scroll to the bottom for this lonely paragraph: “The Boston Globe first reported Newton's release.’’ Please stop playing these phony games, trying to take credit when readers see through the b.s.
Jay Mariotti, called “the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes a weekly media column for Barrett Sports Media and regular sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts in production today. He’s an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and radio talk host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects. Compensation for this column is donated to the Chicago Sun-Times Charity Trust.