When you get upset about something, you might say “There ought to be a law against it.” Sometimes that makes sense, but on occasion, the law can’t foresee what will happen in the future. We have plenty of ridiculous laws still on the books. Here in Kentucky, it is required by law that you take a shower at least once a year. Also, you cannot throw flowers at a public speaker. While I’ve not registered my actions with the state, I’m in compliance with both laws.
This column will cover one part of the Nielsen diary service response rates and to do so, you have to know about a Federal law, specifically, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (47 USC 227 for those of you who like to look these things up).
The most important aspect of the law was to prohibit the use of “automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice to any telephone number assigned to…cellular telephone service”. It affects how Nielsen Audio and for that matter, most any survey research company that uses the phone or used to use it, operates today.
Let’s go back to 1991. If you were around at the time, did you have a cell phone? If so, it was likely either a bag phone or if you were really cool, you had a Motorola DynaTAC, better known as a brick phone.
Calls were expensive and if you were roaming, exorbitant. While it’s tough to find data from the time, in 1996, Southwestern Bell Mobile announced that customers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area could now roam throughout Texas and pay only 50 cents per minute with a statewide “reduced” roaming rate. Prior to this change, a five-minute roaming call would cost “almost $8”. $8 in 1996 would be $15.54 today. If you lived in Dallas, would you expect to pay over $15 to make a five-minute call when visiting Houston today? I don’t think so.
At that time, many telemarketing operations (and a few survey ones as well) were not that sophisticated. Some started with one phone number and simply added one before making the next call. This was parodied on The Simpsons in late 1996 (“Lisa’s Date with Destiny”) which had a subplot of Homer acquiring an autodialer. Like most of Homer’s ideas, it didn’t work out well.
Combine an autodialer with expensive cell phone rates and guess what happened? Congress got into the act. The TCPA was passed and unfortunately, legitimate survey research was not exempted. In the early ‘90s, this wasn’t a big deal as just about every American household had a landline. As of 2022, only 27% of American households still had a landline. Under two percent had a landline with no cell phone service.
This preamble explains how Nielsen has to build the diary sample. The change started in 2009 when the cell phone sample was first included. The sampling process evolved to what is known as the “address-based sample” or ABS. The ABS system involves sending a questionnaire to randomly selected survey households in advance to get information.
While I can’t tell you what the questionnaire looks like today, when it started, there were a couple of questions about radio and TV usage along with household composition questions. If you offered up your cell number, the fine print said you agreed to let Arbitron and later Nielsen call you on your cell. Eventually, Nielsen figured out that if you know how many people 12 and older live in the household as well as their ages, genders, race/ethnicity, and location, why bother making expensive calls? Just send the right number of diaries with the proper incentives as well as other mailings. While the address-based system is more expensive than the old random calling method, eliminating calls cuts costs.
This all plays into the diary service response rates which have very complex calculations. Once again, you’ll have to go to your E-Book, which, if you’ve been reading my columns, you’ve discovered that there is a lot of worthwhile information in there. If you look go to the “Diary Placement/Return” section of the E-Book, you’ll see how your market’s sample was derived. There is “listed sample”, “unlisted mailable sample”, “unlisted unmailable sample”, and “address-based sample”. Since there are so few landline households, a large majority of the sample is now address-based.
You can calculate the response rates by sample type if you wish. Take the number of usable diaries and divide that into the “estimated persons in usable households”. Nielsen does report the overall response rate which is typically very low. Also, you’ll find one more interesting statistic: the percentage of diaries returned from the “ABS Landline Supplement”.
Check the footnote and you’ll see that these diaries are “preweighted” because these households have a better chance of being selected to be in the sample as they are in both the ABS sample and the landline sample. If one of those diaries spends a lot of time with one of your stations, you won’t be happy. That diary is worth less than the others.
Response rates matter, but low response rates are not an indictment of Nielsen. Even the US Census Bureau has trouble with response rates. People and companies are interested in the results of surveys, but getting people to do them is very tough. The fact that Nielsen Audio can even put out diary surveys in so many markets on a timely basis in 2024 is probably something of a miracle.
Still, the rates matter because if the non-respondents are very different than the respondents, you have a bias problem. Weighting makes up for some of this, but not if listening habits of the non-responders vary. However, on the plus side, who is more likely to be a non-respondent? If you don’t listen to radio and you’re asked to do a radio survey, even when Nielsen is sending you cold, hard cash on a regular basis, would you be less likely to participate? I can’t prove it empirically, but it makes sense.
In other words, maybe we shouldn’t complain about low response rates.
For Dianna Russini, the thought of leaving ESPN on her own accord was outlandish and ostensibly implausible. After all, she had earned a multifaceted position focused on the National Football League that involved hosting, analysis and reporting, including newsbreaking and feature reporting. Throughout her time with the network, Russini had demonstrated versatility and advocated for herself. She never declined an assignment and was willing to do anything necessary to survive in the business, a testament to her adaptability and eagerness to serve the audience and thrive.
Russini developed meaningful relationships with her colleagues and the network itself, even providing her ESPN email as an emergency means of contact rather than an unaffiliated email address. Recognizing appreciation for her work and acceptance in the craft, she thought she would never leave, even after sweeping layoffs within The Walt Disney Company that eliminated 7,000 jobs in an effort to slash $5.5 billion in costs. Nonetheless, Russini wanted to start covering more marquee events and be on Monday Night Football, aspirations she gradually felt were becoming unattainable.
“I never felt like they wanted me to be the one,” Russini said. “It was, ‘Keep working hard; keep getting better,’ but at that point, I remember thinking, ‘How much longer is this going to take for me to get on Monday Night Football because I’ve been reporting for a long time now?,’ and I consistently had success on Sunday morning shows; on our pregame shows; [as] the Super Bowl reporter. I basically hit my ceiling in terms of what I could do in that role, and I was still going to sign with them though.”
Although she was prepared to accept an offer that included a raise, she received a last-minute call from her agent who implored her to hold off on inking the contract. Once she learned of interest from The Athletic, she met with several key executives at the company including Steven Ginsberg, the digital platform’s executive editor. The proposition, which would name her the publication’s senior NFL insider, involved her executing reporting, podcasting and video work. One minute into the conversation with Ginsberg, Russini was sold and knew that what once seemed impossible would become a reality.
“It will be a moment for me I’ll never forget where I was; I’ll never forget my family crying [and] jumping up and down,” Russini said. “It was a really cool moment because I knew I was taking a chance again – I was taking another gamble, but I was going to take a gamble on me – and I still have a lot more things I want to accomplish at The Athletic, but I already feel like I won.”
Throughout her journey in sports media, Russini has had to rise above established patterns and tendencies, shattering glass ceilings in the process. Today, she is one of the only women consistently breaking NFL news, an entity that continues to experience a boon in popularity evinced in sales, broadcast ratings and digital engagement. Even though Russini recently completed her first full NFL season on the job, she already knows it is the best job she has ever had and is content in the role.
“The Athletic is an incredible organization that just wants to get it right and tell amazing stories,” Russini said. “My colleagues are already friends of mine – the collaboration – it is the most team-friendly environment I’ve ever been part of. Everyone approaches it [with], ‘How can we be better? How can we make each other better?’”
Whereas she used to travel frequently throughout the season to work at games, Russini remained home for more time and worked remotely. As a result, she was able to consume more NFL action and have a broader scope on the league as a whole. During training camp though, Russini was on the road measuring her comfort level and conversing with players and personnel. Part of her role involves corresponding with reporters and developing rapport with sources, many of whom call her unsolicited. Before her arrival, The Athletic had never had anyone work in the job, and she has sought to be an asset to the reporting team.
“There’s conversations constantly between me and all the reporters on the ground covering the teams,” Russini said. “There’s no ego [and] there’s no bad attitudes. Everyone just wants to advance the stories and get more information.”
The resilience Russini demonstrated as a college athlete at George Mason University has been evident throughout her journalism career, defying the odds and providing timely, objective coverage across various domains. The premise behind her pursuit of a career came out of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. When Russini was in class on that autumn day of her freshman year, the captain of the soccer team showed up at the door and signaled for her to exit the classroom. She then urged her to call her parents, stating she could not explain what exactly was going on.
“My mom answered our house line and she was screaming,” Russini said. “My parents had been married for 40 years and they’ve been together since they were 9 years old. She just was screaming, ‘He won’t leave me; he would never leave me like this,’ and I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ My brother grabbed the phone – my brother works with my dad – and he said, ‘I didn’t go to work today with dad. He’s in Tower One and the World Trade Center’s been attacked.’”
At the instruction of her brother, Russini returned to her dorm after her father had been missing for several hours. Later in the day, she received a call from her father informing her that he was okay and to stay in a safe place before quickly hanging up. Russini’s parents drove overnight to pick her up from school to return home, and they continued to watch news coverage together as the world stood distressed and apoplectic.
“Outside of the emotions of it all, I remember feeling in the moment that the importance of the reporters on the ground giving me information became the most valuable thing to us,” Russini said, “and what a privilege that would be; what an honor it would be to be the messenger at a time when we were all scared and unaware of what was going to happen in our lives, and that was the moment I realized I wanted to be a local news reporter.”
In an effort to challenge herself, Russini channeled her efforts into news rather than sports media and joined News 12 as a general assignment and crime reporter. Shortly thereafter, she became the youngest reporter hired by NBC 4 New York and tried to harness and develop her journalistic abilities in a major media market. Yet Russini was eventually told that the profession probably was not for her and was let go by the network, placing her career ambitions at a crossroads.
At the recommendation of sports anchor Bruce Beck, Russini left New York and began working as a sports reporter at CSN Northwest. The cross-country move was somewhat daunting, especially since she had not been west of Pittsburgh, but she was aware that it was a chance for her to gain repetitions and hone her craft.
“It was a really crucial part of my journey because I was so lost in my life,” Russini said. “My career was really confusing, but that was the city that really gave me a chance.”
Following her stint in Seattle, Russini returned home and out of work, prompting her to revisit previous contacts from years earlier. Replying to an email from an executive at NBC Connecticut in Hartford – an outlet that rejected her five years earlier for a lack of experience – she queried if now would be a better time. Russini was hired on the spot while visiting the studios the next day, acquiescing to the condition that she would do news reporting three days a week and anchor sports on the weekends.
During these news shifts though, there were many breaking news stories that led Russini to be in front of the camera and on real-time coverage. In her role, she was the source of information and updates for communities amid anxiety and affliction. One of these events was the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, a national news story for which Russini was among the first reporters on the scene. Witnessing the situation firsthand placed her obligation to the viewing public in perspective and continues to remind her of what is genuinely important.
Four months later, the Boston Marathon bombings sent Russini to Massachusetts for a week to report on the scene. When professional sports resumed in the city, she covered a hockey game between the Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres, reminding her of why she loved working in sports. The news director of NBC Washington then saw Russini while taking his daughter on a college visit to Harvard University, proceeding her to land an interview and eventually be hired as a sports anchor. When she was covering the locale’s NFL team, she was upfront about her lack of knowledge and learned the game from connections and other personnel.
“I also remembered from my days in news that while covering a game and analyzing it is important, getting news can really separate you,” Russini said, “so I figured out that if I could take that newsbreaking element that I used as a news reporter and apply it in the sports world, it can have a lot of value, and that’s really what changed my career.”
As Russini developed sources and gained insider scoops, she began to be noticed by various media outlets including ESPN. The network ended up hiring her to be a SportsCenter anchor, but it was a move she was initially hesitant to make because of the fleeting nature of her previous stops. When she met with Jim Vance, the lead anchor at NBC Washington, he spoke of how seldom these opportunities come around and implored her to accept the role.
“‘Don’t not take this job because you don’t have the confidence yet. You’ll figure it out like you always do,’” Russini remembers Vance saying, “and I’m really glad that he gave me that guidance [and] that counsel because in the end he was right. I figured it out – you do; you figure it out – so I’m really glad that I took that leap.”
Transitioning from local news to anchoring SportsCenter required Russini to take part in significant research and diligent preparation before every show. When she first started at the network, she was oftentimes working with partners on ESPNEWS, providing her chances to make mistakes and augment her skillset.
One of the producers eventually chose to make her a solo anchor, an outcome she protested thinking that it was beyond her abilities. Russini ultimately learned that removing contingencies and crutches ultimately enhanced her on-camera repertoire. Despite her shift to anchor the 7 p.m. SportsCenter starting at 2 p.m., she was in the office at 9 a.m. every morning to ensure she was ready.
After accepting a challenge to depart from SportsCenter and cover the NFL, Russini found herself more comfortable on the air and expanding a grid of sources. In her new role at The Athletic, she frequently cold-calls people in an effort to build new contacts and continue reporting. Making sure she maintains preexisting relationships is critical in her job so she can explicate and accurately report the full story.
Russini triangulates her sourcing to strive for accuracy rather than being the first person to break a story. Over the last several months, she has observed that newsbreakers often beat teams, players or agencies to sharing news by a few minutes. The transactional news is more vaporous to her than exploring larger stories that could require weeks and/or months of work to compile a deft, comprehensive report.
“Something I didn’t realize when I wasn’t with The Athletic, and now that I am, is how much players and coaches love reading it and enjoy the work that The Athletic does, and it’s shared with me all the time,” Russini said. “It’s blown me away actually – the support that we get around the NFL – and it’s respect, and to me that is the most important thing you can do and the most important thing you can receive.”
Last December, Russini worked with colleagues Zack Rosenblatt and Jeff Howe to publish a report divulging that New York Jets quarterback Zach Wilson was reluctant to step back into the starting quarterback role for the team after being benched. Wilson had been benched two weeks earlier and the Jets did not plan to play him for the rest of the season.
After injuries and underperformance by the backups though, the team decided to place Wilson back in the role. The next day, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who was supposed to start throughout the year but tore his Achilles tendon on the first offensive drive of the season, criticized the report in an interview on The Pat McAfee Show.
“Having Aaron Rodgers go on ESPN to discredit me or to take shots at me – I don’t necessarily believe that he doesn’t like me or has issues with me,” Russini said. “In fact, every time Aaron Rodgers has gone on the air to talk about a story I’ve done, to me I think it’s actually his sign of respect for what I’m doing because he knows I know, and I know that.”
Interacting with sources merits a level of trust and adherence to standards predicated on credibility and journalistic integrity. While the dissemination of accurate reporting can have negative effects and direct vitriol towards the messenger, Russini knows that there are plenty of readers searching for answers.
After regularly writing for broadcast television over the last two decades, Russini gradually adapted her style to print journalism, something she believes to be the most rewarding part of her new role. In the week after joining The Athletic, Russini called ESPN NFL reporter Jeff Darlington to seek advice on moving into writing on a full-time basis. In response, he told her that she is a reporter rather than a writer and that it would come to her naturally. Darlington ended up being correct, and Russini has had the confidence to navigate the written word with insightful and cogent storytelling.
“It’s been awesome, and we’ve been able to put together some amazing stories already,” Russini said. “The writing part of this was my biggest fear headed into this and has now become the most enjoyable part of the job.”
Since being purchased by The New York Times Company in early 2022, The Athletic has amplified its subscriber base and altered its content strategy. The publication previously concentrated on delivering coverage of all sports teams and leagues around the country, but it is now investing in longer-form, deeper reporting.
The vertical also acts as the source of sports coverage for The New York Times itself, which recently eliminated its longstanding, independent sports section and reassigned reporters to different departments. According to the company’s latest quarterly earnings report, year-over-year losses at The Athletic narrowed to $4.4 million while it concurrently generated $38.5 million in revenue.
Why was Mike Vrabel passed on this coaching cycle?
An anonymous GM tells @DMRussini that Vrabel's physical stature may have been a factor.
"He's a very large human being. And can be very intimidating to people in an organization."
Russini is optimistic about the future of the publication and excited to continue her role into the offseason, which includes launching her own podcast. The work, she affirmed, is focused on dominating sports journalism, and she regards her contemporaries as luminaries with the right ideas. While the company laid off nearly 4% of its newsroom in organizational efforts last summer, Russini sees the dedication to growth and progress in the field.
“I don’t have any concerns about where The Athletic is going to be in five years,” Russini said. “If anything, I believe that The Athletic is going to be triple the size that it is now based on the success we’re going to have.”
In signing with The Athletic rather than another television network, Russini still has her television rights and makes occasional appearances on FOX Sports 1. Ahead of next season, she will look to add some additional responsibilities in the space to continue telling stories and information she receives. Through it all, she wants to emit inspiration and convey her dedication to sports media to aspiring professionals and hopes to validate the decision by The Athletic and various other outlets that took a chance on her.
“There aren’t any women breaking news right now, so that is a space I’d like to see more women do,” Russini said. “It’s just me with the guys, and I would love more women to do it at a high level and consistently because I think it’s going to just continue to make the league better and show other women and men that anyone can do it. The days of it just being a man’s game – that’s over.”
Much was made about the fallout between Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe. Bayless has since retooled Undisputed while Sharpe has joined the cast of First Take and cemented his position as a game changer by joining The Volume and building Club Shay Shay and Night Cap.
But one thing was learned on media row last week about Sharpe’s exit from Undisputed. It came from Stephen A. Smith who sated that he knew Shannon was done before he knew it himself.
During an appearance on Cam Newton’s show, Stephen A. praised Newton for asking a question nobody had asked him yet. Newton inquired on when Smith learned Sharpe was available. Stephen A. responded by making some news.
“Shannon didn’t even know he was unavailable before I did,’ said Smith. “If you remember, him and Skip got into it over Dak. Shannon sort of lost it. He was cool from that point forward but then the whole thing with Damar Hamlin came down and he was off the air that day. He then came back on the air and was trying to say something and Skip wouldn’t let him finish his monologue. When I saw that, I called him and said ‘it’s over’.
Sharpe responded to Smith with confusion, which led to Stephen A. explaining that he wouldn’t be back on the show. Smith said “this ain’t no insider information. I know that man. There is no way that that happened and you’ll be back.”
Stephen A. concluded by informing Sharpe “when it happens, not if, I’ve got you.” Sharpe would of course exit Undisputed and join the First Take crew in September 2023.
Amazon Prime Video will reportedly stream its first-ever National Football League playoff game next season, according to a report from Joe Flint of The Wall Street Journal. NBCUniversal streamed an NFL playoff game exclusively on Peacock as part of a three-game Wild Card weekend across its platforms and attained 23 million viewers, rendering it the most-streamed event contest in NFL history. Moreover, the game accounted for 30% of internet traffic that day and was the most-streamed event in United States history. The company reportedly aimed to keep the game next year; however, a clause in Amazon’s deal with the league that allows it to stream Thursday Night Football provided an opportunity to claim the matchup.
There were criticisms levied towards NBCUniversal and the NFL for requiring users to subscribe to a streaming service to watch the matchup. While the feed of the broadcast was available in local television markets for the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins, other viewers from around the world needed to pay to watch. The Peacock game was part of the subject within testimony on Capitol Hill that included Brian Lawlor, president of Scripps Sports; John Ourand, sports correspondent for Puck News; and Rob Thun, chief content officer of DirecTV.
According to a subsequent report from The Wall Street Journal, subscription analytics firm Antenna measured 2.8 million signups to Peacock in a three-day period. This stretch accounted for the largest single subscriber-acquisition moment the service had ever measured. The most recent earnings report from Comcast Corporation pegged the service with 31 million subscribers with an accompanying $2.75 billion loss.
Amazon is on the precipice of its third year exclusively streaming Thursday Night Football games, recently delivering an average of 11.86 million viewers across its lineup of games, a 24% increase in the category compared to the season prior. The OTT streaming provider also experienced gains in viewership within its P18-34 demographic and P18-49 demographics, along with an average stream peak viewership of 13.93 million.
Prime Video was the home of the NFL’s first-ever exclusive Black Friday Football matchup, which ended up averaging 9.61 million viewers when the New York Jets faced the Miami Dolphins. The game did not require a Prime Video subscription for viewers to watch, permitting all users with a free Amazon account to consume the game. This is something that remains unknown regarding the reported exclusive NFL playoff game next season. The property also gained flex scheduling abilities on a trial basis prior to the season which can be utilized twice between Week 13 and Week 17.
Play-by-play announcer Al Michaels confirmed that he will return to the broadcast next season in an interview with Mike Freeman of USA TODAY, which would likely line him up to call the matchup next season. He has been joined by color commentator Kirk Herbstreit and sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung since the launch of the Thursday Night Football property on Amazon Prime Video before the 2021 season.
Earlier this week, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) joined House Democrats in voting against impeaching Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Salem Radio Network host Mike Gallagher dealt with angry constituents.
In a video published to his website, the Salem Radio Network host joked that he wanted to reiterate the he’s the conservative talk radio host and not the Congressman.
“I’m Mike Gallagher the talk show host, not Congressman Mike Gallagher from Wisconsin,” he joked.
“For the record, I am not him. My email inbox? Wow. You oughta see the way people are cursing me, and threatening me, and are livid because they think I’m the Wisconsin Congressman. I can only imagine what his email inbox looks like. It can’t be pretty.”
He concluded by noting “I’m Mike Gallagher the big mouth talk show host, not the misguided Congressman from Wisconsin.”
The 39-year-old politician was elected in 2022 and began serving the 8th Congressional District of Wisconsin in 2023. He is currently the Chairman of the House Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
Meanwhile, the Salem Radio Network host has been heard in national syndication since 1998.
The week leading up to the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, Nev. has brought many media outlets and professionals to the locale, giving them a chance to speak with players, coaches and other personnel before kickoff. During a press conference on Thursday, WFAN host Danielle McCartan was selected to ask a question to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
Throughout the season, Kelce’s relationship with award-winning singer and songwriter Taylor Swift has been prominently in discussion surrounding the team. As a result of speculation regarding Swift’s attendance at the game and overall interest in the relationship, Kelce has had to field numerous questions pertaining to his personal life.
McCartan decided to ask him to finish the lyrics to Swift’s hit single “Karma,” a track on the “Midnights” album that recently won “Album of the Year” and “Pop Vocal Album” at the Grammy Awards, marking her 13th and 14th victories from The Recording Academy event. While she was on stage, Swift announced her forthcoming studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” surprising fans and building anticipation for her next project.
As it pertained to “Karma” though, McCartan was referencing when Swift changed a line in the song, seemingly to recognize Kelce during an Eras Tour performance in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Instead of “Karma is the guy on the screen, coming straight home to me,” Swift recited the lyric, “Karma is the guy on the Chiefs, coming straight home to me” during the mid-November show. Kelce successfully filled in the blank when McCartan said, “Karma is the guy on the ____,” but he declined from expounding on the second half of the lyric.
“She separated herself though because I actually saw that on something yesterday,” WFAN morning co-host Boomer Esiason said on Friday’s edition of Boomer & Gio. “I didn’t realize; they didn’t show Danielle asking the question. You just heard her singing the question.”
Gregg Giannotti wondered who was responsible for credentialing people for these events, such as press conferences, media center access and other availability. For this year’s event, the NFL housed its Media Row in the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, an expansive space that granted media locations to produce content across multiple platforms of dissemination.
“They credential anybody,” Recco said. “Yes – and you work for FAN – they’ll get a credential; no problem. They credential people running around like superheroes.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Giannotti replied. “The media day stuff.”
There has been criticism towards media members focusing their questions on Swift rather than the game itself. Some of the questions posed to media members, including those involved in the broadcast with CBS Sports and Paramount Global, have pertained to how long they will show footage of Swift watching the game should she arrive. Swift has attended 12 Kansas City Chiefs games across the regular season and playoffs in which the team has a 9-3 record. She was most recently celebrating with Kelce on the field after the Chiefs won the AFC title and earned a chance to play for their third Super Bowl championship in five seasons.
Earlier in the week, the National Football League held a press conference with Commissioner Roger Goodell, which was moderated by NFL on CBS reporter Tracy Wolfson. Unlike years past, media members needed a special invite to have access to the conversation, a decision that has garnered criticism and raised concerns about objective questioning. There have been journalists covering the league who have posed questions in years past about issues NBC Sports and ProFootballTalk reporter Mike Florio affirmed the league did not want to discuss. Florio was first to reveal the news that the league transformed the event to require an innovation and moved it to Monday, a day where some media members are still traveling to Las Vegas, Nev.
WQAM morning show host Joe Rose interviewed Florio on his program Friday morning after Florio remained awake the entire night. On Friday alone, Florio shared that he has 20 interviews he needs to do and ascertained that he would find a way to power through to be on Rose’s show. Throughout the week, Rose has been watching Florio on PFT Live and was curious to know how far he would go with the change to the Super Bowl week press conference.
“It’s amazing after 23 years of doing this and 23 years of them trying to figure out how to deal with me that they’ve still yet to even begin to understand that the fundamental truth is this,” Florio said. “When I practiced law, this was the same thing, and a friend of mine would counsel lawyers that would fight with me that the worst thing you can do is piss me off because it makes me more determined to do whatever needs to be done.”
Although undertones of an adversarial relationship can be evinced, Florio affirmed that he is not trying to be malicious in any way. When he was practicing law regularly, part of his job was to read through deposition transcripts, something he divulged as an arduous task.
After the limitations were placed on the press conference, Florio decided to read the entire 408-page document of Roger Goodell’s testimony in the lawsuit in which the NFL was trying to force insurance companies to pay for the concussion settlement. From there, he further studied topics and posted stories with more to come shortly thereafter. At the moment, the settlement is reportedly worth more than $1 billion and continuing to grow.
“They’ve made me focused and they’ve made me determined to put my finger on the issues that they don’t want to talk about,” Florio explained, “and they’re a lot of issues out there they don’t want to talk about.”
Rose was not present on Media Row at the Super Bowl this year, but he has interviewed various guests situated in Las Vegas about the game. Florio conveyed that there are two distinctive aspects of casinos in the area – that they smell like cigarettes and do not have clocks – before Rose hypothesized what his experience would have been like had he made the trip.
“I was just thinking [that] I told these guys, ‘Do you miss it?,’ and I go, ‘I would have been hung over the whole time running with guys and going and feeling like I have to see everything,’” Rose said, “and probably what you’re doing, ‘I’ll get sleep when I get back home.’”
As he continued the interview, Rose lauded the strong guest list on PFT Live throughout the week, something Florio attributed to coordinating producer Matt Casey. One of his most memorable interviews throughout the week was Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, someone who he was surprised was available. Allen was being presented by Subway, leading Florio to surmise that he was receiving substantial remuneration in the deal. Being at Media Row though, media professionals need to be prepared to adapt because of the challenges in remaining on schedule.
“It’s funny because one guy who was tentatively on the list was Lawrence Taylor – the original LT – and Chris [Simms] knows him,” Florio said. “Chris Simms knows him since he was a little kid because he played with Phil [Simms]. As soon as Chris saw it, he said, ‘There’s no way he’s showing up at 9:15 a.m. [At] 9:15 p.m., maybe; there’s no way he’s going to be here at 9:15 a.m. Of course he didn’t show up.”
During an appearance with Sean Hannity on his Fox News show earlier this week, 77 WABC host Curtis Sliwa had members of his Guardian Angels group stop a man, whom he accused of being an immigrant and shoplifting. The clip subsequently went viral.
However, neither of those accusations turned out to be true, with Hannity admitting as much Thursday.
“I want to talk about Curtis Sliwa’s appearance on this show on Tuesday night, when members of the Guardian Angels stopped a man and the police were called. Now, Curtis said that the man was a migrant and that he was shoplifting. Fox News has since spoken to the NYPD and, apparently, the statements made by Curtis that the man is a migrant is not true and the man was given a summons for disorderly conduct,” Hannity admitted.
“Today, Curtis Sliwa acknowledged to the Washington Post that the man has not been charged with shoplifting and Curtis said in part, quote, “I shouldn’t have been listening to the crowd. That was my mistake. I should not have had that knee-jerk reaction.”
The clip garnered millions of views on social media. Sliwa told the Associated Press he believed the man was an illegal immigrant because he was speaking Spanish and other members of his Guardian Angels had heard him speaking Spanish previously.
Hannity concluded his admission by insisting “On this show, we always want to set the record straight.”
Retiring CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus spent time on Mad Dog Unleashed with Chris Russo while in Las Vegas for Super Bowl LVIII. This is the final Super Bowl for McManus who is retiring in April.
“I wish it was 6:40 EST and the ball was being kicked in the air on Sunday,” McManus said. “It’s a long week, we have literally been working on this project for over a year.”
Asked by Russo why the NFL has dominated the television ratings over the last few seasons, McManus said, “I just think the NFL is stronger and more appealing than ever. It is in the news cycle 52 weeks a year…it gets bigger and bigger…I think the production that all of us are doing, it’s the best television programming there is.”
Russo asked McManus about several non-sports shows and how they do compared to the NFL, including last weekend’s Grammys, which did 16.9 million viewers. “There will never ever again be a telvision show, other than an NFL game, that will get 56 million viewers.”
As for how McManus and CBS will keep viewers entertained over the long pre-game window, he said, “We will have great features. Las Vegas is going to be showcased throughout the four hours…I think people will watch a lot of it, I think they will be entertained.”
McManus was also asked by Russo about Taylor Swift and how she might factor in to the broadcast. “If she’s there, we are going to do exactly what we have done in the past,” he said. “When she is part of the storyline, [we will] put a shot of her into our coverage. There’s no question there are people who are interested in NFL football because of Taylor Swift. It’s just a fact. So you want to give them a glimpse, normally when Travis or the Chiefs do something special. We aren’t going to overdo it, but we are going to satisfy the fans who want to see her. She is the biggest star, right now, in the world, so we’re not going to ignore it…I think it’s part of the story.”
Russo and other media have been fairly critical of CBS analyst Tony Romo who will join Jim Nantz and Tracy Wolfson for the call of the game. Russo said, “I think this is a big game for Romo. I think a lot of the bloom is off the rose. I think there has been a little more criticism than what most analysts get. I think he can undo a lot of that with a big performance on Sunday and I do think a game like this is about the analyst. Do you buy the fact that Romo needs to really come raring to go on Sunday afternoon?”
“I think no matter what the public perception has been, it would always be a big game for Tony. I do believe that some of the criticism, most of which I think is undeserved, but it’s not an objective, its a subjective evaluation. I think it’s an important game for him no matter what. I think if people really listeend to Tony…he’s more of a fan, he gets excited. We sometimes say to him ‘Hey, calm down a little bit because you do get too into the game’ which I think is a plus. But I think, generally speaking, people really enjoy listening to [Jim] Nantz, [Tony] Romo and Tracy Wolfson.”
CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus spoke about the impact of Taylor Swift and told @MadDogUnleashed
“There is no question there are people who are interested in NFL Football because of Taylor Swift. It’s just a fact.”
Earlier this week, a comment made by Tucker Carlson promoting his interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin received a Community Note fact-check on X. Keith Olbermann believes it’s clear Carlson isn’t trustworthy after the incident.
While discussing Carlson’s interview with Putin, the Countdown with Keith Olbermann host argued that it is difficult to retain your credibility when you’re being fact-checked by a dictator.
“Tucker Carlson got community noted by the Kremlin under his post promoting his flatulent, lap-sitting visit with the dictator. The Kremlin has disputed Carlson’s claim that no other Westerner has bothered to interview Putin. The Kremlin spokesman added there’s no way he could know this. Like that ever stopped Tucker Carlson before,” Olbermann said, sarcastically. “When the Kremlin is more credible than you are, Tucker, you just turned the rest of your life into a punch line.”
Keith Olbermann continued his takedown of Carlson by taking a shot at his tenure at MSNBC.
‘”A member of the European Parliament is talking about introducing a response to Carlson’s serving as Putin’s useful idiot by proposing a travel ban against Carlson in EU countries. Also, that phrase ‘useful idiot’? That’s how we used to think of Tucker at MSNBC. Only without the useful part.”
