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Matthew Berry: Fantasy Football Now Has Year-Round Content Cycle

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There’s no such thing anymore as a lull in coverage of the NFL. And with how gigantic fantasy football and sports betting has become, it makes sense to NBC’s Matthew Berry.

Berry told Jeff Edelstein at SportsHandle that the evolution of the NFL news cycle has added value to fantasy players and bettors alike.

“News happens in the NFL 24/7/365 now, and when news happens in the NFL, that has an immediate effect on the fantasy values and sports betting futures of everything,” Berry said. “There’s an ancillary effect to any sort of news. Sean Payton gets named coach of the Broncos, all of sudden the fantasy values of the players go up, odds get better.”

Berry has recognized for a while that even in the offseason with the combine and the draft and free agency, NFL content is king.

“It’s really kind of amazing, I remember when I was at ESPN, I used to have to switch off to do fantasy baseball,” he said. “Then after a while, we’d see the numbers, and when we realized an offseason NFL article about free agent moves was doing better than preseason fantasy baseball draft prep, that was when I left fantasy baseball content.”

Matthew said respect to the league had to be given for helping make its product the juggernaut it is.

“A lot of credit has to go to the NFL; they’ve done such a good job of marketing themselves and making minor things big deals,” Berry said. “They’ve done a great job of turning it into a year-round sport despite the games only being played September through early February.”

“Because of the promotion and ingenuity of the NFL, its media, and broadcast partners,” he added. “It’s become this year-round sport that drives interest in fantasy and sports betting.”

ESPN Enjoys Most-Watched Women’s College Basketball Season Since 2015

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Women’s college basketball on ESPN enjoyed a very successful regular season from a viewership and streaming standpoint.

The company announced on Tuesday that games across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU made for the most-viewed regular season since 2014-15. Broadcasts averaged 199,000 viewers, with ratings up 11% year over year.

Games on ESPN also accounted for 30 of the top 40 games across all networks.

Viewers streamed 2 billion minutes of women’s college hoops this season. That figure is the most on record for ESPN and up 35% compared to last season.

ESPN is the home of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, which will begin later this month.

Pat McAfee: People Think We Are The Ones To Ask About Aaron Rodgers’s Plans

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There is only one show that Aaron Rodgers regularly makes time for. That is The Pat McAfee Show. However, the host says anyone that is coming to him for a scoop on Rodgers’s future plans will be sorely disappointed.

“We legitimately know nothing,” McAfee said Tuesday after finding out that members of the New York Jets’ front office have a meeting scheduled with Rodgers. “People think that we would be the people that know stuff.”

McAfee added that if the Jets have set up a meeting, that likely means Rodgers is planning to play in 2023. McAfee said he knew that the two-time MVP was seriously considering retirement the last time they spoke

There is one member of The Pat McAfee Show cast that has a long relationship with Aaron Rodgers. Co-host AJ Hawk and Rodgers were teammates in Green Bay for nine years. Rodgers has said on the show before that Hawk is the reason he trusts McAfee.

Pat McAfee couldn’t help but grill Hawk.

“AJ, we want you to know everybody in this room thinks you f***ing know,” he said.

Hawk assured the crew that he knew nothing. He added that he wouldn’t even make an effort to find out, because chasing news is boring to him. All it is is bothering people to get them to tell you things they likely will not.

McAfee agreed that he would not want to know, but for a different reason.

“People have to know that I know nothing. Even though people assume I do know stuff, I do not. I literally do not. And to AJ’s point, I don’t want to know, because I’ve got to be on this thing for three and a half hours,” he said pointing to the microphone. “You tell me and it’s probably going to end up right through here, so I protect myself.”

Will Boling: Peter King Criticism of Carson Wentz Wildest I’ve Ever Heard

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Will Boling: Peter King Criticism of Carson Wentz Wildest I’ve Ever Heard

Former second overall NFL draft pick Carson Wentz has now departed three NFL teams after being released by the Washington Commanders. That news didn’t come as a shock, but what did raise eyebrows was criticism from Peter King.

In his Football Morning in America column, King questioned if Wentz will “allow himself to be humbled” and pondered whether or not he will “be a selfless teammate” should he get a fourth opportunity with a team.

One of the more critical comments from King claimed “I’d argue that no player in NFL history has cost so much and delivered so little.”

On 104.5 The Zone’s Ramon, Kayla & Will, host Will Boling commented that he couldn’t remember a more scathing takedown of an NFL quarterback.

“I just saw one of wildest quotes from an NFL writer about an NFL player popping up from Peter King in The Monday Morning Quarterback.,” Boling said, before directly quoting King’s article. “Tell us how you really feel, Peter. That’s crazy.”

Co-host Kayla Anderson sheepishly added “I think I agree”.

“How has Carson Wentz continued to get all this love? That’s what’s so crazy about it,” co-host Ramon Foster said.

“Peter King is coming from the perspective that you do,” Bolling continued. “That when a quarterback gets put on pedestal…you’re the one that’s always asking ‘Huh. If this guy was a right tackle that had gone undrafted, would they be getting this much love?’ No.”

Colin Cowherd: Tom Brady Won’t Be A Broadcaster, He Wants To Play

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Is Tom Brady retired or not? The league has received his official paperwork, but this week, a new rumor has surfaced saying that the GOAT would be open to returning to the field in 2023 if the right situation were available. Add Colin Cowherd to the list of people that have heard the rumor.

“Somebody I trust outside of this building at FOX told me a couple of weeks ago, they said, ‘I don’t think Brady’s going to be a broadcaster any time soon. I think he wants to play,'” Cowherd revealed on his FOX Sports Radio show on Tuesday.

Before the start of the 2022 season, Tom Brady and FOX agreed to a ten-year deal worth $375 million. It would put Brady in the network’s top broadcast booth and make him a brand ambassador for FOX Sports.

After announcing his retirement from the NFL in February, Brady decided to take a year off before starting his deal with FOX. Cowherd wondered if the delay has to do with Brady knowing he still has something to offer a team.

“Brady set records last year, a couple of different records,” he said. “I think it was attempts and completions at 45 years old. So, a lot of people limped to the end. Elway didn’t. Roger Staubach didn’t, Derek Jeter didn’t. Kobe scored 61 in his last game as a Laker. Brady can still sling it.”

Cowherd added that because an ideal situation exists in San Francisco, the team Tom Brady grew up rooting for, the rumors cannot be dismissed.

Plenty of people in the broadcast industry have remarked that Tom Brady will become the most scrutinized person on sports television the second he steps into the FOX booth. He brings more star power than any other NFL analyst does or could.

Certainly, the network is willing to wait to take advantage of that, but it is likely that if Brady is not joining the network until 2024, there are plenty of FOX executives that would rather see him taking practice reps in the booth instead of on the field.

Dan Dakich: ESPN Had More Rules For My Twitter Than For Kendrick Perkins

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Dan Dakich: ESPN Had More Rules For My Twitter Than For Kendrick Perkins

Dan Dakich departed ESPN in 2021, at the time saying it was “as much my choice as their choice.”

However, Dakich noted Tuesday during his show on OutKick that he felt under a tight leash when he was at the network, but it appears Kendrick Perkins isn’t under the same scrutiny.

After discussing Shaquille O’Neal agreeing with Deion Sanders’ comments about his recruiting philosophy regarding single-parent or two-parent homes, Dakich lamented the rise of single-parent homes in the Black community, saying “that’s not right”, before adding “You can get mad at me, Tony Dungy me all you want, but I stand by that”.

Dakich then said he wouldn’t have been able to have that discussion while employed at ESPN.

“This is the reason I left ESPN. Right here. So I can talk about this stuff,” Dakich said. “It used to be when I send a tweet, I’d get called in. I remember having to call Norby Williamson, the head of ESPN, about a tweet that had no sexual innuendo, nothing, but they thought it did, and I had to answer for it before an Ohio State game.

“‘Norby, I don’t know what to tell you. This is a friend of mine…I insulted him through Dane Fife.’ Yesterday, you know what I saw? I saw our friend Kendrick Perkins dropping f-bombs on Twitter. I cannot help you, people.”

Perkins has been under fire after insinuating that NBA MVP voters select the award on race, noting that 80% of voters are white. On Tuesday, he had a heated disagreement with ESPN NBA analyst JJ Redick on the subject during an appearance on First Take.

Charles Barkley: ESPN Has ‘Same Silly Debate Every Year’ About MVP Award

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Charles Barkley is not impressed with Kendrick Perkins, JJ Redick, or anyone else discussing the NBA MVP race on ESPN.

He was on Altitude Sports Radio’s Moser, Lombardi and Kane on Tuesday morning and clearly was not eager to talk about the fight between Redick and Perkins.

“Hey man, I’m trying to work on my golf game and you bring me on the radio to talk about stupid stuff?” the Inside the NBA analyst said when asked how he felt about Perkins insinuating that race played a role in Nikola Jokic being the favorite to win the award for a third straight year.

Host Vic Lombardi asked Barkley if he saw the exchange. Barkley responded simply “I did not. I got a life.”

Lombardi then played audio of the exchange in which Perkins pointed out that 80% of voters for the MVP award are white. While Perkins never explicitly said that was the only reason Jokic had won awards in the past, it did seem to be the implication.

“Asinine, silly and stupid. Pick one of the words, whichever one you want,” Barkley said in response.

Barkley added that this is a pattern for ESPN. The network’s debates about the MVP award rarely matchup with the discussions voters are having or the evidence they are asked to consider.

“They do this silly debate every year about the MVP, going back to even when I played,” he said. “They did it a lot with LeBron, which makes me laugh, too. Derrick Rose won it. He deserved it. Kevin Durant won it. He deserved it. It’s a regular season award. It ain’t who the best player is. It’s who had the best regular season, but every year ESPN gets these fools on radio and TV to talk about who’s the best player.”

Boomer Esiason: ‘Revisionist History’ For Bob Costas To Say He ‘Was Off His Game’ During MLB Postseason

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Bob Costas recently appeared on Club Random with Bill Maher, and admitted his performance during the 2022 MLB Postseason was lackluster. WFAN morning host Boomer Esiason believes it might be Costas trying to paint himself in a better light.

On the podcast, Costas claimed he wasn’t his best, saying “This past October, I did the Yankees and the Guardians in the Division Series. I felt like I was off my game. Sort of like a pitcher who still has good stuff but somehow didn’t command.”

Esiason was critical of Costas during the series, and was critical of the announcer on Tuesday.

“He just kept talking, and talking, and talking,” Esiason said of Costas’ work during the 2020 ALDS. “It’s revisionist history.”

“He was also — at the time — like ‘The Twitter mob is after me. This is ridiculous’,” co-host Gregg Giannotti added. “But now I guess he just realized he sucked.”

Costas also said he didn’t concern himself with outside criticism, and wasn’t worred about what “two or three people” had to say about him on Twitter.

“I do agree with that sentiment, though. That statement right there, I agree with,” concurred Esiason. “Everybody’s always bitching and complaining about something.”

Many were critical of Costas during the five-game series, including former WFAN afternoon host Mike Francesa, who said “It’s almost like Bob’s been locked away somewhere just dying to talk, and now you can’t shut him up,” among other things on his podcast for BetRivers.

Costas has contended multiple times that he doesn’t listen to outside criticism, but is aware that he is trying to live up to his best version of himself. “I’m also very self critical and I understand there are occasions when I don’t quite meet my own standard. I don’t quite accomplish what I set out to do,” he told Ken Carman and Anthony Lima of 92.3 The Fan last fall.

JJ Redick: Kendrick Perkins Implying MVP Voters Are Racist is ‘Problem With First Take’

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Maybe it is all a work and Kendrick Perkins and JJ Redick really do like each other. It sure did not seem that way Tuesday morning on First Take though. Redick accused Perkins of implying that white voters favor white players when evaluating candidates for the NBA’s MVP award. He called it “the problem with this show.”

“Stephen A, I mean no offense to you and I mean no offense to First Take because I think this show is extremely valuable,” Redick said. “It is an honor to be on this desk every day. It really is, but what we just witnessed is the problem with this show where we create narratives that do not exist in reality.”

Perkins rolled his eyes and visibly mouthed the phrase “oh my God” as Redick accused him of implying that white voters for the MVP award are racist.

“I stated the facts,” Perkins shouted over Redick as the former guard continued to talk. “And you not about to sit up here and act like there’s something more than that.”

Last week was the first time Kendrick Perkins pointed out that only white players have been able to win the NBA MVP without being one of the league’s top ten scorers. While he has never explicitly said that the people that gave the awards to Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, and Nikola Jokic in those situations are racist, he has encouraged the audience to think about “what do those guys have in common.”

Members of the sports media outside of ESPN have called out Perkins. JJ Redick was the first one to bring the discussion to ESPN’s airwaves.

Perkins has been adamant that Nikola Jokic, who is the favorite for the MVP award this year, has not had as impressive of a season as the Philadelphia 76ers’ Joel Embiid. The comments have been met with particular scorn in Denver, where Jokic and the Nuggets are having the best regular season in the center’s consecutive MVP run.

Michael Kay: NHL ‘Red Hot’ After Stephen A. Smith Said League ‘Doesn’t Count’

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During an appearance on First Take last week, 98.7 ESPN New York host Michael Kay was asked which New York franchise was the next champion. Chances are he had no idea his response would create backlash for the program or make the NHL angry.

After Kay said the NHL’s New York Rangers were the most likely team from the Big Apple to win a title, Stephen A. Smith and Molly Qerim each said that the league “doesn’t count” and they wanted an answer from the NFL, NBA, or MLB. Smith joked the only thing he knew about the NHL was “the puck is black”.

https://twitter.com/Laf4MVP/status/1631410414679388163

Qerim later said she made the comment because she knew Smith would be unable to analyze whether Kay’s decree that the Rangers were the most likely champion.

During The Michael Kay Show, co-host Peter Rosenberg mentioned that hockey fans were upset by the discussion. Kay revealed he had been told the league was less than thrilled with the interaction.

“By the way,” Kay said, “One addendum to that: I heard today, the NHL, red hot.”

Rosenberg then added that the response from Stephen A. Smith — where he showed support for the New York Rangers and told hockey fans to relax — was “clearly trying to make amends”.

The NHL and ESPN are in the second year of a seven-year broadcast year that sees the network pay the league $400 million per year.

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