1. We’ve known for months that ESPN was going to purchase NFL Media, which includes the NFL Network, RedZone and other properties, from the league.

The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported on Friday that the deal was done. ESPN and the NFL have yet to comment, but that’s just a formality at this point.

When the news broke on Friday, social media exploded with NFL fans lamenting the possibility of ESPN toying with RedZone.

I fully understand that we should all have zero expectations from social media when it comes to reasoning and logic, but the level of ridiculousness on this one even surprised me.

There is absolutely no chance in the world ESPN will make any significant changes to RedZone. You’ll probably see the ESPN logo on the set somewhere instead of the NFL Network logo, and the ESPN bottom line may appear on screen, but in terms of what the show is and who the host is, I can assure you that you shouldn’t worry.

ESPN is not going to take something that NFL fans view as perfect and tinker with it. No, you’re not going to see Stephen A. Smith host RedZone. You’re not going to see Scott Hanson interview the star of some ABC show that nobody watches in the middle of a Sunday afternoon.

ESPN can’t comment on any of this publicly yet, but I would be willing to bet money that one of the first things ESPN will do once they make the official announcement about the deal is release some kind of statement confirming that nothing with change about the RedZone product.

The speculation that anyone other than Hanson, who just signed a four-year deal, which he discussed on SI Media With Jimmy Traina, would be hosting RedZone once it becomes an ESPN show is just too stupid to acknowledge.

Now, I think every other property that ESPN purchased will undergo massive changes, but ESPN is not going to mess with RedZone in any way, shape or form.

2. Based on his fit (like the kids say) for Monday’s Good Morning Football, it appears that the NFL Network’s Kyle Brandt it all ready for the ESPN takeover of his show.

3. I posted this in last Thursday’s Traina Thoughts while writing about ratings for past NFL Hall of Fame games:

“Last season’s NBA playoffs averaged 6.13 million viewers. The NHL’s postseason averaged 2.5 million viewers. MLB’s wild-card round averaged 2.7 million viewers, the divisional round averaged 3.56 million viewers and the LCS round averaged 4.96 million viewers.”

Last Thursday’s Lions-Chargers game was watched by 6.21 million people, making it the most-watched Hall of Fame game since 2021. Unreal.

4. Longtime Browns beat writer Mary Kay Cabot delivered an A+ line about Bill Belichick during her acceptance speech for the Pro Football Writers of America’s Bill Nunn Memorial Award over the weekend.

5. I don’t really tweet about actual sports anymore since that place is just an awful cesspool, but I couldn’t help myself on Friday and posted about the reaction to the Yankees acquiring a few relievers at the trade deadline.

While the post was getting a decent amount of likes, I was getting a slew of dumb responses which immediately reminded why I don’t tweet about actual sports analysis anymore, so I deleted the tweet because I didn’t want to spend the start of my weekend reading stupid replies on that horrible app.

Lo and behold, it just took hours for my post to be a stroke of genius when the Yankees new relievers posted these stat lines in a 13–12 loss against the Marlins Friday night:

Jake Bird: 1/3 inning, four runs, three hits
David Bednar: 1 2/3 innings, two runs, four hits
Camilo Doval: 1/3 inning, three runs, two hits

I tell you all this because I want to give a shoutout to Matthew Schorr for saving my tweet and allowing me to take a victory lap.

6. This week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina features an interview with ESPN’s Peter Schrager.

Schrager goes in depth about his decision to leave NFL Network and Good Morning Football for ESPN, why he wasn’t nervous about making the big career move and how he feels about his time on GMFB.

Schrager also reveals what his role will be at ESPN once the NFL season begins, whether we’ll see him during Monday Night Football coverage and if the prospect of covering other sports besides the NFL appeals to him. Schrager also comments on reports that ESPN is interested in giving him his own show.

Other topics covered with Schrager include the status of the NFL going to an 18-game regular season, sleeper teams for the 2025 season and acts he’d like to see perform during the Super Bowl halftime show.

The conversation with Schrager closes with a deep dive on HBO’s excellent two-part Billy Joel documentary.

Following Schrager, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we discuss MLB’s gambling problem after the suspension of Guardians reliever Emmanuel Clase. Plus, I recap my weekend of seeing Chris “Mad Dog” Russo's live SiriusXM show in New Jersey and Jerry Seinfeld’s standup show at Foxwoods. We also discussed the wave of recent celebrity deaths.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Today is Roger Clemens’s 63rd birthday. I would put him throwing a bat at Mike Piazza as a top 10 all-time “imagine if Twitter was round for this” sports moment.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Everybody Needs to Calm Down About the ESPN-RedZone Marriage.

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