Skip to main content
SI

Fox Seems to Be Upset About a Story Fox Leaked

Someone from the network apparently wanted ESPN to get called out for its lack of World Cup coverage, but a Fox spokesperson tried to downplay the story.
Jimmy Traina|
Somebody at Fox Sports wants ESPN to give more coverage to the World Cup.
Somebody at Fox Sports wants ESPN to give more coverage to the World Cup. | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

1. As soon as I saw the Front Office Sports story on Tuesday that claimed Fox was upset with ESPN’s lack of World Cup coverage, I knew something was off. It just didn’t make sense. Why would Fox be worried about what ESPN is doing?

I wrote about it briefly in Wednesday’s Traina Thoughts and then later in the afternoon, The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand shared comments from a Fox Sports spokesperson.

Again, none of this makes sense. If Fox executives were so unhappy with the FOS story, why didn’t they immediately denounce it? The FOS story came out Tuesday afternoon. Fox gave a statement to Marchand on Wednesday afternoon. Fox let the story fester for a full 24 hours before denying it.

Meanwhile, Awful Announcing owner and editor Ben Koo weighed in on Wednesday to say that the people from Fox who gave the anonymous quotes to FOS also tried to peddle the story to AA.

Koo’s statement would certainly contradict what a Fox spokesperson told Marchand.

It seems clear that someone from Fox reached out to FOS and Awful Announcing. FOS ran with the story. Fox got ripped and mocked on social media for 24 hours, so then Fox decided to deny the story.

The entire thing is just a complete mess for Fox. At the worst, Fox is begging ESPN for more World Cup coverage. At worst, someone at Fox reached out to sites to give a ridiculous and nonsensical story.

And as I said Wednesday, the craziest part of this entire saga is that ESPN is EXTREMELY limited in being able to air World Cup highlights, so the Worldwide Leader would be well within its rights to give the World Cup as little coverage as it sees fit.

2. ESPN has re-signed NFL analyst Jason McCourty to an exclusive deal. That means McCourty is done doing games on CBS, where he was excellent. Last season, McCourty worked in a three-man booth with play-by-play voice Andrew Catalon and analyst Charles Davis. Davis will be CBS’s lead college football analyst this season, so Catalon has lost both his analysts and CBS has an opening in one of its NFL booths.

3. I’m only posting this video so I can call out whoever filmed it for making me completely dizzy and making my head spin. I wanted to see who was on the Knicks’ celebrity parade bus, but the way he filmed this should be a felony.

4. If you plan on watching the U.S. Open on NBC this weekend, you will be getting inside information—literally.

Caddies will be wearing microphone-equipped bibs for the first time at the U.S. Open. More mic’d up people at events, across all sports, is nothing but a good thing.

5. Mets sideline reporter Steve Gelbs tried Cincinnati’s famous Skyline Chili during the team’s game Wednesday’s against the Reds. He was completely repulsed.

6. This week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina features an interview with ABC/ESPN’s lead NBA play-by-play voice, Mike Breen.

The voice of the Knicks talks about what it was like to call the closing seconds of New York’s title win in Game 5, where this NBA Finals ranks in his career as a broadcaster and where the OG Anunoby tip-in and 29-point comeback in Game 4 ranks in terms of games he’s called.

In addition, Breen talks about working his first NBA Finals with Richard Jefferson and Tim Legler, what it was like to have Inside the NBA as the pregame, halftime and postgame show for the first time, whether he would’ve went with a triple “BANG!” if Jalen Brunson’s three-pointer had gone in at the end of Game 4, Monica McNutt nailing her closing comments after Game 5 on the radio side, his nightmarish travel excursion from San Antonio to New York after Game 5 and much more.

Following Breen, Sal Licata from SNY TV and The Sal Licata Show joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, Sal breaks down his trip to San Antonio for Game 5 of the NBA Finals and what it was like to watch the Knicks win a championship in person and more.

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

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Terrible job by me on Wednesday not recognizing the anniversary of 1) the greatest prank call in the history of prank calls; and 2) the best work of Al Michaels’ storied career. Here it is one day late.

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.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published | Modified
Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

Home/Media