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Traina Thoughts Mailbag: Russell Wilson vs. Mike Tomlin, NBA Finals Schedule, More

Who will be the better studio show analyst: the former QB or the legendary head coach?
Jimmy Traina|
Russell Wilson and Mike Tomlin are headed to television this season.
Russell Wilson and Mike Tomlin are headed to television this season. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images; Barry Reeger-Imagn Images

Welcome to another edition of an all-Traina Thoughts mailbag. Let’s get to the questions.

Good question. Russell Wilson has more star power because he was a quarterback and he’s married to Ciara. I think Mike Tomlin has more credibility and authority.

A lot of people aren’t fans of Wilson’s personality. He comes off a robotic and polished, not real. It will be interesting to see how that plays off in a studio show setting.

To be perfectly frank, I don’t know anyone who’s all that interested in watching Russell Wilson on television.

Tomlin will be the superior voice from an X’s and O’s standpoint. He coached for 19 seasons, won a Super Bowl and never had a losing record. NFL fans are going to pay attention when Tomlin speaks.

The only issue with Tomlin doing TV is that you know he’s going to go back to coaching in a year or two, so we don’t know if he’ll be honest and drop the hammer on players, coaches and organizations when needed or if he’ll play it safe so he doesn’t upset any potential employees/employers.

Another very good question. I would love to see Kevin Harlan and Greg Olsen as an NFL broadcast team. This would instantly rival any other booth as the best in the business.

According to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, the NBA adjusted the Finals schedule this year, and will not have a Finals game played on the weekend for the first time since 1970, because of the World Cup.

You are right to say I’m not a hockey guy, so it’s very strange to me that I often see Sean McDonough get criticized for his NHL work since he’s one of the all-time greats. McDonough is the best college football play-by-play person working today. He’s terrific on baseball. He’s great terrific on basketball. So I don’t understand why there’s a portion of hockey fans who don’t enjoy McDonough.

The call that you are referring to from Thursday night seems like an excellent call to me.

I think you will see this one day, but who knows when. Lead play-by-play jobs are very few and far between across all sports. And there isn’t a lot of turnover in those spots. When someone gets a lead gig, they usually have it for a long time. Jim Nantz, Al Michaels, Joe Buck and Mike Breen, to name a few, have been around forever.

The amount of complaints I get about the Gotham Sports app, which features the YES Network and MSG, is truly amazing. I’ve had issues with it myself and have basically stopped using it. It was particularly annoying that every time I tried to watch a Yankees game on Gotham, I had to re-log in, re-authenticate, check my email, get a code, log in with my provider, etc. It never seemed to remember my info. If I want to watch Yankees game on my iPad, I just my Verizon Fios TV app. This is not an option, though, for people who have cut the cord and rely on the Gotham app to watch sports.

The complaints from users have been going on since the app launched. My guess is that if the people in charge of it haven’t fixed the issues by now, they don’t care to do so. They know they have fans by the you-know-whats and are going to get their money regardless of how well the app works. To have the picture regularly freeze or glitch out is inexcusable, but I just don’t think anyone associated with the app cares because there have been problems since Day 1.

Steinbrenner would’ve used social media to attack his own players and it would’ve been unbelievable content. As old-school Mike and the Mad Dog listeners remember, George used to do this back in the day by faxing over, as Mike Francesa called them, “missives” to WFAN.

Steinbrenner would’ve had a field day tweeting about Giancarlo Stanton making $325 million and never playing because he’s always hurt.

This is perfect summation of social media in 2026. One guy wants me to bash the World Cup. The other guy doesn’t want to hear anything negative about the World Cup. We are a divided country in so many ways.

Yes, the Howard Stern Show was discussed on this week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina thanks to Robin Quivers announcing on Monday that she was cancer free and Sal Licata getting a message from a Wack Packer.

To answer this question, I once interviewed Gary Dell’Abate on my old Hot Clicks Podcast way back when, so I would say Fred Norris, who does not get enough credit for being an absolute genius with the drops.

What an unbelievably difficult question to answer. The closing scene in the restaurant season was an all-timer with everyone unloading curse word after curse word.

But the season with Larry performing in The Producers was probably stronger on a start-to-finish basis. Not only did you have the David Schwimmer guest role, as you mentioned, but the season also featured Ben Stiller. These two scenes alone made that season an A+ for me.

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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.

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