Earlier today, it was announced that Barstool Sports had partnered with The CW to broadcast the 2023 Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl. However, it appears no one told the company’s founder, Dave Portnoy.

Portnoy reposted the announcement that it had secured a distribution deal to bring the bowl game to terrestrial television with The CW. He accompanied the post by saying “Love finding out about this in a tweet.”

The bowl game’s official X account wrote it was “thrilled to be able to bring the most cutting edge postseason experience to college football fans across the nation.”

Barstool Sports play-by-play voice Jake Marsh shared his enthusiasm for the partnership by calling it “huge news”.

The National Sports Media Association (NSMA) on Wednesday announced its finalists for 2023 national awards.

The national sportswriter of the year finalists are: Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN; Dan Wetzel of Yahoo; Dana O’Neil of The Athletic; Jeff Passan of ESPN; Marc J. Spears of Andscape and ESPN; Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic; Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated; Peter King of NBC Sports; Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post, and Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated.

The national Sportscaster of the Year finalists are: Brian Anderson of CBS/TBS/TNT; Charles Barkley of TNT/TBS; Doris Burke of ABC/ESPN; Jim Nantz of CBS; Joe Buck of ESPN; Joe Davis of FOX; Kevin Harlan of CBS/TNT/TBS/Westwood One; Mike Breen of ABC/ESPN; Mike Tirico of NBC, and Sean McDonough of ABC/ESPN.

The Hall of Fame Sportswriter finalists are: Christine Brennan, Claire Smith, Howard Bryant, Ira Berkow, Jayson Stark, Mike Downey, Ralph Wiley, Ray Didinger, Roger Kahn, and Wendell Smith.

The Hall of Fame sportscaster finalists are: Andrea Kremer, Charlie Neal, Don Criqui, Jaime Jarrin, James Brown, Joe Buck, Mary Carillo, Mike Tirico, Phyllis George, and Tim McCarver.

Winners will be invited to the 64th NSMA Awards Weekend & National Convention next summer.

The narrative going around social media is that legendary broadcaster Al Michaels doesn’t have too much excitement when he calls a Thursday Night Football game on Amazon Prime with Kirk Herbstreit. However, in Herbstreit’s mind, that is nowhere near the truth.  

Herbstreit was a guest on the Pardon My Take podcast this week and he said that he thinks a lot of people are holding two games from last year against Michaels. One was the Chargers-Jaguars Wild Card playoff game and the other was the Colts-Broncos matchup that was a 12-9 overtime game.

“I think everyone is holding the Jacksonville playoff game last year against him. I didn’t work with him in that game and it got a lot of criticism after that game.”

“Social media is using that as a narrative and they are just using that and the one time in Indy/Denver he talked about how what a shitty game it was we were doing. It is almost like they are using those two examples to say ‘Al Michaels hates Thursday night, Al Michaels has lost it.'”

One comparison he gave for both he and Michaels is that while Thursday night games have strong atmospheres, they don’t compare to when Michaels used to call Sunday Night Football or Monday Night Football or when Herbstreit does a big Saturday Night game for college football.

“We’ve had a great schedule this year. We’ve had some great games. If you listen to me calling Florida State/Florida or to me this weekend, I’m standing the whole game, Chris Fowler is standing the whole game. There’s energy that is unparalleled in these college atmospheres. You get caught up in the moment you are performing in.”

“I think Al when he would do Sunday Night or Monday Night Football, those games were massive. You are doing big games and your voice projects based on the setting that you are in. These Thursday night games are good atmospheres, but I don’t think they are at the level of a Sunday night game or when I’m doing a Saturday night game. So, I think your voice always matches with what you are doing.”

Herbstreit has been with Michaels for the last two seasons and there is one thing that he is impressed by about him and he feels that both of them are similar in terms of how much excitement they bring with the situation warrants it.

“I’ve noticed that Al Michaels is pretty much like me. When the game warrants excitement, he brings excitement…I think Al hears it, he disagrees with it. He’s really enjoying our crew and what we are doing. To be at his age and I marvel at what he does. Producers talking in his ear, he’s always recognizing and ID’ing typically the right guy every time. At his age, I’m blown away by it.”

“He hears the noise. He has more of an ‘F you’ attitude about it than ‘I am going to show them’. He thinks it’s a bunch of bullshit, I think it’s a bunch of bullshit. I think it’s a narrative that social media is running with.”