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Keyshawn, JWill & Zubin Make ESPN Radio Debut

“While their show is different than Mike & Mike or Golic & Wingo, the three hosts made sure to acknowledge those who came before them at the beginning of the show.”

Ricky Keeler

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On Monday morning, ESPN Radio’s new national lineup officially began as Keyshawn Johnson, Jay Williams, and Zubin Mehenti began their run as the 6 AM-10 AM ET host of Keyshawn, Jay-Will, and Zubin. 

While their show is different than Mike & Mike or Golic & Wingo, the three hosts made sure to acknowledge those who came before them at the beginning of the show.

“The loyalty that they engendered from the audience, you out there, has allowed us to come in and hopefully have you enjoy the show as much as we do bringing you the show every day,“ said Mehenti. 

Jay Williams further added to that tribute by talking about how much Golic and Greeny have meant to him as he starts this new show. You can read more from Williams in our interview with him courtesy of Demetri Ravanos:

“First and foremost, Mike Golic Sr., an incredible individual and one of the first times I was ever on TV 13 years ago, I remember seeing him and he was himself. It was incredible. You can be self-deprecating, you can have fun and that put me on a journey saying I have to find out who I want to be naturally on TV. 

“Mike Greenberg gave me the opportunity to get on Get Up and actually allow me to be more of myself and that’s ultimately led to this point. To those guys and Mike Golic Jr. who kills the game, he’s one of the best we have in the game, thank you for allowing me the opportunity.” 

Johnson looked at it as more of a big picture thing for ESPN with a little Tonight Show comparison thrown in.

“For me, I look at it like Johnny Carson, like we are taking over a Carson-like Leno deal and we are going to run with it and turn it into something even more special so 20 years from now, somebody comes in and takes over for us.” 

There were many notable guests on the first edition of this new show, which included New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, Cincinnati Reds outfielder Nicholas Castellanos, ESPN MLB analyst Alex Rodriguez, Stephen A. Smith, and Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields. 

The Fields interview was the center of the show and it aired around 8:10 a.m ET. As Mehenti pointed out towards the end of the program in the Before I Let You Go segment, he said if there is a breaking news story, we will do our best to get them on the air.

“That’s what you can expect each and every morning on this program. If something is happening, if someone is saying something, we are going to do our darndest to get them on the program.”

Adding into the Fields conversation about the petition the Ohio State QB started for them to bring Big Ten football back, Johnson made his point known that college football should not be played this fall. Here is what Johnson had to say earlier on the show: 

“I can’t wrap my hands around why they keep trying to get on the damn field. It makes no sense. Just play next September. Let this thing carry itself out till we get what we need to cure things up. Stop trying to get on the field and play. Football is not going anywhere.” 

The other notable story of the day was the breaking news that the Washington football club hiring Jason Wright as Wright becomes the first black president in the NFL.

“My question in this, if the organization did not go through everything they have gone through over the last several months, would they have hired that dude?” said Johnson. “Would you have hired him or would you have kept everything the same if word never got out? 

After the show, ESPN correspondent Ryan Smith chimed in with his thoughts on how the debut episode went via Twitter.

While some might criticize the trio for only plugging Mike Greenberg’s new show Greeny at noon and not the other shows in the daily lineupit was a good way for ESPN Radio to kick off their new programming lineup. 

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Mike Florio: Chris Simms Isn’t Desensitized to Internet Criticism

“Chris takes a lot of crap. I take a lot of crap. I’ve been doing it a lot longer than Chris, and I think sometimes Chris just kind of reaches the end of the rope.”

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Courtesy: Heidi Gutman/NBC Sports

Chris Simms caught some heat this week while discussing the death of Miami Dolphins fan Eric Carmona. Carmona was the brain behind the Tuanon viral videos, which featured him in a Dolphin mask attacking critics of Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Simms was one of his frequent targets.

Carmona was killed in a motorcycle accident last week. He leaves behind a wife and four children. He was just 30 years old.

Mike Florio brought the story up on Pro Football Talk Live, because Tagovailoa himself donated $10,000 to a GoFundMe campaign to support Carmona’s family. Simms responded by noting that Carmona was a frequent critic of his.

Florio pushed back saying that trolling is better than being ignored. People are passionate about their teams and if they are passionate about attacking you for criticizing their teams, it means you matter to them.

“This is a deep subject and I think it’s societal and I won’t go into it because I’m only going to get myself in trouble,” Simms responded. “We’re also setting an example like, ‘Hey here’s money to a guy who was very negative too.’ That’s all I’m saying.”

On Friday, Florio made his weekly appearance on WQAM in Miami. Morning show host Joe Rose asked Florio what Simms was thinking with those comments.

“I don’t know. That’s a question for Chris, and you could invite him on and he could talk about that,” Florio answered. “And I’m not trying to be flippant by saying that. I understand the way he feels from my perspective.”

He did try to explain the point he was making to Simms in saying that being trolled is better than being ignored. He reminded Rose that there is a thick skin required to having the kind of jobs they do.

“Chris takes a lot of crap. I take a lot of crap. I’ve been doing it a lot longer than Chris, and I think sometimes Chris just kind of reaches the end of the rope. He doesn’t actively participate in Twitter. He has one of the producers at NBC that primarily updates his account. So I don’t think he’s become as desensitized to it as I have over the years.”

Simms caught heat earlier this week from another fan base. Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie of the WIP Morning Show ripped the NBC analyst for ranking Jalen Hurts as the seventh best QB in the league.

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Stoney & Jansen Baffled By NBA Finals TV Schedule

“They’ve got to get up early on the [West] Coast. We’ve got to stay up late because Monday Night Football can’t start until 8:30. It goes both ways.”

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Courtesy: Audacy

The NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final continue with games taking place this weekend, and many basketball and hockey fans are expected to tune in to watch the action. The Denver Nuggets will try to take a 3-1 series lead on the Miami Heat, while the Vegas Golden Knights will look to rebound from an overtime loss to return home one win away from a championship. Aside from the pomp and circumstance, there is considerable intrigue pertaining to the action on both the court and the ice. The challenging part of the entire situation is knowing when the games are played due to the disjointed nature of the schedule.

Throughout the NBA Finals, games have taken place three days apart from one another, while the Stanley Cup Final has followed a similar pattern but both avoid playing games on Sundays. As a result, there were only two days between the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals, but three for the remainder should it reach a deciding seventh game. Similarly in basketball, the first three games of the NBA Finals were played every other day, but the remainder of the series is scheduled with two days of rest. There is a chance the decision was made to accommodate travel schedules, as both series are aligned in a 2-2-1-1-1 pattern, meaning the first two games are played in one city; the next two are played in the other; and then they continue to alternate until a champion is crowned.

“I don’t know why the NBA’s not playing on Sunday,” 97.1 The Ticket morning co-host Mike Stoney said. “That big travel day – because you really need travel days nowadays with your private planes to fly from Miami to Denver.”

Show co-host Jon Jansen, who played 10 seasons in the NFL as an offensive tackle with Washington and Detroit, expressed how some players may need to acclimate themselves to the altitude in Denver, Colo. The city is located 5,280 feet, or one mile, above sea level, making the air thinner and dryer and presenting some visitors with difficulty breathing. Jansen never felt the effects of altitude sickness, claiming that it was never a big deal for him, but obviously, everyone reacts to things differently.

“Basketball in particular and hockey because it’s constant running, especially at your position,” Stoney proposed. “You’re not running like madmen [in football] like they do in basketball where I think it affects you the most.”

The schedule also presents challenges for consumers around the United States living in different time zones. The NBA Finals do not begin until 8:30 p.m. EST, and the games often do not include until close to midnight. Especially on weeknights, asking East Coast fans to stay up late and then go to work early in the morning limits the amount of sleep they can receive. Meanwhile, those on the West Coast are just returning home from a standard eight-hour workday and may have other tasks to carry out.

“They’ve got to get up early on the [West] Coast,” Jansen said. “We’ve got to stay up late because Monday Night Football can’t start until 8:30. It goes both ways.”

There is no perfect time slot that will appease all consumers, but even so, ratings for this year’s NBA Finals have exceeded most expectations. Game 3 attracted an average audience of 11.2 million viewers and peaked at a figure of 12.4 million, down 2.5% from last year’s third game of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors. Viewership for the first three games of the NBA Finals is averaging 11.6 million, representing a nearly 2% decline from last year’s numbers. ESPN reported its most-watched playoffs across its platforms in the last 11 years, with the total playoff viewership audience averaging approximately 6.1 million people.

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Colin Cowherd: I Have Tried to Invest in MLS Teams Twice

“I think they’re smart. I think they’re boutique stadiums, their fanbases feel European. The in-game environment’s excellent.”

Jordan Bondurant

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Courtesy: FS1

Could we have seen FOX Sports Radio host Colin Cowherd having some sort of ownership stake in an MLS team? Cowherd said he tried, and then he tried again.

Talking about Inter Miami adding global superstar Lionel Messi on Thursday, Cowherd mentioned that he inquired about getting involved with the league, but the asking price at this point is too much for him.

“I have twice tried to invest in the MLS, and I just can’t afford it,” Cowherd said. “I think they’re smart. I think they’re boutique stadiums, their fanbases feel European. The in-game environment’s excellent. The academy is slowly becoming something, but it is becoming something their academy system. And they are now on a regular basis going and getting the world’s biggest soccer stars.”

Colin pointed out that Messi is the most popular athlete in the world, boasting social media followings and name recognition that easily eclipses that of superstar athletes like LeBron James and celebrities like the Kardashians and Beyonce. So not only is Messi’s signing a monumental moment for Inter Miami owner David Beckham, but it’s a feather in the cap signing for Major League Soccer as a whole.

“Messi is massive for the MLS. It’s the biggest moment in the history of the franchise,” he said. “Think Beckham times two. And Beckham was big when he arrived here in the States.”

“I think it’s cool that the MLS, our domestic soccer league, can go out and bring a superstar – not a star, a mega superstar on our soil regularly,” he added.

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