Robert Kekaula was a sports media legend in the state of Hawaii. The flamboyant broadcaster was also well known to college football fans, who routinely ended their Saturday nights watching the Rainbow Warriors. Kekaula died Saturday morning at the age of 56.

Kekaula spent his entire career in his native Hawaii. He first joined Rainbow Warrior football broadcasts in 1992, serving as the analyst on radio and television. He moved to the play-by-play role in 2011.

His career also included work in local television. At the time of his death, Kekaula was the managing editor of KITV 4.

Colleagues in Hawaii and around the country expressed their condolences and grief on social media.

Multiple college football coaches with ties to Hawaii also paid their respects.

The University of Hawaii’s athletic department also issued a statement.

In addition to his work in the media, Robert Kekaula was also an accomplished recording artist. He released three solo albums of traditional Hawaiian music. He also owned a recording company and served as an executive producer on multiple other award winning projects.

Robert Kekaula is survived by his two children, Tiera and Shayde.

If you want to work for ESPN covering games this fall, you need to get your Covid-19 vaccine. A memo to freelance staffers obtained by Bobby Burak of Outkick.com says that as of August 1, the World Wide Leader will require an attestation of vaccination from all employment candidates.

ESPN has not yet commented on the memo.

This email going out to third party staffers seems to indicate that it is a response to the new Covid protocols put in place by the NFL and NFLPA earlier this week. The league has made it clear that vaccinated members of the media will have more access to the field and to players during the 2021 season.

More than half of all American adults are fully vaccinated. Shots are available to anyone that wants one.

Whether or not this policy changes the mind of someone that initially did not want a vaccine remains to be seen, but given the number of states using lotteries as extra incentive to get the shots, maybe the potential for freelance employment was bound to always be on the table.

For those wondering if ESPN is allowed to do this, the answer is yes. The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has said in the past that employers have the right to mandate vaccines of any type. Employees do have the right to take medical or religious exemptions and remain employed.

The exemption only applies to salaried employees. Private contractors would likely have to comply with company expectations in order to get a job.

Former MLB player turned broadcaster Rajai Davis has experienced one of the greatest highs a player can accomplish and now a head-scratching low to start his broadcasting career.

A hero of the 2016 World Series with his tying home run in Game 7, Davis got off to a rough start behind the mic on YouTube’s MLB Game of the Week between the Angels and Tigers. The analyst was supposed to ask Mike Trout a question while the broadcast team had the MVP on the mic but flubbed his first attempt.

“One thing, one thing I have for you man,” Davis started when his turn came to ask Trout a question. “It’s uh, it’s, it’s ya know, um … I just lost my train of thought.”

Veteran broadcaster Matt Vasgersian tried to play it off by telling Trout it was Davis’s first game, but then the former Indian hero remembered his question.

“I know what it is now, Trout, I’m back, I’m ready,” Davis said stepping back up to the interview plate. “Talking about Ohtani, how is he in the clubhouse? Is he the kind of guy where… does he speak English?”

Trout seemed flustered by the question but rolled with it and described how Ohtani is slowly becoming more comfortable communicating with his teammates using English.

Davis rightly asked Trout about his MVP-candidate teammate, but the framing needs a lot of work. Ohtani is smashing baseballs, and fanning batters left and right to an extent we haven’t seen since Babe Ruth. The historic season has Ohtani in a two-man AL MVP race with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who leads the majors with 22 home runs, barely edging Ohtani’s 19 dingers.

Davis wasn’t in the best logistical position to perform in his debut since Vasgersian and Mark Gubicza have hours of experience calling Angels games together. We’ll see if he gets another shot in the booth after speaking too much English in his debut.