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Sports Media Reacts to Jeff Saturday Being Named Interim Colts Head Coach

Despite being such an important lineman in the career of quarterback Peyton Manning, Saturday was hired to lead and NFL team without any substantive coaching experience.

Jordan Bondurant

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With the season not playing out like anyone had imagined, the Indianapolis Colts fired head coach Frank Reich on Monday. But it was the naming of Colts legend Jeff Saturday as the interim head coach that took sports media by storm.

Despite being such an important lineman in the career of quarterback Peyton Manning, Saturday was hired to lead and NFL team without any substantive coaching experience. He had up until now only coached a little high school ball in Georgia.

The move prompted plenty of reaction by sports media both locally and nationally.

Here’s a snippet from folks in Indy:

Nationally, there was a lot more confusion about the move.

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Pat McAfee: My Show ‘Being in the Middle’ of College Football Feud ‘is so Dumb’

“I f***ing love Ryan Day. I love the fact that he was like, ‘I will hit an old man. I do not care.’”

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Pat McAfee
Courtesy: Joshua R. Gateley, ESPN Images

When ESPN brought the Pat McAfee Show onto the network, it was done to appeal to a younger audience, but it was also done, at least in part, because McAfee makes news. The show proved again on Saturday night that it has a way of finding itself in the middle of football conversations.

On Friday’s show, producer Ty Schmitt interviewed former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz. Schmitt, who has been asked by McAfee many times to do his Holtz impersonation on the show, talked to the former coach in full character. Not only was he doing a Holtz impersonation, he was also wearing a full costume, which included a prosthetic face.

During the segment, the real Holtz, a former ESPN analyst, said that Ohio State has a history of being too soft under head coach Ryan Day and that is how they have lost the games they have. He predicted that would be the reason Notre Dame would win on Saturday night.’

Following Ohio State’s last second victory, Day addressed the former Notre Dame coach saying “I’d like to know where Lou Holtz is right now. What he said about our team, what he said about our team, I cannot believe.”

McAfee admitted that he immediately started texting friends associated with Ohio State.

“I texted everybody I know from Ohio State,” he said on his show Monday. “I was like, I f***ing love Ryan Day. I love the fact that he was like, ‘I will hit an old man. I do not care. What this guy said is out of pocket.’”

McAfee added that the real Lou Holtz, who is 86,  joked about having dementia and not really knowing what he was saying. He added that he wonders if Day knows that Holtz made his comments to another man who was in a Lou Holtz costume.

“Us being in the middle of that whole thing is so dumb,” he said.

Schmitt admitted that it was hard to believe the moment is real. 

“I was laughing until I thought I was going to pass out on Saturday night,” he said.

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Fanatics Sportsbook Letting Gamblers Stream NFL Games They Have Money On

“The only condition is that the game must also be available in the bettor’s local market.”

Jordan Bondurant

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Fanatics Sportsbook logo

NFL fans using the Fanatics Sportsbook in four states have the ability to watch the broadcast of some of the games they bet on.

Legal Sports Report writes that users who place at least $1 in wagers on the NFL in the app will get access to the stream of the corresponding bet. The only condition is that the game must also be available in the bettor’s local market.

This feature of the Fanatics Sportsbook app is available in Massachusetts, Maryland, Ohio and Tennessee, and it’s been available since the start of the regular season.

Fanatics joins Caesars Sportsbook, DraftKings and FanDuel as platforms that have agreements with the league’s exclusive rights holder of official NFL data, Genius Sports. These agreements give the sportsbooks the ability to provide live streams.

So far, Caesars is the only other platform with stream access available, but Legal Sports Report noted that DraftKings and FanDuel will likely bring streams online later this season.

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More Than 5000 Attend Barstool Pizzafest Amid Washington Post Controversy

“Everyone had a great time. The vibes were actually probably higher because of the controversy surrounding it.”

Jordan Bondurant

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Barstool Pizza Fest
Courtesy: Barstool

With the remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia bearing down on New York City and a wave of buzz surrounding Barstool founder Dave Portnoy in the days leading in, some 5,000 people braved the elements to attend the One Bite Pizza Festival in Brooklyn on Saturday.

Portnoy went viral last week after he posted video of himself calling Washington Post food reporter Emily Heil to confront her and ask why she and the pave had been contacting festival sponsors and asking them how they feel about Portnoy’s past controversies.

Participating pizzerias and sponsors also faced pressure to back out from other food writers and Barstool critics. But Portnoy told FOX & Friends Weekend on Sunday that the festival was a rousing success.

“It couldn’t have gone better,” he said. “It was our Woodstock moment with the rain. We had 5,000 people strong. Everyone had a great time. The vibes were actually probably higher because of the controversy surrounding it.”

Dave added that he owed the pizzerias a debt of gratitude for standing strong against those trying to shame them out of the event.

“The thing about the hit pieces, what they try to do, whether it’s those or the Washington Post, if you can get one sponsor to drop, one pizza place to drop – which none of them did so I owe them a huge thank you – that becomes a story in itself,” he said.

“They don’t deserve this,” Portnoy added. “They’re just trying to promote their small business, and they’re being put in this box.”

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