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Ian Rapoport: ‘I Am Not Reporting Anything That Isn’t From Damar Hamlin’s Family or Agent’

“I think people being careful and not saying something they don’t know for a hundred percent fact is a good thing in this situation.”

Jordan Bondurant

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As Damar Hamlin continues to be treated in a Cincinnati hospital, many are desperate to get the latest information on his status.

The Bills tweeted an update just before 2 a.m. Tuesday stating Hamlin went into cardiac arrest on the field, that paramedics had to perform CPR and use an automated defibrillator to restore Hamlin’s heartbeat, and that he was being sedated and listed in critical condition.

Around 1:30 Tuesday afternoon, the team stated Hamlin was in the intensive care unit.

NFL insider Ian Rapoport told Pat McAfee that as many reporters work to find out the latest on Hamlin, an extreme level of sensitivity needed to be used given the circumstances.

“I feel like we at NFL Media and the network try to be extremely careful in these situations,” he said. “And I think people being careful and not saying something they don’t know for a hundred percent fact is a good thing in this situation.”

Jordon Rooney, who is Hamlin’s friend and marketing rep, had initially tweeted Tuesday night that Hamlin was in critical condition and that his vitals had normalized. Rooney appeared on The Pat McAfee Show Tuesday and clarified that his point in putting that information out there was to clear up speculation and end the spread of misinformation that may have been floating out there.

Rapoport said despite Rooney being at the hospital with Hamlin’s family, he’s not going to rush to put information out there unless it comes from concrete sources.

“I’ve heard things from people I trust, but unless I am getting it directly from his family or his agent who works with him and is with the family I just don’t know that it’s good to say anything,” Rapoport said. “Because I don’t know what it actually means and how it actually helps people.”

McAfee talked about initially tweeting speculating that Hamlin might have had a double concussion, a concussion from the hit with Tee Higgins of the Bengals and then another when he collapsed on the field and hit his head on the turf.

Pat said that obviously did not turn out to be the case, and he admitted he had the desire to clear up what he put out there but stopped himself.

“As it continues to unfold, I feel like I should give an update to this tweet because it’s not right,” he said. “But also I am not the person that should be talking about it.”

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Dave Portnoy Found Out About The CW, Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl Partnership on X

Portnoy reposted the company’s announcement that it had secured a distribution deal with The CW by saying “Love finding out about this in a tweet.”

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Dave Portnoy
Courtesy: Slaven Vlasic, Getty Images

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”.

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NSMA Names Finalists for 2023 National Awards

Winners will be invited to the 64th NSMA Awards Weekend & National Convention in June or July 2024.

Jordan Bondurant

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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.

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Kirk Herbstreit: Social Media Still Critical of Al Michaels Because of Last Year’s Comments

“He hears the noise. He has more of an ‘F you’ attitude about it than ‘I am going to show them’.”

Ricky Keeler

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Al Michaels
Courtesy: Tom Hauck, Getty Images

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.” 

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