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Charles Barkley: I Tried to Get TNT to do an NHL Deal 10 Years Ago

“Our boss was like, ‘Nobody’s watching hockey.’ I said ‘You don’t understand. They don’t watch hockey during the regular season, but they’ll watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs.'”

Jordan Bondurant

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NHL on TNT

TNT will cap off its second year as an NHL rightsholder soon by broadcasting the 2023 Stanley Cup Finals on the network. Inside the NBA analyst Charles Barkley is thrilled that the network is one of the TV homes to hockey in America.

The league and Warner Bros. Discovery, still Turner Sports at the time, combined with ESPN reached a deal on a seven-year rights contract in 2021. Barkley, in an interview on Barstool’s Spittin’ Chiclets, said if executives at the network had listened to him, they would’ve had NHL rights 10 years ago.

“Our boss was like, ‘Nobody’s watching hockey.’ I said ‘You don’t understand. They don’t watch hockey during the regular season, but they’ll watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs,'” Barkley told his boss. “And then they went to some shit network like the outdoor channel if I remember correctly.”

The NHL, when it returned after the 2004-05 lockout season, did air games in the United States on OLN, which rebranded from being known as the Outdoor Life Network. The network soon morphed into Versus, which then became NBCSN before NBCUniversal ended the network at the end of 2021.

As Barkley recalled, those were tough times as an American hockey fan. OLN didn’t appear on his cable lineup.

“I was like, ‘Hey man, I’m rich and got cable, and I can’t find OLN,'” Barkley joked. “Finally they got all these great televisions and you can f–king just push a button and say, ‘Hey, OLN.'”

Barkley said he became a hockey fan when he was drafted to the Philadelphia 76ers in 1984. He remembered following the Flyers and befriending several former players like Ron Hextall and Eric Lindros.

Charles at one point during TNT’s coverage of the NBA Playoffs, joked on the air that the basketball game they were watching was too boring, so he was paying more attention to the Stanley Cup Playoff games happening at the same time.

Barkley also said TNT leaders recruited him to talk legend Wayne Gretzky into becoming a studio analyst. After that conversation, Rick Tocchet reached out to Barkley to discuss how he too could get on TNT’s radar.

Charles was over the moon when it all worked out and TNT got NHL rights.

“I’m really excited that we got hockey, man,” he said. “It’s been awesome.”

The Stanley Cup Final will be on TNT again in 2025 and 2027. As part of the media rights deal, ABC will get Stanley Cup coverage in 2024, 2026 and 2028.

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Sports TV News

Curt Menefee and Joel Klatt to be Lead Fox Sports UFL Broadcast Team

Curt Menefee, Joel Klatt, and Brock Huard will make up the first XFL on FOX announce team, while Kevin Kugler, Devin Gardner, and Jake Butt are the #2 team.

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FOX is ready for the United Football League (UFL) season and recently announced its broadcast lineup for the upcoming season. Curt Menefee returns to the booth alongside Joel Klatt to make up the primary UFL commentary team. Joining Menefee and Klatt from the sidelines will be former NFL and University of Washington QB Brock Huard.

Menefee and Klatt will call the season-opening matchup between the defending two-time USFL Champion Birmingham Stallions and the reigning XFL Champion Arlington Renegades on Saturday, Mar. 30 at 1 p.m. ET. The second team of Kevin Kugler and former Michigan quarterback Devin Gardner will call the second game of the day when the St. Louis Battlehawks take on the Michigan Panthers at 4:00 p.m. ET on FOX. Former Denver Broncos tight end Jake Butt will man the sidelines for that game.

Former NFL and USC QB Mark Sanchez was also mentioned in the FOX news release but details of his involvement were not made clear.

The UFL season kicks off on FOX this weekend and continues over on ESPN. Both networks will split coverage of the league all season long.

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CBS Sports Host James Brown To Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at Sports Emmys

“I am incredibly humbled by this award. I know full well that it’s not as much about me as it is about all the people with whom…I worked over all these years.”

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James Brown
Courtesy: Mary Kouw, CBS

Longtime CBS Sports host James Brown will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 45th Sports Emmys. The awards show announced the news via its X account last night:

Brown is a three-time Sports Emmy winner for his work on CBS’ The NFL Today and previously FOX’s The NFL On FOX, and HBO’s Inside the NFL. Brown’s career spans more than 30 years and includes numerous accolades such as the Pete Rozelle Award from the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Uncommon Award from Tony Dungy.

He was named “Best Studio Host of the Decade” by Sports Illustrated in 2010 and was honored with the 2009 Dick Schaap Memorial Award for Media Excellence. In 1998 he was awarded the Golden Mic Award by the Black Broadcasters Alliance. Brown was elected into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2021.

“I am incredibly humbled by this award,” Brown said via the Sports Emmys. “I know full well that it’s not as much about me as it is about all the people with whom and for whom I worked over all these years. Thank God for the blessing!”

Sports media came together to honor Brown’s achievement:

Brown and other award recipients will be honored at the Sports Emmys award ceremony in May.

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John Anderson Announces Retirement from SportsCenter on ESPN

“I don’t really know what’s quite next, I have some things in the fire. But SportsCenter will not be it.”

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Longtime SportsCenter anchor John Anderson has announced that when his contract comes up at the end of June, he will no longer be doing SportsCenter for ESPN. Anderson, who joined ESPN in 1999 does plan to continue covering certain events, but after 25 years he believes it is time to stop doing ESPN’s flagship show. Anderson spoke on his podcast, The Inside Wisconsin Show and prior to the episode’s release tomorrow, a clip was released:

“My contract runs out at ESPN at the end of June,” Anderson said. “I have decided that that will be the end. I’m going to leave the company. I’m going to sort of retire from ‘SportsCenter.’ I’m going to get to do a few track-and-field things, I’m going to get to continue to do the Boston Marathon and the New York Marathon – which I love – and some NCAA track meets and some SEC stuff.

“I am incredibly excited about that. It’s been a good run…I feel like it’s been a good run. The operation has changed. I don’t know that it’s passed me by, but it’s taken its toll and I still want to be able to do the best shows that I can, and I don’t know that if in years 26 or 27 I have the stamina to do it again.  

“So, I’m done…I don’t really know what’s quite next. I have some things in the fire. But SportsCenter will not be it.”

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