Musburger thinks Gruden was taken out by ‘paid assassin’
1. Raiders radio play-by-play man Brent Musburger has some thoughts on Jon Gruden’s recent firing.
The legendary broadcaster recently appeared on the JT The Brick Show and said the takedown of Gruden was one of the best hit jobs he’s ever seen.
“As I told Coach, whoever took you out, Jon, that was a paid assassin,” Musburger said. “That was one of the best hit jobs that I’ve ever been around. They didn’t go to their media goombahs. They didn’t leak this to Adam Schefter or one of those guys that breaks stories. They first went to The Wall Street Journal. And when Gruden was still coaching after that, then they dumped the rest of it on The New York Times. That was a professional hit job.”
Gruden stepped down as Raiders coach after offensive emails were leaked on two separate occasions last month. Gruden is now suing the NFL over the matter.
However, Musburger wouldn’t go as far as saying the NFL was behind the leak.
“I wanna tell everybody that I’m not completely sure it was someone in the NFL. There was a second lawsuit involved, O.K., between the owner, [Daniel] Snyder of Washington and a former general manager. And that means that a lot of outside people had access to those emails that they were going through. So I think the hardest part for Gruden’s lawyers to prove is that somebody from the National Football League actually leaked that. Because if it is somebody from the NFL, shame on them. Because Mark Davis should have been told in the summer, when he had something to do about it.”
There’s a lot here, but we just want to say that we appreciate Musburger’s flair for the dramatic and his blunt approach to calling out the “paid assassin” in this scandal.
2. A brand-new SI Media Podcast featuring a conversation with author and reporter James Andrew Miller dropped this morning.
Miller has a new book, Tinderbox, out about the history of HBO. During the podcast, we discussed how The Sopranos initially tested poorly with audiences and the huge curveball that was thrown at the show during the famous “Pine Barrens” episode.
Other HBO topics coved during out chat include the demise of Inside the NFL, the behind-the-scenes problems at The Larry Sanders Show, how Curb Your Enthusiasm was never intended to be a series and how House of Cards and The Crown had a significant impact on HBO.
Before we talked about Miller’s new book, we discussed the future of the ManningCast, the NFL’s big ratings this season and more.
Following the interview with Miller is the weekly "Traina Thoughts" segment with Sal Licata from WFAN. This week's topics include the college football coaching madness, the breakup between Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, our Mount Rushmore of HBO shows and the latest episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Stitcher.
You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
3. Good Morning Football’s Peter Schrager showed off some impressive Toe Drag Swag on Thursday morning’s show, but then he got cocky during his celebration and this happened.
4. We love good ESPN-on-ESPN crime, so here's Jay Williams, who has a little history with weird Twitter incidents, calling out his company’s social media team for an out-of-context tweet.
Meanwhile, the Twitter account for Williams’s own show also posted his truncated quote and it’s still up, but with the full context of what he said.
5. Our quote of the day comes from Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen.
6. I've always said that football coaches are the weirdest people on the face of the earth, but coaches in other sports can also make you scratch your head with their antics. Case in point: Arkansas Pine-Bluff men’s basketball coach Solomon Bozeman made his players run sprints during their 83–64 loss to Iowa State on Wednesday night.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 40th birthday to Britney Spears, who will always be a part of sports broadcasting lore thanks to former ESPN play-by-play man Mike Patrick.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.