The network went out of its way to bury news it rehired disgraced Urban Meyer.
1. I assume most of you reading this know what a “Friday news dump” is. For those of you who don’t know: A “Friday news dump” is when a company, person, etc., drops significant news late in the afternoon on a Friday so that it won’t get as much coverage as it would if it came out earlier in the week while everybody was still at their computers.
Fox pulled off a truly comical “Friday news dump” last week when it very quietly mentioned the disgraced Urban Meyer will be back on its college football pregame show this season.
Normally when Fox makes a splashy hire, there are press releases, tweets and fanfare. This happened recently with the hiring of college football play-by-play guy Jason Benetti, the promotion of Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen to its No. 1 NFL crew and the addition of former Saints coach Sean Payton to its NFL studio shows.
Here’s what Meyer got at 3:34 pm. ET on Friday:
Fox has the right to hire whoever it wants. And Meyer has every right to work again. And we have the right to point out it’s crystal clear that even Fox knows rehiring Meyer is pathetic.
Meyer was fired after just 13 games with the Jaguars in 2021. He was 2–11.
In that short, unsuccessful, dysfunctional stint:
• Meyer was caught on video in a bar enjoying the company of a woman who wasn’t his wife.
• Kicker Josh Lambo accused Meyer of kicking him while he was stretching during pregame warmups.
• Reportedly called his assistant coaches “losers.”
So while Meyer might be fine breaking down X’s and O’s, how on Earth is he going to go on national television and talk about the behavior of college football players or what a player’s character means or how a player can’t let his teammates down?
He’ll do it because that will be his job and he has no shame. And Fox will pretend Meyer doesn’t have a credibility problem because Fox doesn’t care about his credibility problem. Fox wants to do anything it can to compete with the iconic College GameDay on ESPN, and if that involves Urban Meyer, because he’s a draw in Florida and Ohio, so be it.
That’s way more important than looking desperate for hiring someone who has been humiliated and is now a punch line to many fans.
If Meyer didn’t have that ugly baggage, Fox would’ve pumped out a ton of promotion surrounding his rehiring. Instead, Meyer got one sad, throwaway line in a late summer Friday press release about the network’s entire college football roster.
Because everybody, including Fox, knows bringing Meyer back as if his 2021 didn’t exist is embarrassing.
2. Loyal Traina Thoughts readers know we love a good celebration, so we need to give big props to Lo’eau LaBonta of the NWSL’s Kansas City Current for what she did after scoring a goal Friday night.
3. I’m not gonna tell you what this video is about. Just know this is a local news report on Indiana’s Trine University football team. Click play and just watch.
4. Few things in sports offer a more spectacular visual than road fans taking over an opponent’s ballpark. Mets fans did that Sunday in Philadelphia. Just look at that crowd reaction when Mark Canha homered for New York.
5. WWE legend Kurt Angle shared a repulsive yet amusing story about an incident with The Rock and milk.
6. This week's SI Media Podcast features an interview with Tim Burke, also known on Twitter as @Bubbaprog, one of the former Deadspin reporters who broke the 2013 Manti Te’o girlfriend hoax story that is the subject of a new Netflix two-part series.
Burke gives details on how Deadspin got the tip about Te’o and how long they worked on the story before publishing it. He also talks about being surprised by the reaction to the story, what he wanted to accomplish with the story and what he’d do differently.
Burke also discusses the recent kerfuffle he found himself in after posting a spliced video of Sean Hannity and Ron DeSantis, how he was the first person to post the uncensored video of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, how he’s able to monitor so many things throughout the day and more.
The podcast closes with the weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment with Sal Licata, from WFAN and SNY in New York. This week, I go on yet another rant about streaming, with the new NFL+ service as the target. We also discuss the NBA vs. NFL battle that is now set for Christmas Day, the NFL’s decision to add a Black Friday game next season and much more.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Over the weekend, I read, You Are Looking Live!: How the NFL Today Revolutionized Sports Broadcasting. I highly recommend it if you’re into the business and history of sports media and sports television. After I finished the book, I went right to YouTube to watch old NFL Today videos and was reminded that it had the best open of any sports show ever.
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 Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.