Fox Boosts NFL Both With Greg Olsen Hire, but Fumbles Another Opportunity: TRAINA THOUGHTS

Jul 14, 2020

Fox hires Greg Olsen as analyst for 2021, but blows chance to have some fun in 2020

1. New York Post sports media reporter Andrew Marchand broke the news Monday that Fox has hired Greg Olsen to become its No. 2 NFL analyst. The role was vacated a few months ago when Charles Davis left for CBS.

The only problem is that the veteran tight end is playing for the Seahawks this season, so he won't join play-by-play man Kevin Burkhardt until the 2021 season.

I'm going off of a small sample size, but this is an excellent hire by Fox. Olsen worked a Giants-Cardinals game in 2019 and stood out as a natural. He also worked some XFL games, and clearly Fox was impressed. By joining Burkhardt on the No. 2 crew, Olsen will call a playoff game each season.

To get through the 2020 season (if there is a 2020 season), Burkhardt will work with Daryl "Moose" Johnston, who used to be Fox's No. 2 analyst before being replaced by Charles Davis.

This was a disappointing move by Fox because the network had a real chance do something creative here, but instead opted for the cookie-cutter stop gap.

Since this crew calls the second-best NFC game each week, FOX probably didn't want to take any chances on anything outside the box, but it would've been cool to have the network rotate analysts to work with Burkhardt this season.

Fox could've used Joel Klatt on a couple of games. It could've given us a throwback and used Terry Bradshaw a game. It could've used Peter Schrager on a couple of games. Maybe Fox could've pulled off something ESPN hasn't been able to do and get Peyton Manning (or even Eli Manning) to agree to do a game or two.

This was a great chance for Fox to have a little fun with the booth, but it blew it.

2. So, Washington announced that one nickname was out and another would be in. However, the franchise wasn't able to provide any information on the new nickname because it appears one person, 61-year-old Martin McCaulay from Alexandria, Va., has trademarked a slew of potential names.

Via WUSA9.com:

"McCaulay said he's applied for so many trademarks in six years that he's lost count. A search for McCaulay's address on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website brings up 47 trademarks, including 14 abandoned requests, dating back to May 2, 2014. His requests range from the Washington Sharks and Pandas to the Warriors, Senators, Federals, Founders, Natives, Gladiators and even the Washington Football Club."

McCaulay took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to give his side of the story and let everyone know that he doesn't want any part of the trademarks.

3. I laughed out loud.

4. In the June 30 edition of Traina Thoughts, I wrote, "I'm not sure there's an athlete having a better quarantine than Christian McCaffrey. The Panthers running back became the highest paid running back in April, signing a four-year, $64 million contract extension. With teammate Shaq Thompson, McCaffrey also launched "22 Together," an initiative that will unite the Charlotte community through sports programs for underserved youth. And he has spent the past four months quarantined with his girlfriend, SI Swimsuit model Olivia Culpo."

In a perfect example of the rich get richer, McCaffrey can now add "Got a 99 Madden rating and dating an SI Swimsuit cover model" to his quarantine diary.

6. The best part of this GQ feature on Patrick Mahomes? Post Malone now has Mahomes's and Travis Kelce's names tattooed somewhere on his body after losing a beer pong bet to the Chiefs teammates.

6. The latest SI Media Podcast features a conversation with Jemele Hill, who currently writes for The Atlantic and hosts two podcasts. Hill talks about how she became a producer on an upcoming docuseries about Colin Kaepernick's past five years, the conversation she had with Kaepernick about doing business with ESPN, why her tenure as cohost of the 6 p.m. SportsCenter was doomed from the beginning and much more. Hill also clears up a couple of narratives involving Kaepernick and his NFL career.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play.