How did Troy Aikman and Tony Romo handle terrible coaching decisions?
1. Random thoughts on Sunday’s NFC and AFC title games:
• Fox's Troy Aikman did a nice job addressing Matt LaFleur’s nonsensical decision to kick a 26-yard field goal down eight with 2:09 remaining. “I’m really surprised by that decision, Joe. I thought that they’d go for it on fourth down. You’re just not sure with Tom Brady that they’ll get another shot at it,” said Aikman.
Aikman could’ve been more forceful in hammering LaFleur for making such a terrible decision, but you’re just not going to get analysts tearing into coaches on NFL telecasts.
• Speaking of which, it would’ve been nice if Tony Romo had taken Bills coach Sean McDermott to task for kicking 20- and 27-yard field goals against the high-powered Chiefs. Romo was shocked by the 20-yarder late in the first half, and even suggested the Bills might be running a fake field goal, but he never directly called out McDermott for hurting his team by being so conservative. But again, network analysts aren’t going to spend more than a couple of seconds calling out coaches during telecasts.
• Great job by Fox catching this postgame moment when Tom Brady asked if he could just say hi to his son.
• Fox’s Charissa Thompson took a well-deserved victory lap after being the only person on the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show to pick the Bucs to beat the Packers.
2. Thompson wasn't the only one using social media to make a point last night. Patrick Mahomes went with the "yawn" emoji after coming across a ridiculous ESPN graphic.
3. It took two years, but Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski were able to recreate their celebratory video last night after the Bucs upset the Packers.
4. The WWE Network, which was way ahead of its time when it launched in 2014, will no longer be a standalone app starting on March 18. The WWE content service is moving to NBC's streaming app, Peacock.
Here's the important information for WWE fans: Peacock Premium (which includes ads) costs $4.99 per month, half the price of WWE Network’s current cost of $9.99 per month. The ad-free Peacock Premium Plus costs $9.99 per month.
5. Andrew Siciliano is the guest on this week's SI Media Podcast. The host of DirecTV's popular RedZone channel talks about the biggest changes he's seen with the channel over the 16 years it's been on the air, what it was like for him to miss Week 6 of the 2020 season because of a false positive COVID-19 test, why he couldn't watch RedZone that day, why he likes the unbalanced schedule between 1 p.m. ET games and 4:25 p.m. ET games, what the end of the regular season is like for him, which NFL player he'd like to see as the subject of a Last Dance–esque documentary, why he thinks sports programs should not cover pro wrestling, his desire to cover politics in a RedZone way and much more.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Stitcher.
6. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: I had never seen this video before Saturday morning, when it turned up on social media after the passing of Larry King. The payoff at the end is just so, so good.
7. SPORTS VIDEO OF THE DAY: It's been 19 years since Tom Brady's first Super Bowl win. This drive was beginning of a legend.
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