Second Annual List of 100 Random People in Sports Media: TRAINA THOUGHTS
1. Next week will mark the one-year anniversary of one of the more popular Traina Thoughts columns of 2019.
Here's how that column opened:
"Everybody loves lists. Sports media people especially love lists. 'Top Play-by-Play Announcers.' 'Most Powerful People in Sports Media.' 'NFL Broadcast Team Power Rankings.' 'Best Sports Media Twitter Accounts.' '40 under 40.' '30 under 30.' '20 under 20.' We can't get enough.
"I'm as guilty as anyone when it comes to clicking on pretty much any list involving sports media and relying on lists involving sports media for Traina Thoughts content, so I'm including myself in everything I'm writing today."
I then proceeded to explain that writers love to do lists involving sports media people because we want them to retweet said list and because we all have big egos, we always retweet said list.
So I randomly listed 100 sports media figures. The list wasn't ranked. The list wasn't based on anything. The list wasn't a best or worst thing. It was just a list of people in sports media. Nothing more, nothing less. Yet, people seemed to enjoy it.
However, not everyone got the list. I heard from many people who were upset that so-and-so was left off the list.
And just last month, I got this email.
Again, consideration was not a factor. I literally just typed up 100 names of people in sports media.
But after receiving that email last month and having this exchange with NFL Network host, Rich Eisen, on Twitter last night and a request from a reader, I felt inspired this morning.
So without further ado, we now present our Second Annual List of 100 Totally Random Sports Media People:
1. Rich Eisen
2. Al Michaels
3. Ian Eagle (Recent SI Media Podcast guest)
4. Erin Andrews (Recent SI Media Podcast guest)
5. Mike Tirico
6. Joe Buck (Recent SI Media Podcast guest)
7. Scott Van Pelt
8. Charles Barkley
9. Bill Simmons
10. Peter Schrager (Recent SI Media Podcast guest)
11. Mike Emrick
12. Stugotz
13. Doris Burke
14. Jim Nantz
15. Chris "Mad Dog" Russo
16. Jeff Van Gundy (Recent SI Media Podcast guest)
17. Chris Fowler
18. Bill Walton
19. James Brown
20. Ernie Johnson
21. Taylor Rooks
22. Big Cat
23. Kyle Brandt (Recent SI Media Podcast guest)
24. Bob Ley (Recent SI Media Podcast guest)
25. Brent Musburger
26. Mike Breen
27. Dan Le Batard
28. Jeff Passan
29. Kirk Herbstreit
30. Bill Raftery
31. Renee Young
32. Dan Orlovsky
33. Nate Burleson (Recent SI Media Podcast guest)
34. Tony Reali
35. Gus Johnson
36. Curt Menefee
37. Ryan Ruocco
38. Kevin Burkhardt
39. Tony Romo
40. Stephen A. Smith
41. PFT Commenter
42. Jay Onrait (Recent SI Media Podcast guest)
43. Richard Deitsch
44. Kay Adams
45. Dave Pasch
46. Bob Costas
47. Rachel Nichols
48. Jemele Hill (Recent SI Media Podcast guest)
49. Kevin Harlan
50. Peter King
51. Tom Verducci
52. Katie Nolan
53. Peter Gammons
54. Nick Wright
55. Andrew Siciliano
56. Bomani Jones
57. Richard Jefferson
58. Steve Levy
59. Ryen Russillo
60. Field Yates
61. Holly Rowe
62. Mike Florio
63. Darren Rovell
64. Ramona Shelburne
65. Kenny Albert
66. Ken Rosenthal
67. Michael Wilbon
68. Kevin Clark
69. Chris Long (Recent SI Media Podcast guest)
70. Ian Rapoport
71. Charissa Thompson
72. Cassidy Hubbarth
73. Dick Vitale
74. Adrian Wojnarowski
75. Chris Mortensen
76. Troy Aikman
77. Andrea Kremer
78. Stewart Mandel
79. Jayson Stark
80. Paul Bissonnette
81. Keith Olbermann
82. Liam McHugh
83. Daniel Jeremiah
84. Joel Klatt
85. Dan Wetzel
86. Brian Anderson
87. Jay Glazer
88. Buster Olney
89. Dan Patrick
90. Andrew Marchand
91. Tony Kornheiser
92. Greg Wyshynski
93. Joe Tessitore
94. Paul Finebaum
95. Jim Rome
96. Tracy Wolfson
97. Brian Windhorst
98. Boomer Esiason
99. Adam Schefter
100. Michael Kay
Congrats to all those who made the list and had all your hard work over the past year pay off in such a big way.
2. One thing about that NFL Top 100 list that I referenced in the first tweet in the lead item: As I said, it's so dumb to get worked up over lists and obviously, Patrick Mahomes should be No. 1 instead of No. 4.
But here's where my real beef is. I love Mahomes. He's my favorite player to watch and seems like a great dude off the field, but he showed he's not perfect because instead of this emoji tweet he posted Wednesday night ...
He needed to use the classic Ryan Howard GIF.
3. There are no bigger homers in sports media than local baseball broadcasters. So it should not be a surprise that the Dodgers' analyst was full of shade last night while his former team played the Astros.
4. Hockey fans will want to watch this hype video about the sport's return narrated by Doc Emrick.
5. ESPN's Jeff Van Gundy, who will call Friday's Bucks-Celtics game, shared his thoughts on a wide range of topics during this week's SI Media Podcast. Among the topics: Magic City wings, Lou Williams's suspension, how weekday afternoon games will have an impact on players, calling games from the Orlando bubble, the NBA being a totally different game today than in the '80s and '90s, people not wearing masks, Twitter, The Last Dance and much more.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play.
6. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Larry David and Jason Alexander fight about George Costanza.
7. SPORTS VIDEO OF THE DAY: Needed some Patrick Mahomes today.
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.
