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NBC’s Reported New Broadcast Team for Notre Dame Football Gets Panned Before Even Calling a Game

Also in Traina Thoughts: NBA vs. NFL on Christmas Day; Edwin Diaz's latest entrance gets ‘Wizard of Oz’ spin; Lane Kiffin finds a punter in an unusual place and more.

Jimmy Traina

1. I’m fully aware that Twitter doesn’t like anything, but sometimes reaction to a piece of news is so harsh that it becomes noteworthy.

On Sunday, the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand reported that NBC is set to announce Jac Collinsworth and Jason Garrett as the broadcast crew for Notre Dame home games that air on the network.

My initial reaction when I saw the news was, “Well, that’s certainly uninspiring, but it’s Notre Dame football and they only play one or two meaningful games on NBC, so it’s not that big of a deal.”

However, it was a big deal to a lot of fans out there. And it was hard to just dismiss the negative response.

I don’t like to knock any broadcaster or broadcast team before hearing them, but there are clearly issues with the Collinsworth-Garrett team before the season even gets started.

Collinsworth automatically has to deal with accusations of nepotism since his father, Cris, has worked for NBC since 2006. I think it’s unfair to cry nepotism before even seeing a person’s work. Joe Buck has heard the nepotism nonsense for years and he’s one of the great play-by-play men of our time. So, Jac Collinsworth could turn out to be a solid game caller and should be given a chance to prove that regardless of who his father is.

Now, people will say the problem isn’t Collinsworth’s performance. It’s that he was given the opportunity. But Collinsworth does have a broadcasting/media background; he’s worked at ESPN and called USFL games for NBC. But that doesn’t seem to be enough for some folks.

Garrett is the more curious choice for NBC because he has credibility issues with fans. In nine full seasons as the Dallas Cowboys’ coach, he had three winning seasons. Garrett also never showed a personality that would translate well to a booth.

And unlike Collinsworth, who attended Notre Dame, Garrett has zero ties to the school. So it’s not like he got hired to appeal to the Fighting Irish fan base.

This is normally where I’d pull some tweets to back up what I’ve written, but the reaction to the Garrett hiring was just downright nasty and vicious, and I don’t want to be that mean. Just check the replies to this tweet.

Collinsworth and Garrett have a lot to overcome, and they haven’t even called a snap yet.

2. Shams Charania got the inside scoop on the NBA’s Christmas Day games this season.

Keep in mind that while the NBA used to own Christmas Day, those days are over with the NFL now scheduling three games on Dec. 25. This season schedule is:

Packers at Dolphins, 1 p.m.
Broncos at Rams, 4:30 p.m.
Buccaneers at Cardinals, 8:20 p.m.

3. You need to hear Lane Kiffin explain where he found a punter this season for Ole Miss.

4. You’re just not gonna get max effort from T.J. Watt during preseason games.

5. We told you last week that Edwin Diaz’s trot from bullpen to pitching mound is the most electric thing in sports right now. SNY, which produces Mets games, stepped up it up on Saturday night, giving the Mets closer a Wizard of Oz spin as he entered the game.

6. This week's SI Media Podcast features two interviews plus our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment.

First up is Linda Cohn from ESPN. Cohn, who recently re-signed with the network, talks about being at ESPN for 30 years and anchoring more SportsCenters than any other host in the show’s history. Cohn discusses how she got started in the business, being given an ultimatum after her first two years at ESPN, her love of hockey and much more.

Following Cohn, former WWE head writer Brian Gewirtz joins the podcast. Gewirtz, who has a book coming up next week titled There's Just One Problem, shares inside stories from his time writing Monday Night Raw from 1999 to 2012 and talks about what it was like to collaborate with The Rock, Mick Foley, Chris Jericho and more.

The podcast closes with “Traina Thoughts.” This week, Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY and I talk about Hard Knocks, a recent must-watch show from ESPN and why you can’t do back-to-back naps.

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 Ben Affleck turns 50 years old today. In honor of the occasion, let’s remember his disturbing rant about Deflategate on Bill Simmons’s old HBO show.

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.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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