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SI Media Mailbag: NFL’s Decision to Air Playoff Game on Peacock; ESPN vs. TNT, Sports Radio and More

In Jimmy Traina’s SI Media Mailbag, he answers questions about the NFL’s bold playoff move; ESPN’s NBA studio show, sports-talk radio and more.

Jimmy Traina

SI Media Mailbag: NFL’s Decision to Air Playoff Game on Peacock; ESPN vs. TNT, Sports Radio and More
SI Media Mailbag: NFL’s Decision to Air Playoff Game on Peacock; ESPN vs. TNT, Sports Radio and More /

Welcome to the eighth installment of a weekly mailbag that I will be writing about the world of sports media (and anything else you want to chime in on). Please email me any questions you have to Jimmy.Traina@si.com or send them via Twitter.

The NFL announced this week that one wild-card playoff game this season will air exclusively on Peacock’s streaming service. No regular TV. You guys had questions.

A decent amount of people expected me to go off when this news broke Monday given how much I’ve complained about the fact that if you’re a fan who likes more than one or two sports, you are getting bludgeoned to death with costs for a billion different streaming services. I rant about it on the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast basically every week, I’ve tweeted about it and I’ve written columns about it.

So it may shock some of you to hear that I don’t have a huge issue with this one. Let me be clear. I do have an issue with it, but the NFL can do whatever it wants. The NFL is Teflon. If the NFL put a game on at 3 a.m., we’d watch. The NFL has a grip on this country that gives them the power to do whatever it wants without any ramifications.

This isn’t the same as Major League Baseball putting a meaningless regular-season baseball game that few people around the country want to watch on Peacock at 11:30 a.m. ET on Sunday mornings.

NFL fans will do what they have to do to watch an NFL playoff game on Peacock. Same goes for the Chargers-Bills Week 16 game that will air exclusively on Peacock at 8 p.m. ET. Every NFL game means something. So fans have to suck it up, cave in and order Peacock. That’s not the case with MLB or eventually with the NBA when it puts a weekly game on a streaming service. It’s very easy to skip a regular-season game in those sports. It’s not easy to do that with the NFL. Add in the fantasy factor and the gambling factor and the NFL knows it can put a game on anywhere, anytime and people will watch.

Every single league hates its fans, wants to make as much money as possible and has no problem gouging their customers. The NFL is the one league that can get away with it because we are all addicted to the league.

And, no, this won’t end here. If CBS coughs up money for a game to air on Paramount+, a game will air on Paramount+. Same with ESPN+.

As for the tipping point, I don’t know when it will come. People are cutting the cord at an enormous pace, so the networks have that as an excuse to put games on streaming services. The tipping point, though, has nothing to do with you and me. The tipping point is all about whether networks will pay the leagues for games. NBC-Peacock is paying the NFL $110 million to air that playoff game. It won’t matter how many people watch the game, because the NFL already got its money. 

And that’s what this is all about. It's also about Peacock hoping that thousands of people who sign up for their service strictly for the NFL game then forget to cancel the service afterward so they can keep collecting $5 a month.

It’s not about trying to appeal to the cord cutter or younger people who don't have cable. This is about the NFL sucking out every single penny it possibly can from networks and fans.

The NFL doesn’t benefit in any way, shape or form from putting a playoff game on Peacock, outside of pocketing $110 million for its owners. Maybe the WWE will benefit because NFL fans who subscribe to Peacock to watch the playoff game will forget to unsubscribe when the game is over and if they’re a wrestling fan, maybe they end up keeping Peacock for the WWE Network.

I’ve thought about this question so many times over the playoffs this season. When a TNT game goes to halftime, I get excited to hear what we’re gonna get from Ernie, Chuck, Kenny and Shaq. When an ESPN game goes to halftime, I either go to the bathroom, get something to eat/drink and start scrolling through TikTok.

I think ESPN’s biggest problem is that their studio show is always going to be compared to TNT’s, and that’s just not fair. Having said that, there’s just no juice, no “it” factor to ESPN’s studio show. It’s truly remarkable that it’s ALWAYS been this way, too, no matter who the cast is. If I’m ESPN, I would get Richard Jefferson and JJ Redick on its studio show, but those guys call games, so that can’t happen.

It would be beyond foolish for ESPN not to simulcast whichever TV show Pat McAfee is going to have with them on their radio airwaves. I’d be shocked if that didn’t happen.

I watch/listen to three things in the morning. Howard Stern on SiriusXM, Good Morning Football on NFL Network and Boomer and Gio on WFAN. Howard is only on three days a week and if he has a guest or segment I’m not into, I bail. GMFB reairs at 10 a.m., which is when Boomer and Gio ends, so most mornings, I’ll juggle between Howard and Boomer and Gio and then check out GMFB at 10, although this becomes more difficult during the NFL season, because I like to catch it live.

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I’ll handle these two at once. The WFAN criticism seems a tad harsh, but obviously the FAN of today is nothing like the FAN of yesterday with Mike and the Mad Dog. As I said above, I enjoy Boomer and Gio and I listen to my SI Media podcast regular, Sal Licata, as much as possible when he’s on at night and overnight. But that’s it for my FAN listening.

During the day, I’ll listen to Adam Schein on SiriusXM and, of course, the great Chris “Mad Dog” Russo every day from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET.

I don’t write about national radio because I don’t listen to any of it outside of Schein and Russo, so I don’t have much to add. All I’ll say is this: Russo is an acquired taste for non–New Yorkers, but there isn’t a more entertaining radio show anywhere than his.

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No. Howard has every right to not attend Ronnie’s wedding. I feel bad that Ronnie thinks he's better friends with Howard than what the reality is, but people are allowed to not attend events if they choose.

I disagree. I think this is the most underrated scene in Sopranos history.

I’ll save this one for this week’s SI Media podcast when I have Sal on, but I’m definitely no picnic to go away with. 

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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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