Changes, Problems Coming to NFL Sunday Ticket This Season

Also in Traina Thoughts: Checking in with Nikola Jokić; NFL broadcast crews for 2023; Trump causes betting havoc and more.

1. As we get closer and closer to the start of football (thank goodness), I’d like to remind you that the biggest story line of the 2023 NFL season may end up being the new Sunday Ticket experience on YouTube.

Sunday Ticket was a DirecTV property for more than two decades, but now we live in this awful streaming world, so the NFL got into bed with Google/YouTube because they have unlimited money at their disposal and will pay the league $2 billion per season for the rights to Sunday Ticket.

So now that the package has left DirecTV and will live on YouTube, changes are coming. And for some of you, those changes will be problematic.

Let me say this, if you’re interested in only watching your favorite team, then Sunday Ticket on YouTube will be fine for you. However, if you’re someone like me, who doesn’t have a favorite team and wants to just watch the best games of the day or the games I have money on, there are going to be some issues.

For starters, when Sunday Ticket was on DirecTV, I used to like the Game Mix channel that featured eight different games on one channel. That channel/feature will not exist on YouTube.

YouTube will offer a few “multiview” channel options. When I first heard about this, I had high hopes that this feature would allow me to choose which games I want to watch on the multiview channel. 

Wrong.

With the multiview channels on YouTube, viewers will instead be able to choose from an extensive selection of 4-game, 3-game and 2-game multiview combinations chosen by YouTube every Sunday.

A bigger problem than the multiview issue will be with your local broadcasts. This one is convoluted, so I’ll do my best to explain.

Local games, meaning the games that air on CBS and Fox at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. in a local market, will be blacked out on Sunday Ticket, as they were on DirecTV.

With DirecTV, you would just have to flip over to your CBS and Fox channels (channels 2 and 5 here in New York) to watch those games.

However, unless you are a YouTubeTV (not YouTube, but YouTubeTV) subscriber, you will have to change your input to go back to whatever cable or satellite you subscribe to in order to watch those local channels. 

Here’s an example of what I’m trying to explain. In Week 1 the Eagles play the Patriots on CBS in a game that will be shown in most local markets. Since the game will air on your local CBS affiliate, it will be blacked out on Sunday Ticket. So if you’re watching the other 4 p.m. games—Raiders-Broncos, Dolphins-Chargers, Rams-Seahawks and Packers-Bears on YouTube and you want to check in on Eagles-Patriots, you have to then leave YouTube and go to whichever cable or satellite service you have to watch that game.

I know this may not sound like a huge problem, but it is in my world and will be in the world of gamblers and fantasy football players, two groups that make up a large part of the NFL audience. And more than a problem, this is just a huge pain in the ass.

I’m not big on predicting things in this column, but I have a hunch we’re going to be in for complete anarachy Sept. 10 when everyone who signed up for Sunday Ticket on YouTube gets wind of all these changes.

2. This week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast features the first appearance of Charles Barkley on the show. Barkley gave me 90 minutes of his time, and we covered a lot of ground. Among the topics we discussed:

• The Rock

• His future on television

• Would he work for another network if Turner loses NBA

• New NBA TV deals

• A rule that would prevent NBA owners from raising ticket prices

• Sports needs to penalize teams that suck

• Betting Saturday's Notre Dame–Navy game

• How serious was he about going to LIV

• Turning down an offer to call Monday Night Football

• Would he call an NFL game today

• Wanting to call a game with Dick Vitale

• His opinion on ESPN firing Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson

• Wanting Jeff Van Gundy to join Turner

• Hating sports media people who make things personal

• Is he sick of talking about his fallout with Michael Jordan?

• How many times has he been in the same room with Michael Jordan in the past 25 years?

• Turner putting an end to his “Big San Antonio Women” bit

• Is he cancel-proof?

• His love of College GameDay

• Issues when Shaq first joined Inside the NBA

• How he preps for the NCAA tournament

• Losing 70 pounds

• His all-time worst gambling loss

• His love of Scott Van Pelt’s “Bad Beats”

• NFL Future bets he likes

• Why he’s rooting for the Lions this season

• Going to Las Vegas with friends every two to three weeks during the NBA season

• Why he thinks sports gambling has gotten out of hand

• College football is ruined

• Funniest people in sports media

• Will he be remembered more for his playing career or broadcasting?

• Why nurses are the best

• Why LeBron’s story is the greatest story in sports history

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

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

3. Based on this video, Nikola Jokić is spending his offseason exactly the way an NBA champion and MVP should spend his offseason.

4. Fox just announced its NFL broadcast crews for the 2023 season. No changes from last season. 

• Kevin Burkhardt–Greg Olsen 
• Joe Davis–Daryl Johnston 
• Adam Amin–Mark Schlereth 
• Kenny Albert–Jonathan Vilma
• Kevin Kugler–Mark Sanchez 
• Chris Myers–Robert Smith

CBS’s broadcast crews for this season will be as follows:

• Jim Nantz–Tony Romo
• Ian Eagle–Charles Davis
• Kevin Harlan–Trent Green
• Andrew Catalon–Matt Ryan–Tiki Barber
• Spero Dedes–Adam Archuleta
• Tom McCarthy–James Lofton–Jay Feely
• Chris Lewis–Jason McCourty–Ross Tucker

5. When ESPN eventually offers a direct-to-consumer product, it’s not going to be cheap (and it may be as part of a partnership with Amazon). One report says the price will be anywhere from $20 to $35 a month. I just can’t understand why people don’t just stick with cable, but I’m old, so what do I know?

6. Offshore betting website BetOnline AG offered a wager on Donald Trump’s weight at the time of his arrest. This led to just a completely surreal tweet/update. 

And I’ll just leave this here.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: I didn’t really understand it then and still don’t understand it now, but this is one of the most memorable segments to ever take place on Monday Night Raw. RIP, Windham Rotunda, aka Bray Wyatt, who shockingly passed away Thursday at just 36 years old.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.