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Traina Thoughts Mailbag: ‘Monday Night Football,’ MLB Broadcasters, ‘Seinfeld’ and More

Answering your questions about sports media and much more.

Jimmy Traina

Why ‘Monday Night Football’ has the NFL's best production, favorite ‘Seinfeld’ episodes and more.
Why ‘Monday Night Football’ has the NFL's best production, favorite ‘Seinfeld’ episodes and more. / Kirthmon F. Dozier/USA TODAY NETWORK; Ron Elkman/USA TODAY NETWORK; Brad Penner-Imagn Images

It’s been a little bit since I answered your questions via a Traina Thoughts Mailbag, so I took to Twitter and Instagram on Tuesday to solicit questions. You guys never cease to amaze me with what you ask. Anyway, here we go…

I think the best NFL game each week, from a broadcast standpoint, is Monday Night Football. I enjoy Jim Nantz/Tony Romo (CBS), Kevin Burkhardt/Tom Brady (Fox) and Al Michaels/Kirk Herbstreit (Amazon) a lot, but Joe Buck and Troy Aikman are a level above. Buck oozes “big-game” vibes and is as good a play-by-play person as there is in all of sports. In addition to being excellent at X’s and O’s and explaining plays, Aikman is pretty much the only analyst who will take players and refs to task.

I only have two beefs with ESPN’s production of Monday Night Football. I hate the scorebug at the bottom. Too big and all the green sometimes looks like yellow and you think there’s a flag on the play.

And that ridiculous "Go or Punt" graphic they use on fourth down plays is completely useless.

Current announcers: Don Orsillo and Ron Darling

All-time MLB announcers: Joe Buck and Ken “the Hawk” Harrelson. He always cracked me up.

Any announcers: I’d love to hear Kevin Harlan call a baseball game with Chris “Mad Dog” Russo and Charles Barkley as the analysts.

Here’s what you need to keep in mind about the two Netflix games on Christmas Day: They are being produced by CBS.

Also, back in May, NFL VP of Broadcast Planning, Mike North, told me during his appearance on the SI Media Podcast, that Netflix likely wouldn’t use traditional booths and it would be a mix and match thing.

So, I don’t buy that report regarding Netflix asking for Burkhardt and Brady. I would expect mainly, but not all, CBS talent on those broadcasts.

As for your idea, I think it’s way too gimmicky. Netflix wants to show the NFL it can be a legit player as a potential broadcast partner. Filling booths with siblings or father/sons would not accomplish that.

I’m old school. I liked it when there were four divisions and the two division winners in each league made the playoffs. But that would never fly today because MLB needs more rounds to make more money from TV, hence a million teams make the playoffs. But the tradeoff is that the regular season has absolutely no excitement whatsoever until maybe the final week of the season.

You've got to give MLB a break on this one. When you have to air four games in one day, there isn’t an easy solution.

When MLB would air a playoff game at 11 p.m. ET, people got pissed off. When they air a game at 2:30 p.m. ET, people get pissed off. MLB can’t win here unless they want to put the games up against each other and air two games at 4 p.m. ET and two games at 8 p.m. ET.

I would think with a lot of people now working remotely, post-COVID and people having the ability to stream anything, the 2:30 p.m. ET start time wouldn’t be a problem for as many people as it would’ve in the past. Personally, I loved the setup this year, but I work from home, so maybe that’s why.

There isn’t one reason for MLB’s decline in popularity when it comes to TV ratings and buzz. There are a bunch of reasons. The competition is brutal. You basically have access to any game you want at any time you want. We also live in a time when attention spans are limited, so a 3.5-hour game with tons of down time is a hard sell. You are also correct about analytics destroying the enjoyment of the sport. The sport is clueless about how to market itself and its players. The players also don’t seem to want to be marketed, unlike NBA players. The sport has also become localized. Teams in big markets that spend money are enjoying great popularity. Teams in small markets that don’t spend money have eroded their own fan base.

I haven’t heard a ton of Joe Tessitore calling Monday Night Raw since his start coincided with the start of Monday Night Football. But from clips I’ve heard, he certainly has the voice and energy level for the job.

I went from Hot Clicks to sports media because I foolishly left SI for Fox Sports for a brief period. When I returned to SI, Richard Deitsch, who covered media for us, left for The Athletic and then I was asked to focus more on sports media because I had always opined about it in Hot Clicks.

Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura were great. Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan were even better. But Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler were the GOATS. Just listen to the magic in this clip.

Whoa. I was stunned by the amount of Good Morning Football questions I received. I don’t think the NFL realized how many people loved that show when it decided to mess with it.

The NFL should've left the show alone. I’m still getting used to the new format, new location and new additions, but I enjoy listening to what Kyle Brandt and Peter Schrager have to say about the NFL every morning. I find it refreshing that Brandt didn’t play in the NFL. Not every NFL talking head has to be a former player. He knows the league and sport as well as anyone, but still has the fan element to him. And nobody that covers the NFL has more connections and sources than Schrager, so his insight is very valuable. I do miss Jason McCourty on the show.

“The Dinner Party,” “The Boyfriend,” “The Contest” and “The Opposite.” No episode made me laugh more from start to finish than “The Dinner Party.” It is perfection the entire way through.

Wake up. Grab my phone. Check the scores of the 10:30 p.m. college football games from the night before to see which bets I lost. Take a shower. Put on CBS’s That Other Pregame Show while I get dressed and do house stuff before getting ready to go out before the games start. It’s the one pregame show on Sundays that is different from all the others. It’s light and fun. Adam Schein is a great host. Kyle Long, Amy Trask and Brock Vereen are excellent, too.

Then I usually go get some breakfast and study the lines and check injuries. Then I head over to my parents’ and take care of anything they need so they don’t bother me during the games. This can entail going to the supermarket for them, fixing their wide variety of electronic issues, returning stuff and other nonsense.

Then I try to get home no later than 12:30 p.m. so I can place my wagers and get the games set up the way I want them on all my screens. Then I sit on my fat behind from 1 p.m. to midnight watching all the games.

I also received questions from some of my Instagram followers.

Favorite betting angle on any sport? –@riceownz2

If I had an angle that worked, I wouldn’t be writing this mailbag. I’d be enjoying my money.

We all know your favorite show (Sopranos), but favorite movie? You never discuss your favorite movies. –@neil.grewal1

I’m not a huge movie guy. I think I’ve been to the movies once since COVID, and that was because I got invited to a screening for Air (which was FANTASTIC). I’m not into any sci-fi movies (never saw Star Wars) or animation or Disney movies or war movies or movies with cars exploding and people shooting each other and bombs going off.

Just give me a good, realistic story with great characters and outstanding dialogue. Or a comedy.

My list would be very boring to you. My favorite movie is Goodfellas (yes, I know this goes against my “people shooting each other” clause, but I waive that for mafia movies). I love Shawshank Redemption. I love Good Will Hunting. I love Rain Man.

Are you going to bet on the baseball postseason and/or have any predictions? –@amyroanne

I absolutely will bet on the MLB postseason. I love betting baseball. Im coming off a 3–1 day on Tuesday (Tigers = winner; Orioles -1.5 runs = loser; Mets = winner; Padres -1.5 = winner).

Bottom of the 9th, you’re closing. What’s your walkout song. –@dielon1217

No-brainer. Stone Cold Steve Austin’s theme song. Nothing gets a crowd going like the sound of that glass breaking.

Jimmy, why don’t you cover MMA at all? Lost of big personalities in MMA media. –@Ivryan_99

It would be impossible for me to have less interest in MMA. I have no desire at all to watch people beat each other to a pulp. None. To steal a line from the great Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, if there was an MMA fight taking place in my backyard, I’d draw the blinds.

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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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