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Larry David Has Major Beef With This Sports Trend: ‘I’ll Never Go Back There’

Also in Traina Thoughts: Tom Brady is ready for broadcasting; Travis Kelce goes off on Justin Tucker; YouTube appears to be listening to sports fans and more.

Jimmy Traina

1. Here’s the truth about today’s Traina Thoughts. I really wanted to lead the column with this amazing clip of Larry David being interviewed Tuesday night at the premiere party for this season’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, which airs Sunday night on HBO, because it will be the best thing you see on the internet today, and it’s peak Larry David.

However, there wasn’t really a way for me to connect that clip to anything sports-related, so I didn’t think I could get it at the top of today’s column.

But now it’s at the top of today’s column, and I can tell you that in addition to Larry giving that vintage interview, we also have another classic LD rant about what it’s like to go to a sporting event these days.

Appearing on Bill Simmons’s podcast for a must-listen interview, Larry called out one of the biggest issues with being a sports fan in this day and age.

“Here’s my problem with stadiums in general now,” said David. “I went to a game at SoFi. I’ll never go back there. You have to scream to just talk to the person next to you. There’s so much noise coming from the loudspeaker. It’s crazy. And then the guy, the P.A. guy, WHOSE HOUSE IS THIS?!?! You’re assaulted. Your senses are assaulted and you can’t watch the game.”

David later added, “They have it at baseball games, too, now. They don’t let you just sit and talk and relax.”

Clearly, David needs to have a conversation with Steve Kerr, who recently went off about the trend of arenas being too loud after a game in Phoenix.

“In this building, you can’t hear anything because it’s like a club, it’s like a South Beach club out there,” Kerr told reporters. “What are we doing?”

Kerr continued: “I’m being dead serious. I couldn’t hear anything out there. The whole game is just thumping, techno club music. Can we just have a basketball game anymore? What the hell?”

David touched on several other sports topics during his interview with Simmons, which you can check out below.

2. I told you in Friday’s Traina Thoughts that last Sunday’s Lions-Niners NFL title game was going to be the last one for Fox’s Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen as partners because Tom Brady is taking Olsen’s spot in the booth next season.

Brady appeared on Tuesday’s Pat McAfee Show and made it crystal clear he’s going through with his plan of becoming Fox’s lead NFL analyst, and he plans on giving it 100%.

3. I’d love to hear from other NFL players about the protocol here before making a judgment about who was out of line in the Travis Kelce–Justin Tucker dust-up, which hasn't gotten nearly the attention it deserves because everybody is busy white-knighting for Taylor Swift, but Kelce unloaded on Tucker on the latest New Heights.

4. New York Post headline: Fans call out Brittany Mahomes’s ‘high horse’ attitude toward stadium employee: ‘Just the worst’

BroBible headline: Brittany Mahomes Called ‘The Worst’ for Her Behavior Towards Stadium Employee

OK! Magazine headline: Brittany Mahomes Bashed for ‘Diva-Like’ Attitude Toward Stadium Worker

Someone help me out here. I watched the clip in question that generated these headlines. I saw absolutely nothing wrong with what she did.

5. I have raved about YouTube’s first season airing NFL Sunday Ticket here in Traina Thoughts and on SI Media With Jimmy Traina. I repeatedly said that the only issue, and in my opinion it’s a minor one, is that it would nice for YouTube to give us the option of selecting our own games for the multiview option and allowing us to put whatever game we want into whatever box in the quadrant.

It appears YouTube is working on this fix. Via The Verge:

“Google spokesperson Allison Toh confirmed the rollout in an email to The Verge, noting it’s currently only available for NBA League Pass and men’s and women’s NCAA basketball. ‘We hope to gradually bring this to more live sports over the next few months,’ Toh wrote.”

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina features an outstanding conversation with Good Morning Football host Kyle Brandt.

Brandt talks about the strong ratings for GMFB, how he feels about the NFL season winding down, what a Super Bowl in Las Vegas means for people in sports media, why he doesn’t love talking about the Cowboys, why he avoids the social media game, his unique segment for CBS’s NFL Today, his experience on Wheel of Fortune and much more.

Following Brandt, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we talk about Doc Rivers leaving ESPN after the network fired Jeff Van Gundy, CBS’s upcoming special on the NFL Today, the best potato chips and more.

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 Sports Illustrated’s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Curb Your Enthusiasm returns for its final season this Sunday, so I’m featuring Curb videos all week in this space. I always loved the Larry–Wanda Sykes dynamic on the show. This is a top-five all-time scene for me.

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.

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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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