jim-nantz Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Ranking the major sports networks from most elitist to Fox Sports
Prestige and journalism shouldn’t go hand-in-hand together. Sure, there are outlets with enough history and money to have ethics departments, fact-checkers, and paying subscribers, but the omnipresent tier — the ones controlling the rights to the big sports — are cost-cutting corporate slugs like th...

Shannon Sharpe needs a rescue; 49ers turn on themselves; Let's look at who couldn't have gotten away with what Travis Kelce did
OK, it’s time somebody said something, and since no one else has, here we go. Shannon Sharpe, the Hall of Fame tight end has made quite a mark on the sports media landscape over the past several years. But lately, he’s been wilding out to the point where it seems either Unc Shay Shay or Shannon may ...

Forget Nantz and Romo, give us SpongeBob and Patrick in the booth every week
If yesterday’s Super Bowl LVIII extravaganza — from the pregame to the broadcast to the game itself — left you a little cold, you were definitely watching the wrong broadcast. Sure, nothing changes the fact that the entire game consisted largely of trading field goals and then ended exactly how we k...

Week 12 NFL Takeaways: Live by the field goal, die by the field goal
On Sunday, the NFL made up for its Thanksgiving product that was more sleep-inducing than wolfing down a half-pound turkey in one afternoon. Jordan Love’s late-season turnaround was worthy of a hat tip, but the rest of the day would have been better spent arguing about the 2024 election. ...

Did Jim Nantz waste his best goodbye on March Madness?
Sportscaster sentimentality is one of the weirdest aspects of the sports world. One of the storylines of Monday night’s men’s title game was Jim Nantz. The voice of March Madness since literally as long as I can remember delivered his final college basketball broadcast in his hometown of Houston, an...

UConn did not get the memo about March Madness
After everything this NCAA men’s tournament has had to offer. After all the one seeds fell. After an Ivy League school made the Sweet 16. After a Conference USA team made the Final Four. After 62 other schools lost, we get a blueblood in the title game. The UConn Huskies aren’t just advancing, they’...

The top 18 NBA Draft prospects to watch in the NCAA tournament
We’re less than a week away from the start of the NCAA Tournament and several of the stars that will shine during March Madness will end their college careers during the showcase. While the lose-o-rama for Victor Wembanyama, the projected No. 1 overall pick, has been underway for several months now,...

Tony Romo is paid too much to care
There is some comfort in knowing that the higher-ups at CBS see and hear the same things we do during their NFL broadcast. They can’t miss that Tony Romo is merely making noises like some sort of fusion between a pin and whoopee cushion and not much else. It seems they even tried to do something abo...

Naming Pat McAfee Sports Media Person of the Year is an indictment of us all
This is not (totally) a hit piece on Pat McAfee. It’s more about how we should categorize what McAfee does, because The Athletic — you know that sports site owned by The New York Times — named him its Sports Media Person of the Year, and that implies that he’s a journalist....

There's a new nepo baby in sports broadcasting
Updated Feb. 21, 2024: Chris Caray, the great-grandson of Harry Caray, will call A’s games for NBC Sports California. ...

Gus Johnson, not Ian Eagle, should succeed Jim Nantz as the voice of March Madness
Ian Eagle is really good at his job. Gus Johnson’s just better....

NFL Week 6 Takeaways: Putting G.O.A.T.s out to pasture
Even before another wildly impressive Patrick Mahomes vs. Josh Allen showcase, it was clear that Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers are no longer the featured performers at quarterback in the NFL....

Your 2022 NFL lead broadcasting booths feature 8 white guys, Tony Romo and an ‘Italian’
If Brian Flores can sue the NFL for its racist hiring practices when it comes to selecting coaches, then Gus Johnson should be allowed to sue television networks for whitewashing the NFL broadcasting booth....

The best sports calls of the 21st century
Is there anything that defines a moment in sports history quite like the announcers’ call over the sounds of a raucous crowd and a celebrating team (and your own sobs)? Do you believe in miracles, the band is on the field, the Giants win the pennant, pretty much anything Jack Buck ever said — they’r...

Tiger had the world on pins and needles for a shot that truthfully didn’t even matter
Tiger Woods, 18th hole, The Masters. It didn’t matter that he was 13-over par and his chances at winning had long expired. It didn’t matter that Tiger wasn’t expected to win. It was spectacular that just over one year after an automobile accident mangled his right leg, he was playing in The Masters,...

Duke-UNC played out like a WrestleMania main event
It wasn’t until the 3 that I knew. That was the moment, when I caught myself pumping my fist, and mouthing “yes!” that I realized I worked myself into a shoot....

Albert Pujols will have what Coach K is having
Opponents of the St. Louis Cardinals better get their rocking chairs and kitsch retirement gifts ready because another act had been added to the team’s retirement tour. Former lead singer/first baseman and current designated hitter Albert Pujols is rejoining the Red Birds for what he says is his “la...

Fictional Hooper Bracket: Hickory Region - Round 2
An overweight out-of-work actor who didn’t make a bucket on screen, a cartoon grade school kid, and Urkel all prevailed in the Hickory Region, meaning the 11, 13, and 14 seeds came up Milhouse in an upset-riddled round. Now, Urkel and Recess’ Vince LaSalle face off to go to the Sweet 16....

The Fictional Hooper Bracket: Venice Beach Region
It’s basketball time folks. Ignore Tom Brady trying to own the spotlight on Selection Sunday and decipher Progressive Insurance sales representative Baker Mayfield’s social media post later, and give the hardwood the attention it deserves. It’s almost spring, hit the CBS music, pull Ernie, Kenny, an...

This is why we watch
Is there any greater thrill than a good old fashioned March buzzer beater? Single-elimination, do-or-die moment, clock racing to zero — living in that infinite moment, watching the ball arc its path through the endless stretch of air, the swish of the net, the eruption of cheers, the impossible sudd...