1. The football season is here. Finally. We get our appetizer Thursday night with Lions-Chiefs on NBC before the main course Sunday.
From now until Super Bowl Sunday, we will be bombarded with NFL content from all forms of media: TV, radio, podcasts, streaming, social media and on and on. It can be overwhelming to wade through it all and figure out what is worth your time.
So, I’m here to help. Here are 10 shows/segments/pieces of content that I love to consume during the NFL season. These are the things I go out of my way to check out whenever they occur. And please don’t email or tweet me to ask how I could leave whatever show you like off this list. This is MY list of MY favorite things. I’m just here with some recommendations for you. Hopefully you take them and enjoy.
Good Morning Football, NFL Network: This is not a surprise to regular “Traina Thoughts” readers. I’ve been a fan of the show since Day 1, and, after seven seasons, GMFB remains unique and a breath of fresh air. Hot takes and yelling and saying dumb stuff just to get play of social media is a staple of most sports shows. Not this one. The crew of Jamie Erdahl, Kyle Brandt, Jason McCourty and Peter Schrager is extremely likable and a fun hang every morning.
That Other Pregame Show, CBS Sports Network: The Sunday NFL pregame shows, for the most part, are the same across the board. TOPS stands out for being a little different. Similar to Good Morning Football, TOPS is loose. It’s fun. It doesn't take itself so seriously like rest of the pregame shows. Host (and recent SI Media podcast guest) Adam Schein moves the show along, and panelists Kyle Long, Amy Trask and Jonathan Jones all add different perspectives.
Chris Berman’s “Fastest 3 Minutes,” ESPN: This is a nostalgia thing. By halftime of Monday Night Football, we've seen every highlight from Sunday. But NFL prime time is legendary, and Berman still manages to entertain and impress with the way he runs through the highlights during halftime of MNF. And no matter how old and jaded I get, I will always love the Chris Berman nicknames.
Pardon My Take's “Fastest 2 Minutes,” Barstool Sports: Piggybacking off Berman, Big Cat and PFT top the ESPN legend by one minute even though their recaps are usually 10 to 15 minutes long and filled with hysterical one-liners and takes that leave you in disbelief.
Chris Russo’s Monday NFL recap, SiriusXM: For a slightly more serious recap of the Sunday games than PMT’s, the Mad Dog has you covered. What makes this segment a must-listen are two things: Russo blows through the 10-to-12 minute recap without ever taking a breath. It’s a remarkable physical feat. He also botches about a million names and words during the segment, which just adds to the charm.
New Heights podcast: You couldn’t have scripted the debut season of this podcast any better with Travis and Jason Kelce meeting in last year’s Super Bowl. But to hear from two of the best players on two of the best teams every week in season is pretty special. The brothers don’t shy away from addressing what’s going on with their teams while also providing great levity. Jason Kelce’s laugh alone makes this podcast worth listening to.
NFL Films Twitter account: There’s one reason above all others to follow @NFLFilms, and it’s this: During the season they post clips of players mic’d up during the games, and that content is always gold.
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Aaron Rodgers Tuesdays on The Pat McAfee Show: It will be interesting to see whether the weekly segment makes as much news this year, since Rodgers seems like a new man with the Jets. He was clearly miserable in Green Bay the past couple of years, and it showed during his interviews with McAfee and made for compelling content. His tenure with the Jets has been a complete lovefest, so who knows whether the segment will have the edge it’s had in the past. But either way, the conversations between Rodgers and McAfee are always newsworthy.
Let's Go, SiriusXM: Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback in NFL history. To have him share his thoughts each Monday night during the season is special and valuable. For so many years when Brady was in New England, we didn’t get to see much of his personality. Since leaving the Patriots, we’ve seen a different side of Brady, especially on his weekly SiriusXM show, where he opines on more than just football.
SI Media With Jimmy Traina, Sports Illustrated: Sure, it’s gross for me to promote myself, but if I don’t, who will? I go very heavy with NFL guests during the season. Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Mike Tirico, Kevin Burkhardt, Greg Olsen, Ian Eagle and Al Michaels were among the many folks to join the podcast last season, and it will be more of the same this season. Fox’s latest hire, Julian Edelman, is on this week's show. So make sure you subscribe to the podcast.
Bonus:
The worst NFL content that you should avoid at all costs: any show that does a picks segment without the point spread. Bush league, stupid and useless.
2. I just covered the best NFL content. When it comes to the best piece of content across the entire sports landscape, there is nothing better than Scott Van Pelt’s and Stanford Steve’s “Bad Beats.” Here is the first full edition of the 2023 college football season. It’s as good as ever.
Bad Beats
— Stanford Steve (@StanfordSteve82) September 5, 2023
Week 1 pic.twitter.com/68ntJLo5m9
3. Speaking of bets, the college football betting world is completely losing it over Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes after winning outright as 20-point underdogs against TCU last week.
There are more bets on Colorado-Nebraska than 14 NFL games this week at @BetMGM.
— John Ewing (@johnewing) September 5, 2023
80% of money is on @CUBuffsFootball -3. pic.twitter.com/57R9pJKZcv
BETTORS LOVE THE BUFFALOES 🦬
— br_betting (@br_betting) September 6, 2023
94% of bets and 93% of the handle is on Colorado (-3) vs. Nebraska on Saturday...Good time to fade the crowd?
(via @DKSportsbook) pic.twitter.com/rNltA4kI3x
4. The business of college football (NIL, realignment) is a complete disaster, but on the field things are just fine, with networks generating some impressive ratings last weekend.
ESPN drew 9.1 million viewers for the LSU-FSU game Sunday night, while Fox landed 7.2 million viewers for that Colorado win at TCU.
NBC’s first Big Ten games: West Virginia at Penn State averaged 3.7 million viewers. Florida at Utah on Thursday registered 3.2 million viewers, making it ESPN’s most-watched Thursday opener since 2017.
5. Aaron Rodgers saw a UFO.
"Did we just see what we think we just saw?"
— NFL (@NFL) September 6, 2023
Aaron Rodgers details a UFO sighting 🛸
Stream the #HardKnocks finale now on @StreamOnMax pic.twitter.com/reQgankPod
6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast features two interviews.
First up is ESPN college football analyst Greg McElroy. He talks about getting promoted to ESPN’s No. 2 crew, where he will work with Sean McDonough and call a national championship playoff game. McElroy also discusses working with Joe Tessitore and Dave Pasch in past years, why he has to be overprepared to call a game and how long it took him to get comfortable in the booth. McElroy, who played at Alabama, also talks about what makes Nick Saban tick, how the Crimson Tide will do this season, which team could surprise some people in 2023 and which college football quarterback is flying under the radar. McElroy closes out his appearance on the podcast with a hilarious Tim Tebow story.
Following McElroy, comedian Jared Freid, who has a Netflix special out, 37 & Single, joins the podcast. Freid talks about the business of comedy, how he puts together a special, using his parents for material, his favorite comedians, whether Bill Belichick is funny, what’s funny about college football and much 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 YouTube.
