1. Sunday night, I was scrolling through TikTok and saw a bunch of videos on my “For You” page from the opening night of Taylor Swift’s new tour. One of the videos ran down the 44 songs—yes, 44 songs—that Swift performed during the show.
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I saw Billy Joel back in November. He did 27 songs and I was impressed (partially because he’s 73 years old, but I don’t want to age-shame). Therefore, 44 is astonishing to me, so I sent out this tweet:
Remarkably, even a pretty innocuous tweet like this one still generated dumb replies, which is why I try to avoid Twitter as much as possible on the weekends and stick with TikTok, but I digress.
What I didn’t say in the tweet was that I respect Swift for giving that kind of effort after there was so much controversy surrounding her ticket sales, which even led to lawsuits.
I was far from the only person to have this take. Future NFL Hall of Famer J.J. Watt was at Swift’s Saturday show and was blown away by the pop star’s performance.
Watt was so in awe of Swift, he dropped a two-and-half-minute review on us in which he called the show, among other things, “unbelievable,” a “spectacle to behold” and “impressive to witness.”
“It was 44 songs,” said Watt. “Three hours and 15 minutes long. And she did not stop the whole time. There was no intermission. There was no halftime. There were no TV timeouts. The longest break she took was maybe three minutes for a costume change. She was singing, dancing, entertaining the entire time; 70,000 people hanging on every single word and move she was making for three hours and 15 minutes and she crushed it. She didn’t even look tired. I was tired and I was just sitting there.”
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Watt even revealed that he purchased some Swift merch, but sadly we weren’t treated to any videos of the 6'5", 288-pounder singing or dancing to any Swift songs.
We’d like to imagine that Watt’s vibe at the show was like this:
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2. Gonzaga was a 4.5 favorite over TCU last night. The Bulldogs were up 84–78 as the clock was winding down, and here's how the game ended.
The scene at the Circa in Las Vegas was tremendous.
3. Here are the broadcasters for the next round of the tournament:
THURSDAY:
7) Michigan St. vs. 3) Kansas St., TBS: Brian Anderson–Jim Jackson–Allie LaForce
8) Arkansas vs. 4) UConn, CBS: Kevin Harlan–Dan Bonner–Stan Van Gundy–Lauren Shehadi
9) Florida Atlantic vs. 4) Tennessee, TBS: Brian Anderson–Jim Jackson–Allie LaForce
3) Gonzaga vs. 2) UCLA, CBS: Kevin Harlan–Dan Bonner–Stan Van Gundy–Lauren Shehadi
FRIDAY:
5) San Diego State vs. 1) Alabama, TBS: Ian Eagle–Jim Spanarkel–Evan Washburn
5) Miami vs. 1) Houston, CBS: Jim Nantz–Bill Raftery–Grant Hill–Tracy Wolfson
15) Princeton vs. 6) Creighton, TBS: Ian Eagle–Jim Spanarkel–Evan Washburn
3) Xavier vs. 2) Texas, CBS: Jim Nantz–Bill Raftery–Grant Hill–Tracy Wolfson
4. Adam Schefter, who despite what Aaron Rodgers said, was right about Rodgers’s playing future all along, has revealed to Peter King how his now-infamous text exchange last week with Rodgers went down.
“I’ve had his number for a while. I never once used it. Trey Wingo reported [last Monday] he was ‘hearing’ that Rodgers to the Jets was done. The day he did it, ESPN was going live from 3 to 5 on free agency. Everyone was saying Aaron Rodgers to the Jets is done. We’re on the air for two hours. I call the Jets, I call the Pack, I call Rodgers’ advisers. No one’s saying anything. So, I’m sitting there on the set with Dianna Russini. ‘Should I text Rodgers?’ She said, ‘Yeah, text him.’ At 3:35, I texted him. I say, basically: ‘Have you informed the Jets that you’d like to play there? I wanted to open it up to you.’ He didn’t respond for maybe 10 minutes. So then I called the number, got sent to voicemail. Then he texts me, ‘Lose my number. Good try tho.’ That’s all. He’s the one who says the media’s getting it wrong. I wanted to go to source and get it right. That’s all. I was just trying to do my job.”
5. Charles Barkley and Clark Kellogg are big fans of Uncrustables.
6. This week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina features an interview with ESPN NBA analyst Richard Jefferson.
Jefferson, who also hosts a podcast and calls Nets games for the YES Network, discusses his rise in sports media, what his ultimate goal is in broadcasting and how important social media is for his career. Jefferson also talks about how he approaches TikTok and accumulated 1.4 million followers, why he hates Twitter, the load management controversy, Ja Morant, his ongoing feud with Knicks fans and much more.
Following Jefferson, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week we discuss filling out NCAA tournament brackets, the World Baseball Classic, two highlights from the Oscars and the overall movie-going experience in 2023.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch the SI Media with Jimmy Traina on YouTube.
