Charles Barkley’s opinion of Skip Bayless still hasn’t changed — and the latest development in their feud involved Barkley blasting the “Undisputed” host’s “asinine” take about Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the Patriots dynasty.
During a segment on Friday’s edition of “The Dan Patrick Show,” Barkley brought up a comment from Bayless where he allegedly said, “Bill only won championships because of Tom Brady.”
It’s unclear when Bayless made the comment that Barkley referenced, but he recently labeled Belichick — who parted ways with the Patriots following the 2023 season and hasn’t landed a job for the 2024 season — as a “glorified defensive coordinator” during a Jan. 25 segment with Keyshawn Johnson and Michael Irvin, according to Awful Announcing.
The Brady-Belichick debate has emerged as the ultimate question about the era in New England that featured six Super Bowl titles, given that Brady left and won another with the Buccaneers while Belichick compiled a 29-39 record, including a wild-card loss after the future Hall of Famer left for Tampa.
Barkley told Patrick that he didn’t think the criticism aimed at Belichick “ain’t right,” since Brady didn’t coach the Patriots’ defense or special teams.
He added that Andy Reid, who recently won his third title since taking over as the Chiefs’ coach, has become “a great coach,” but Barkley questioned how many championships the 65-year-old would’ve won without Patrick Mahomes — who recently won his latest Super Bowl MVP award — at quarterback.
“When you get on television, our job is to be fair and objective,” Barkley said. “And we got some clowns on television now who are like, ‘Belichick is overrated.’ Dude went to nine Super Bowls. There’s nobody who went to nine Super Bowls who’s overrated.”
Patrick, at one point during Barkley’s answer, asked why the NBA Hall of Famer still watches shows such as “Undisputed,” and Barkley claimed that he doesn’t — and that people just send him clips of the “hot takes.”
Barkley’s hatred of Bayless has been well-documented.
Then, Bayless responded in July by calling Barkley a “clown” and saying on his podcast that he’d be his “dream debate partner” to replace Sharpe on “Undisputed” — since “all I’d have to do is let Charles go first and listen to him make a fool out of himself.”
And this time, during the interview with Patrick, Barkley used the phrase “hate him with every fiber” to describe his relationship — or lack thereof — with Bayless.
“Sometimes, he makes me want to gain weight back so I can hate him with even more weight,” Barkley told Patrick.
As the old adage goes, a picture is worth 1,000 words.
That explains why Sports Illustrated would, at times, forgo the words on its cover and let the image do the talking.
Perhaps the most iconic cover in the magazine’s history — voted as such in a 2014 poll — went sans headlines, readouts and captions after the 1980 U.S. men’s ice hockey team accomplished the Miracle on Ice.
“It didn’t need it,” photographer Heinz Kluetmeier said in 2008. “Everyone in America knew what happened.”
Since its inception in 1954, SI was not only a home for some of the greatest sportswriting in history, it was also a bastion of sports photography and imagery.
On Friday, it was announced The Arena Group, which currently runs the editorial operations for SI, had laid off the outlet’s staff after its license to use the name was revoked, though both it and Authentic, which own the SI brand, say it will continue to exist in some form.
The news left many considering the end of Sports Illustrated and the legacy it may be leaving behind.
That includes many of the thousands of legendary magazine covers that captured the perfect moment in a game, encapsulated the celebration, enhanced a subject’s image — or simply poked fun at it.
The Arena Group alerted all Sports Illustrated staffers on Friday that their positions were being eliminated.
Richard Deitsch, a sports media reporter who left for Sports Illustrated for the Athletic, posted the email that all employees received on X.
It noted, in part, that some employees would be “terminated immediately.”
The decision comes after the Authentic Brands Group, the licensing group that bought Sports Illustrated for $110 million from Meredith five years ago, terminated the agreement it holds with The Arena Group to publish the magazine in print and digital, per Front Office Sports.
“Some employees will be terminated immediately, and paid in lieu of the applicable notice period under the [the union contract],” the notice read. “Employees with a last working day of today will be contacted by the People team soon. Other employees will be expected to work through the end of the notice period, and will receive additional information shortly.”
The Arena Group missed a $2.8 million payment that breached the company’s Sports Illustrated licensing deal three weeks ago.
It is unclear whether Authentic will establish a new operator or allow Arena to renegotiate its current deal.
For Melissa Stark, “there’s nothing better” than when the “Sunday Night Football” preparation “all comes together.”
With the Packers set to close out the year with a win over the Vikings on New Year’s Eve, Stark knew the postgame interview with Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love could be a golden opportunity for the 25-year-old to test out his New Year’s resolution of shuffling cards — something the veteran NFL reporter learned earlier in the week.
“I asked all the players this week their New Year’s resolutions and Jordan Love’s was to learn how to shuffle cards,” Stark recently recalled to The Post. “At the last minute our producer goes, ‘Oh my gosh, you should have cards there.’”
Though securing the cards was something of a whirlwind — “We left them in our truck and two minutes to go, I’m like, ‘Who has the cards?’” — Stark was able to hand Love a deck as Green Bay celebrated its blowout 33-10 victory in Week 17.
“It becomes this really funny thing postgame, and I’m like, ‘Here, you can get started,’ and I hand him the deck of cards,” Stark said. “It’s so fun when your research from the week pays off that way. We do it to tell stories and the stories are definitely the best part of our jobs.”
Stark, 50, has been reporting stories from both the studio and sidelines for more than two decades.
A University of Virginia alum, Stark is enjoying a memorable sophomore season on “Sunday Night Football” — more than 20 years after serving as a sideline reporter for ABC’s “Monday Night Football” from 2000-’02.
Before her return in 2022, when she took over sideline duties from Michele Tafoya, Stark — a former national correspondent on NBC’s “Today” show, among other posts held at the network from 2003-’07 — stepped away from the business to focus on raising her four children with husband Mike.
“What I think I’m most proud of is the longevity that I’ve had and the fact that I was able to leave the business and not know if I was going to come back and be OK with that, I was OK with that because starting a family to me was so important,” said Stark, who worked her 100th regular-season game from the sideline in December.
“So coming back, what it means is that I’m able to come back to a career that I absolutely love and frankly, with such a different perspective. Coming back later in my life, more mature and as a mom.”
With the playoffs nearing, Stark is looking back on an NFL season that’s been quite the “family” affair.
When the Jets hosted the Chiefs at MetLife Stadium in Week 4, which marked Taylor Swift’s second gameday appearance in support of boyfriend Travis Kelce, Stark’s daughters — much like Swifties everywhere — were hoping to catch a glimpse of the pop superstar.
“My daughter was in the truck for that first (game) and she was like, ‘Mom, I watched Taylor the whole time,’ ” said Stark, who noted production “had a camera on [Swift] the whole time for her reactions.”
What’s more, Starks’ kids, Clara, Clemmie, Jackson and Mike, got to see her in action.
“The beauty of it is, they love what I do and they get to see it and they get to come along, they all love football and coming on the field with me,” Stark said.
The Swift scene was just one of the exciting stories Stark covered this season.
As the Raiders prepared to face the Jets in Week 10 in Las Vegas, Stark spoke with Raiders linebacker Robert Spillane in the days ahead, in which a “throwaway question” transpired into something more significant.
“He talked to me on the way home [from practice] and his wife [Shelby] was in the car,” Stark recalled. “I go, ‘What’s motivating you this season?’ Sort of a throwaway question, and he turns to his wife in the car, ‘Should we tell her?’ And he was like, ‘Well, my wife’s actually pregnant and we haven’t told anybody yet.’”
The 28-year-old Spillane then relayed to Stark that if he made a “crazy play,” he would put the football under his jersey as if he were pregnant.
The plan sort of came to be when Spillane had the game-sealing interception in the Raiders’ 16-12 win.
“He gets the game-winning interception, he goes nuts, he forgets to do this, so right when I get him, I was like, ‘Hey, we’re going to break some news, you were supposed to put the ball under your shirt,’ and then he does it in the postgame interview,” Stark said.
“I just get excited when it all comes together, all your hard work.”
As wild-card weekend gets underway, Stark is soaking in the moment in what she described as “the perfect role.”
“There’s a ton of adrenaline and it’s very energizing, and I just feel very fortunate that I found the perfect role for me. It’s exactly what I want to do,” she said.
Stark will report from Detroit as part of “Sunday Night Football’s” wild-card weekend coverage, with Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth calling the anticipated Rams-Lions matchup in which Matthew Stafford makes his return to Ford Field.
“There has been an allegation, but we are not prepared to release any details at this time due to our investigation being in its very early stages,” the police department told the outlet.
Nevertheless, Irvin’s attorney, Levi McCathern, vehemently denied that his client did anything wrong.
“He didn’t do anything wrong or inappropriate,” McCathern told ProFootballTalk.
The lawyer continued to emphasize that there was “absolutely no truth” to the allegation.
There have been a number of times where Irvin has faced allegations of improper behavior that have not ended up in a conviction.
McCathern predicted that this case, as happened with previous allegations, “will turn out to be much ado about nothing.”
NFL Media spokesperson Alex Riethmiller told The Post, “We’re aware of the report but don’t have any additional details at this point.”
Irvin maintained his innocence in this situation, saying he was being “railroaded” by a false accusation.
McCathern, the attorney, spoke about being upset that video of the incident was taking a long time to be released.
“I’m mad as hell that they’re hiding this stuff that is so relevant to my client’s livelihood,” said McCathern, a Dallas-based attorney.
“I think it is terrible they’re doing that. I don’t know what’s on the video. None of us have gotten to see it. But I sure think that, at a minimum, Michael has got a right to see the video.”
Irvin filed a lawsuit against Marriott, and the suit reached an undisclosed settlement.
In this week’s Marchand & Ourand Sports Media Podcast: NBA commissioner Adam Silver discusses the future of the league’s local and national media rights.
The hosts use clips from Silver’s interview at the CAA World Congress of Sports to discuss how the NBA plans to approach the RSN problems and its coming national media rights deal.
Marchand and Ourand also discuss the NBA’s plans around its in-season tournament and how it will play in the upcoming national media rights negotiations.
Elsewhere on the podcast, Marchand and Ourand discuss the upcoming ESPN layoffs and Marcus Spears’ new four-year, multi-million dollar deal to stay at the network.
The two also dive into the technical problems that affected Netflix and AppleTV+ over the weekend and the early returns on MLB’s rule changes.
As always, the two offer their opinions about ‘Who’s Up’ and ‘Who’s Down’ in sports media this week.
Craig Carton’s future on WFAN afternoons is in question. And it will be Carton who decides if he stays or goes.
Carton started a new FS1 TV show in September and the cable network is looking to own his exclusive rights, according to sources.
This will leave the 54-year-old Carton with a decision between where seemingly his heart is – on radio with WFAN, the station that gave him a second chance after his imprisonment – or with a multi-million dollar TV offer he can’t refuse.
WFAN and FS1 declined comment. Carton did not return messages.
While one factor is FS1 believing Carton, without FAN, would rate better on TV, there is also the feasibility of Carton being able to do both shows.
Carton’s radio contract runs out later in the year, but FAN would want to start the fall book in September, knowing he is returning. If not, they would find a new partner to team with Evan Roberts.
Since moving into afternoons, he restored FAN to near the top of the overall afternoon ratings, while dominating rival ESPN New York’s “The Michael Kay Show.”
Kay, 62, recently strongly considered retiring from talk shows before signing a new multi-year, seven-figure per year contract.
Upon his release from prison in June, 2021, Carton would have been able to get a job, as he had an offer from a Philadelphia station. However, his return to FAN was paved by his good friend and one-time producer Chris Oliviero.
Oliviero returned to lead Audacy’s New York stations shortly before Carton was released from prison. At that point, it was clear that the plan was for Carton to take over the hallowed afternoon airwaves that “Mike & the Mad Dog” made into a very important part of New York sports.
Today, Oliviero is the president of Audacy New York, overseeing FAN, and hopes to retain Carton, but is said to understand that Carton may need to make the move for financial and family reasons. Carton may be able to work less and make more with FS1.
Carton is a radio guy at his core, but the wallets are bigger in TV; especially with Audacy, FAN’s parent company, struggling.
At one point, there was some discussion about Carton possibly doing a Fox Sports Radio simulcast in the mornings, but that is not on the table right now.
Fox Sports’ name is licensed to iHeart Radio and it is happy with its current national morning show featuring LaVar Arrington, Brady Quinn and Jonas Knox.
In FS1’s executive vice president Charlie Dixon, Carton also has someone who believes in him, despite the fact that the ratings have yet to show up on TV for the “The Carton Show.”
In March, it averaged 33,000 viewers per day, which, while not a great number, was its best month yet.
In fairness, 7 a.m. on FS1 is not an easy time slot, as the cable network doesn’t have the nightly national events that ESPN has, which boosts its morning programming.
“The Carton Show” features Carton standing, while ex-athletes, like Cody Decker and Greg Jennings, sit and react to Carton’s takes.
With the show airing from 7 a.m.-9:30 a.m., the idea is to reach an East Coast audience. (It begins at 4 a.m. in the west, after all.)
What really is untenable is Carton’s schedule because whatever you think of his style, it is undeniable that he is working hard.
He has said on-the-air, he leaves at around 2:30 in the morning to commute to the FS1 show in midtown and then it is off to FAN for his 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. He returns home around 8:30. It is a long day that repeats itself five days a week.
It can’t be done forever. Carton could try, but, more likely, he is going to need to make a decision.
The way baseball is played will be dramatically changed this year by the pitch clock, but it won’t be the only difference in how you see and hear the games.
The MLB sports media Hot Stove was burning this offseason, which means whom you see, what you hear and how you view games are going to be significantly different. Let’s go through the biggest MLB media storylines heading into 2023:
1. The Captain to Fox Sports
If you told Derek Jeter when he was a player that he’d one day be part of the media, he probably would have said, “Good one, buddy.” The 48-year-old has joined Fox Sports, however, and is expected to be on its big pregame shows for the London regular-season game in June, the All-Star Game and the postseason, including the World Series. He will be teammates again with Alex Rodriguez, who actually signed off on Jeter joining Fox Sports. Executives there, knowing the history between the two, wanted to make sure it was cool with Rodriguez, according to sources. It was. Now, he, Jeter and David Ortiz will be joking around with host Kevin Burkhardt.
2. YES’ old new look
YES abandoned ship on trying something different, giving up on Carlos Beltran and Cameron Maybin as game analysts after a one-year run.
Beltran was going to be demoted to the studio, but instead fled to work in the Mets’ front office. Maybin, while he wasn’t perfect, strangely wasn’t brought back. He’s doing games in Detroit after he and YES president of programming and production John Filippelli had a falling out, according to sources, and that was that.
Meanwhile, Paul O’Neill, after working from his basement last season due to his refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19, is expected back in the booth.
While whether he has been vaccinated or not is not known, O’Neill is expected to be standing next to Michael Kay in the booth for games. David Cone, John Flaherty and Jeff Nelson will also call games, with Bob Lorenz and Jack Curry manning the studio and some appearances from newcomer Todd Frazier. Filippelli has made a run at Jeter to be in the Yankees’ booth, but so far has been unsuccessful.
Ryan Ruocco will return on play-by-play when Kay is out, while Meredith Marakovits will be on sideline duty. Justin Shackill will pinch-hit on reporting and host duties.
3. YES going direct to consumer
Let’s be clear: If you have YES on cable or satellite and you figured out how to use Amazon Prime Video last season, nothing will change in that regard. As The Post previously reported, YES hoped to unveil its new direct-to-consumer option by Opening Day.
While they haven’t said yet if it will be ready by then, it is expected soon. That means if you don’t have cable, you will be able to watch the YES games. How much will it cost? That is not yet known. In Boston, the Red Sox network, NESN, charged $30 per month and included eight tickets to games at Fenway.
Meanwhile, Apple TV+ now will require a subscription to watch their Friday night games. The Yankees and Mets are slated to be on four times each.
4. Boone for Jomboy
For decades, the Yankees manager has had a paid radio appearance on WFAN or ESPN New York. In a sign of the changing media times, Aaron Boone will appear on the podcast from the fan-created Jomboy Media. Boone will do his 15-20 minutes via Zoom for the “Talkin’ Baseball” pod with Jimmy “Jomboy” O’Brien and Jake Storiale on Tuesdays.
5. Howie Rose has new partners
The sound of the Mets on WCBS radio will be dramatically different. The great Howie Rose returns on a 125-game schedule, while Wayne Randazzo is doing TV for the Angels.
Keith Raad, 29, will replace Randazzo as Rose’s main partner. Raad will be the lead play-by-player when Rose is off. Meanwhile, Pat McCarthy, 26, is the new pregame and postgame host and will call games with Raad when Rose, 68, is off.
6. Shack attack on Yankees radio
While John Sterling, who will turn 85 in July, will still call the bulk of the Yankees’ games, Shackil, 36, will be on play-by-play for around 30 contests. Shackil will put himself in position to potentially replace Sterling when Sterling retires in 2057, when he turns 119.
Shackil will handle the pregame and postgame shows, replacing Sweeny Murti, who moved on to a job with MLB.
Youngster in the booth Suzyn Waldman, 76, will return as the full-time radio analyst, a position she began in 2005.
7. Gary, Keith and Ron set record
Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling are entering their 18th season, making them the longest-running Mets TV team, surpassing Bob Murphy, Lindsey Nelson and Ralph Kiner, according to SNY. The trio didn’t need that accomplishment to be considered legendary.
Funny sidenote: Nearly two decades ago, when SNY was figuring out its crew, Cohen was SNY’s second choice after Dave O’Brien, while SNY basically passed on Darling, who had struggled during a previous stint in Washington. After David Cone turned down SNY, Darling got his shot. The rest is New York sportscasting history.
8. The pitch clock will impact the broadcasts
The 15-second pitch clock will impact how games are called. We asked Rose over text what he thought.
“I actually find myself relying to a certain extent on my hockey broadcasting skills,” Rose said. “It’s a somewhat different, more intense focus on multiple things simultaneously. It’s no longer enough to simply check the length of a baserunner’s lead, or the way the defense is shading a hitter.
“I now have to devise a system to track the number of picks or step-offs by the pitcher, a timeout by the hitter, whether that hitter is ‘alert’ when the clock reaches :08 or, of course, the time remaining on the pitch clock. I was caught [once during spring training] having forgotten the number of previous picks during a specific plate appearance, unsure if one had come during the previous or current one. It has also forced me to edit myself while telling a story, relating an anecdote or relaying a fact. Brevity has never been a strength of mine. (As proven by this response.)”
Alex Rodriguez and Michael Kay did not wish to name specific dream guests for their ESPN Kay-Rod broadcasts, so we are taking it upon ourselves to do so for them.
On a conference call to promote their alternative “Sunday Night Baseball” telecasts for the upcoming season, The Post asked Kay and Rodriguez about who they would most want to have on the show.
“I like mischief,” Kay said.
“So anybody that could rile up Alex would be a dream guest. People from his past, not to name names, but I thought it was great to have Derek Jeter last year, and there was a lot of anticipation for that.
“If we could get people from Alex’s past, maybe people that he dated, not naming names, I think that would be fun.”
Since they declined to name specifics, here are some guests who would achieve the goal of peak awkwardness.
Ben Affleck
Affleck is a die-hard Red Sox fan, and could be fun guest for the rivalry with the Yankees.
This also buries the lead, that he is married to Jennifer Lopez, A-Rod’s ex-fiancée, for the second time.
Because Jeter has already gone on the program, Affleck might be the next person out there who would make their spot appointment TV.
Madonna
Madonna falls into the the list of people who A-Rod has dated in the past — at least they were rumored to have in 2008.
She has a connection to baseball, having starred in “A League of Their Own” in 1992.
Bronson Arroyo
During the 2004 ALCS between the Yankees and Red Sox, A-Rod stirred up a big controversy when he swatted the ball out of Arroyo’s glove after hitting a slow roller down the first base line.
“I thought it was a little unprofessional,” Arroyo said at the time.
For his part, A-Rod explained what he should’ve done differently.
“I knew [Arroyo] was coming. I knew the line belongs to me. Maybe looking back, I should have tried to run him over,” Rodriguez said of the incident.
Dallas Braden
Braden is another former MLB pitcher who previously beefed with A-Rod.
In a 2010 game between the Yankees and A’s, A-Rod jogged over the mound to return to first base after a foul ball went out of play.
KayRod airs eight times throughout the 2023 MLB season, at 7 p.m. Eastern on ESPN2. The first edition comes on April 2 when the Phillies play at the Rangers.
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