Brady vs. Romo Showdown, Ian Eagle’s Career Moves & More Hot Takes!

Welcome back to another installment of Traina Thoughts. Once more, I reached out for your queries, and you all delivered impressively. Your submissions ranged from the usual sports media inquiries to some truly quirky ones.

The variety certainly spices things up, so let’s dive in. Here we go.

Tony Romo has indeed been impressive this season. He’s scaled back a bit and is not overtaking Jim Nantz’s commentary as he did before, like with the Hail Mary in Washington a couple of weeks ago. I’ve often believed that the criticism of Romo stemmed more from social media reactions than actual dislike for him. Anyone watching his games this year would see he’s at the top of his game in analyzing plays.

With Ian Eagle reportedly in discussions to join Amazon for its NBA broadcasts, he would be a perfect choice to step in for Thursday Night Football when Al Michaels hangs up his microphone. Whether CBS would allow Eagle to juggle Amazon with his NFL duties remains to be seen, but he certainly deserves the spotlight.

I concur with both Bill Simmons and Cousin Sal that Brady is receiving poor guidance on his broadcasting approach, is being overcoached, and is overloaded with advice from too many sources.

While Brady has improved over the course of the season, he still seems to be not fully comfortable, likely due to broadcasting in a manner someone else has prescribed rather than being himself.

I wouldn’t overanalyze the initial dip in NBA ratings since the league was competing with an exceptionally engaging MLB postseason. Fox, TBS, and ESPN all saw increases due to the participation of major markets and notable stars.

This season lacks the same excitement with fewer star players lighting up the scoreboard. Last season, Victor Wembanyama’s debut was a highlight. The Warriors are not performing as expected, and Joel Embiid is missing many games in Philly.

A potential fix for the NBA’s regular-season slump would be to reduce the number of teams that qualify for the playoffs. Currently, over half the league enters the postseason, diminishing the importance of regular-season games. This has led teams to prioritize player rest over competing, which in turn impacts fan engagement negatively.

I discussed this recently with Joe Buck on the SI Media Podcast.

The trend of the Cowboys getting prime TV spots and top announcers isn’t changing in the near future.

Nantz and Romo will call the Cowboys’ game against the Eagles this Sunday at 4:25 p.m. on CBS. Dallas is scheduled for Monday Night Football the following week. In Week 12, the Cowboys visit the Commanders at 1 p.m. I’d expect Fox’s No. 2 crew of Joe Davis and Greg Olsen to call that one with Kevin Burkhardt and Brady calling Niners-Packers at 4:25 p.m. In Week 13, the Cowboys will have Burkhardt and Brady calling their game because that is Thanksgiving. Dallas is back on Monday Night Football in Week 14.

However, you might finally get a Chris Myers or a Kevin Kugler calling the Cowboys game on Fox in Week 15 when they visit the Panthers.

This is strictly a cheap move by Fox to finagle the ratings for its pregame show since College GameDay is still the dominant college football pregame offering. By running Big Noon Kickoff past noon and getting the audience that’s tuning in at noon for the football game, Fox can claim those viewers for its pregame show rating.

I would be surprised if Fox, MLB Network and ESPN don’t pursue Joey Votto. The question is, what does Votto want to do? MLB Network can offer him studio work and games. I don’t think Fox would bump John Smoltz from its No. 1 booth for Votto at this time. So my guess is that he lands at MLB Network.