1. New York Post sports media columnist Andrew Marchand made the news Wednesday night that veteran ESPN narrator Tom Rinaldi left the network to join Fox Sports.
Fox confirmed the news Thursday morning with a press release saying that Rinaldi will start working on all of its sporting events from 2021.
Reporter James Andrew Miller shared some insight into the Rinaldi showboat, and none of it sounded good to ESPN.
Based on Miller’s information here, it sounds like Rinaldi wanted to leave ESPN no matter what. Now we have to find out why. Was it just a “needs a new challenge” situation? (Rinaldi worked at ESPN for 18 years.) Or was Rinaldi unhappy with ESPN, which just got massive layoffs across the company?
ESPN’s statement about Rinaldi’s loss was odd to say the least.
“More disciplined approach to our business?” What does that have to do with Rinaldi wanting to leave and ESPN telling him not to match Fox’s offer, as reported by Miller?
The downside to this is that Rinaldi seems like an odd fit at Fox, who likes to keep it light and frivolous. Rinaldi likes to make people cry.
Regardless of the reason, this one hurts ESPN. Rinaldi was one of the faces of the company and an important part of the very popular College GameDay.
Based on several tweets released by ESPN employees since the news broke, it’s also clear that Rinaldi was one of the most loved people on the World Wide Leader.
This is how Rinaldi’s colleagues responded to the news of his departure.
2. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. currently plays in the Dominican Winter League, and thanks to the video below, let us know that their celebrations – complete with Undertaker themed music – are WAY better than Major League Baseball’s celebrations. We need more of this in MLB.
3. Kawhi Leonard appeared Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday night and made for a great guest thanks to his unique personality, which Kimmel teased him with. A highlight of the interview was when Kimmel asked Leonard if Billy Crystal was a Clippers superfan.
Kimmel wanted to know if Leonard was a fan of Crystal. This was Kawhi’s exact answer: “You know, some of his movies were before my time. The one with Mary or the lady, which um, you know, they had a conversation, men and women can be friends.”
Obviously, the movie Leonard was referring to was When Harry met Sally and the actress from the movie is Meg Ryan, who played Sally.
I’m not sure Leonard confused this There’s something about Marybut I really hope that’s what happened.
Kimmel later asked Leonard if he knew the famous line came from the fake orgasm deli scene in When Harry met Sally (“I’ll have what she has.”)
Kawhi’s answer: “Why would you do that?”
4. This is a great idea from the Cavaliers’ Larry Nance Jr.
5. Legendary sports talk radio host Chris “Mad Dog” Russo joined in this week SI Media Podcast for a conversation.
You can listen to or download the podcast below on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play
You can also watch the podcast on YouTube.
6. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 74th birthday to the great Eugene Levy. If you haven’t looked Schitt’s Creek still you have to change that because watching Levy as Johnny Rose is a very pleasant experience.
7. SPORTS VIDEO OF THE DAY: Playing with the chargers Thursday night football tonight I wanted to take this opportunity to shout out Natrone Means, one of the best running backs of the 90s, a man Chris Berman used to pick up during NFL Primetime as “Natrone Means Business” and one of the best Tecmo bowl players.
Make sure you Catch up on previous editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy Twitter and Instagram