Sports

Traina Thoughts Mailbag: Russell Wilson vs. Mike Tomlin, NBA Finals Schedule, More

By Jimmy Traina Sports Illustrated

Welcome to another edition of an all-Traina Thoughts mailbag. Let's get to the questions.

While the prospect of NFL fans missing the first Monday night game of the season and college fans missing an entire Saturday of football are the most important aspects of this dispute for our purposes, what DirecTV is trying to accomplish with the concept of bundles is significant.

Those of us who still have cable and satellite pay a ton of money every month for a slew of channels we never watch. But that's what the bundle does. It forces customers to pay an exorbitant amount for a few hundred channels when most people watch, at most, a quarter of those channels.

In this day and age of streaming and cord-cutting, DirecTV wants to change the model.

Look at those quotes. No matter how you feel about DirecTV, cable, streaming, whatever, it's hard to argue with anything that Carpenter said there. Cable and satellite customers have been saying for a few years now that it makes no sense to pay those companies for bundles while still having to pay for Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and on and on and on.

But executives for those companies have rarely come out and publicly sided with consumers on this the way Carpenter did on Tuesday. Maybe he's bluffing. Maybe DirecTV will cave at about 8 p.m. ET on Monday when Jets-Niners kicks off.

But I don't think so now. This carriage dispute feels different. And it will have a huge impact on sports fans.

If you aren't a DirecTV subscriber and think this won't affect you, just remember one thing: When it comes to restaurants and bars, they all rely on DirecTV.

2. With the Ravens-Chiefs just two days away, I want to provide you with some recent episodes of SI Media With Jimmy Traina that would make for good listening to get you ready for the NFL season.

All episodes of SI Media With Jimmy Traina are available on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.

TOM BRADY:

GREG OLSEN:

KIRK HERBSTREIT:

JASON McCOURTY:

A new episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina will drop early Thursday morning with the host of ESPN's Monday Night Countdown, Scott Van Pelt.

3. Let me be very clear about something: NFL refs are incompetent. MLB umps are completely and totally unlikeable.

Look at this pathetic performance from home plate umpire Doug Eddings, who got all bent out of shape because Pirates rookie pitcher Paul Skenes had the nerve to walk off the mound after he thought he struck a batter out.

This reaction by Eddings is abnormal and insane.

4. The first episode of ESPN's revamped TheSports Reporters, which is now a YouTube show, has dropped.

The good: It features Al Michaels, Joe Buck, Mike Tirico and Kevin Harlan and listening to the four of them is highly enjoyable.

The bad: This doesn't seem anything like the classic Sports Reporters show that we remember. This just seems like an interview show and the company decided to call it The Sports Reporters for some cache.

5. CBS has done a nice job with these videos the past couple of weeks. We saw Kevin Harlan try to identify some of his memorable calls. We saw Ian Eagle reveal his pen addiction. And here's Jim Nantz with Tony Romo trying to identify some of his memorable calls.

For the record, THIS will always be Nantz's most memorable call.

 

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I think you will see this one day, but who knows when. Lead play-by-play jobs are very few and far between across all sports. And there isn't a lot of turnover in those spots. When someone gets a lead gig, they usually have it for a long time. Jim Nantz, Al Michaels, Joe Buck and Mike Breen, to name a few, have been around forever.

The amount of complaints I get about the Gotham Sports app, which features the YES Network and MSG, is truly amazing. I've had issues with it myself and have basically stopped using it. It was particularly annoying that every time I tried to watch a Yankees game on Gotham, I had to re-log in, re-authenticate, check my email, get a code, log in with my provider, etc. It never seemed to remember my info. If I want to watch Yankees game on my iPad, I just my Verizon Fios TV app. This is not an option, though, for people who have cut the cord and rely on the Gotham app to watch sports.

The complaints from users have been going on since the app launched. My guess is that if the people in charge of it haven't fixed the issues by now, they don't care to do so. They know they have fans by the you-know-whats and are going to get their money regardless of how well the app works. To have the picture regularly freeze or glitch out is inexcusable, but I just don't think anyone associated with the app cares because there have been problems since Day 1.

Steinbrenner would've used social media to attack his own players and it would've been unbelievable content. As old-school Mike and the Mad Dog listeners remember, George used to do this back in the day by faxing over, as Mike Francesa called them, "missives" to WFAN.

Steinbrenner would've had a field day tweeting about Giancarlo Stanton making $325 and never playing because he's always hurt.

This is perfect summation of social media in 2026. One guy wants me to bash the World Cup. The other guy doesn't want to hear anything negative about the World Cup. We are a divided country in so many ways.

Yes, the Howard Stern Show was discussed on this week's SI Media With Jimmy Traina thanks to Robin Quivers announcing on Monday that she was cancer free and Sal Licata getting a message from a Wack Packer.

To answer this question, I once interviewed Gary Dell'Abate on my old Hot Clicks Podcast way back when, so I would say Fred Norris, who does not get enough credit for being an absolute genius with the drops.

What an unbelievably difficult question to answer. The closing scene in the restaurant season was an all-timer with everyone unloading curse word after curse word.

But the season with Larry performing in The Producers was probably stronger on a start-to-finish basis. Not only did you have the David Schwimmer guest role, as you mentioned, but the season also featured Ben Stiller. These two scenes alone made that season an A+ for me.



This article was originally published on www.si.com as Traina Thoughts Mailbag: Russell Wilson vs. Mike Tomlin, NBA Finals Schedule, More.

Copyright ABG-SI LLC. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 10:27 AM.

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