Month: May 2023

Joe Gibbs Racing has gone back to the “old” style of pit stops in the last couple of months. Could that be what is causing the troubles for Denny Hamlin? He doesn’t think so.

Martin Truex Jr. captured the Cup Series race at Dover on the same weekend his brother, Ryan Truex, won the Xfinity Series race.

The Big 12 has been exploring playing football and men’s and women’s basketball games in Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico, with a preferred top 10 men’s hoops matchup between Kansas and Houston, multiple sources tell Sports Illustrated.

The conference has had tentative plans to hold regular-season league games south of the border for months, with first-year commissioner Brett Yormark even visiting Mexico City last week. He met with officials and toured potential sites, including at 22,300-seat Arena CDMX in Mexico City for basketball. Football games would be played in Monterrey at Estadio BBVA, a 53,000-seat venue nicknamed El Gigante de Acero. The Houston Chronicle first reported the news of potential games in Mexico.

The league expects to begin holding basketball games in Mexico during the 2024–25 season and football in fall of ’25, a source told SI. In a more long-term plan, the conference is also looking to add baseball and soccer games in Mexico.

Yormark, 56, was hired last summer from an entertainment agency to run the Big 12 and has been aggressive in his first few months on the job. He struck a new TV deal with ESPN and Fox in the fall, racing in front of the Pac-12 to secure a contract that, despite losing Texas and Oklahoma, increased in value. He was also instrumental in negotiations that resulted in a $100 million combined exit fee for Texas and Oklahoma to leave a year early for the SEC. 

Yormark is currently pursuing expansion, having identified a number of potential programs, many of whom currently reside in the Pac-12. Those discussions are ongoing as the Pac-12 seeks its own new television contract.

The foray into Mexico has been a topic discussed among Big 12 administrators since the fall. Yormark planned to continue discussions Tuesday, as the league’s administrative meetings are scheduled to be held here over the next two to three days.

Fans were treated to a peek inside the Dallas Cowboys’ NFL Draft war room as the clock ticked ahead of the team’s first-round selection.

Atlanta Braves’ Ronald Acuña Jr. was hit with a high fastball on the first at-bat of their game against the New York Mets. Acuña exited the field with an injury.

Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe are rolling with the Lakers over the defending-champion Warriors. Find out why.

Colin Cowherd explains why he thinks Stephen Curry has now surpassed Magic Johnson as the greatest point guard ever.

ESPN has apologized for using old B-roll of the Twin Towers during an NBA playoff game Sunday.

It’s common practice for networks to use stock footage of major cities as establishing shots during sporting events. But during the ESPN on ABC broadcast of Game 1 of the Knicks‘ Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Heat, the network used a clip that included the World Trade Center. 

“We mistakenly used an old stock image and we apologize,” senior director of communications Ben Cafardo told Awful Announcing.

With New York leading Miami 55–50 at the break, the network went to commercial after promoting Game 7 between the Warriors and Kings. As it did so, it showed footage of the Statue of Liberty and the Twin Towers in the background.

Pay attention at the end. How old is this footage ABC is using?! Wtf is goin on here?! pic.twitter.com/254YhBzE1R

— Khaled Abdallah (@khaled74) April 30, 2023