Adam Schefter gets crushed on Twitter after promoting Papa John’s
1. With the NFL preseason coming to an end this past weekend, Monday marked a reset of the football calendar.
Major cuts are coming, rosters will be set and the next game we’ll see will be the regular-season opener between the Bills and Rams on Sept. 8.
So how did the NFL’s top information man get this day started at around 8:30 am ET?
By promoting a company that sells a vile concoction that they call pizza, but isn’t really pizza.
The best part about this is Schefter acted like he was unveiling something that the masses would drool over. The reality is, the NFL insider opened the box to reveal something totally unappetizing.
People were relentless.
Let me give you the best tweet first:
In addition to pointing out that the “pizza” looked disgusting, many also pointed out that by putting the pie in the shape of a football, you’re getting conned into paying more for less food. Others called out the questionable judgment that led Schefter to do this ad. He really felt the wrath of the Twitterverse on this one. Here’s a sampling of some of the best jokes:
2. If you missed it over the weekend, Tom Brady gave us one of the all-time great sports quotes while explaining his absence from training camp.
3. Great stuff by ESPN and Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright during Sunday Night Baseball. The veteran pitcher was miked up, and he shared insight about having to warm up and take the mound after a rain delay.
4. Olden Polynice, who played in the NBA from 1988 to 2004, went on a podcast recently and repeated a fake story from Ballsack Sports about Kevin Durant. Durant, who doesn’t seem to miss a thing on the internet, made sure to set Polynice straight.
5. We had a new entry over the weekend on the lengthy list of weird baseball injuries.
6. This week’s SI Media Podcast features two interviews.
First up is WWE universal champion Roman Reigns. Reigns opens up about Vince McMahon’s controversial retirement from the company, what McMahon’s departure means for him personally, his new part-time schedule and a possible WrestleMania match against The Rock. Reigns also explains the differences between getting a pop from a promo and a move, discusses the challenges of fatherhood and shares his reaction to seeing his “Acknowledge Me” boxer briefs, sold on WWE.com, for the first time.
Following Reigns, Andy Staples, who covers college football for The Athletics, joins the podcast to talk about the Big Ten’s recent media deals with CBS and NBC, what it means for college football viewers and how it impacts the SEC. Staples also talks about whether USC and UCLA have impact across the country, the future of the Pac-12 Network, Urban Meyer’s return to Fox’s pregame show, the Netflix Manti Te’o documentary and more.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: I watched two episodes of Vice’s excellent Dark Side of Comedy series over the weekend. One episode was about Chris Farley; the other was about Andrew “Dice” Clay. This clip was shown during the Clay episode and instantly became an “I wish Twitter were around for this” moment for me. The way the anchor tries to shift to Art Carney was hilarious.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.