Just when you thought Mexico’s soccer team couldn’t sink any lower, El Tri takes out a shovel and tunnels a little deeper.

The latest excavation project took place Wednesday when Mexico dug itself a hole it may not be able to climb out of in an embarrassing 1-0 Copa América loss to Venezuela before a disappointed pro-Mexican crowd of 72,773 at SoFi Stadium. Drawn into a group with Jamaica, Ecuador and Venezuela, none of which are ranked inside the top 30 in the world, the bare minimum — the minimum — Mexico had to achieve in the tournament was to finish in the top two and advance to the knockout stages.

With Wednesday’s loss, Mexico may not be able to clear even that low bar. If it doesn’t win Sunday’s group-play final against Ecuador, El Tri’s Copa América is over. Venezuela, meanwhile, is on to the next round.

“The situation is clear. We need to win the next game,” midfielder Luis Romo said. “It’s a knockout match.”

With the World Cup returning to Mexico in less than two years, the national team program is in tatters and the panic in the country’s soccer federation is real. It took years of neglect and mismanagement at all levels of Mexican soccer for the national team to fall to this level, so it’s unrealistic to think things can be fixed in 23 months.

But that’s all Mexico has before the World Cup kicks off in Mexico City.

The decline began six years ago in Russia, where the average age of Mexico’s team was just a few months under 30, making it the second-oldest roster in the World Cup. Mexico beat defending champion Germany in its opener, then limped into the round of 16 where it lost to Brazil. But the promised post-tournament rejuvenation of the team never happened, so when Mexico went to Qatar four years later, it once again had the second-oldest team in the World Cup.

And this time it got blitzed, beating only Saudi Arabia en route to its earliest World Cup exit in 44 years. Two years later, it still hasn’t recovered and Mexico’s long-awaited youth movement is nowhere to be found.

If anything, it’s retreated.

Mexico’s U-23 team, which won a bronze medal in the last Olympics, didn’t even qualify for this summer’s Games in Paris. Mexico didn’t qualify for last year’s U-20 World Cup either and won just once in four games in the U-17 tournament. (The women’s team, meanwhile, hasn’t played in a World Cup since 2015 or in an Olympic tournament since 2004. The collapse has been astonishingly complete.)

The talent pool that once fed Mexico’s national team has gone dry. So when 38-year-old goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa and backup keeper Luis Malagón were ruled out of the Copa América with injuries, coach Jaime Lozano — more about him in a minute — did not have a goalie with more than six games of international experience to call up.

When forwards Hirving Lozano and the oft-injured Raúl Jiménez were ruled out of Copa, Mexico started Colombian-born Julián Quiñones, who made his first appearance for Mexico last fall, a month after becoming a Mexican citizen. On Wednesday, the high-strung Quiñones committed the foul that set up Salomón Rondón’s game-winning penalty kick.

Not only is the cavalry not coming, it doesn’t even exist. The depth that once made Mexico’s national team one of the strongest in the Americas has vanished and now El Tri is losing to Venezuela, the only South American country never to play in a World Cup.

And it’s not just losing to Venezuela, In fact, Mexico has lost four of its last six games, failing to score in three of those four losses. And it has won just half its 20 games under Lozano.

If Mexico doesn’t beat Ecuador and bows out of the Copa América after three games, it’s likely the federation will use the coach — the third in 18 months — as a scapegoat. But it’s hard to see how this is Lozano’s fault. He can only play the players the federation gives him — and at the moment those players aren’t very good.

Maybe you can blame it instead on the Curse of Chicharito. Tata Martino banished Javier Hernández, Mexico’s all-time leading scorer, from the national team 14 months after the 2018 World Cup — and a few hours after he scoring the first goal in a 3-0 win over the U.S.

Since then, Mexico has won just one trophy, hasn’t beaten the U.S. in seven tries, made its earliest World Cup exit in more than four decades, failed to qualify for the Olympic Games for the first time in 16 years and is on its way out of the Copa América after just two games.

OK, so maybe that’s not an air-tight theory. But as explanations go, the Curse of Chicharito is probably as good as any other.

What is clear, however, is that Mexico has fallen and it can’t get up. The national program is in the worst shape it’s been in decades and the federation has no road map for getting it back on track.

A win Sunday could save both Mexico’s Copa América and Lozano’s job — for the time being, at least. But it’s unlikely to solve the deeper problems, and with the World Cup fast approaching, there appears to be precious little time for the federation to complete the massive overhaul El Tri needs.

Maybe they should just bring back Chicharito. It couldn’t hurt.

As has been written before in this space, if there was a ranking of people who shape sports consumption in the United States, Burke Magnus would be very high on the list. His title is president of ESPN’s content, and he has oversight of ESPN’s most significant properties, with thousands of talented people working under him.

This week, he returned to my Sports Media Podcast for an hour-plus to discuss a variety of sports media storylines including media rights deals and on-air talent at his place. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. You can listen to the full interview here.

JJ Redick recently left ESPN to coach the Los Angeles Lakers. This is the second NBA analyst on your top team who’s left for an NBA job this year. Do you have a plan right now heading forward as to who will be the top NBA team next year?

Not specifically, and that’s probably no surprise as it was only a couple of weeks ago where the world thought it was going to be Danny Hurley (coaching the Lakers) and JJ would in fact still be with us.

As difficult as the decision was (to part ways) with Jeff (Van Gundy) and Mark (Jackson), we felt like we were very, very solid going into the season in both the game team and the studio. We had it solved in a really interesting and innovative way that we thought was going to last for several years with Doris Burke making history, stepping up to the “A” team, a proven, high-caliber broadcaster and Doc (Rivers). We even had our succession plan worked out with the “B” team, with Ryan Ruocco, JJ, and Richard Jefferson. … Obviously, we got the curveball of all curveballs with Doc’s departure. But I thought JJ stepped right in and helped us continue to perform at a high level. He had indicated interest in coaching, so that was not a surprise.

We have some work to do in advance of next season. The one thing I will say about Doc, because there was some reporting out there down the angle of, “How could they not see this coming; how could they not be prepared for this kind of thing?” In fact, we were. We took Doc at his word that he was done coaching. He gave us a three-year commitment. It was written into the contract specifically that he was not going to go back to coaching. That’s not what happened. Unfortunately, it left us in the lurch in the middle of the season, which was extremely uncomfortable.

But I thought JJ really stepped up and filled in at a very high level. By the way, if he ever wants to come back and be a broadcaster after coaching, I think the world knows now that he’s a great basketball mind, and he has a bright future in our world if he ever finds himself in it again.

What can you say publicly about where ESPN/Disney is right now regarding a future media rights agreement with the NBA?

Obviously, I can’t confirm anything. … But I can say that our team has been working really diligently over a long period of time. Based on the existing relationship that we have with the NBA over many years and also the current state of it, which is strong, positive, productive, a great two-way street and great collaboration with Adam (Silver) and his team, we feel relatively confident about our future with the league as they work to finalize everything with all of their partners. We feel good about where we stand at the moment.

Let’s move to college football. What’s the ESPN reasoning for licensing those early College Football Playoff games to TNT?

(Warner Bros. Discovery) reached out to us. They made a really compelling case to get involved. The arrangement has several facets that we felt were kind of table stakes for us, which in my world is that we are going to produce the games and it’s going to be our talent on the games. As we sit here today, (WBD doesn’t) televise regular-season college football, so they don’t have an infrastructure that’s built around the sport. They looked immediately to us and our expertise in terms of how they get produced and presented. Branding can be figured out easily. So we thought this is an opportunity to get somebody else involved who’s got a big platform that has reach, that has a different audience composition than we do.

Is it two games per year for the sublicense?

It’s that for the first two years, which are technically the last two years of the original deal and then it expands beyond that to two more in the quarterfinal rounds. So it could be four. There is also at our option the ability to (sublicense) a semifinal game potentially over the six years of the new term. So two becomes four, and then there’s sort of this option on a semifinal game, which we’ll evaluate when we get deeper into the relationship.

An option for them to sublicense a CFP semifinal game?

Our option. If they’re interested in it, we can decide whether or not we want to do that.

Stephen A. Smith’s contract is up in 2025. Puck recently reported extensively on that salary negotiation. From an executive point of view, give me a sense of how you see Smith in the larger ESPN ecosystem.

The guy’s a bona fide superstar, right? In today’s media environment, he just is, because everything he does, people have a high interest in. Nobody works harder than him. He is everywhere all the time, and everything we ask him to do from a different show or a particular appearance or even internal ESPN things such as, “Can you join this meeting with sales because it’s an important client meeting and they’d really love to have you stop by and meet the client?” — he’ll do that. He never says no. He is great in that regard.

“First Take,” which is his primary assignment, is a juggernaut. I think we’re going to get 24 straight months of month-over-month, year-over-year audience growth. That just doesn’t happen in today’s world. It happens because he’s built this show … We’re in the 24/7, 365-day sports business. … I feel as good about our 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. lineup as I’ve ever felt, and I think the results bear that out. He’s a key component to that. But the games are still the games, and that’s why you have to sort of calibrate accordingly in terms of how you invest in non-game programming.

“I feel as good about our 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. lineup as I’ve ever felt,” ESPN’s Burke Magnus says. “(Stephen A. Smith is) a key component to that.” (Tim Heitman / Getty Images)

I realize you are not going to negotiate publicly here. But there is an existing salary structure when it comes to game talent such as (CBS’) Tony Romo and (ESPN’s) Troy Aikman. (Fox’s) Tom Brady is obviously in a different stratosphere. How do you judge someone like Smith who does not do live sports but, as you said, is a very important part of your studio programming?

The people you mentioned have one thing in common on the game side: They’re NFL analysts. They broke the mold. Tony Romo’s deal broke the mold. In my opinion, the money that we are paying (“Monday Night Football” broadcasters) Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, they’re worth every cent of that. I mean it sincerely. … When Damar Hamlin happened, to have Joe Buck and Troy Aikman and Lisa Salters and the team around we had is hard to put a value on that given the investment that we have in the NFL overall. Relative to what networks pay for NFL game content, that’s what drove the high end of the analyst and play-by-play market to where it is today. I think that makes sense. … Studio (shows) Monday through Friday, daytime studio, it’s different. There’s a different calculus there, for sure. But again … (Smith is) the best there is right now.

How would you analyze your confidence level in terms of Smith returning to ESPN?

I tend to be an optimistic person by nature. I know he’s great for us. I know we’re great for him. From a relevance, reach and Q score if you will, there is a rocket fuel that ESPN naturally kind of provides to big personalities by being on our platform. There’s a value to that for people. I’m optimistic because I think it’s a mutually beneficial situation, and I think both sides realize that, and this is just the dance we have to dance.

If Smith does not return to ESPN, do you have a replacement plan for the shows he’s on?

Not specifically, but “First Take” would continue, obviously. We’d figure that out. The great part about the environment that we live in … there is a wealth of talented people out there who, if given the chance, I think could also become superstars very easily on our platform. The format of “First Take” I think lends to that. It’s already an ensemble situation in many ways. So, I don’t worry about that at all.

Will Pat McAfee be on “College GameDay” this season?

Yeah, I presume he will. What Andrew (Marchand) reported is technically true relative to ink on a piece of paper. But as you know in our world, it’s a fairly common situation to have reached an agreement without an executed contract or piece of paper. …

I think from time to time Pat likes to just muse on what he may or may not want to do. … We’re not in the business of handcuffing anybody to a table. This is not unique to Pat. If somebody comes to us and says, “Hey, I’d rather do this or that instead of that,” we’ll listen and have those conversations. But Pat I expect to be there on “College GameDay.”

McAfee books his guests and has creative control of his show. ESPN licenses the show. Has Pat crossed any lines for you, and perhaps more importantly, is there a line for ESPN when it comes to that show?

Yeah, I don’t love the conversation around a line because a line by definition is sort of clear and definable. Let me start with this. I often read or hear things on podcasts where the sentiment is, “(Is) ESPN committed to Pat McAfee?” We absolutely are. This guy is so talented. Everything he’s created, he created on his own with his team.

I can say this with great authority, having kids that are 25 and 22 and are enormous sports fans. He is the voice of the younger generation from a sports fan perspective. He books guests like nobody else in the business right now. … So there’s a validation in today’s world for being a guest on his show, and that’s because he sets the conversation in many ways and particularly for younger audiences. …

He talks for three hours, five days a week, right? What makes him great is that he goes right up there. Then occasionally he has said some things or done some things that either he would have wanted to take back or rubbed some folks the wrong way. Believe me, he does not have a free pass for all of eternity. We have a standing conversation with him. (ESPN chairman) Jimmy (Pitaro) and I talk to him pretty much on a weekly basis whether we have something to talk about or not. He’s extremely receptive to feedback and wants to know how he can continue to be better. …

There’s no truth to the notion that we’re not committed to him long-term. We’re not even a year into this relationship. Between his show and his work on “College GameDay” and other things he’s done for us on the business and sales side, it’s been a great experience for us, notwithstanding the fact that of course we’ve had to manage some of the situations that you mentioned, which were either uncomfortable or difficult for us.

“There’s no truth to the notion that we’re not committed to him long-term,” Magnus says of Pat McAfee. “It’s been a great experience for us.” (Ron Hoskins / NBAE via Getty Images)

Is ESPN responsible for when someone on his show, not him, says something on his airwaves? Say if Aaron Rodgers goes down a road that’s either political or some might say conspiratorial or something else, what is ESPN’s responsibility here understanding that you license this show?

He’s technically not an ESPN employee, which limits sort of the conventional paths we have in circumstances like that. We do license his show, which he fully produces and controls entirely. But … it is our platform at the end of the day. That’s the delicate balance when in circumstances like you mentioned.

So, yes, I do think we play a role and bear some responsibility. I would be a lot more concerned about circumstances like that going forward if we didn’t have the kind of dialog and open channels we have with Pat. I want to make it clear: He is not saying, “Hey, don’t talk to me, it’s my show.” It’s quite the opposite. … It is set up for us to be able to deal with those situations as they come.

Netflix getting NFL games (on Christmas) feels very significant. From your perspective, someone who might have to compete with them on sports rights, how did you view that?

I think it was a circumstance that was … right up their alley. I don’t know what their strategy is … but it seems to me what they’re doing is trying to find one big or interesting event. … They are full-time in the direct-to-consumer business, so that dynamic is the same for all of us, which is you have to acquire subscribers and then you have to retain subscribers.

To the NFL’s credit, here’s two games on a holiday that become available in isolation and separate from any kind of bigger package that they would have to bite off. The NFL gets yet another partner into the mix. I wasn’t surprised at all. I don’t know that it bodes any further “what’s next” speculation for Netflix in the NFL because I think that’s all that exists right now, some individual opportunities. We’re perfectly happy with our NFL package, we’re looking forward to another season of “Monday Night Football,” and we got a Super Bowl coming in a couple of years.

Netflix is going to need someone to produce these games. Would ESPN be interested in doing that?

As you probably know, that’s probably the busiest … two weeks of our entire year. We have five NBA games to produce that day. We have 40 bowl games over the two weeks. We’ve got the CFP right around the corner. We’re good. We can’t take on anybody else’s stuff.

How aggressive will ESPN be when it comes to the WNBA heading forward?

We’re extremely bullish on it. We’ve been there since Day 1 of the WNBA, and we’re really proud of that. We feel similarly about the women’s NCAA basketball tournament and the hard work that’s been done over decades with that property in order to grow the game. Caitlin Clark is a phenomenon, and of course, it’s brought sort of meteoric levels really quickly, which is a little bit of an issue they’ve been dealing with relative to the coverage and the scrutiny around the game. When that sort of normalizes and finds its level, the audiences and the interest in the WNBA is going to be significantly higher than it has been historically.

Where would you characterize ESPN having the WNBA Finals in any long-term deal?

Really important. The answer I gave you when you asked me this last year for the NBA Finals was “must-have,” and here I think a little bit differently. Maybe somewhat unselfishly, we look at the growth of the WNBA on the number of various entities involved in it. We see an upside in other broadcasters also being involved. Of course we want the WNBA Finals. I’m sure that at some level that’s going to be a component of the deal. But if we don’t have them every single year because it means it is on other networks in a similar fashion, I think that’s actually a good thing for the ultimate continued growth and development and interest in the league.

GO DEEPER

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(Top photo of Burke Magnus in 2022: Gongora / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The back-to-back reigning college basketball player of the year has a home in the NBA.

Zach Edey was selected with the ninth overall pick in the NBA Draft on Wednesday night by the Memphis Grizzlies.

In those two seasons with the Boilermakers (73 games), Edey averaged 23.8 points and 12.5 rebounds.

His Boilermakers were upset by No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson in last year’s March Madness, but this year, they made it all the way to the final before losing to now back-to-back champion UConn.

Everyone knew Edey was a standout, but it was this past tournament where he cemented his legacy in the college rankings.

In his six games in March Madness, he averaged 29.5 points and 14.5 rebounds, including a 40-16 line in the Elite 8, and a 37-point effort in the championship. Edey wound up scoring almost two-thirds of the Boilermakers’ points against UConn.

Zach Edey #15 of the Purdue Boilermakers walks across the court in the second half against the Connecticut Huskies during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament National Championship game at State Farm Stadium on April 08, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

KENNY SMITH SAYS CHARLES BARKLEY ‘NEVER’ TOLD HIM HE WAS RETIRING, QUESTIONS WHY HE DIDN’T THANK COHOSTS

Many thought Edey would fall out of the lottery, but they could use a big man down low to pair with Jared Jackson Jr., who averaged 22.5 points per game.

It was a tough season for Memphis. Ja Morant served a 25-game suspension due to off-the-court issues, and when he returned, he dominated and had a buzzer-beater in his first game back.

However, after just a handful of games, he suffered a season-ending injury, thus all but ending the Grizzlies season in the process. Memphies went 27-55 just a year after making the playoffs as a No. 2 seed.

Purdue center Zach Edey holds an NCAA Regional Championship trophy after an Elite Eight college basketball game against Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament, Sunday, March 31, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

But, with a healthy Morant, an improved Desmond Bane, another season from Jackson, and now Edey in the flesh, it shouldn’t surprise anyone if this team makes another playoff run.

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