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Greg Olsen isn’t calling Super Bowl for Fox. Tom Brady is — and Olsen says ‘it sucks’

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Greg Olsen isn’t calling Super Bowl for Fox. Tom Brady is — and Olsen says ‘it sucks’

Greg Olsen was a key part of the second-most watched TV broadcast of all time.

On Feb. 12, 2023, more than 115 million people tuned in to Super Bowl LVII to see the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35. The game was broadcast on Fox, with Kevin Burkhardt handling the play-by-play duties and Olsen providing color commentary.

Next month could provide an encore of sorts. Super Bowl LIX is back on Fox. The Eagles and Chiefs are back as the competitors. Burkhardt will be back in the broadcast booth, and Olsen … well, he won’t be back.

Olsen was replaced as Burkhardt’s partner on Fox’s No. 1 broadcast team this year by NFL legend Tom Brady, who will wrap up his rookie season as a commentator at the biggest game of the year. In a series of interviews this week to promote an event for his “The Heartest Yard” foundation, Olsen made clear how he feels about being demoted and left out of the network’s postseason plans this year.

“It sucks,” Olsen told the Charlotte Observer.

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He told the Athletic that while “resentment” probably isn’t the most accurate word to describe his feelings on the situation, “I also think it’s not too far off, if I’m being honest.”

“I don’t have any ill will — there’s no personal resentment towards Tom, or obviously K.B. and Erin [Andrews],” Olsen said. “I still talk to all of them fairly regularly. … But yeah, it’s hard to sit there and watch games that over the last couple of years you were preparing for and you were calling.”

A three-time Pro Bowl selection at tight end, Olsen ended his 14-year NFL career following the 2020 season. He joined Fox in 2021 and was paired with Burkhardt in the broadcast booth.

When Joe Buck and Troy Aikman left Fox for ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” Burkhardt and Olsen became Fox’s No. 1 announcing team. As such, they got to call the network’s biggest games each week and throughout the postseason. In the 2022 season, that included the Super Bowl.

The duo proved to be popular with fans, with an AwfulAnnouncing.com reader survey ranking Burkhardt and Olsen as TV’s fourth-best NFL broadcast team in 2023. For that same year, Olsen won the Sports Emmy for best event analyst.

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But Olsen’s days as part of that team were numbered from the beginning.

In May 2022, Fox and Brady agreed to a 10-year, $375-million deal that would make the seven-time Super Bowl champion the network’s lead football analyst once his playing days were over. Brady retired after the 2022 season, then took the 2023 season off before joining Burkhardt in the booth last fall.

Olsen landed on his feet. He and new partner Joe Davis may be considered Fox’s No. 2 broadcast team, but they were voted by AwfulAnnouncing.com readers as the best broadcast booth of the 2024 season — 13 spots higher than the Burkhardt/Brady booth. Olsen also teamed with Noah Eagle to call the Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans game for Netflix on Christmas Day.

It’s not enough for the 39-year-old Olsen.

“My goal is to call top games,” he told the Athletic. “I’ve been very adamant about that over the last couple years. My goal is still to get back there. I don’t know what that looks like. I don’t know where that takes place. But I’m continuing to work towards that goal and hopefully have the opportunity [to] get back to calling these marquee games at some point.”

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Where that might happen remains to be seen. Olsen told the Observer that he has two years left on his contract with Fox. Barring something unforeseen, Brady, 47, would appear to have the top analyst spot locked down at that network for the better part of the next decade.

“It’s pretty clear that the path, the upward trajectory as far as Fox goes, probably is a non-factor,” Olsen told the Observer. “I don’t know what the future holds. I enjoy working at Fox. Fox has been very good to me. They know. I’ve been very honest with them that I’m not content just calling one o’clock regional games for the rest of my career.”

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Michigan State takes control of Big Ten with 75-62 win over Michigan

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Michigan State takes control of Big Ten with 75-62 win over Michigan

Jase Richardson scored 21 points and Tre Holloman had 18, leading No. 14 Michigan State to a 75-62 win over No. 12 Michigan on Friday night to take sole possession of first place in the Big Ten.

The Spartans (22-5, 13-3) have surged atop the highly competitive conference with their third straight win. The Wolverines (20-6, 12-3) fell out of first place with their first loss in seven games.

Michigan’s Vladislav Goldin scored 21 points, Danny Wolf had 11 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, and Nimari Burnett added 12 points. The Wolverines led 38-34 at halftime and the Spartans went ahead for good on Carson Cooper’s dunk early in the second half. 

Michigan State’s Richardson earned his first start of the season on Feb. 8 against Oregon. He scored a season-high 29 points that night and has scored in double-digits in every game since then, including Friday.

Michigan State's Jase Richardson spins and finishes a layup to extend the lead against Michigan

Jaden Akins had 11 points, Jeremy Fears scored 10 and Michigan State was 9 of 22 on 3-pointers.

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Takeaways

Michigan State: Tom Izzo’s team has put itself in a position to win a Big Ten title that wasn’t expected to be in reach when the season began. The Spartans have games remaining against conference contenders: No. 11 Wisconsin, No. 20 Maryland and Michigan at home on March 9 in the regular-season finale.

Michigan: The school agreed to a multiyear contract extension for coach Dusty May, announcing the move two hours before tip off. May, a Bob Knight protege, made it clear he is happy and had no interest in being the next coach at Indiana.

[Related: Michigan basketball, Dusty May agree to multi-year extension]

Key moment

Holloman made three 3-pointers in a 1:27 stretch midway through the second half, helping the Spartans take control.

Key stat

Michigan State’s depth was a difference, with its bench outscoring Michigan’s 31-13.

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No. 14 Michigan State Spartans vs. No. 12 Michigan Wolverines Highlights | FOX College Hoops

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Michigan is at Nebraska on Monday night. Michigan State plays at Maryland on Wednesday night.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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Darcy Kuemper's stellar L.A. comeback doesn't surprise Kings

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Darcy Kuemper's stellar L.A. comeback doesn't surprise Kings

The first time Darcy Kuemper played for the Kings, he played well. He just didn’t play often.

As the backup to Jonathan Quick, who became the winningest American-born goalie in NHL history, Kuemper saw less ice time than the Zamboni driver in the half-season he spent in L.A. Yet he lost just once in regulation in 15 starts and had a better save percentage and goals-against average than Quick.

Which is to say he played well enough to start. But he wasn’t going to do that with the Kings.

“Goalie’s a tough position,” Kuemper said. “Only one guy gets to play.”

So rather than let Kuemper, then 27, languish on the end of the bench, Rob Blake, the Kings’ first-year general manager, traded him to Arizona with 22 games left in the 2017-18 season. It was the move that redefined a career that has come full circle, with Kuemper returning to the Kings last summer to put together one of the best seasons in the NHL.

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A backup in parts of six seasons in Minnesota and L.A., Kuemper became the No. 1 goalie for the Coyotes, trading the one-year, $650,000 contract he had with the Kings for a two-year, $3.7-million extension in Arizona, where he finished fifth in voting for the Vezina Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s top goaltender.

“Basically what happened was an opportunity,” Kuemper said. “Blake met with me and I was like ‘I don’t want to leave but I want to play more. I want to be a No. 1 in this league.’ So the trade happened.”

It wasn’t a totally altruistic move on the Kings’ part. Kuemper’s contract would have ended when the season did, so by trading him, Blake assured the team it would get something in return.

Still, it’s the thought that counts, Kuemper said.

“I’m forever grateful for him providing me with that opportunity,” he said. “He definitely didn’t have to.”

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Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper is shining in his stint in Los Angeles.

(Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)

“He knew our system, the way we like to play. He’s familiar with the organization. It made for a little bit more seamless transition.”

— Bill Ranford, Kings goaltending coach, on Darcy Kuemper

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Now 35, he’s repaying that gratitude. After reuniting with the Kings in a trade primarily remembered for ridding the team of underperforming and overpaid center Pierre-Luc Dubois, Kuemper has a .919 save percentage that ranks third in the NHL among goalies with at least 30 starts while his GAA of 2.19 is second.

Plus he’s been getting better as the season has worn on. Since returning from a lower-body injury on Dec. 7, Kuemper had gone 12-4-3 heading into Saturday’s game with Utah, the Kings’ first after the two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off.

“He’s probably been our backbone,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “He’s just been very, very consistent. That’s really what you want in a goaltender: just to be pretty consistent.

“Stop the ones that we think he should stop, make a couple of great saves every once in a while and we’ll be good with that.”

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Kuemper, a rangy 6-foot-5, butterfly-style goalie with good puck-handling skills, has done more than that. He’s turned a position that was a question mark, if not a liability, at the end of last season into a strength for a team with a defense-first mindset. None of that surprises Bill Ranford, the Kings’ director of goaltending, who had a say in the decision to bring Kuemper back.

“The numbers that he had the first time around were very good,” Ranford said of Kuemper, who was an All-Star in Arizona and won a Stanley Cup in Colorado before suffering through two injury-plagued seasons in Washington, where he lost more games than he won and registered the lowest save percentage and highest GAA of his 13-year career.

“He knew our system, the way we like to play. He’s familiar with the organization. It made for a little bit more seamless transition. And then, obviously, from my first time around with him, I felt I had an understanding of what he’s trying to do to get his game back on track.”

Kuemper, who learned of the trade when his wife, Sydney, knocked on the bathroom door with the news while he was showering, said the fact the Kings had the confidence to bring him back after two poor seasons meant a lot. So did the phone call from goalie coach Mike Buckley, who reached out to Kuemper immediately after the trade to offer some suggestions.

“There wasn’t any pushback,” Buckley said. “That was really a relief, that the changes that I thought would help him, he was totally in agreement.

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“Credit to him for being open-minded.”

Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper skates back to the net during a game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Feb. 1.

Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper skates back to the net during a game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Feb. 1.

(Karl B DeBlaker / Associated Press)

Neither Kuemper nor Buckley would go into detail about those changes, but both said the goalie has been encouraged to use his instincts and play more freely.

“A big part of it too is just getting back to having fun,” Buckley said. “Taking that pressure off and enjoying what you do. Being present in the moment.”

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Being present again in Southern California, a place Kuemper said he never wanted to leave, also has helped.

“You know there’s been a lot of good goalies stuck in a backup role. It’s hard to get that opportunity, to get the chance to be a No, 1 guy,” said Kuemper, who this month welcomed his and Sydney’s second child, a boy named Barrett.

“A lot of time it takes a trade or something. I’m very fortunate that I was able to get that chance.”

He and the Kings are making the most of it.

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Jenni Hermoso was not the victim people wanted her to be – we should be grateful to her for that

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Jenni Hermoso was not the victim people wanted her to be – we should be grateful to her for that

The important thing about the sentencing of Luis Rubiales is not whether he will go to prison, or how many thousands of euros he will have to pay to compensate Jenni Hermoso, the World Cup-winning footballer he kissed without consent while the world was watching.

The important thing is that it represents an end to the impunity of this powerful man who believed himself to be above the law.

Rubiales’ sentencing provides a reminder that the law is, and should be, the same for everyone.

Many will remember Hermoso for being ‘the one who was kissed’, rather than as the best striker the Spain women’s national team has ever had. As an iconic player who has scored more goals for her country than any other woman in history and who played a vital role off the pitch, too, in transforming women’s football in Spain.

The superstar who, at the age of 33 and towards the end of her career, helped her country win its first Women’s World Cup.

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She was humiliated in front of the watching world by Rubiales when the former head of the Spain Football Federation (RFEF) kissed her after she was handed her World Cup winner’s medal on August 20, 2023. She will have to live with that forever.

“Since that day, my life has been on standby,” Hermoso said during her testimony in Rubiales’ trial at Spain’s High Court in Madrid in early February.

Rubiales denied her the best day of her life and took away her freedom.


Hermoso, flanked by team-mates Alexia Putellas and Irene Paredes, lifts the World Cup (Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images)

The trial lasted two weeks. The judge delivered his verdict in less than one.

Rubiales, 47, was found guilty of sexual assault but he and the three other co-accused — the former Spain women’s head coach Jorge Vilda, the former Newcastle United forward and ex-RFEF sporting director Albert Luque and former marketing director Ruben Rivera — were acquitted of coercion. The prosecution alleged they had coerced Hermoso to agree with Rubiales’ version of events. They denied any wrongdoing.

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In the written reasons for the verdict, the judge gave full credibility to Hermoso’s testimony. The court statement said: “There was no reason or motive for her to be untruthful in her narration of the facts with the sole purpose of harming Rubiales.”

Rubiales has been fined more than €10,000 (£8,289; $11,400) and the ruling from Spain’s High Court bans him from going within 200 metres of Hermoso and communicating with her for one year. He was also ordered to pay a further €3,000 for moral damages and half of Hermoso’s legal costs.

In 2022, legislation was passed in Spain, referred to as the ‘solo si es si’ law (‘only yes means yes’), stating sexual consent must be affirmative by acts that “clearly express the will of the person” and that it cannot be assumed by default or through silence.

The new law no longer distinguishes between ‘abuse’ or ‘sexual assault’, but it does distinguish between a wide range of offences by also establishing that violence or intimidation is not necessary to commit a sexual assault. That means a new range of sentences that now go from four to 12 years, whereas before it was from six to 12.

Although criticised by some as it meant sentences already handed down would be reviewed and reduced, feminist organisations consulted by The Athletic said what the victim often needs was for someone to believe them, rather than a greater or lesser sentence.

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The judge’s verdict on Thursday was the equivalent of an “I believe you” to Hermoso — in the most public of settings, and one that will be reported and broadcast across the globe. Rubiales was not sent to prison, but what is important to Hermoso is that she can finally feel like people believe her.


Rubiales outside the court in San Fernando de Henares (Oscar del Pozo/AFP via Getty Images)

The trial leaves us with many things to think about, one being the repeated revictimisation of the victim in court. When cross-examining Hermoso, the defence lawyers focused on the player’s behaviour after Rubiales sexually assaulted her. They wanted the perfect victim, one who refused to celebrate a World Cup because of what had happened. One who couldn’t laugh or who couldn’t party. They wanted a victim who just cried in the corner for something that was not her fault.

In her testimony to the judge on the first day of the trial, Hermoso was impressive. She showed herself to be the strong person anyone who has met her or followed her career knows that she is, and she portrayed an imperfect victim, certainly in the eyes of the defence lawyers. She was a victim who, despite what had happened, could enjoy her professional success — that she and her team-mates had been crowned champions of the world.

go-deeper

Hermoso did not cower in front of her aggressor in court. She had the option of testifying without Rubiales in the courtroom, but she said no. She sat down metres away from her attacker to give her statement and to answer questions from his lawyer, Olga Tubau. She even maintained her concentration and kept her cool on the multiple occasions Rubiales was whispering and commenting while she was talking.

“I don’t have to be crying in a room or throwing myself to the ground when the act happens to imply that I didn’t like it (the kiss),” Hermoso told the court. “At that moment, when I’m celebrating being world champion, drinking alcohol and eating, I’m happy and smiling because it’s the greatest achievement I can get in my life.”

Society often looks for the perfect victim, the one who acts the way everyone wants them to act. The aggressor may make mistakes, they are a human being. But the victim must act like a victim or they will be publicly discredited.

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If this trial has taught us that a woman can be sexually assaulted and behave however she wants afterwards and still be considered a victim, then we should be eternally grateful to Jenni Hermoso for that.

The courage she has shown will help those victims who follow.

(Top photo: Hector Vivas/Getty Images)

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