1. The Jaguars were 10-point favorites against the Joe Burrow–less Bengals last night.
During ESPN’s pregame show, Scott Van Pelt, Ryan Clark, Marcus Spears and Larry Fitzgerald all picked Jacksonville to win.
Fade these guys every week, if you like money. pic.twitter.com/pRyKSAlryu
— Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) December 5, 2023
Very often, when an entire pregame show panel picks one team to win, it’s a bad sign. That ended up being the case Monday night with the Bengals pulling off an inspired 34–31 overtime win.
In the second quarter, after Cincy’s Joe Mixon scored on a six-yard run, the Bengals unleashed a highly amusing and coordinated touchdown dance. The celebration then ended with offensive line Orlando Brown Jr. screaming “jackass” directly into the ESPN camera.
"JACKASS" 😂 pic.twitter.com/VATEZgFnOl
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) December 5, 2023
So, who was the “jackass” for?
After the game, Brown told reporters he saw ESPN’s pregame picks segment.
“This is an organization that’s going to continue to fight… that’s a special win. Hats off to everybody.” Orlando Brown Jr. Who also talks about his touchdown celebration with Joe Mixon, and jackass. pic.twitter.com/37o77ZK2JQ
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) December 5, 2023
2. Despite Taylor Swift’s presence in Green Bay for Sunday night’s Chiefs-Packers game, the game drew 25.8 million viewers for NBC, while Niners-Eagles at 4:25 p.m. on Fox was watched by 27.7 million people.
On the college football front, Alabama’s win over Georgia in the SEC championship game Saturday landed 17.519 million viewers for CBS. That number is well short of the 19.1 million viewers that tuned in for the Michigan–Ohio State game a week earlier.
3. I don’t know whether anyone outside of New York cares about this story, but it’s quite a doozy.
WFAN radio host and completely irrational Jets fan Joe Beningo said on the air Monday that he texted New York coach Robert Saleh to tell him that the Jets need to go back to Zach Wilson as their starting quarterback. Beningo then said that Saleh’s response to that was, “Are you kidding me?”
This led to Beningo saying on WFAN, “I can tell you right now, [Saleh] don’t like Zach. He don’t like Zach.”
However, it turns out Beningo misinterpreted Saleh’s response. The coach’s “are you kidding me?” was said as in, “Joe, you ripped Wilson all season. How could you say he should start now?” It was not meant as, “Are you kidding me? Wilson stinks.”
So Beningo then appeared Tuesday on WFAN’s morning show, Boomer and Gio, to do a mea culpa.
.@JoeBenigno_real clears the air over the Robert Saleh text drama:@GioWFAN @WFANmornings pic.twitter.com/JGxmk0qSSd
— WFAN Sports Radio (@WFAN660) December 5, 2023
So to sum up: Terrible job by Beningo revealing private conversations with Saleh. Even more terrible job by Saleh texting about his team with a radio host/fan. And the Jets, as always, are just a complete embarrassment.
4. This might have been the best ManningCast moment of the season. Tua Tagovailoa busted out a guitar last night and started playing Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven,” which led to Peyton improvising some lyrics.
What is the name of this band? Wrong answers only: pic.twitter.com/mVFXzDBF3s
— Omaha Productions (@OmahaProd) December 5, 2023
5. Just another reason to hate politics.
NEWS: Gov. Ron DeSantis' budget would set aside $1 million for potential litigation involving #FSU's snub from the College Football Playoff.
— Matt Baker (@MBakerTBTimes) December 5, 2023
Story⬇️https://t.co/ookEWDjLIl
6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with broadcaster Mike Tirico of NBC.
The voice of Sunday Night Football discusses how much he pays attention to the schedule and flex possibilities late in the season, whether he’s feeling more comfortable in his second year as SNF’s play-by-play guy, whether NBC went too far covering Taylor Swift’s appearance at the Chiefs-Jets game in Week 4, watching the O.J. Simpson Bronco chase with Lee Corso, whether he’d hear from the NFL if he dropped a betting stat during a game, why quarterback play has been a problem this season and much more.
Following Tirico, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week we talk about my betting hot streak, the amazing trend of NFL unders hitting in prime-time games, Spotify’s year-end “Wrapped” feature, Sal’s issue with his car automatic starter and more.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated's YouTube channel.
