House of Strauss

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We’re happy to have Freddie deBoer on to discuss a mutual obsession: The modern NFL. He’s got some issues, as do I, with how the league is covered by presumptive high priests of football analysis. Topics! Include!
* Is the NFL destroying its greatest advantage: scarcity?
* The NFL analyst class has a problem admitting, “We don’t know”
* Why social media has made every quarter…

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What a discussion we have for all of you. Topics! Include!
* Why the Clippers’ salary-cap cheating felt like a “victimless crime” only because they failed
* Wos argues the 2019–20 Clippers really were the NBA’s obvious championship favorite
* Was Steve Ballmer’s Clippers tenure actually a massive failure?
* Why today’s sports world increasingly operates on “what can I get away with?”
* Lane Kiffin and college football cheating
* The Patriots’ alleged optical-illusion field-goal trick: clever gamesmanship or just cheating?
* How media relationships — not necessarily money — can buy an NBA owner favorable coverage
* Nike’s collapse: Wos argues the company sacrificed its brand to please Wall Street
* Why Sydney Sweeney has cracked the code for selling sex in an increasingly sexless culture
* Why Sydney Sweeney can seemingly never reach the point of cultural overexposure
* The class politics behind the backlash to LeBron James’ Polymarket ad
* Wos’ friends thought the NBC broadcast was going to bring up Dianna Russini
* Sex, sports media and the fiction that reporters and athletes never become attracted to each other
* How much face has Mike Vrabel lost?

There’s perhaps no better person in media to discuss This Week in Golf Brand Turmoil than Jordan Rogers, former Nike executive and all-around golf guy. This was a great conversation and we explored so much within a recently disrupted industry. Topics! Include!
* The Good Good Callaway ad controversy and why it exploded
* How chronically online advertising escapes its intended audience
* The YouTube formula of chasing trends, titles and thumbnails
* Why golf’s old guard resents the YouTube golf boom
* Why mediocre golfers (Like LeBron) can become enormous golf stars
* Should Good Good co-founder Garrett Clark have apologized
* Why golf media and YouTube present two different Bryson DeChambeaus
* We dare discuss the “golf hotties” of Instagram: The strange economics and audience dynamics of female golf influencers
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.houseofstrauss.com

It’s Cowherd Week at House of Strauss! Roughly once a year, we explore the state of sports media with one of the biggest voices in this industry. I’m pleased to say that Colin did not hold back.
Topics! With time stamps:
* 0:00 — Colin opens with his vacation movie reviews—and why modern horror films have completely lost him.
* 3:30 — Why Hollywood, sports media, and even Nike increasingly make products for insiders instead of consumers.
* 7:00 — Colin’s broadcasting philosophy
* 10:30 — The Portland debate: Could the Trail Blazers actually be at risk? Colin defends his controversial tweet that ignited social media.
* 22:00 — Colin unveils his favorite Warriors/Patriots theory on current GSW struggles
* 29:00 — Adam Silver’s NBA
* 44:00 — Colin believes the WNBA simply became too popular, too quickly—and why that’s created organizational growing pains.
* 1:19:15 — Colin’s “This will get Aggregated” Tony Romo take
* 1:23:00 — Colin closes by reflecting on vacation, returning to work, and why he still reads House of Strauss every day.

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A lot of fascinating ESPN dynamics to discuss this week. Ryan and I get into the nitty, the gritty and so much more. Topics! Include!
* The dynamics of Ryan Clark’s ESPN firing
* Inside the bizarre race between OutKick and Andrew Marchand to break ESPN’s biggest layoff story
* Is ESPN quietly becoming less political—or is something else really happening?
* The real forces behind ESPN’s layoffs—and why Disney deserves more of the blame than McAfee
* Why losing your ESPN job isn’t the career-ending disaster it used to be
* How YouTube completely changed the economics of sports media careers
* Sophie Cunningham is now probably more famous than A’ja Wilson
* Why the WNBA keeps making decisions that seem to work against its own popularity
* Could Sophie Cunningham become an even better player now that she’s become a cultural phenomenon?
* Can the Blazers really leave Portland—or do NBA expansion economics make relocation almost impossible?