Sports With Friends

Longtime ESPN basketball analyst Jay Bilas has been with the network since 1995. He is featured on ESPN’s game and studio coverage and calls the top men’s college basketball games involving the nation’s marquee teams and conferences every week throughout the season. In 2024, he joined ESPN’s NBA commentator team as a game analyst. Bilas is a nine-time Emmy nominee: Outstanding Sports Personality –...

First-ballot Hall-of-Famer John Smoltz first came on this podcast on Episode 450. The eight-time All-Star and National League Cy Young Award winner is currently FOX MLB’s lead game analyst. He is participating in Lake Tahoe’s American Century Championship. The American Century Championship is a made-for-TV event owned and broadcast by NBC Sports. The premier celebrity golf tournament, which also r...

Legendary college and NFL quarterback Joe Theismann rejoins the show for his fourth appearance. Theismann was an all-pro quarterback for the then-Washington Redskins from 1974 to 1985. His career abruptly ended in ’85 when he was sacked by Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor and broke his leg. Theismann was an NFL broadcaster for ESPN for 20 years, calling games for both Sunday and Monday Night Foot...

Bobby Cox was a Baseball Hall of Fame manager who led the Atlanta Braves to five National League pennants and a World Series championship in the 1990s and was ranked No. 4 for career victories among major league managers, died on May 9, 2026. His Atlanta teams won division championships 14 consecutive times, from 1991 to 2005. His lone World Series championship came in 1995, when the Braves defeat...

Legendary Yankees play-by-play announcer John Sterling died on May 4th, 2026. His broadcasting career began in the 1970s, but in 1989, he was hired as the radio voice of the New York Yankees. He called their games from 1989-2024, and in the process called 5,060 consecutive games from ’89-’19. He was a 12x Sports Emmy Award winner. His career included calling games for the New York/New Jersey Nets,...

14-year NBA veteran Muggsy Bogues is now the general manager of a new Baltimore team in the Hall-of-Famer Tracy McGrady’s Ones Basketball League. Bogues is best known for his ten years as a member of the Charlotte Hornets. He also played for the Washington Bullets (then), Toronto Raptors, and Golden State Warriors. A 5-foot-3-inch-tall Muggsy is the shortest player in NBA history. Bogues finished...

Rory McElroy is the 2026 Masters Champion. It's his 6th major victory and his second straight Masters title. After squandering a record six-stroke lead in Saturday's third round, McIlroy briefly lost the lead again Sunday before taking control on the second nine at Augusta National to become the first back-to-back Masters champion since Tiger Woods in 2001-02 and the fourth overall (Jack Nick...

2026 is most likely going to be a significant season both on the field and off. Popularity for the sport is on the rise, yet an impending labor negotiation hangs over the game. 22 of 30 teams are broadcasting their games without a deal with a regional sports network. The last postseason was iconic, and baseball is looking for an encore. There are new rules and new partnerships as well. Jayson Star...

Sports with Friends celebrates Women’s History Month, continuing with a long line of amazing female guests. Rachel Herzog is the Pre/Post Game host of the New Jersey Devils on MSG Networks. She is currently in her second season. Herzog played both high school and college hockey, the latter at St. Cloud State University. Before her work in New Jersey, she worked at WDAY in Fargo, North Dakota, as a...

Major League Baseball is undergoing a broadcasting metamorphosis in 2026. 22 of 30 teams have in-market, blackout-free streaming subscriptions available, while 8 remain broadcasting with traditional regional sports networks (RSNs). RSNs such as Sportsnet LA, Sportsnet NY, YES Network, and NESN pay their respective clubs' rights fees that dwarf the revenue from the 22 streaming teams. This revenue...

Longtime Pittsburgh sportscaster and Syracuse alum Tim Benz discusses his career and issues facing the Steel City. Benz has been covering Pittsburgh sports since 2001. In addition to writing for TribLIVE, he is a Steelers radio host on FOX Sports Radio Pittsburgh 970 AM and a contributor to WTAE-TV, WDVE, and WXDX-FM. He is a part of the Class of 1996 at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School and W...

On February 8th, 2026, the Seattle Seahawks face the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, California. This preview features two special guests. Dave Wyman is a former NFL linebacker and the radio analyst for the Seattle Seahawks. He also hosts 2 pm-7 pm PT on Seattle Sports 710 and SeattleSports.com. Whyman played nine seasons for the Seahawks and Denver Broncos. Pete Kendall also...

Kevin Falness is the executive producer and pre/post-game host of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. He joined the Wild as exec producer before their inaugural season in 2000-2001. Before joining the Wild, Falness worked as the executive producer of KKFN The Fan radio in Denver, Colorado. There, he oversaw talk shows and broadcasts of both the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets.  The Wild recently...

As 2026 began, a new sports media controversy emerged. Main Street Sports Group, formerly Diamond Sports, missed a payment to the St. Louis Cardinals for their local TV rights. Days later, they missed payments to numerous NBA teams. Reports indicate that the streaming service DAZN wants to buy these embattled regional sports networks. If a deal to sell to DAZN does not go through, there is a stron...

This episode continues a long tradition that began eight years ago. Scott Seidenberg appeared on episode 177, which was released on Christmas. The following year, it continued with episode 229 and has continued every Christmas week since. The whole origin story of this tradition is explained in the first few minutes of the show. The rest of these episodes’ numbers are as follows: Vol. 3Episode 280...

Daryl Ruiter has been covering Cleveland sports for a quarter-century. Since 2011, he’s been the beat reporter for the Cleveland Browns on 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland. The Ohio native also covers select Cavaliers and Guardians games. Ruiter was a regular guest on the MLB Radio Stayin’ Hot with Seth & Bone as the “AL Central Correspondent” in the mid-2000s. In this episode, Ruiter explains how it...

Longtime college football reporter Matt Baker has been with the Athletic since 2024. Before that, he was with the Tampa Bay Times, focusing on both the Florida Gators and Florida State Seminoles. In December 2025, the 12-team college football playoff was revealed. This episode comes out after the regular season and before the bowl season and subsequent playoff. In this episode, Baker explains why...

Carlos Alcaraz, the #1 men’s tennis player in the world, is playing in a tennis exhibition at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on December 7th, 2025. Alcaraz will face off in a three-set match against two-time US Open Semifinalist Frances Tiafoe. There is also a women’s tennis match between 2025 Wimbledon and US Open finalist Amanda Anisimova from Freehold, New Jersey, and 2024 US Open finalist...

Kevin Ingram is a play-by-play announcer for Vanderbilt basketball, a sideline reporter for Vanderbilt football, and a play-by-play announcer for baseball on SEC+. He has been a sportscaster in the Nashville area for three decades. From 2004 to 2020, Kevin was the host of the hugely successful morning show, “Wake-Up Zone” on 104.5 The Zone in Nashville. His co-host for all 16 years was acclaimed N...

Longtime sportscaster Marc Malusis was recently featured on WPIX Channel 11 in New York. Malusis is best known for his time on-air at Sports Radio 66 WFAN, also in New York. Malusis graduated from Syracuse University, interned for WFAN, became a producer for the iconic Mike and the Mad Dog radio program, and then got his opportunity on the air. Moose, as he is known, is also an adjunct professor a...

Lawrence Moten, the leading scorer in Syracuse basketball history, died unexpectedly on September 30, 2025. He was 53. This episode is a tribute to the legendary Syracuse basketball player. Nicknamed “Poetry in Moten,” he who played for the Orange from 1991-95. Moten was born in Washington, D.C., helped Syracuse reach the NCAA Tournament in three of his four seasons, and was named a Second-Team Al...

The National Hockey League recently began its 2025-2026 regular season. Greg Wyshynski is an ESPN senior NHL writer, podcaster, and insider. He is also a New Jersey native and a New Jersey Devils fan. This is NOT a Devils podcast, but rather a look at the main issues facing the league. Topics include: the 2026 Winter Olympics, which will involve NHL players; the competitive balance in the league;...

Longtime sportswriter Gary Myers has written his seventh book. “Brady vs. Belichick: The Dynasty Debate” raises one of the great NFL debates among fans of both the New England Patriots and the entire NFL. Who meant more to the Patriots’ nine Super Bowl appearances and six championships? Myers discusses the origin of both coach and player, and makes a strong argument for both with in...

Art Shamsky is best known for being a member of the 1969 New York Mets, who won the World Series. Shamsky played Major League Baseball from 1965 to 1972 for the Cincinnati Reds, Mets, Chicago Cubs, and Oakland Athletics. In 1969, he hit .300 with 14 home runs, the second-highest total on the team. In the post-season, Shamsky hit .538 in both the newly created National League Championship Seri...

The 2025 US Open tennis tournament once again had record crowds and is being recapped after the final victories by men’s champion Carlos Alcaraz and women’s champion Aryna Sabalenka. The singles tournament took place over 15 days and featured the world’s best tennis players.  The men’s final was marred by the appearance of Donald Trump in the crowd. The added security led to thousan...