Last week’s lawsuit against Fox Sports, first reported by FOS, comes at a critical time for one of the NFL’s key media-rights partners. Fox is poised to broadcast Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans on Feb. 9. The incendiary lawsuit by former FS1 hairstylist Noushin Faraji alleges sexual harassment by longtime Undisputed host Skip Bayless and EVP Charlie Dixon, as well as a hostile work environment. As my colleague A.J. Perez and I reported earlier this week, Fox and the NFL don’t want this soap-opera-like scandal to be a distraction during Super Bowl week.

Again, these are allegations, nothing more, nothing less. But crisis PR expert Mike Paul, CEO of Reputation Doctor, speculated Fox should bite the bullet and settle the lawsuit filed by Faraji—even if it has to overpay. The network doesn’t want the NFL, its biggest business partner, much less its blue-chip advertisers, worrying over the suit’s salacious allegations in the Big Easy. The big question is whether there’s enough time. Lawsuits typically take months, even years, to wind their way to the end zone. The fact that Fox has not settled yet may indicate the network believes the case has zero merit. And that’s it’s ready to fight. 

“They can’t make it go away [on their own],” Paul told FOS. “But they can seek to minimize it by getting it done first. Then they can use the excuse, ‘We have confidentiality agreements; we can’t talk about it.’”

• Troy Aikman continues to let it fly on ESPN’s Monday Night Football. His brutal honesty about the NFL helps him stand out from the more cautious Tony Romo on CBS, Cris Collinsworth on NBC, and Tom Brady on Fox. The former Cowboys superstar committed the equivalent of blasphemy against America’s Team by questioning whether Dallas’s newly vacant head coaching job is really a “coveted” opportunity. But like a lot of viewers, I appreciated his honesty.
  
  “As far as a coveted job, I don’t know that that’s accurate,” Aikman said on Monday Night Countdown before the Rams-Vikings wild-card game. “I do think the Cowboys are obviously a high-profile team and whoever is head coach of that team is certainly going to draw a lot of attention. But I think most football people that take over as a head coach want to do it on their terms, and that’s hard to do [in Dallas]. You take a Dan Campbell, for instance. Is Dan Campbell Dan Campbell if he’s with the Dallas Cowboys? It’s hard to imagine that he is.”
• With the NBA media-rights negotiation wrapped, precious few big rights deals are coming up for bid. That means UFC will be hitting the market at an opportune time. The mixed martial arts league wants to boost its annual media-rights payout to the $1 billion range, according to Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw. That would blow away the league’s current five-year, $1.5 billion deal with ESPN, which was signed in 2019. Fresh off its success with the NFL and Mike Tyson–Jake Paul fight, my money’s on Netflix to fight hard for UFC rights.
• Blake Griffin gave interesting insight into what his upcoming NBA analysis will sound like for Amazon Prime Video. During a podcast with Carmelo Anthony’s 7PM in Brooklyn, Griffin says he’s noticing the “biggest disconnect maybe ever between casual NBA fans and NBA players.” Most NBA TV analysis is either goofing around—or too critical, said Griffin. The best NFL game analysts, on the other hand, give viewers insight into what it takes to be a top performer in their sport. “That’s what I love about watching football, watching Tony Romo, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, you’re really getting insight into how hard it is and what these guys are thinking and all the decisions they have to make,” Griffin told Anthony. “I think that’s what’s missing from basketball a little bit.”
• We previously reported that Anthony, the former Knicks sharpshooter, is also talking to Prime and NBC about possible TV gigs. Prime told FOS last week that Griffin, Dirk Nowitzki, and host Taylor Rooks will lead its NBA studio coverage.
• NBC has announced Jamal Crawford will serve as a game analyst for its NBA coverage starting next season. FOS mentioned him as a candidate in the Anthony report above.

We got plenty of feedback on the announcement that Disney’s ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox were discontinuing their ill-fated Venu Sports joint venture. Michael Leon wrote on X/Twitter: “Never made sense. There’s already customer confusion in the streaming world, this would have added to that.”

JT The Brick tweeted: “The amount of money spent on this failed “idea” needs to be exposed.” Reader Mike Springer added: “Probably for the best. Good job by all to realize the saturated market, continued anti-trust litigation issues, and, a way to regroup and figure out a permanent solution to the Streaming Sports dilemma.” And Bob Baskerville wrote on X: “This, with the Fubo acquisition news earlier in the week, paves the way for ESPN to cement their spot as the go-to brand for sports regardless of the platform, or the price point. Netflix and Amazon can keep coming at ‘em, but a lot of water still in between them and the 4 letters.”