Can Caitlin Clark, Cameron Brink and the great WNBA Draft class significantly increase that league’s viewership? What do you want most in an NFL Draft broadcast as a viewer? Can pro golf find its audience mojo again? Leave your sports media questions below and senior writer Richard Deitsch will answer some of them in an upcoming mailbag.

O.J. Simpson, known for his prowess on the football field with USC and the Buffalo Bills, and later for the criminal and civil trials in the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, died of cancer Wednesday, Simpson’s family announced via social media Thursday. The 76-year-old was recently diagnosed with cancer.

On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer.

He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren.

During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace.

-The Simpson Family

— O.J. Simpson (@TheRealOJ32) April 11, 2024

 

Simpson was arrested for the June 1994 killings of Brown Simpson and Goldman. The sensational criminal trial mesmerized America for eight months and ended with Simpson’s acquittal. At a 1997 civil trial, he was found liable for the deaths, in a decision that was so widely anticipated that it was broadcast via split screen just as President Bill Clinton began his State of the Union address.

When Simpson retired after the 1979 season, he ranked second to only Jim Brown on the NFL’s all-time rushing list. Simpson, who played for the Bills and San Francisco 49ers over his 11-year career, won the rushing crown four times…

The Pulse Newsletter | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox.

---

Good morning! I predict you’ll get traded this season.

While You Were Sleeping: Two close calls

For a few minutes late last night, it looked like two big women’s NCAA Tournament upsets were brewing. Instead, we saw two escapes: 

• Caitlin Clark and No. 1 seed Iowa squeaked past No. 8 seed West Virginia 64-54, though the game was tied at 52 with under 3 minutes to play. The Mountaineers got the game they wanted, but simply could not keep up offensively. Clark scored 32, giving her a women’s-record 1,113 points on the season.
  
• No. 2 seed UCLA also eluded upset against No. 7 seed Creighton with a 67-63 win, despite trailing for much of the first half. 

Both teams are in Regional 2, which is about to get juicy. The Bruins get No. 3 seed (and defending national champion) LSU this weekend in the Sweet 16, while Iowa plays No. 5 seed Colorado for a chance to face the LSU-UCLA winner.

---

Explainers: What’s a hip-drop tackle, anyway?

Yesterday, NFL owners unanimously agreed to ban the hip-drop tackle, a move observed by some as overdue and by others as nebulous. Let’s lay out the parameters: 

• NFL owners and executives are calling this decision a win…

With ESPN’s direct-to-consumer plan, the network is attempting to uphold its mission statement of, “Serving sports fans. Anytime. Anywhere.”

In the process, Disney CEO Bob Iger and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro are looking to make deals. Anytime. Anywhere.

Iger and Pitaro are trying, through equity stake talks with the biggest leagues and with distribution discussions with the largest digital players, to add to ESPN’s already impressive content lineup and have price points to serve every sports fan.

It all sounds simple, but they are engaged in complicated negotiations with a full ESPN direct-to-consumer subscription product launching this fall in combination with Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, and then ESPN’s standalone service slated for 2025.

At a fee of more than $10 per subscriber, no company has been more important to the cable bundle than ESPN, and no one has benefited more. While ESPN will still be offered on cable, Disney/ESPN are trying to stack the sports content and distribution deck even more in their favor.

In 2011, ESPN peaked with 100 million cable homes, according to Nielsen, but now is at around 71 million homes. One of the overarching goals for Iger and Pitaro is to reverse the subscriber trend with its direct-to-consumer plan.

ESPN’s goal is to sell…

With the NFL announcing Wednesday that its popular NFL Network morning show “Good Morning Football” will be moving its production from New York to Los Angeles later this year, a major question is whether its current cast will relocate.

As part of the move, the show will go on hiatus for the summer starting on March 29 and relaunch later in the summer. It will then air out of NFL’s West Coast media headquarters in Inglewood, Calif., which sits adjacent to SoFi Stadium, home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and Chargers. That property includes five soundstages and a 5,970-square-foot space for NFL Network’s “Total Access” and “GameDay” shows. There is an expectation that “Good Morning Football” will air from 8-10 a.m. ET after moving to California, as opposed to its current three-hour bloc.

The “Good Morning Football” weekday crew currently features host Jamie Erdahl and analysts Kyle Brandt, Jason McCourty and Peter Schrager, with contributions from Will Selva. Staffers were informed of the move to L.A., which was first reported by Sports Business Journal, earlier this week. The main quartet are all East Coast-based and all have children, so it’s a big ask professionally and personally to relocate across the country. Those involved with the decision said…

For NFL watchers and readers of a certain age, Chris Mortensen was the defining insider of his generation. He first joined ESPN at a time when most sports information brokers such as Mortensen plied their trade for local newspapers. His work ultimately helped develop an entire cottage industry that is ubiquitous today — the sports television insider.

Mortensen, who joined ESPN in 1991, was ever-present on the network’s programs and platforms, from “Sunday NFL Countdown” to “SportsCenter” to ESPN Radio to the NFL Draft to Super Bowl coverage to offseason features. He covered every Super Bowl since 1985, except for Super Bowl 50 when he was forced to take a leave of absence in 2016 after being diagnosed with Stage IV throat cancer. He announced on social media in September 2023 that he was stepping away from ESPN.

Mortensen died Sunday morning at age 72, ESPN announced. He is survived by his wife Micki and son Alex.

Peter King, who retired last week from full-time NFL writing and whose career aligned with Mortensen’s time, said in an interview on Sunday afternoon that Mortensen’s career was a testament to doggedness.

“He belongs next to Will McDonough on the Mount Rushmore of NFL information people,” King said. “They are the two guys. He did it for so long and…

San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk arrived at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday in style, sporting a custom Super Bowl jacket designed by his wife Kristin.

Juszczyk’s letterman jacket featured the names and numbers of several of his teammates, including quarterback Brock Purdy, tight end George Kittle and wide receiver Deebo Samuel. The red jacket also had black leather sleeves and the logos of the NFL and Super Bowl LVIII.

All of the players whose numbers appeared on the jacket signed it after Juszczyk got to the locker room.

.@krisjuszczyk went all out for @JuiceCheck44‘s #SBLVIII jacket. pic.twitter.com/hwuxAwnNjE

— NFL (@NFL) February 11, 2024

Juszczyk’s jacket is the latest high-profile garment to be worn from his wife’s designs after Taylor Swift sported a Travis Kelce-themed puffer coat made by Kristin at the Kansas City Chiefs’ wild-card game against the Miami Dolphins.

Kristin began designing game-day attire when she and Kyle first started dating 10 years ago. She began cutting up Kyle’s No. 44 jerseys and fashioning them into something more stylish. Her designs range from corset tops to miniskirts to coats, blending the red zone and the red carpet.

Kristin’s designs got a boost in November when she sent a pair of white, Patrick Mahomes-themed 

One day, the brilliant TV executives are all going to unite and put their programming under one roof. It will solve all your sports viewing problems. They will call it cable.

This new ESPN, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery venture is not it. At least not yet.

There is still significance to three of the biggest brands in sports teaming up this fall to give fans another option. The Great Rebundling is upon us, but it is far from solved.

For the consumer, you won’t need this venture-to-be-named later and, my initial bet is most of you will go with that option. The service will be owned equally by the three sides, but each partner will receive the same fee as they earn from cable or YouTubeTV, according to sources with knowledge of the agreement. Just ESPN, the singular network, receives around $12 per month from cable subscribers.

So what does that mean for you? The estimated price for the new venture when you add ESPN, Fox and WBD Sports together likely will be around $50 per month. There probably are some sports fans who would like to save a little money with this arrangement, but it is hard to believe there are a lot.

You already can watch nearly everything that this trio offers through places like YouTube TV for around $70 and change per month. If you want this option, it is already…

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The San Francisco 49ers had a bye during the opening round of the playoffs, but that didn’t mean Kyle Juszczyk had the weekend off.

The team’s fullback went into action after his wife, Kristin, managed to meld three massive newsmakers — Taylor Swift, the NFL and the winter storms that were walloping the nation — when Swift confidently strode into Kansas City’s frozen Arrowhead Stadium wearing a jacket Kristin had made.

Swift and her legion of followers wield tremendous influence and can make social media sites convulse. And her long, red puffer — adorned with the No. 87 of her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — did just that.

For the Juszczyks, it was the equivalent of a five-touchdown day. They’d learned the singer-songwriter planned to wear the jacket but they weren’t sure. Kyle said they were watching on television from their San Jose home on Saturday afternoon when cameras caught Swift, protected by the jacket and a white beanie, getting out of a golf cart before the Chiefs’ wild-card playoff game against the Miami Dolphins got underway.

.@taylorswift13 arrives for her #NFLPlayoffs debut. #MIAvsKC — 8pm ET on Peacock
Also available on #NFLPlus https://t.co/bTakd7uLvX pic.twitter.com/Ugb1URaSoc

— NFL…

I had 20 years in the NFL in my back pocket when Nick Saban called me on a late May afternoon in 2005.

I remember the day like yesterday. I listened to the message on the 10th tee at Manito Country Club in Spokane, Wash., where I was living and working for ESPN at the time. I still had a flip phone. Nick had been the head coach of the Miami Dolphins for five months and had just finished his first draft as a head coach in the NFL.

I could tell by his tone — he was looking for help.

I had been the GM of the New Orleans Saints during his time as the head coach at LSU. We had never met, but we obviously knew of each other. I had dealt with his agent, Jimmy Sexton, many times while negotiating NFL contracts. So between the commonality of our geographic paths and Jimmy, we had a connection.

I remember hearing stories about how hard Nick — who announced his retirement Wednesday after 17 years and six national championships at Alabama — was to work for. And I remember our conversation, before he offered me the job, as we circled his lake on foot at his Baton Rouge, La., home. (He had wanted me to come spend a day with him. What he really wanted was for his wife, Miss Terry, to meet me, size me up and give the OK to hire me.)

GO DEEPER

Mandel: Alabama’s Nick Saban, college…