Peter King and 2 Sports Media Roundtables

Episode 5 of the Sports Media podcast with Richard Deitsch features Peter King who will be leaving Sports Illustrated on June 1—his 29-year anniversary of being hired by SI—for a new job with NBC Sports in July. In the podcast King discusses why he left SI; how he came to the decision; how SI offered him more money to stay; where he stands on the future of Sports Illustrated and The MMQB; his response to criticism of being an access-oriented, league-friendly NFL reporter; why he writes about political issues in his column; what his role will be at NBC Sports; his thoughts on Jason Witten being hired for Monday Night Football; the future of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick; how legalized sports gambling will impact the NFL; NFL cheerleader gender-discrimination complaints; why the Browns drafted Baker Mayfield, and much more.   The podcast concludes with two roundtables. The first features Boston Globe media writer Chad Finn, and Robert Littal, the founder and editor of Black Sports Online. In this roundtable, Finn and Littal discuss the new Monday Night Football announcing team featuring Joe Tessitore, Witten, Booger McFarland and Lisa Salters; ESPN’s hiring of Katie Nolan; the lack of opportunity for women of color to host their own sports show; John Skipper’s return; Charles Barkley's remarks on Draymond Green; printing sports television talent salaries, and much more.   The second roundtable features Lindsay Adler, a baseball writer for The Athletic who covers the Mets and Yankees and AJ Perez, a sports reporter for USA Today who covers a multitude of areas including sports media. In this podcast, Adler discusses how to cover two different baseball teams; the challenges of being a first-year beat reporter; the most media friendly Yankees and Mets players; Perez’s take on ESPN’s deal to carry 10-15 UFC events exclusively on its direct-to-consumer ESPN+ platform; the future of UFC media rights; covering criminality in sports; the television prospect of the upcoming Stanley Cup Conference Finals including the Las Vegas Golden Knights, and much more.   You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher and more.