Paige Spiranac Goes To The Dark Side, EA Sports Doesn't Like Our Great Female Reporters & Cops At Costco
You wanna know how I'm spending my Friday?
Well, I was supposed to be getting my new/old truck. Finally. After nearly a month, I finally found one. F-150. Good engine. Decent mileage for a used truck. Decent price for the decent mileage for the decent used truck. Liked the color.
It all came together. I was supposed to be driving down to Miami to get her today. This morning.
Then, I got the call around dinner time last night.
"Hey man. Truck is ready to go. Just one thing … the ABS light came on tonight. We're having a mechanic come take a look. I'll let you know."
Good God. Talk about a punch to the gut. Demoralizing way to start my 31st birthday weekend.
On that note, welcome to a Friday Nightcaps – the one where I try to pick myself up, dust myself off, and get back on the market.
We're gonna talk about the new college football video game today, because the fellas over at EA Sports are getting dragged through the mud by all of our great female sideline reporters.
Not here, though. We respect talent when we see it. And we appreciate it. And, today, we show it off.
What else? We'll check in with Charlie Woods after just an awful qualifier to the qualifier yesterday, Paige Spiranac after she went dark this week, and some of the most unrealistic things to ever happen in sports movies.
How's that for a Friday lesson-plan? Let's get to it, because I have F-150 eulogies to write.
How about the nuts on EA Sports to diss our great female sideline reporters?
Look, I'm sure everyone will accuse me of doing this so I could include pictures of Molly McGrath and Jenny Dell and Erin Andrews in Nightcaps, but that's not the only reason.
Don't get me wrong, they're all the standard in the sideline reporting game. I grew up on Jenny Dell when she was the NESN girl for the Red Sox. I knew she was a star long before she went mainstream.
But that's not the only reason.
For those who missed it, the new college football game announced its broadcasting team yesterday ahead of the upcoming release, and it stirred the pot for obvious reasons:
For starters, having Desmond Howard in the game is insane. He's awful. Guy adds nothing to GameDay.
Love how they put David Pollack – who was FIRED FROM ESPN – back on GameDay, too. That's funny.
People are also pissed there's no Gus Johnson, but I'm fine with Fowler and Herbie. They're elite. No way to spin that.
The real thing that has social media all riled up is the lack of women. Feels like that was a pretty easy one EA Sports missed – especially in 2024.
Holly Rowe was the first to come out and complain, followed by Molly McGrath. I think both are right, too.
How do you not have a female sideline reporter on the field? They're a staple of Saturday and Sunday football, if we're being honest.
I have "Tracy, down to you" from Jim Nantz forever burned into my brain at this point. Same with "let's go down to Jenny" around 3:38 p.m. every Saturday from Brad Nessler (RIP to the SEC on CBS, by the way).
Hell, I'm not even a Holly Rowe fan, but who can forget this little moment from over a decade ago:
Electric.
PS: while researching this for you guys, I stumbled upon another classic Holly Rowe moment. I had completely forgotten about this until now:
Such a wild thing to say on air.
Ron Franklin's voice on a Saturday night is still the GOAT, by the way. Can't argue that. He was a loose cannon at the end (look it up yourself), but still a legend.
Anyway, that's off-topic. The point here is that we respect our great female sideline reporters in this class and I'll be damned if they get snubbed at Nightcaps.
Paige Spiranac and Charlie Woods stop by on a Friday
Romi Bean! She hasn't been to class since Colorado started the season on FIRE last September. Welcome back!
Now let's get virtual Romi talking to virtual Coach Prime this summer, EA. It's what the people want.
Not me, because I don't have a new-fangled Playstation or Xbox and refuse to buy one just to play a video game, so I won't be able to play regardless. I'll stick to NCAA 14 like the rest of us peasants and survive just fine. Crooks.
Now, if you thought EA Sports had a rough few hours yesterday, it doesn't even compare to Charlie Woods on the 7th in Hobe Sound.
Poor kid. I've been there, buddy. Hell, I usually stay there. What's more amazing is the fact that Charlie still managed an 86 after that. I think I've shot 85 once in my life and that was with a couple 6-foot "gimmies."
Kid would've been below 80 if he just parred the hole. Unreal.
And by the way, how big of a loser do you have to be to do this to a 15-year-old?
Good God. How about pulling a kid out of school to watch another kid play golf?
The only time I ever got pulled out of school as a kid was to go see Revenge of the Sith on opening day when I was in middle school. That's acceptable. This … is not. Weirdos.
Get 'em, Paige!
Costco, Mitch Keller & unrealistic sports movies
See what I did there – making a Star Wars reference just so I could lead into Paige Spiranac going to the dark side?
God, OutKick is lucky!
Rapid-fire time so I can figure out if driving a truck with an ABS light on is safe.
First up? Costco put couches in their stores and expected us not to eat their hot dogs whilst lounging on them. Idiots.
That ain't on him. That's on Costco.
PS: we're finally getting one in Daytona. Is a subscription worth it? Has to be in Joe's current economy, right?
Next? Somehow, spring training games are already being played. Wild. The Dodgers scored a billion runs yesterday before recording an out. Should be a fun (miserable) year!
Anyway, we've already got Day 1 aces being named up in Pittsburgh, which is always good for the #content game:
I do love baseball season, especially the start of it. Never gets old. This is such an awful time of year on the sports calendar that you almost – almost – consider turning on a spring training game right about now.
PS: what a DAY for penises and baseball yesterday!
There's a guy who doesn't need a bigger truck. I, on the other hand, am still feverishly looking.
Finally … this little tweet is going viral right now and I gotta say, it's a thinker:
Lauren Shehadi and Kelly Nash take us into the weekend
I mean, you could spend HOURS trying to answer that question. You could probably ask 100 different people and get 100 different answers, because the list is endless.
I think I have a couple winners, though:
Like Mike! Remember that movie? What a throwback. Somebody really thought that premise would work, and guess what? It did. Like the Fanatics pants, that took a whole lot of balls.
And on that note, let's celebrate MLB reporters Kelly Nash (welcome back!) and Lauren Shehadi and the return of baseball.
See you Monday.
OutKick Nightcaps is a daily column set to run Monday through Friday at 4 p.m. (roughly, we’re not robots).
Should Paige Spiranac be in the new college football video game? Email me at Zach.Dean@OutKick.com.