The Sweep: Rex Ryan Turns Himself In, Windhorst Calls Milwaukee 'Hell,' a Jets Reporter Takes It Back in 24 Hours, and Malik Nabers Is Now a Hypothetical in a Federal Court Opinion

The serious item goes first, because it is one: an ESPN analyst surrendered to Nashville police on Wednesday morning. After that, a comeback that started 45 minutes late, a reporter who un-said something inside a day, and a wide receiver who spent Tuesday at a podium disputing a television booth while a federal judge was using his name to explain what a player prop is. Eight items, newest first.

November 11: Rex Ryan turns himself in on six misdemeanour warrants in Nashville

Ryan, 63, the former Jets and Bills head coach and an ESPN analyst since 2017, surrendered to Metro Nashville police on Wednesday morning, WSMV4 reported. Police say that last week two pedestrians were crossing Broadway from Fourth Avenue North with a walk signal when a pickup turning right ran over both of their feet and struck one in the leg. NewsChannel 5 puts it shortly before midnight last Thursday. According to the arrest reports as local stations describe them, the pedestrians caught up with the truck at the next red light, at Rep. John Lewis Way; the driver got out, argued with them, got back in and drove off. They photographed the plate. WSMV reports both suffered minor injuries. The charges are two counts each of leaving the scene of an accident, failure to give information or render aid, and failure to obey a traffic control signal. Bond was $6,000. His attorney told WSMV: "Rex became aware of the allegations, and he went down today to the police station and was released immediately." ESPN told Awful Announcing: "We are aware and are in touch with Rex." These are allegations, they are misdemeanours, and he has not answered them in court. There is nothing to add until he does.

November 11: The Russini Report goes up 45 minutes late and the show's account says "you broke it"

Dianna Russini's first show for BetUS was due at noon Eastern. Front Office Sports' Ben Axelrod has it uploaded at 12:45 p.m., prerecorded, about an hour long and with no mention of Mike Vrabel. Her publicist's office said: "The site crashed." We have written the longer version as its own piece today, because the more interesting omission was in the coverage, which mostly did not say that Michigan ordered BetUS out of the state last year and Tennessee fined it. Our call on the launch itself: we doubt that a taped episode fails to upload because too many people are waiting for it. Claiming a record audience for a stream nobody could open was a brave way to explain it.

November 11: Brian Windhorst on the Bucks: "you call this the danger zone. I call this hell"

Milwaukee is 1-10 and under league investigation over the four-year, $64 million extension it gave Gary Trent Jr. in July, a deal that quadrupled his annual pay after a season of 8.1 points a game on 38.7% shooting. On ESPN on Wednesday, per Awful Announcing's Qwame Skinner, Windhorst said: "Everybody in the league expects a guilty finding on Gary Trent." ESPN's Bobby Marks added that if so, "there are going to be draft picks stripped, and people are going to be suspended indefinitely." The league has announced no finding. Our call: Windhorst does not say "everybody in the league" by accident, and to us it reads like a room being prepared for a number. It is still a prediction. The Clippers' penalty weeks ago set the price for this kind of thing, and a 1-10 team with no control of its own picks has less to take.

November 11: Connor Hughes says a Jets coordinator is "not particularly well liked," then apologises the next day

On Jets Final Drive with The Athletic's Zack Rosenblatt, SNY's Hughes said of defensive coordinator Brian Duker: "He's not particularly well liked within the building." A day later he posted, per Awful Announcing's Sam Neumann: "It was inappropriate for me to speak about Brian Duker's standing within the Jets organization," and "It had nothing to do with football, and it was not something I should have commented on." Duker is 36, was hired in late January, and does not call the defence; Aaron Glenn does. Our call: the apology is correct and unusually specific, and it concedes the right thing. It does not say the reporting was wrong. It says it was not his to air. That distinction is worth more than most retractions, and it leaves the more useful question standing, which is what a coordinator who does not call plays is being blamed for.

November 11: A Cleveland radio host is "done" with Shedeur Sanders over a sideline report

CBS's A.J. Ross reported during Sunday's 23-22 overtime loss to New Orleans that Browns coach Todd Monken asked Sanders which plays he was most comfortable opening with, and that Sanders suggested plays that were not in the playbook. Ross said Monken was impressed by the confidence. Colin Cowherd announced on Tuesday that he was selling his Sanders stock. On Wednesday, Ken Carman of 92.3 The Fan went further: "If you're just making up plays that you want to run, I'm done," adding, "I pray to God it's not true." Sanders threw for 297 yards and two touchdowns in his first start of the season. Deshaun Watson gets the job back on Sunday against Houston. Our call: Carman at least attached the condition. The report describes a coach asking a quarterback a question and liking the answer, and two shows turned it into insubordination without anyone from the Browns saying it was. A 19-for-31, 297-yard day is a strange thing to be done with.

November 11: MLB's own editorial staff unionise, three weeks before the players' deal runs out

One hundred and twenty-seven editorial employees at MLB Advanced Media, the producers who post and edit for the league's sites and social channels, have joined the Writers Guild of America East, The Athletic reported and Awful Announcing's Drew Lerner summarised. MLB's statement: "We look forward to working with the WGAE as their new representative." MLB.com's beat writers and national writers are not in the unit, and neither side said why. Lerner calls it a first for a major American sports league. Our call: the timing explains itself. The collective bargaining agreement with the players expires at the start of December and a lockout is expected. Lerner's point is the practical one: without a contract of their own, the league could furlough these employees for as long as a stoppage lasts. They have just made that harder.

November 10: Bill Simmons says NBC "had one job" and showed a split screen

Tuesday in Philadelphia was the first game between Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown since Brown's trade to the 76ers. Before tip, Tatum approached Brown, and Brown largely ignored him. NBC was in a split screen at that moment and showed it on replay afterwards. Simmons, on his podcast, per Awful Announcing's Matt Yoder: "They were in a split screen inexplicably," and "NBC had one job. They literally had one job during this game." The Celtics won. Our call: he is right, and it is a small thing. The greeting was the one unscripted moment of the night, and the broadcast was looking at a graphic. ESPN's clip of Stephen A. Smith the next morning carries his verdict on Brown in the title: "didn't show up to play."

November 10: Malik Nabers says Fox's booth told "just a lie," and a federal judge borrows his name

During the Giants' 19-11 win over Philadelphia on Sunday, Fox's Joe Davis said of Nabers, "His body language has been terrible today," and Greg Olsen agreed. We covered Olsen catching the New York Post attributing a quote to him that he never said on Monday. On Tuesday Nabers answered when he met reporters, per Awful Announcing's Sean Keeley: the commentary was "just a lie, attacking my character as a football player and as a teammate," and, "Don't tell the world who I am if you don't know who I am." He said Olsen "can reach out, and we can have a simple conversation." Olsen's position is that "at no point did we ever say he was a bad teammate."

Our call: both are describing the same footage. A booth is allowed to say a player looks unhappy, and a player is allowed to say that a helmet slam is not a character reference. "Lie" is too strong for an observation; "terrible" was too strong for a receiver in a game his team won. The odd coda is that on the same Tuesday, Judge Colleen McMahon's ruling against Novig in Manhattan explained player props as "how many touchdown catches Malik Nabers will make." He had a busy day for someone who did not play.

What we are not running, and why

Stephen A. Smith on the Lakers' "top three players being white." He said on SiriusXM on Tuesday that he had "never seen an NBA team with its top three players being white deliver a championship," in answer to a caller. It is a repeat of a line he first used on July 1, the Lakers are 10-2, and the segment exists to be clipped. We are not clipping it.

TKO employees on shows in Saudi Arabia. Ben Fowlkes reported for Yahoo and Uncrowned that anonymous TKO staff are frustrated at events continuing in Riyadh during a regional conflict. That is serious reporting about people's safety, sourced to people we cannot identify, and we have read only a summary of it. It deserves better than a paragraph here.

Craig Carton's claims about BetUS's payouts, rating and deposit methods. He made them on WFAN; Awful Announcing noted they were unverified; we could not verify them either. His point about licensing is in our Russini piece because regulators' own releases support it.

Drew Brees wanting Monday Night Football, Mike Tomlin declining to discuss coaching again, Jamie Erdahl on hate mail. A job application, a non-answer and a harassment story that is hers to tell. We ran Brees yesterday in a different costume.

The "four charges" figure for Ryan. One national write-up led with four and listed three. The Nashville stations, citing police, say six. We went with the people who read the warrants.