The Sweep: Russini's Reveal Is BetUS and Wednesday at Noon, Greg Olsen Catches the Post Inventing a Quote, the Devils Bench Hellebuyck for 'Win Probability,' and Giannis Is 'Speechless'

The "familiar voice" BetUS teased is Dianna Russini, the show is Wednesday at noon, and the book is one state regulators have been ordering out of their states for two years. That was Monday's biggest media story and it was not Monday's best one, which belongs to Greg Olsen, who read a quote attributed to him in the New York Post, checked the broadcast, and found it did not exist. Eight items, newest first.

November 9: BetUS announces The Russini Report, and Russini tells People "the lies became so out of control"

BetUS said Monday morning that Dianna Russini will host a weekly live NFL betting show, The Russini Report, premiering Wednesday, November 11, at noon ET on BetUS TV, its website and its X account, with a companion column, per Front Office Sports' Mark Maske, Ryan Glasspiegel and Michael McCarthy. Bill Parcells and Damon Amendolara are on the first episode, per People. She will also contribute to Stugotz's Nobody's Safe podcast. Her line: "I've spent 20 years chasing the stories everyone's talking about. Now I get to tell them my way." And: "The absolute best part of this situation has been the loyalty the NFL has shown me." To People, per Awful Announcing's Brandon Contes, she called the last six months "heartbreaking," said "At the beginning of this, it was a nightmare," and that "the lies became so out of control" and "this was a runaway train." She did not say which claims were the lies. BetUS is based in Costa Rica, is endorsed by Dennis Rodman, and has drawn cease-and-desist orders from several states; Michigan's regulator said last year that it is licensed only in the Comoros Union. Our call: Mike Florio said Saturday he would ignore her reporting until someone without "credibility issues" confirmed it, and we ran that because the test had a date. The date is Wednesday. The second test is the one nobody in the announcement mentioned: an NFL insider whose employer's business is taking bets from Americans in states where it has been told to stop, previewing games for them. The NFL's "loyalty" to her is real and she is entitled to it. The league's position on the book paying her is the thing we would like to hear next.

November 9: Greg Olsen catches the New York Post attributing a quote to him that the broadcast never contained, and Malik Nabers had already answered the fake version

During Fox's call of Giants 19, Eagles 11, play-by-play man Joe Davis said Nabers's body language "has been terrible today." Olsen, per Awful Announcing's Drew Lerner, pushed back: "It's easy for us to sit here and interpret body language," then "There's never been a great wide receiver who hasn't demanded the ball," then, after a dropped end-zone pass, "You want to demand the ball, you can't throw that ball any better." The Post ran a story attributing the phrase "bad teammate" to Olsen. Nabers, five catches for 43 yards on eight targets, posted on Instagram tagging Olsen: "Y'all be trying create a narrative on me soo bad it's actually crazy!!" and "If you [don't] like the way I play the game keep the camera off me!! SIMPLE!", and said Olsen calling him a bad teammate was crazy since no former teammate ever had. Olsen on Monday: "At no point did we ever say he was a bad teammate," calling the attribution "a flat out lie" and tagging the Post and USA Today. Awful Announcing reviewed the broadcast and found no such phrase. The Post updated its story; USA Today had not at publication; both appear to have lifted it from Heavy.com. Our call: a quote that never happened travelled from an aggregator to two national mastheads to the player's phone, and the player's response became the next day's story. Olsen did the thing the outlets should have done, which was check the tape. Nabers's "keep the camera off me" is the wrong target, and he knows it was Davis anyway.

November 9: The Devils bench Connor Hellebuyck for Tuesday in Winnipeg because playing him "would potentially give us a reduction in our expected win probability"

Hellebuyck spent 11 seasons in Winnipeg, asked out over the summer, was suspended for skipping camp and was traded to New Jersey on October 23, per NHL.com. Tuesday is his first game back in the building. He will not play it. Devils GM Sunny Mehta's statement, per Awful Announcing's Lerner: his participation "would potentially give us a reduction in our expected win probability," and he "was adamant that he felt a duty to play on Tuesday in Winnipeg." Hellebuyck: "I'm disappointed, but I understand. Selfishly, I want to play," and "it's out of my hands." Our call: Mehta has put a probability in a press release that he does not possess. No model of a goaltender's performance includes a term for the crowd booing him, and if the Devils have one they should publish it, because every book in North America would like to see it. The honest statement was that the organisation did not want the night to be about him. Writing "expected win probability" instead made it about him and about the front office, which is worse.

November 8: Giannis is "speechless" about Doc Rivers, and his first move is to name his actual coach

Rivers, now an NBC analyst, said on The Bill Simmons Podcast last week that Giannis "doesn't have a super-high IQ" and was hard to coach, which we ran on Friday. Sunday night, after the Heat beat the Kings 114-108 with Giannis scoring 29, he was asked about it, per Awful Announcing's Contes: "Oh my God. First of all, he's not my coach." Then: "I'm speechless." Then: "You got to go ask him why he said what he said. Not me." And: "Never let bitterness or pettiness get in front of your goals and dreams." Rivers went 97-103 with him in Milwaukee. Erik Spoelstra was asked Friday and the answer is not reported. Our call: "he's not my coach" is the whole reply and the rest is decoration. A coach who took over a 30-13 team and finished under .500 with the player is not the witness the defence would call on the player's intelligence, and Giannis, who said in one breath that he had not heard the comments and in the next addressed them precisely, has a better sense of timing than Rivers gave him credit for.

November 8: Bill Simmons puts Aaron Glenn next to Hue Jackson, and the table does not disagree

After the Jets lost 35-12 to Kansas City, their fourth straight, Simmons said on Sunday's podcast, per Awful Announcing's Qwame Skinner: "I can't believe how awful he is," "Aaron Glenn's not getting a 3rd one," and "Hue Jackson, 11-and-44. I think I can beat it," joking that Glenn could reach 10-45. Glenn is 5-21 across two seasons. The article's table runs from Bert Bell at 10-46 and Jackson at 11-44-1 through Brian Callahan at 4-19 and Rod Dowhower at 5-24. Mike Greenberg called Glenn "an absolute disgrace" in October. Our call: Simmons is a Patriots fan ranking a Jets coach, which is the only reason to discount it, and the record is the reason not to. A coach at 5-21 is not a hot take. He is a line in a table, and the table was already written before Simmons read it aloud.

November 8: Antonio Pierce will not discuss the Cowboys on NFL Today Plus, discusses them, and reveals the actual reason

Dallas beat the Colts 27-23 to reach 4-5, and CBS's Sunday morning panel went to the Cowboys. Pierce, per Awful Announcing's Megan Armstrong: "You're always gonna blame the coach," then "at some point, the players, you gotta step up, man," then "They're an embarrassment," "underachievers by far," "we talk about them way too much," and finally, standing, "Because they have the star—because I'm a Giant!" Darius Slay, an Eagles fan, stood with him. Our call: a four-win team that beat a five-game loser and sits within reach of a 5-2-1 division leader is being discussed because the audience numbers say so, and Pierce knows it, which is why the bit ended with the producer. The "I'm a Giant" confession was the only honest sentence in the segment and the best one.

November 8: Trump says he was "only kidding" about Dana White as press secretary

Asked Sunday, per Awful Announcing's Tyler Lauletta: "I was only kidding. But Dana loves the idea, and there's only one Dana." White is "actually coming tomorrow," for other reasons. That resolves the CNN-versus-TMZ item we declined to run two days running because the two reports could not both be true. Our call: they were both wrong, or both right about different conversations, and the man who started it has now ended it with a joke. We note it here because we said we would, and because it is the rare sports-politics story that closes.

November 9: Bill Barnwell buries the Justin Herbert excuse machine at 0-8

On The Domonique Foxworth Show, per Awful Announcing's Brendon Kleen, Barnwell opened: "Today, we lay the Justin Herbert excuse machine to rest." The machine, he said, ran "for seven years" through Brandon Staley and Mina Kimes's advocacy, and the body of evidence is a quarterback who has "never won a playoff game" and never finished in the top eight in MVP voting, now 0-8 after Sunday's 44-22 loss to the Texans. Our call: the eulogy is funny because it is a eulogy for an argument, not for a player, and Barnwell is careful about that distinction. The Chargers are 1,000-1 at DraftKings alongside the Eagles, and the difference is that Philadelphia's quarterback is on blood thinners. Herbert is playing. That is the problem the excuse machine was built to avoid saying.

What we are not running, and why

Jordon Hudson's lawsuit against the owners of a 2023 Airbnb rental. The Post first reported it and Awful Announcing summarised it: she alleges the owners leaked Ring footage of Bill Belichick, that it led to tabloid stories, and she seeks damages and an order barring disclosure. The filing includes her correspondence with the host. These are allegations in a civil complaint with no response from the defendants and no ruling, and this column does not try lawsuits. We note it as a legal matter and move on.

Pedro Martinez on the lockout. At his foundation's gala over the weekend he told both sides, "This time, there's no excuse," and "do not lockout baseball." The CBA expires at 12:01 a.m. ET on December 2 and owners are widely expected to lock the players out when it does. A Hall of Famer being right is not a drama item. It will be a baseball item on December 2.

Terry Bradshaw and the ties. A joke that his Fox colleagues disrespected the military by not wearing ties. There is nothing under it.

Jack Ham, and Matt Campbell's praise for Steve Jones. Ham suffered a medical emergency before Saturday's Penn State game at Washington and was taken to the University of Washington Medical Center; Jones, his broadcast partner, called the game alone. Penn State coach Campbell said Monday that Ham was in stable condition and credited Jones: "If it's not for Steve, for what he did, I don't know if we have as good of news as we do right now." That is a sober note about a man's health and a colleague's professionalism, reported here as such and not as an item.

Bill Cowher on Shedeur Sanders. A former coach's opinion that the Browns should commit to a quarterback. It is a take, and we have enough of our own.