Last week, Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka was suspended for the duration of the 2022-2023 season for an improper relationship he had with a team employee. Many speculated on the identity of the woman, while other pundits said the only reason Udoka’s infidelity came to light was because of his race. Fox Sports Radio host Doug Gottlieb pushed back on that assertation.

“The biggest issue is the media coverage of it and even in the Twitter-sphere,” Gottlieb said. “Not just trying to search for ‘What woman was it? Who could it be?’, but we have this ridiculous part of the media. And I am part of the media, you’ll have people go on TV or radio and go ‘the media, the media, the media’, hey dude, if you’re on TV and you’re representing ESPN or ABC, FOX, NBC, you’re part of the media. I’m part of the media. We are part of the problem.

“Twitter is a cesspool,” Gottlieb continued. “And I know, I participate in it. It has its use for me. It has its use for our business. It is a great way to communicate and a great way to read breaking stories and be a news feed. But you have people on Twitter who want to relate this story to the Brett Favre story. Or they want to ask ‘Why are we finding out about Ime Udoka when this has occurred in other places?’. That’s for Twitter, but for people like — I’ll just say it — Stephen A. Smith to question why this has come out, what are the other possibilities?”

Gottlieb continued by saying the idea that Udoka’s transgressions came to light simply because of his race is outlandish, pointing to other scandals that focused on power dynamics.

“It all links to this thing that we’ve become, which is gross, and I think we know what it is, but unless we say it, if we tip-toe around it, it becomes the elephant in the room,” The Doug Gottlieb Show host said. “Ime Udoka is black. I don’t know how to point that out to you, but he is, in fact, a black man and a very successful one at that. So is that the reason he’s being pointed out? No.

“If you’re not looking in the narrow focus of this story you realize whether it’s CBS why they made a change, Fox News, look at all the changes they made there. NBC and the Today Show. Ever heard of Matt Lauer? This is not a new story, this is a new element to the overall story. But this is not a new story.”

Mike Rhyner, the founder of sports radio juggernaut The Ticket in Dallas, is unretiring to launch a direct competitor in the DFW market.

Richie Whitt wrote in a story for the SI Fan Nation site Cowboys Country that the new sports talker will be called 97.1 The Freak. The Freak will replace rock station 97.1 The Eagle, and it’s believed the format switch will take place as early as Friday.

Rhyner called it a career in January 2020 after four decades in the sports radio industry. He launched The Ticket in 1994 and grew it into one of the nation’s top stations and routinely the number one sports talker in Dallas-Fort Worth.

The talent lineup for The Freak is believed to consist of Rhyner, Eagle hosts Ben Rogers and Jeff “Skin” Wade, former 105.3 The Fan host Jeff Cavanaugh, and Julie Dobbs and Mike Sirois who were previously with The Ticket.

Rhyner posted on Twitter on Friday morning about a desire to get back on the air to talk about Yankees star Aaron Judge’s pursuit of the American League single-season home run record held by Roger Maris.

Then on Saturday, while promoting his Tom Petty tribute band’s appearance at a Dallas venue, Rhyner appeared to drop a hint about The Freak.

Whitt connected the dots further, pointing to a response from Cavanaugh.

It’s understood that The Freak will have rights to Dallas Mavericks games, which The Eagle picked up last season.

Combined with a lineup of voices many DFW listeners are very familiar, The Freak will have its sights set on shaking up the sports talk landscape in the metroplex.

During the fourth quarter of Sunday’s Cincinnati Bengals and New York Jets broadcast, CBS experienced technical difficulties which inhibited Ian Eagle and Charles Davis from being heard on the broadcast. During the glitch, CBS had the cast of The NFL Today — which features WFAN morning co-host Boomer Esiason — announce the game, and he detailed the experience Monday morning.

“It was the Boomer Bowl between the Jets and the Bengals so it was fitting that you were sitting there doing color analysis of this game for a good 10 minutes,” co-host Gregg Giannotti said.

“We all were which is interesting because I said we finally got our alternate broadcast in that we want,” Esiason joked. “We’re not even sure who’s on the field. We don’t have a flip card in front of us. We don’t know if there’s any major injuries or if there’s anybody missing. You can tell who Garrett Wilson is, who Elijah Moore is, who Joe Flacco is. You can tell Hendrickson is, but you don’t have the flip card there. Plus, we don’t have a closeup. It’s the all-high 22. You’re just trying to give the fans a little bit of perspective because at this point in time of the game. It was interesting with five guys.”

He then added that they were watching to see how Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow handled clock management, because former coach Bill Cowher’s pregame emphasis was about clock management. But Giannotti noticed Cowher and Esiason had another on-set disagreement.

“This is the second time in three weeks that you guys have gone at it on national television,” Giannotti quipped. “First was week one between the Steelers and the Bengals. Then yesterday, you guys were going at it about the Kansas City Chiefs. You were listing all the miscues the Chiefs had in their loss to the Colts and coach Cowher didn’t like that and he was barking back at you and you were barking back and him. This is a relationship that is deteriorating.”

“No, it is not deteriorating,” Esisason said. “He was barking at me because — I don’t know — it always seems like I’m the one who has to do the replays of the mistakes so our producer is in my ear. Indianapolis and Kansas City are two of the markets that are actually doing our postgame show so of course we want to highlight the games in the cities where people are watching us.

“As we are talking about that, I get in my ear ‘I have the Kansas City special teams miscues. You ready?’. I guess. So coach gets done making his point, and so I’m like here are the Kansas City miscues and this is why they end up losing the game. They miss two field goals, they ran a fake punt that didn’t work and something else happened. And then we come back from that and there’s coach steaming. ‘I don’t want to micro-analyze things’. I don’t want to micro-analyze anything! I’m just doing what Drew (the producer) is telling me to do!”

After Giannotti impersonated Cowher’s disgust for the segment, Esiason concluded “That’s the best part about live TV. You get reactions and you want reactions!”