Longtime ESPN play-by-play commentator Mike Patrick passed away Sunday at the age of 80.

Per ESPN, Patrick’s doctor confirmed that the West Virginia native — who was the voice of ESPN’s ‘Sunday Night Football’ for 18 seasons — died of natural causes in Fairfax, Va.

Patrick rose to national prominence at ESPN starting in 1982, and was a consistent presence on the network’s football and basketball broadcasts for over 30 years. His final ESPN call came in the 2017 AutoZone Liberty Bowl.

That career included being the play-by-play announcer for the first NFL regular-season game ever broadcast on ESPN, back in 1987, with Joe Thiesmann and Paul Maguire frequently joining him as color commentators over the years. Patrick would go on to be the voice of ‘Sunday Night Football’ from 1987 through 2005, as well as over three decades of ACC men’s basketball championship games and the network’s Women’s Final Four games from 1996-2009.

Patrick’s voice was a familiar one to ESPN viewers, as he was the lead announcer for many years of college football and the College World Series, including ‘Thursday Night Football’ and ‘Saturday Night Football’ broadcasts.

Mike Patrick career

Patrick first took to the airwaves in 1966, working at Somerset, Penn. radio station WVSC. Four years later, he moved on to Jacksonville, Fla. TV station WJXT, where he became the sports director and began calling World Football League games for the Jacksonville Sharks, along with Jacksonville University basketball.

Patrick headed back north in 1975, taking up a post as a reporter and weekend anchor for Washington, D.C.’s WJLA. There, he called University of Maryland football and basketball games, as well as Washington NFL preseason games for the next seven years.

Patrick then joined ESPN in 1982, not long after the network launched, and would remain there until retiring in 2018. Over the years, he became best known as the voice of ‘Sunday Night Football,’ calling NFL games for 19 seasons from 1987-2005. Patrick’s first call of a college football game for ESPN came in 1985, and he would go on to be the lead play-by-play announcer for ‘Thursday Night Football’ from 1991-97, and in 2006 moved over to ‘College Football Primetime.’

From 2009-17, Patrick was on the mic for ESPN and ABC broadcasts of college games on Saturday afternoons while continuing to work the College World Series, the women’s Final Four, and numerous NFL playoff games on ABC. Patrick’s work extended into the world of video games as well, with EA Sports hiring him as the voice of the MVP: NCAA Baseball series in 2006 and 2007.

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Boston Celtics reserve guard Payton Pritchard is the 2024-25 NBA Sixth Man of the Year.

Pritchard averaged a career-high 14.3 points for the Celtics, led the NBA in points off the bench with 1,079 in 80 games and set an NBA single-season record for most 3-pointers off the bench with 246. He was third among reserves in assists (257) and had the league’s best plus-minus of any reserve at plus-428.

Pritchard shot a career-high 47.2% from the field and made 40% of his 3-point attempts for the third time in six seasons with the Celtics, who had one of the league’s top benches. Hs 3.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists 28.4 minutes per game were also career highs.

“Payton is one of the most dedicated players I’ve ever been around,” Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said in a news release. “He truly loves the game and is committed to the work that goes into being great. In addition, he’s driven by winning and doing whatever it takes to help the team.’

He had two games with at least 30 points this season, including a career-high 43 points against Portland on March 5. He 24 games with at least 20 points and 22 games with at least five made 3s, including 10 against the Trail Blazers making him the eighth NBA reserve to make 10 or more 3s in a game.

Pritchard, a first-time winner of the trophy named after Celtics great John Havlicek, received 82 of 100 first-place votes, 13 second-place votes and five third-place votes and finished with 454 points ahead of Detroit’s Malik Beasley (279 points) and Cleveland’s Ty Jerome (81 points).

‘Payton is a baller – and his teammates know what they are getting every single day in terms of effort, care, and commitment,’ Stevens said. ‘For him to be honored with the award named after the great John Havlicek is a credit to all that he brings to the table for our team.’

The 6-1 guard has turned into a valuable contributor and played a significant role in Boston’s championship last season.

Boston leads the Orlando Magic 1-0 in their first-round playoff series, and Pritchard scored 19 points and was 4-for-6 on 3s in the series opener. Game 2 is Wednesday in Boston (7 p.m. ET, TNT).

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• Lane Kiffin says getting over Ole Miss’ 2024 season is like navigating stages of grief.
• Jaxson Dart came over to Lane Kiffin’s house to watch SEC prime-time games after Ole Miss lost to Florida last November. What else was there to do at that point but watch?
• Ole Miss narrowly missed College Football Playoff. Lane Kiffin says playoff system ‘doesn’t have it right.’ He favors a 16-team bracket with no automatic bids.

Jaxson Dart had one question for coach Lane Kiffin after Mississippi’s gutting loss at Florida last November.

Can I come over?

Sure, Kiffin told his quarterback.

Kiffin and Dart sat on the couch and watched football.

What else could they do?

Hours previously, Mississippi lost in The Swamp, a result that impaired the Rebels’ College Football Playoff hopes. That night, Kiffin and Dart watched more SEC playoff contenders lose. Texas A&M lost in overtime at Auburn, and, stunningly, Alabama got trounced at Oklahoma.

“Him and I are just sitting on the couch, watching the night games, watching other people get upset on the road in the SEC on senior days,” Kiffin told me, “but he just was like, ‘Man, I just feel like I just let down everybody in Oxford, like every person.’”

Kiffin felt similarly. The Ole Miss coach told me a few weeks ago that he’s not fully over last season. He compared the process to navigating the stages of grief – something he experienced after his dad, Monte, died in July.

Ole Miss entered last season oozing hype centered on the possibility of the program’s first College Football Playoff bid. Kiffin had assembled a talented roster, complete with a star quarterback in Dart, and Ole Miss finally had a defense to match its offense.

The Rebels’ playoff aspirations clung by a thread after the Nov. 23 chaos that started with their loss at Florida. Ultimately, the selection committee chose Indiana and SMU instead of a three-loss SEC team like Kiffin’s Rebels or Alabama.

“You may think you’re over it, and you’re over it in certain areas or parts of it,” Kiffin said about last season, “but then there’s a bargaining stage. … I think sometimes I still do that.

 “It was a really good team, it’s just, we played three one-score games and lost them all.”

The Rebels failed to protect fourth-quarter leads in losses Kentucky and LSU. The Wildcats and Tigers each converted key fourth downs during their rallies, and Kentucky scored the winning touchdown after recovering its own fumble.

The margin of being a playoff team versus enduring anguish became that close.

Although Florida delivered the final blow to the Rebels’ résumé, the Kentucky and LSU losses remain bitter pills for Kiffin.

“The first two (losses), I struggle with more, because you’re ahead,” Kiffin said, adding that his team played “flat” against Florida and failed to overcome a first-half injury to star receiver Tre Harris.

Dart is projected to be a first-round selection on Thursday in the 2025 NFL Draft after three seasons starting for Ole Miss. His former backup, Austin Simmons, is in line to become the starter for a Rebels team that figures to be ranked in the preseason Top 25, but must reconfigure after the departure of several prominent players.

Lane Kiffin: Playoff system ‘doesn’t have it right’

Two weeks before losing to Florida, the Rebels smashed Georgia. If the playoff committee had opted for a three-loss team with marquee victories, Ole Miss would have been a prime choice.

Kiffin aired repeated grievances after the committee’s selections of Indiana and SMU, teams with inferior strength of schedule metrics compared to Ole Miss.

The Rebels’ routs of Georgia and South Carolina dwarfed any triumph by Indiana or SMU. However, 11-win Indiana and ACC runner-up SMU avoided unsightly losses akin to Ole Miss’ home loss to Kentucky. Ole Miss was the only Power Four opponent Kentucky beat.

The committee faced a decision of what it valued most: strength of schedule and marquee victories or overall record and avoidance of a bad loss? Kiffin believes the committee showed its hand: Record is “by far the No. 1 part,” he said.

“The system doesn’t have it right,” Kiffin said. “I don’t think anybody, after watching the games, would say those are the best 12 teams in America. In my opinion, that’s what it should be: You should be getting the best teams.”

Penn State crushed SMU, the committee’s last team in, in the first round. Ole Miss routed short-handed Duke in a bowl game to finish 10-3.

Of the SEC’s three CFP qualifiers, only Texas won a playoff game. SEC teams combined for a 2-3 playoff record. The 2024 season won’t be remembered as a banner year for the conference.

I maintain that either Ole Miss or two-loss BYU – the Cougars beat SMU on the road during the regular season – would have been a better playoff choice than the Mustangs, but that the committee chose SMU because it did not want to penalize a team for losing its conference championship game.

Never mind that CFP rules list no specific protections for conference runners-up.

Lane Kiffin reveals preferred College Football Playoff format

The playoff will remain at 12 teams this season. The field could expand as soon as the 2026 season.

Kiffin favors a 16-team bracket with no byes and no automatic bids. Such a field would have included Alabama, Miami, Ole Miss and South Carolina as the extra four qualifiers last season.

“Sixteen teams, you’d get more people excited about it, more people in play,” Kiffin said, “and less (chance) for error by the committee.

“Forget giving (automatic bids). Figure out the best teams. Let an educated committee figure that out with analytics.”

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.

Pro Football Hall of Famer and media personality Shannon Sharpe vehemently denies sexual assault and battery allegations filed in a lawsuit against him, alleging that he’s the victim of a ‘blatant set-up’ and ‘shakedown’ attempt.

Sharpe has been accused of sexual assault and battery, in addition to engaging in the intentional infliction of emotional distress in a lawsuit filed in Clark County, Nevada on Sunday. According to the suit obtained by USA TODAY Sports, the plaintiff, listed under the alias ‘Jane Doe,’ alleged that Sharpe sexually assaulted her twice, once in October 2024 and again in January 2025. They met at a Los Angeles gym in 2023 when she was 19.

One of the attorneys representing ‘Jane Doe’ is Tony Buzbee, whom Sharpe accused of targeting him. Sharpe said he expects Buzbee to release a 30-second clip from a sex tape ‘that tries to make me look guilty.’

‘This is a shakedown. I’m going to be open, transparent and defend myself because this isn’t right,’ Sharpe said in an Instagram video on Tuesday. ‘This is all being orchestrated by Tony Buzbee… I believe he is going to release a 30-second clip of a sex tape that tries to make me look guilty and plays into every stereotype you can possibly imagine.’

In a statement to USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday, Buzbee said, “Mr. Sharpe is unfortunately a liar.

“Sharpe offered Jane Doe $10 million to settle her case that she rejected,” Buzbee said. “She chose to file her case instead. I’m proud to be her lawyer. I didn’t seek her out as a client or target anyone and Sharpe is well aware of that.”

The plaintiff, who is seeking $50 million in damages, said she was in a relationship with Sharpe for nearly two years, and it began as a ‘rocky consensual relationship.’ The woman says Sharpe became violent over the course of the relationship, threatened to kill her during one incident, and recorded their sexual encounters without her consent.

In October 2024, Sharpe violently sexually assaulted the plaintiff on two separate occasions in Las Vegas, ignoring her requests to stop, the lawsuit says.

On Tuesday, Sharpe denied the allegations and said ‘the encounter in question took place during the day at her invitation.’ He alleges that Buzbee and ‘Jane Doe’ are attempting to ‘manipulate the media’ with an edited segment of a sex tape.

‘The video should actually be 10 minutes or so,’ Sharpe said. ‘Hey Tony, instead of releasing your edit, put the whole video out. I don’t have it or I would myself. You know what happened and you are trying to manipulate the media.’

Buzbee was part of the legal team that reached settlements against Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson after more than two dozen massage therapists accused him of sexual misconduct. Buzbee also represented an anonymous woman who claimed that rapper Jay-Z and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sexually assaulted her as a teenager more than two decades ago in a since-dismissed civil suit.

Sharpe said Buzbee has a history of ‘targeting Black men,’ pointing to Buzbee’s involvement in the civil lawsuit filed against Jay-Z in December. Sharpe added that Buzbee is actively ‘trying to take me down.’

In a statement released Monday, Sharpe’s attorney Lanny J. Davis called the lawsuit ‘a blatant and cynical attempt to shake down Mr. Sharpe for millions of dollars. It is filled with lies, distortions, and misrepresentations – and it will not succeed.’ Davis’ statement included several explicit text messages allegedly sent from Doe to Sharpe in order to ‘set the record straight.’

‘Mr. Sharpe categorically denies all allegations of coercion or misconduct — especially the gross lie of ‘rape’ — and will not submit to what he sees as an egregious attempt at blackmail,’ Davis said in the statement. ‘He stands firmly by the truth and is prepared to fight these false claims vigorously in court. He looks forward to vindication through due process and a judgment based on facts and the law.’

Sharpe, a three-time Super Bowl-winning tight end, has his own successful podcast, ‘Club Shay Shay,’ and makes regular appearances on ESPN’s First Take. It was reported last week that Sharpe is eyeing a new podcast deal in excess of $100 million.

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Ju’Riese Colón has been ousted as the chief executive officer of the U.S. Center for SafeSport, the organization announced in a statement Tuesday night.

Colón’s departure comes as SafeSport faces persistent questions and criticism from members of Congress, including about the center’s hiring of former investigator Jason Krasley, who is now facing sexual assault-related charges stemming from incidents from his time as a police officer in Pennsylvania.

SafeSport, which was created in 2017 and is tasked with investigating allegations of abuse in Olympic and Paralympic sports, said board chair April Holmes will lead the organization on an interim basis as it searches for a new CEO.

‘We are grateful for Ju’Riese’s leadership and service,’ Holmes said in a statement. ‘As we look ahead, we will continue to focus on the Center’s core mission of changing sport culture to keep athletes safe from abuse. The board is committed to Center employees, stakeholders, and most importantly athletes.’

Colón was just the second CEO in SafeSport’s history and had served in the role since 2019.

Congress created SafeSport following high-profile sexual abuse scandals in several sports, including gymnastics and taekwondo. It was intended to be an efficient, fair way to handle abuse complaints at all levels of the Olympic and Paralympic movement, from those involving Olympic-level athletes or coaches to those in youth sports.

In the roughly eight years since, however, the center has faced consistent criticism on a variety of fronts. There have been complaints about the lengthy delays in the resolution of some cases, and jurisdictional issues that routinely leave national governing bodies in the dark. The center has also been criticized for its high rate of administrative closures, which occur when SafeSport either decides there’s insufficient evidence to support an allegation or the victim chooses not to participate in the investigation.

As CEO, Colón often acknowledged SafeSport’s shortcomings and spoke about the various ways the center was working to improve its policies and procedures. But time and again, members of Congress have appeared unconvinced by the center’s claims of progress or have been concerned about its actions in specific cases.

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, was the most recent member of Congress to speak out, requesting additional information from Colón about Krasley, the former SafeSport investigator. Krasley was fired in November after being arrested for allegedly stealing drug money during a police raid in 2019, prior to his time with SafeSport. He has since been charged with multiple felony and misdemeanor charges related to sexual assault.

‘Accusations of rape and other sex crimes against any SafeSport investigator are especially concerning given SafeSport’s mandate to protect athletes from similar abuse,’ Grassley wrote.