The NFL Stuffs Thanksgiving, the Pentagon’s Photographer Lockout, and ‘Spotlight’ and the End of the Reporter Hero

The Press Box

The Ringer

Sports

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2026

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today on The Press Box, Bryan and Joel start the show by discussing the Pentagon barring press photographers from briefings on Iran due to “unflattering” pictures of Pete Hegseth being taken. Next, the guys give their takes on the NFL’s potential plans to add a Thanksgiving eve game to the regular-season schedule (14:06) before asking whether this is a prelude to an 18-game NFL regular season (16:51). After that, Bryan and Joel look at the ESPN–NFL Network deal, what it means for NFL insiders Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport (21:55), and where else insiders can work in sports media today (26:51). Following that, the guys talk about Tony Dungy’s departure from NBC (29:43) before pivoting to the wild night of sports that happened this past Tuesday (35:51), which included Bam Adebayo’s 83-point game and a failed NFL trade (48:58). Today’s show wraps up with a look back at 'Spotlight' on the 10-year anniversary of its Best Picture Oscar win (52:58). All that and more, here on The Press Box. Plus, the return of J-School! Hosts: Bryan Curtis and Joel Anderson Producers: Isaiah Blakely and Bruce Baldwin Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello media consumers.
0:06.0	Welcome to Pressbox.
0:07.6	It's Brian Curtis.
0:08.6	It's Joel Anderson.
0:09.7	It's producers, Isaiah Blakely and Bruce Baldwin.
0:13.8	Coming up on the podcast, Joel, first they kicked reporters out of the Pentagon, then
0:18.6	came the photographers.
0:20.2	Wait, the NFL wants even more Thanksgiving football.
0:23.7	Plus, is ESPN big enough for Adam Schaefter and Ian Rappaport?
0:28.0	A sports night that involved 83 points and a trade that went bust.
0:32.0	Post-Washington Post-Sports writers turned out to be pretty valuable after all.
0:36.7	And it's been 10 years since Spotlight won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
0:41.9	How strange is the idea of a movie about heroic reporters?
1:04.5	But first, let us begin in the Pentagon, where the Iranian counter-revolution will not be photographed or something.
1:06.3	I'm still workshopping the title.
1:11.7	Big scoop from Scott Nover in the Washington Post, and he's gotten a bunch of them in recent months.
1:30.7	Nova writes, the Defense Department has barred press photographers from briefings on the ongoing U.S. Israeli military conflict with Iran after they published photos of Defense Secretary Pete Hegesa that his staff deemed unflattering, according to two people familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.
1:36.5	That's a very likely possibility, the idea of retaliation.. So yeah, I can understand
1:45.3	they're not granting out anonymity
1:47.0	in this circumstance.
1:48.5	This is all from a March 2nd briefing.
1:51.2	Nova notes that Pete Hexit
	...

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