Sarni's Scrolls: NBC'S Peacock Showing its Colors

CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN... Peacock.

Yes, Peacock, NBC's streaming service, is getting into the NFL TV action with Saturday night's exclusive telecast of the Bills-Chargers game.

And that's not all.

Peacock also gets a prime-time Wild-Card playoff game on Jan. 13.

The Peacock games represent the NFL's latest foray into streaming content.

It began last season with the Thursday Night Football deal with Amazon. The inaugural Black Friday game was added this season.

Next: YouTube took over the NFL Sunday Ticket.

The NFL gave Peacock a terrific matchup of elite quarterbacks: Buffalo's Josh Allen vs. Los Angeles' Justin Herbert. But that was back in May when the schedule was made. Now it's December and Herbert is injured and out for the season.

Still, it's an important game for the Bills in their playoff pursuit.

■ Peacock announced Thursday that the fourth quarter will be commercial-free, marking an NFL first. Talk about a Christmas present to viewers.

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Tua keeps receipts.

At Wednesday's news conference, Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa unloaded on sports media who have used Tyreek Hill’s sensational year as a way to slight the quarterback's excellent season.

This, coming on the heels of Tagovailoa's second-most accurate game of his career despite Hill missing the game with an ankle injury.

Highlights of his awesome two-minute answer:

■ "I keep saying, everyone wants to make this about me, about Tyreek. Please, keep pushing it to Tyreek. Make it about Tyreek.

■ “I understand that my platform and who I am in this league as a quarterback makes me — if you want polarizing, whether I’m the best, whether I’m the worst — like I could care less.

■ "I keep receipts. We all have a way of how we do things but like all the narratives about it.

■ "Yeah, sure. I am only good with Tyreek. You’re right. That is the only time I’m at my best. You’re right. I’m only good when Jaylen [Waddle] is in.

■ “I could care less about it. Sure, if Jaylen and those guys are out, I’m only as good as Raheem Mostert allows me to be. If that’s what the narrative needs to be, and we’re able to win games, and we’re able to go where we wanna go as a team. I am the worst football player, if that’s what you want.

■ “So whatever it is, whatever you need on your show, take clips out of what I just said, do what you need to do like that. I’m just here to do my job, and my job is to help our guys win.”

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Shohei Ohtani is Associated Press' Male Athlete of the Year for the second time in three years.

The baseball star received 20 of the 87 votes in a close race with Lionel Messi (16) and Novak Djokovic (16). Nikola Jokic (14) was fourth.

■ Messi, who is Time's Athlete of the Year, was named Sports Business Athlete of the Year by Sports Business Journal.

■ The Sporting News selected Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese as its Athletes of the Year.

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The NBA features five Christmas Day games for the 16th year in a row.

What we're getting:

■ The last four NBA champs -- Lakers, Bucks, Warriors, Nuggets.

■ MVPs -- Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Joel Embiid, Kevin Durant.

The schedule:

■ 12: Bucks at Knicks, ESPN (Dave Pasch, Hubie Brown)

■ 2:30: Warriors at Nuggets, ABC, ESPN (Ryan Ruocco, Richard Jefferson)

■ 5: Celtics at Lakers, ABC, ESPN (Mike Breen, Doris Burke, Doc Rivers)

■ 8: 76ers at Heat, ESPN (Mark Jones, Monica McNutt)

■10:30: Mavericks at Suns, ESPN (Beth Mowins, Stephanie White)

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ETC.

■ Major League Baseball's competition committee approved several rule changes for the 2024 season, including subtracting two seconds from the pitch timer with men on base -- from 20 to 18 seconds -- while also widening the runner's lane to first.

■ The NFL made no TV changes to Week 17. The Dolphins-Ravens showdown remains a regional game at 1.

■ The NFL is adding the tug-of-war to the Pro Bowls Skills Competition.

■ Current NBA MVP Odds: Embiid +180, Jokic +275, Doncic +550, Gilgeous-Alexander +900, Antetokounmpo +1000... Embiid has scored 30-plus points in 13 straight games, 40-plus in three in a row.

■ Top football recruiting classes after Signing Day: 1. Georgia, 2. Texas, 3. Alabama, 4. Miami, 5. Ohio St.

■ The European Super League is alive after a court ruling against FIFA and UEFA.

■ On Wednesday, FC Barcelona beat Almena in Spain. On Thursday, it flew 5,000 miles to Dallas for a friendly with Club America that will reportedly net the team $5.5 million.

■ The Masters currently has 77 qualified players, and is shaping up to be one of its smallest fields.

■ The Pro Volleyball Federation has signed a deal with its first broadcast partner, CBS.

■ Warner Bros Discovery is in talks to merge with Paramount Global to create a news and entertainment behemoth. A powerhouse CBS Sports and TNT/TBS combination?

■ John Ourand, one of the top sports business reporters, is leaving Sports Business Journal to join Puck News.

■ An X user was suspended for posing as ESPN's Adam Schefer with a fake post that stayed up for two hours and surpassed two million views.

■ The house next to Lambeau Field is selling for $699,900.

■ New firm Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment aims to become the top agency for women's sports.

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■ "EW's" Entertainers of the Year: "Barbieheimer," Kelsea Ballerini, Beyonce, Sasha Colby, Ayo Edebari, Cast of "Jury Duty", M3GAN, Pedro Pascal, Taylor Swift, "The Vanderpool Rules."

■ Boozy pickleball experiences are trending across the world. Hotels worldwide are now offering packages centering around pickleball and pickleball-themed menus and drinks.

■ There are at least 10 college courses devoted to Taylor Swift, including one at Harvard comparing the singer's work to that of poet William Wordsworth.

■ The "Archer" series finale "Archer Into The Cold" was a fitting conclusion to 14 years of the animated spy spoof.

■ Comedian Jo Koy will host the Jan. 7 Golden Globes. Who? CNN reported that Chris Rock, Ali Wong and the Smartless podcast trio of Will Arness, Sean Hayes and Jason Bateman all previously turned down the job.

■ "Willie Nelson and Family," a four-part Paramount+ docuseries which debuted on Thursday, reflects on the ups and downs over the past 90 years. Plenty of bombshells.

■ Mexican musician Peso Pluma -- not Taylor Swift, not Bad Bunny, not Drake -- is YouTube's most-streamed artist of the year with 8.5 billion views.

■ Three songs from "Barbie" -- Ryan Gosling's "I'm Just Ken," Dua Lipa's "Dance The Night," and Billie Eilish's "What Was I Made For" -- made the Academy Awards' nominations short list, but only two can make the final.

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THEY SAID IT

■ "It's gross. It's gluttony at its finest. It's excess. It's so extra. I hate that the L.A. Dodgers can go out and spend a cool billion dollars this offseason to acquire all the stars that they want... It's like going Christmas shopping with a Black Card." -- "UnSportsmanLike's" Michelle Smallmon on the signing of coveted free agent pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto for $325,000 million on top of the $700,000 million they gave Shohei Ohtani.

■ "We're building a culture and that ain't it. That is not the culture we're trying to build. So a message needs to be sent to some of these guys, if you don't play hard, then you can sit and rot over there on the bench." -- Notre Dame basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry following 65-45 loss to Citadel on Tuesday.

■ "We're not 2-26 bad... no way are we that bad." Cade Cunningham after the Pistons lost to the Jazz 119-111 Thursday night, their 25th consecutive defeat.

■ "Seven wins is not the pinnacle of college football but it's certainly the foundation. We will win championships in Tampa. We will win chchampionships at South Florida." -- USF coach Alex Golesh after his team's 45-0 victory over Syracuse in Thursday's Boca Raton Bowl.

■ "What is that? Chubby Checker?" -- Al Michaels watching Ryan Fitzpatrick dancing on the sideline, getting ready for the Thursday Night Football halftime show.

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Jim Sarni, BC Class of '69, is a former sportswriter for The Boston Globe and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He resides in Fort Lauderdale and watches a lot of television. If you have a comment or an opinion, we'd love to hear from you Jksarni@aol.com