I’m so excited to be writing about the first all women broadcast crew for an NHL game, especially with it being a Chicago Blackhawks game.

On Sunday, NBC Sports announced an all-female crew will broadcast and produce coverage for March 8’s Blackhawks vs. Blues contest at the United Center.

The broadcast will coincide with International Women’s Day and mark the first NHL game broadcast and produced solely by women in the U.S

Kate Scott will handle play-by-play duties, U.S. Olympic gold medalist Kendall Coyne-Schofield will serve as the “inside the glass” analyst and AJ Mleczko – also a gold medalist with the U.S. – will work as an analyst from the game in Chicago. 

Back in the studio, Kathryn Tappen will anchor with three-time Canadian Olympic gold medalist Jen Botterill on hand. Producer Rene Hatlelid and director Lisa Seltzer will lead game production.

I absolutely love that NBC sports is doing this, especially on International Women’s Day. Women broadcasting professional sports is basically unheard of except for couple who do College Football. The fact that it is going to be all women is the most exciting thing ever.

The stigma around women broadcasting in sports is still very much alive, but there are barriers being broken as I type this. As a sports communication major this is such great news and a step in the right direction!

What do you guys think about an all-women broadcasting crew in the NHL?

Like many other sports team around the world, the Chicago Cubs have created their own television network, Marquee where games will be shown this upcoming season. The sports cable channel is scheduled to launch on Feb. 22, with the first spring training game pitting the Cubs against the Oakland Athletics. The game also will air on the Cubs’ radio partner, Entercom.

Though details remain sketchy about what will fill much of the air time on the network beyond live game telecasts and pre- and postgame analysis shows, Marquee officials say the sports cable channel will broadcast 28 Cubs spring training games altogether — a total that Marquee touts as “the most spring training games ever aired by a Cubs television partner in franchise history.”

While Marquee currently has deals in place to run on a handful of carriers, including DirecTV, U-verse, AT&T TV, Charter Communications and Mediacom Communication, it is lost on no one that it’s still negotiating with many others, including Comcast’s Xfinity, the Chicago-area’s largest carrier with an estimated 1.5 million households.

Unless a deal is done in the next few days, that could mean some Cubs fans may only have a radio option for tuning into spring training games and possibly regular season games as well.

With or without Comcast, Marquee is expected to run an ad campaign to raise awareness of the cable station’s launch. Schafer Condon Carter of Chicago, ad agency of record for the Cubs, has been involved in developing the ad campaign. Bits of the new work were shown at the annual Cubs fan convention in Chicago last month.

I spend a lot of my free time in the summer, watching baseball on TV mostly because there is nothing else on, but it can be entertaining. At home, I have Comcast Xfinity like tons of others who live in the Chicago area, I will be really disappointed if I am unable to watch the games.

I was upset when the Cubs’ announced that they would be creating their own cable channel, because their games were always available on regular cable channels, I do not want to necessarily pay extra for the channel, but it would be something I might be interested in. With them not having a deal with Comcast takes away so many possible viewers, like myself. It is very unfortunate and seems greedy on the Cubs’ end.

What do you guys think of teams having specific channel that you have to subscribe to just for their games?

With the 2019-2020 NFL season coming to a close after the exciting Super Bowl game, talks about the NFL Draft are starting. The NFL 2020 Draft will be held in Nevada during April 23rd-25th 2020. Draft analysts have predicted who the Bears will choose with their picks. The team traded their first-round pick to the Raiders as part of the blockbuster trade to land outside linebacker Khalil Mack in 2018. They have two selections in the second round: the No. 43 choice they obtained from Oakland in the Mack deal and their own pick at No. 50.

In a mock draft posted on NFL.com analyst Chad Reuter is predicting that the Bears will select LSU guard Damien Lewis at No. 43 and Texas Tech linebacker Jordyn Brooks at No. 50.

Lewis played the last two seasons at LSU after transferring from Mississippi Community College. He started all 27 games at right guard, including all 14 in 2019 when the Tigers won the national championship. He was named first-team All-America by The Athletic and was part of an LSU line that won the Joe Moore Award as the nation’s best unit.

Brooks was a four-year starter at Texas Tech, where he appeared in 46 games and recorded 360 tackles, 6.5 sacks, 32.0 tackles-for-loss, two interceptions, six pass breakups, three fumble recoveries and two forced fumbles. Last season as a senior he registered career highs with 108 tackles, 3.0 sacks and 20.0 tackles-for-loss.

I think that these two players could have important roles on the team in the future. The team had an issue with guards last season, and with Kyle Long, one of their best guards retiring this past season, they will need to look into getting big guards to take his place. I also think that the Bears should focus on obtaining a tight end, they have also had issues with this position and to make great plays having a good tight end is necessary.

A good candidate for tight end could be Purdue’s, Brycen Hopkins. In 48 games over four seasons at Purdue, Hopkins caught 130 passes for 1,945 yards and 16 touchdowns. Last season the 6-5, 245-pounder set career highs in all receiving categories with 61 receptions, 830 yards and 7 TDs.

These are just some predictions of draftees that the Bears could possibly be focusing on and some inferences that I have for the Bears during draft season.

I would love to hear your opinions on what the Bears could do with their 2nd round drafts, just because all of the popular players will be most likely taken in the 1st round, 2nd rounders can be just as good.

Hey guys! My name is Cheyenne Carder, I am a senior, Sports Communication major with a minor in Social Media Marketing at Bradley University. This blog will consist of weekly updates about topics going on in the world of Chicago sports. Some weeks there will be a collection of information about multiple sports teams in Chicago, or a focus on one specific sport or team. I have always loved sports and I currently manage the social media accounts for Bradley University Hockey. My dream job is to be the manager of a major league sports team in Chicago. I am from the suburbs of Chicago, so I have grown up watching all of the sports in Chicago. This blog will be my outlet to explain information to readers and share my opinion.