Welcome back to The Varsity, my twice-weekly private email about all the personalities—their hopes, dreams, fantasy deals, anxieties, defenestration nightmares, and everything in between—in the sports media business. Mrs. Varsity and I are spending the long weekend hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park—empty nesting is the best! Happy U.S. Open Second Round to all who celebrate.

With all due modesty, my first Varsity podcast with Peyton Manning was great. After the show, Peyton offered to add me to the ManningCast if I could get Marchand to stop parking his stroopwafel food truck next to his mansion outside Denver every Monday night. (Knock it off, Marchand!) Anyway, the NFL Hall of Famer turned media impresario was indeed a fabulous first guest and spoke mellifluously about the genesis of Omaha Productions, his partnership with Jamie Horowitz, Bill Belichick’s on-air potential, Tom Brady’s preparation for the Fox booth, and gestured at what he would have been able to rake in if he were in Knoxville during the N.I.L. era. Listen to it here. And subscribe here and here.