Cousin Sal’s NFL Picks Has Hew Home on Facebook
For all the guff everyone gives Bill Simmons (including myself), he has one positive constant in his media empire: talking NFL with Cousin Sal. You might know Sal “Cousin” Iacono from the Jimmy Kimmel show where he is a staff writer who appears in various man-on-the-street type bits. If you listen to Bill Simmons’ podcast you also know him as a Cowboy-obsessed fan (one of his son’s middle name is Romo) who had an incredibly successful betting segment (hitting on 79% of his picks) on ESPN that would make Jimmy The Greek proud.
Despite being a long-time confidant associated with Simmons, ESPN kept the Cousin Sal segment on last year through the end of the season. Obviously, the arrangement had a lot to do with the Jimmy Kimmel show being on ABC, but the initial idea for his ESPN picks were all about aligning with the Simmons demographic. On this week’s The Bill Simmons Podcast, Cousin Sal alluded to the fact that for the first time neither of them were employed by ESPN and they didn’t need to hold back with their criticisms of the network’s NFL coverage. Then, at the end of the show, he slipped in the fact had developed a new online pick’em show called “Cousin Sal’s Sure Thing” with the help of Dollar Shave Club and Facebook.
Cousin Sal will place the real bets in Vegas every Friday, and will integrate guests to debate and dissect his picks. On Sundays, Sal will go on Facebook Live, providing real-time updates and commentary on the day’s action. While the idea of going to the Facebook platform is not a new one, it shows how talent may not need a network like ESPN as much anymore. The Facebook Live element could give him more of chance to be seen versus having his segments buried before an NFL Gameday story about Jeff Fisher’s love for making homemade strawberry pies.
I leave you with Cousin Sal channeling how I feel as a Patriot fan at the thought of Jimmy G going into Arizona on a Sunday Night in his first game without Gronk.
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