Nick Kostos and Brian Baldinger are co-hosting The Best Football Show, a new Audacy podcast released three times a week, while Kostos has also added a weekly NFL picks column for The Athletic this season.
According to Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports, the podcast pairs Kostos, the longtime host of You Better You Bet, with Baldinger, the former NFL offensive lineman and film analyst known for his “Baldy’s Breakdowns” videos. Baldinger has been a regular guest on Kostos’ radio show for years, and Kostos recently told Awful Announcing that those appearances were the foundation for the new show.
“Brian Baldinger has been coming on You Better You Bet and been an Audacy teammate for years and I absolutely love talking football with him. I’m beyond excited for what this podcast will be. It’s a show by football sickos for football sickos, for football fans that love the minutiae that makes the NFL so special. If you love the NFL, I think you’ll love The Best Football Show.”
Kostos’ column for The Athletic picks every game on the weekly NFL slate both straight up and against the spread, then ranks each pick from 16 to 1 in confidence order, the scoring format used by most office pools.
Kostos has covered sports betting for 15 years, with previous stops at SiriusXM, CBS, and Sports Illustrated before launching You Better You Bet in 2019; he also serves as an ambassador for BetMGM. He still hosts You Better You Bet every weekday, contributes to Westwood One’s Sunday and Monday night NFL coverage, and has expanded his WFAN show’s Sunday footprint this season.
Kostos has hosted You Better You Bet without a co-host since January, when he took over the 9 a.m. to noon ET slot solo with executive producer Bill Zimmerman, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo’s longtime producer at SiriusXM, running the show. The program airs on Westwood One affiliates and streams on YouTube and Twitch while simulcasting on NESN, and Kostos told Awful Announcing at the time that his goal was a show that works for gamblers and non-gamblers alike.
“I need to be able to do a show where a sports bettor finds value in it and wants to listen to the show for information and entertainment, and someone who has never placed a bet in his or her life also finds value in the show.”
The Best Football Show releases three new episodes each week on Audacy’s platforms, while Kostos’ picks for The Athletic publish ahead of every NFL week.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.