Diamond Sports suing parent company Sinclair in regional sports battle

When Diamond Sports filed for bankruptcy in March, it set in motion a sometimes contentious period that could alter an already transforming regional sports landscape.

The most imperiled relationship at the time was between Diamond Sports and Major League Baseball. Diamond owns the local broadcast rights to several teams — including the Twins — on its Bally Sports channels.

Since the bankruptcy filing, Diamond has relinquished broadcast rights to two teams (Padres and Diamondbacks) and skipped payments to others (like the Twins) before ultimately retaining rights and paying them to show games in 2023.

But now a new foe has emerged in Diamond Sports' battle: its own parent company.

Diamond Sports is suing Sinclair, alleging that its parent company fraudulently took more than $1 billion from its regional sports business per reporting from several outlets, including Reuters. The suit was filed last month, but details were just made public on Wednesday — as I talked about on today's Daily Delivery podcast.

"Throughout this entire period of precipitous decline, Sinclair unrelentingly continued to carry out its plan to 'milk' Diamond for Sinclair's own benefit and to extract whatever value it could salvage before Diamond's inevitable bankruptcy," Diamond's complaint says, alleging that Sinclair began taking assets away from Diamond soon after buying the regional sports channels for more than $10 billion in 2019.

Sinclair denies those claims and will defend itself, per Reuters.

Whether this side squabble has much bearing on how the regional sports landscape reshuffling eventually turns out remains to be seen, but it is fascinating to watch — and fun, perhaps, if you don't have much love for either side.

Here are four more things to know today:

*Speaking of perhaps not having much love for either side, former Packers QB Aaron Rodgers is kinda sorta raising some alarm bells about the Jets' offensive line after being sacked six times in 10 dropbacks during a joint practice with Tampa Bay. The Jets have a lot of short-term injuries on the line, so Rodgers is trying to be patient.

"I don't get concerned about things I don't have a huge role in — yet," Rodgers said. "That might change. At some point, I might say, 'Hey, I need the five who are going to be in there to be in there with me for a solid week,' but I don't think we're at that point ... because I don't think there are five guys that have earned those spots. So, I have some patience."

*Also on Thursday's Daily Delivery, I had some fun with the idea that Vikings QB Kirk Cousins ruined my chance at a perfect Immaculate Grid on Wednesday. It's also a good excuse to link to the site itself and to Lindsey Young's fun story on how the Vikings interact with it.

*Griffin Jax had a rough outing for the Twins on Wednesday, but let's not forget that from mid-May to mid-August he posted a 1.23 ERA in 31 appearances.

*Expect more Twins talk on Friday's podcast when I welcome in La Velle E. Neal III.