Thursday, September 19, 2013

He who pays, calls the game

 Of the 31 owners of NFL teams, seventeen - more than half - are billionaires.

For more than a year, public television’s award-winning investigative journalism series FRONTLINE had been collaborating on a new documentary about brain trauma in pro football with journalists from ESPN, the giant sports network. The title: “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis.”

 ESPN President John Skipper pulled the plug on ESPN’s partnership with FRONTLINE.

ESPN is paying $15.2 billion  for the rights to telecast “Monday Night Football” for 10 years through the year 2021. The monthly price to watch ESPN is four times higher than the next most expensive national cable network. More than $6 billion are hauled in from cable every year. It’s the cash cow for the entire Disney empire. In an interview with the Times, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner said, “To this day, the Walt Disney Company would not exist without ESPN. The protection of Mickey Mouse is ESPN.”

Shortly before his decision, John Skipper had lunch with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and two others in New York City. Sources told the Times, “The meeting was combative… with league officials conveying their irritation with the direction of the documentary.” Skipper also admitted to ESPN’s independent ombudsman Robert Lipsyte that he had spoken with Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger.

Whether coincidence or not, just after ESPN’s decision to disassociate itself from FRONTLINE, the NFL settled a class-action suit brought by thousands of retired players and their families seeking damages from injuries linked to concussions. To the casual fan, it was a win for the players - a sum of $765 million. But even if they finally have to cough up, the owners will feel no pain. That’s just a fraction of the estimated $10 billion the league generates in revenue every year. The typical payout per plaintiff will amount to around $150,000 - not nearly enough to cover a lifetime of lost wages and medical bills faced by the victims of serious brain trauma.

 Without college football, the NFL would have no players from which to choose.

In 1939, the University of Chicago dropped its football program, citing as its reason the  fact that according to school president,  Robert Maynard Hutchins the sport had evolved to the point where it was becoming a distraction to both students and faculty.  In Hutchins’ view, the game of football was now detracting from the noble ideals the university had set for itself. This was no empty, purely symbolic gesture. In 1939, the University of Chicago was a Big Ten Conference football power.

How much revenue has football brought the University of Notre Dame?  While no one can answer that question with certainty, the figure has to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.  On April 13, 2013, ESPN announced that Notre Dame and NBC had agreed to a 10-contract extension, running from 2016 to 2025, at a reported $15 million per season.

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