Late last week, government regulators approved a deal between ESPN and the NFL wherein the NFL gets a 10% stake in ESPN and ESPN gets a couple more games to televise and control of NFL Network and the Red Zone Channel. Various reports have called this a “blockbuster” and a “multi-billion dollar deal”; normally, I would associate those sorts of labels to deals that would have a positive effect on my life; in this case, I sense there could be more negative than positive effects.
ESPN is a far cry from what it used to be. I know that the “E” in ESPN stands for “Entertainment”; but in the beginning, it was mostly sports. Now ESPN shows us some sports but most of its time on the air is filled up with talking heads talking about sports. And because the NFL has brilliantly devised an information space that fills up the entire calendar, much of what ESPN talks about is NFL football. Don’t get me wrong, most of that the NFL does is good stuff and the league does it quite well; but they are not perfect.
So, in the circumstances where the NFL “screwed up” on something, how am I supposed to hear ESPN’s take on the issue when the “offending party” so to speak is a 10% owner of the reporting entity? The terms “journalism” and “journalist” get tossed around prodigiously these days adorning lots of people that I do not consider performing anything resembling “reporting” or “investigating” or “enlightening”. So, if I now have to consider that the person on my screen talking to me is also and employee of the entity being “reported upon”, should I believe much of what they are saying?
One item in the reports of this agreement is not yet clear to me. According to the report in The Athletic,
“The NFL and ESPN will do away with the “Monday Night Football” doubleheaders, shifting four of its overall games to NFL Network.
“ESPN will broadcast 28 games per season, including NFL Network’s seven. NFL Network retained three games it already had. ESPN previously had 25 games. The NFL took back four games that it is expected to sell, potentially to one of the streamers.”
It is not clear to me where those four “MNF doubleheader games” will sit on the NFL schedule next season. Clearly, they will not be on Monday nights, but where might they be going?
Moving on … There was a report in the Washington Post last weekend under the headline:
- NFL may not be done adjusting its kickoffs
Two years ago, the NFL got rid of the “old-fashioned kickoff” opting to try what was basically a UFL version of the play. The intent at the time placed a large focus on trying to minimize player-injuries on kickoffs – – a goal that most people should find agreeable. In Year One, there was a dramatic decrease in injuries attributed to kickoffs despite a greater number of attempted returns; however, in Year Two, the number of concussions was increased as compared to Year One. Therefore, the league’s Competition Committee is going to take a look at the current situation and see if there are ways to make it better.
Personally, I think the rules need to be tweaked. Absent the injury dimension, I greatly prefer the “old-fashioned” kickoffs – – the ones still in use in college football. Yes, there are more returns now that the NFL “penalizes” kickers who simply put the ball into the stands beyond the end line eliminating the possibility of any return. However, the greater number of kickoff returns have begun to look formulaic.
- Kicker pins the receiver near one sideline around the 5 yardline
- Defenders hem the receiver in on that side of the field.
- Tackle occurs somewhere between the 25 and 32 yardline.
- First and ten…
I do not want to see more injuries; if the NFL’s numbers say that the new rules show an increasing number of concussions, they need to change something.
Switching gears … If I have followed this story sufficiently closely, the NY Jets have fired just about everyone on the coaching staff save for the Strength Coach and the Special Teams Coordinator. A season record of 3-14-0 with a point differential of minus-207 points will do that to a coaching staff. However, allow me two observations there:
- Those guys who were fired were hired about a year ago by Aaron Glenn and Aaron Glenn is going to select the folks who will be the Jets’ coaching staff next year.
- Should the Jets stink again in 2026, there might not be a large number of others for Aaron Glenn to blame for poor performance; the records may show some sort of consistency but in the coaching staff there is very little that would be constant year over year.
Finally, I’ll close today with this from Margaret Mead:
“Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………