Legal - Football Wiretap

NFL Receives It Lowest Score For Racial, Gender Hiring In 15 Years

Oct 30, 2019 3:16 PM

A new diversity report has given the NFL its lowest overall score in racial and gender hiring in 15 years.

The NFL received a B for racial hiring practices and a C-plus for gender hiring practices. This gave the NFL a combined B-minus grade for its overall score of 79.3%, a notable decrease from its score of 81.6% last year.

“Almost all of this is attributed to drop in head coach of color and general managers of color, because we put additional weight on those positions,” Richard Lapchick told The Associated Press.

 

Steve Reed/Associated Press

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Analyst: ROI On NFL TV Deal Doesn't Make Sense For ESPN

Oct 17, 2019 10:57 AM

The NFL's TV rights come up for bid again in 2021 (ESPN's Monday Night Football package) and 2022 (CBS, Fox and NBC). The timing could work out well for the NFL if their ratings resurgence continues.

ESPN, however, pays $1.9 billion per year for Monday Night Football compared to just over $1 billion each for the three networks.

"The last ESPN deal was inefficient, and the ROI doesn't make sense for cable networks," said MoffettNathanson media analyst Michael Nathanson.

Nathanson doesn't expect a streaming platform to become the primary outlet for one of the TV packages.

"It's too disruptive. But [there could be more] around the edges like they've done with Thursday night and Amazon [which streams most of those games]," said Nathanson. "But I think the NFL understands, as long as the broadcast monetization system is still there with retrans, they don't want to blow up the ecosystem."

Rick Porter/Hollywood Reporter

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NFL Ratings Climb Nine Percent Since 2017

Oct 17, 2019 9:32 PM

NFL viewership is up approximately three percent from last season to an average of 16.3 million viewers through Week 6.

Ratings for the NFL bottomed out in 2017, which sparked speculation that their marketshare would continue to fall.

Since hitting a low for this decade of 15 million viewers in 2017, viewership has climbed 9 percent and is on par with the 2016 season (16.5 million).

"If the conversation around football is primarily about the game, then we're probably winning," says Michael Mulvihill, executive vp and head of strategy and analytics at Fox Sports, which has the Super Bowl this season. "And if the conversation is about topics away from the game, we're probably losing. I think the focus for the past season and a half has become more where we'd like it to be, which is just on the games."

Conversations centered on politics and player safety have receded somewhat for the NFL.

The NFL's TV rights come up for bid again 2021 (ESPN) and 2022 (CBS, Fox and NBC).

Rick Porter/Hollywood Reporter

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NFL, NFLA Discuss 17-Game Season In CBA Talks

Oct 16, 2019 4:57 PM

The NFL and NFLPA are discussions on a 17-game regular season as part of their new collective bargaining agreement talks.

The NFL previously pushed for an 18-game season while nearly all sides would like a reduction of the preseason schedule.

“We’ve had very fruitful discussion on it, discussing the positives and negatives, and the changes to the game that we’ve made over the last 10 years, which I think are really important as it relates to the safety of the game and how we’re preparing and practicing, and training our players,” Roger Goodell said, via Ben Fischer of Sports Business Daily. “I think those changes have made a significant impact in a positive way, and so that is something we’ll continue to discuss.”

Mike Florio/Pro Football Talk

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NFL Sees No Evidence Of Tanking, Not Considering Draft Lottery

Oct 16, 2019 2:05 PM

Roger Goodell sees no evidence of teams tanking and the NFL is not currently considering a draft lottery.

"The good news for us is we don't see that," said Goodell on teams potentially tanking.

The Miami Dolphins have been accused in the media of tanking this season.

RealGM Staff Report

Tags: Draft, Draft Misc, Legal

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Thursday Night Football Generates 5.3 Percent Of Salary Cap

Oct 14, 2019 11:28 AM

Todd Gurley and Matthew Slater have criticized the NFL for continuing to play games on Thursdays.

FOX pays approximately $600 million per year for the rights to 11 Thursday night games, while Amazon pays an additional $65 million. Peter King estimates that approximately $300 million of the NFL Network's $1 billion annual revenue comes from commercials during the Thursday games, which means approximately $965 million in revenue from the Thursday night game.

If the NFL eliminated their Thursday night schedule, those games would be absorbed back into Sunday and two sources with knowledge of the situation claim it would be a revenue loss of $665 million for the NFL.

The cap would fall by 5.3 percent without the Thursday night games.

Peter King/Sports Illustrated

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Antonio Brown Willing To Return To Patriots

Oct 9, 2019 12:03 PM

Antonio Brown appears willing to return to the New England Patriots.

Brown expects to collect his money from the Patriots and he believes they may as well let him play because of that.

“The Patriots have to pay me,” Brown said in an Instagram live video. “They may as well play me.”

Tom Brady reportedly wanted the Patriots to keep Brown.

Mike Florio/ProFootballTalk

Tags: New England Patriots, Fantasy, Free Agent Rumor, Legal, Misc Rumor

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