Latest news with #Playmakers
NBC Sports
a day ago
- Sport
- NBC Sports
NFL's looming interest in ESPN will (and should) raise constant coverage questions
For more than 20 years, the NFL has owned and operated NFL Media. The conflict of interest resided in plain sight. And few seemed to regard it as the problem that it was, and is. With the NFL in the process of acquiring 10 percent of ESPN, the vibe has dramatically changed. Anything and everything ESPN reports about the NFL will be scrutinized. How can it not be? While most have barely shrugged at the NFL's total control over its in-house media outlet, the fact that the NFL will own one tenth of a massive, global sports conglomerate will create constant questions about things said, and not said, by ESPN about the NFL. Commissioner Roger Goodell's recent prerecorded 'nothing will change' message to ESPN employees won't change that. Beyond the reasons we identified in response to the original article, the NFL — without owning part of ESPN — successfully squeezed the network to cancel the popular scripted series Playmakers. 'Everyone feels that it's a rather gross mischaracterization of our sport,' Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said of the ESPN series, before ESPN killed it. Likewise, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said this, in 2003: 'How would they like it if Minnie Mouse were portrayed as Pablo Escobar and the Magic Kingdom as a drug cartel?' Twenty-two years later, the NFL is about to own a piece of ESPN. In other words, don't expect a Playmakers reboot. The recent news that the Spike Lee/Colin Kaepernick collaboration won't be televised by ESPN has prompted a knee-jerk reaction that the NFL put the kibosh on the Kaepernick docuseries. Based on things I've separately heard and sensed, I believe the project was destined to die without the NFL on deck to own a piece of ESPN. But the NFL-ESPN relationship will make reasonable people believe the seeds for the scrapping of the show were planted the moment it appeared the NFL would end up owning part of ESPN. There will also be issues about the timing of certain reports, if those reports ever even become reports. It's fair to wonder, for example, whether ESPN's new look at the physical and mental toll of pro football on the 1988 Saints was originally slated for publication at a time when it would have been more likely to move the needle. Instead, it has landed in the dog days of August. By way of comparison, ESPN dropped a lengthy story about the Patriots on September 8, 2015 — two days before the Patriots opened the season with a Thursday night home game. The publication was calculated to create a maximum stir. And it did. The scrutiny is unavoidable. Anything and everything ESPN reports about the NFL will be run through the 'how did the NFL influence this?' lens. It's a basic reality of the NFL deciding to take a significant equity stake in a broadcast partner. Time will tell whether it was worth it. Roughly a decade ago, the NFL scrapped the tax-exempt status of the league office because it had become a chronic P.R. problem. Put simply, the NFL decided that the financial benefits no longer justified the criticism. When it comes to the NFL's eventual ownership of ESPN (if regulatory approval is secured), there could be a point at which the league decides that the constant questions about the ESPN relationship point to a business decision to cash out.
NBC Sports
09-08-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC Sports
One-city Big Shield book tour is coming
Big Shield arrives in 10 days. Already, it has more preorders than the three prior novels (Father of Mine, Son of Mine, On Our Way Home) combined. It makes sense, since we're selling a football book on a football website. And it's going to do well, because it's an entertaining story (I believe) on an important topic (I know) in sports. Gambling. Organized crime. Inside information. Under the right (or wrong) combination, things will get interesting. The process of getting the word out for Big Shield includes mentioning the book here from time to time. And talking about it on radio shows and podcasts. (If you've got a show and you're interested in a season preview in exchange for a plug, I'm easy to find.) While I've never done a book tour for any of the five books (including Playmakers) and counting, Big Shield requires a big move in order to promote big sales. A one-city (for now) tour is coming. For one specific appearance. Stay tuned for more details. Until then, it's time to give away a third free, signed copy from the first box of Big Shield books. Send an email to florio@ with this subject line: '8/9/25 Big Shield Giveaway.' Also, preorder the book if you haven't. Even though they say sports novels don't sell, you're already proving them wrong. It probably helps that the ebook is only 99 cents. So do yourself a favor. Get a good book for less than a buck. And do me a favor. Drive the sales to the point where those who say sports novels don't sell will need to add an asterisk to their calculations.
CNN
11-06-2025
- Sport
- CNN
African Voices Playmakers: Christian Benteke
Major League Soccer has seen an uptick of interest from players from around the world in recent years. One such star that is no stranger to the international spotlight is Congolese Christian Benteke. With 10 years in the English Premier League, and close to 50 international appearances for Belgium under his belt, he came to the U.S. to break some records but also, he says, on a personal quest for happiness, as he's been explaining to Larry Madowo for African Voices Playmakers.
CNN
11-06-2025
- Sport
- CNN
African Voices Playmakers: Christian Benteke
Major League Soccer has seen an uptick of interest from players from around the world in recent years. One such star that is no stranger to the international spotlight is Congolese Christian Benteke. With 10 years in the English Premier League, and close to 50 international appearances for Belgium under his belt, he came to the U.S. to break some records but also, he says, on a personal quest for happiness, as he's been explaining to Larry Madowo for African Voices Playmakers.
NBC Sports
30-05-2025
- Politics
- NBC Sports
Could the NFL draft eventually go away?
For years, I was as brainwashed as anyone by the NFL's version of the sorting hat. The draft was the ultimate offseason experience. The great bastion of hope for a brighter, for every NFL team. Then, during the lockout, NFL Players Association attorney Jeffrey Kessler explained that, in the absence of a league-wide union, the draft is an antitrust violation. At first, I didn't want to hear it. Over time, I started to like the sound of it. As explained in one of the 100-plus essays in Playmakers, the draft is fundamentally anti-American. Thirty-two independent businesses come together and control the entire labor market, parsing out employees based on a system under which the most inept of them get dibs on the best of the players. My 86-the-draft take has been dubbed derisively as a 'crusade' by others in the media, whose relevance and income are coincidentally tied to its ongoing existence. And I've come to accept the simple reality that, over the past decade, the draft has become too big to die. Understandably, then, I nearly fell out of my chair this morning when Peter King (making a return for the full two hours of PFT Live) suggested that the draft could go away in our lifetime. Personally, I don't buy it — but I like the sound of it. The folks at typed up the key quotes so I didn't have to. Peter's broader point is that, if the draft would at some point go away, the NFL would come up with something to replace the draft. And that thing would become as big, if no bigger. At some point, I'll lay out my idea for how talent would be distributed in a way other than rewarding the worst teams with the best players. Maybe this weekend, when things will be slow. If things will ever be slow again. For now, I won't rule out the possibility that the draft will die. While the NFL enjoys an antitrust exemption by virtue of its multi-employer bargaining unit, the current chief executive could tuck an elimination of that law in the next iteration of the big, beautiful bill. Or maybe the union would shut down in the face of the next lockout, and not settle the ensuing antitrust litigation. However it may play out, it's not impossible. Peter thinks it's very possible. And while that will rile up many who are under the honor-and-a-privilege spell, the NFL would find a way to make a post-draft existence work — and to make whatever replaces it the league's biggest offseason event.
