Thanks to John Skipper and Roger Goodell, the Relationship Between ESPN and the NFL Has Never Been Worse
In case you weren’t aware, this year the NFL is partnering up with Fox to simulcast their NFL Network draft coverage on both networks. Which is a huge fisting of ESPN who in no uncertain terms invented live coverage of the draft 38 years ago. And according to Sports Business Journal, the situation between the league and its broadcast partner has deteriorated even more than even that would indicate. Thanks mainly to a clash of massive egos between Roger Goodell and John Skipper:
The fact that [ESPN] had to make such a concession on the NFL draft offers an illustration of just how bad the relationship between the two powerhouses had become. During Super Bowl week in Minneapolis, NFL executives privately described the relationship as the worst they’ve ever seen. In particular, they pointed to stories on ESPN.com and “Outside the Lines” that they felt went out of their way to portray the NFL in a bad light.
Their complaints ranged from the number of times ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” covered the concussion issue to the number of stories from feature writers Don Van Natta and Seth Wickersham about Commissioner Roger Goodell’s salary, the league’s handling of the player protests, palace intrigue at the Patriots and the ongoing dispute between Goodell and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
Plus, there were all the negative headlines surrounding the NFL this season that made their way onto “SportsCenter” or the home page of ESPN.com.
The NFL always has had a hard time differentiating between ESPN the promotion arm and ESPN the media outlet. It’s not a new development. In 2013, Goodell and then NFL executive Steve Bornstein met with former ESPN President John Skipper at a Manhattan restaurant to pressure him to back out of its affiliation with PBS’s “Frontline,” which was producing a documentary on concussions. ESPN wound up pulling out of the partnership.
In the past, ESPN had executives in place who could mollify the NFL. Over the past two years, though, ESPN did not. Skipper did not engage with the people who matter at the NFL, like Goodell and Brian Rolapp, executive vice president of media, sources said. Skipper, who was known to favor basketball and his relationship with Adam Silver over the NFL and its leaders, never fully engaged in the partnership. He did not socialize with or develop close ties to influential owners, like Patriots owner Robert Kraft and the Cowboys’ Jones. It seemed like the folksy Southerner had little in common with the people at the top of the NFL.
There’s only one problem when two armies you hate go to war with each other, and that’s figuring out who to root for. The Iran-Iraq War. Germany vs. the Soviets on the Eastern Front. Klingons vs. Romulans. The Mets-Yankees World Series. Ultimately it ends up being like a fight between any of my in laws. All I can do is put down my knife and fork, pour another glass of wine, enjoy the fireworks and root for mass casualties on both sides.
In the ESPN corner, you had John Skipper too stupid, pill-addled and lacking in business acumen to understand the importance of pro football to his business. Instead he spent his time playing grabass with Adam Silver and doing wall-to-wall Lebron coverage to be bothered meeting with his most crucial business partner. I’d like to give Skipper credit for having integrity enough to run the “Outside the Lines” pieces and air a season of “Playmakers” against the NFL’s wishes, but I can’t even do that. Because he spiked the “Frontline” story, canceled “Playmakers” after one highly rated season and God knows he ran a hundred hit pieces on air and in print at the league’s request, whenever it suited their purpose. You can’t be a man with some balls and a lap dog at the same time.
In the NFL corner, you have Roger Goodell, the most insecure, thin-skinned multi-multi-millionaire in the history of the universe. Maybe Skipper didn’t stroke him sufficiently. But what kind of a man of unlimited power needs to get stroked? Why can’t he just be happy to collect all that Disney money, be content that ESPN will gladly run with whatever fake news leak he wants out there and not sweat them talking about his salary? And why worry about a drama series about fictionalized football players doing made up things just because “Playmakers” wasn’t written like a season of “7th Heaven”?
Guys only do these things and screw up billion dollar relationships that do harm to both companies only when they are unrepentant narcissists with uncontrollable egos. ESPN and the NFL are like two members of a cartel who can’t help but undercut each other. Or like two Mob families who just can’t stop getting involved in a damaging and costly war. And as with cartels and mobs, it’s the little people who end up paying the price in end.
It’s just funny in an ironic sort of way that Skipper and Goodell each chose to go to war with Barstool. And all they’ve done is make us stronger. I give it five years, tops, that the only NFL draft coverage will be right here.