The funny thing about Roger Goodell‘s push to give Amazon Prime Video flexible scheduling for Weeks 14-17 is it seems barely worth the fight.
There has been a lot written about the topic, but one big factor has been left out. Even if the proposal passes at the next NFL owners’ meeting, Thursday Night Football flexible scheduling would not be that flexible.
Here’s why: The line forms at the back. Before a TNF flex would come up in the final four weeks, CBS and Fox get to protect one game a week in their Sunday afternoon slates, while NBC on Sunday night and, beginning this fall, ESPN on Monday night get to flex.
So for the final weeks of the season, Amazon would, in theory, be able to upgrade to the fifth-best game of the week. There are only 16 games a week.
So, yes, it would be another tool in the toolbox for Goodell to juice Amazon’s rights deal. And it makes sense if there weren’t actual humans involved.
But the point that many people have made, including us, is the disruption to fans — away and home — planning on attending a Sunday afternoon game and having it moved three days earlier to Thursday really is a bit “abusive,” as John Mara said. The players, including Patrick Mahomesalready have expressed their discontent about the possibility of having multiple Thursday night games. Until this point, teams could only appear once apiece on TNF.
In practice, the flexing probably would happen only once per season and would upgrade a game only minimally. Again, yes, it is dreadful — and a ratings killer — to have two under-.500 teams in a late-season game. The NFL says it has only flexed for SNF 1.5 times per season on average.
There is a good chance the TNF change will get approved, but is it worth it?
Quick Clicks
I’m not always a fan of the mic’d-up segments or in-game interviews. They can be distracting to the competitors and lack substance for viewers. However, the leisurely pace of golf makes it work, and it was especially good at the Masters with Rory McIlroy and Max Homa. … Scott Van Pelt was excellent on the Masters. His passion for the sport comes through. … It was embarrassing by the Ravens to have head coach John Harbaugh and GM Eric DeCosta at a press conference and then forbid questions about Lamar Jackson. The presser was about the draft, which made a question about taking a quarterback a question about Jackson. The Ravens waved it off. Not a good look.
…If MLB does start taking over local broadcastsit would be smart to try to make games feel bigger. MLB Network is trying that by having Harold Reynolds on-site for pre-game shows, including this Monday night for “MLB Tonight” at 6 p.m. at Citi Field. The nationally broadcast Mets-Padres game (blacked out in New York and San Diego) will have bob shores and Tom Verducci in the booth for the call, and Lauren Shehadi will work the field. … FS1 touted its morning shows being up last month — a big reason was the World Baseball Classic. With viewers tuning in the night before and leaving their televisions on the channel, it lifts viewership in the morning. This is a big part of the advantage that ESPN has over FS1 in its morning programming.
…The Pac-12’s media rights agreement won’t be completed until late spring or early summer, according to The Athletic college football writers Stewart Mandel and Max Olsen. They said The CW is now in play. We will add this to the conversation around potential defections from Pac-12 to the Big 12: Watch Colorado.
Boxing next for Endeavor?
There is no fixed plan yet for Endeavor to go into the boxing business after its multi-billion deal for WWE, but this is definitely a story to watch.
Behind the news: From The Post’s Ariel Zilber:
World Wrestling Entertainment and Endeavor, the parent company that runs mixed martial arts outfit Ultimate Fighting Championship, have confirmed that they will merge to create a $21.4 billion company that will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
…Endeavor will have a 51% controlling interest in the new entity while WWE shareholders will retain a 49% stake in the company, which has yet to be named.
…The new company plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the “TKO” ticker symbol.
A symbol: While the ticker symbol caught some people’s eye, thinking it is a sign that boxing is next, we were told it is unrelated. Endeavor president Mark Shapiro has said the plan is to run the same playbook with WWE that it used for UFC, which was acquired for a little more than $4 billion and is now valued at a little more than $12 billion. Once Endeavor and WWE get rolling, it seems pretty believable that the next move could be to shake up boxing.
Value add: The new company combining UFC and WWE is valued at more than $21 billion, and has brought combat sports — even if the results are scripted in wrestling — under one roof. This makes boxing a likely next stepaccording to ESPN.
When asked if the new company would enter the fragmented boxing industry, [WWE CEO] Nick Khan told ESPN that the current focus is on full integration between the UFC and WWE. Khan formerly represented Hall of Fame boxers Manny Pacquiao and James Toney, and also negotiated Top Rank’s deal with ESPN while he was an agent at CAA.
Khan was also instrumental in the making of the second and third fights between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder …
In December, Khan and then co-CEO Stephanie McMahon expressed interest in potentially entering the sport of boxing while speaking at a conference in Las Vegas. [UFC president Dana] Whitetoo, has discussed entering the boxing space.
The players: Among ari emmanuelShapiro, Khan and White, there are a lot of reasons to believe boxing will eventually be a future move for Endeavor.
Clicker Book Club
In “Take Back The Game (How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’s Sports—and Why It Matters),” Linda Flanagan describes the impact that big business, coaches and parents themselves have on kids in sports, including specializing a child in one sport too early, a lack of diversified childhood activities, overly aggressive coaches and a lack of funding for lower-income families to participate. The author offers solutions to these issues. My dad Papa Clicker, Herb Marchandwho does the reviews for the column, writes that this is a book that parents (and grandparents) will find most interesting, and gives it 4.5 out of 5 clickers.