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Leagues and Governing Bodies

Controversy Behind Protests During National Anthem Dissipates As NFL Season Ends

Week 17 for the NFL was an "oddly quiet end to an incredibly loud season," according to John Branch of the N.Y. TIMES. There were "fewer than 20 NFL players kneeling or sitting for the national anthem," and TV networks "barely showed them." The AP listed President Trump's response to the protests as the country’s "biggest sports story of the year ... although it had little to do with sports." What "began as a debate over the state of the oppression of people of color became knotted into an argument about patriotism and the military." But much of the heat has "dissipated." Now the top sports story of last year "already feels like something that has come and gone -- or is going, at least, perhaps just smoldering until it flares again" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/2). DEADLINE's Bruce Haring wrote no matter how the "hoopla of the playoffs and the Super Bowl may disguise it, the league is in trouble, based on its track record of negativity for the season." TV ratings are down, "sponsors and advertisers are worried, player concerns are largely unmollified, and attendance in many cities is spotty." Haring: "No matter how they dress up the situation, every key indicator of fan interest -- which is the true driver of the league -- has an arrow pointing down" (DEADLINE.com, 12/31).

HAVE WE SEEN THE BEST YEARS? YAHOO FINANCE's Daniel Roberts wrote under the header, "The NFL Is Not Dying, But It May Be Plateauing." Most of the "headwinds against the NFL right now are not" the fault of Commissioner Roger Goodell. Most are "not even really the NFL’s fault, either." They are "macro business factors that the biggest sports league in the country cannot stop, try as it might." Roberts: "The biggest question about the major American pro sports leagues in the next few years will be: For how much longer can the NFL remain the most popular league?" The Super Bowl next month will be a "good indicator," since the TV audience for the game is "generally not dependent on what happened in the regular season" (FINANCE.YAHOO.com, 12/30).

LAST HOPE: The GLOBE & MAIL's Cathal Kelly wrote the Patriots are the "last solidly marketable storyline" the NFL has going. The league's goal for Super Bowl LII is to "get New England there. ... no matter what." This would be a "very bad time for the Super Bowl to take its first ratings dive in, well, ever." That would "turn a hapless year into a genuine crisis." Kelly: "The best way to ensure that doesn't happen? Belichick, Brady and the Patriots." Fans know who they are and would "probably be willing to take a few hours out of a Sunday five weeks from now to watch them lose." Kelly: "More than probably." That is the "psychology on which the NFL is resting its hopes to salvage the year" (GLOBE & MAIL, 1/1).

LOOKING TOWARD THE PLAYOFFS: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Jason Gay writes the "most fascinating development" in the NFC playoffs -- and "probably the playoffs as a whole" is the presence of the Vikings, which hold the No. 2 seed. Gay: "I really think this could be the year when it actually happens: an NFL team gets to host a home Super Bowl" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 1/2). Meanwhile, in Boston, Ben Volin noted one indication of "how strange" the '17 season was is that this is the "first time in the Super Bowl era that the Cowboys, Giants, Redskins, Packers, and 49ers all missed the playoffs." The last time that happened was in '64 (BOSTON GLOBE, 12/31).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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