NFL
JUST IN: CAN OF WORMS- The NFL involved in one of the biggest scams of the sports industry…Clubs, Coaches and Celebrity Stars all culpable…NFL reacts
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The league struggled with another long off-season of bad news stories, but nonetheless remains enormously attractive to fans.
As it so often has, the N.F.L. league office spent the off-season dealing with crises caused by its players, coaches and team owners.
Deshaun Watson, a star quarterback, was suspended and fined after two dozen women accused him of coercing them or behaving lewdly during massages. Britt Reid, a former position coach for the Kansas City Chiefs, is scheduled to plead guilty to driving while intoxicated in an incident that severely injured a child after Reid left the team’s practice facility.
Dan Snyder, the owner of the Washington Commanders, spent much of the summer on a yacht, seemingly dodging a subpoena to testify before a congressional committee that is still investigating his franchise for a toxic workplace.
As the N.F.L. season kicks off this week, however, it is a good bet that these scandals — and many others from a troubling off-season — will receive little or no attention at games or on television. It is likely that the business of the N.F.L. will remain as strong as ever.
“The N.F.L. in particular can accommodate contradiction and scandal and seems to maybe not be impervious, but certainly is very good at deflecting it and recovering,” said Travis Vogan, a professor at the University of Iowa who researches sports and American culture. He said the N.F.L.’s public relations strategy was to “individualize” scandals, but “the fact that it happens as often suggests that there is a systemic element to it.”
Television viewership for the N.F.L. last season was its strongest in six years, even as most television programming around it craters in popularity. Last year television networks committed about $110 billion for the rights to show the N.F.L. for the next decade, ensuring its financial success no matter what happens with viewership around the edges. The league is on track to meet Commissioner Roger Goodell’s goal of earning $25 billion in revenue annually in 2027.
“It is a freight train going down the tracks, and it is just gaining speed and gaining momentum each year,” Sean McManus, the chairman of CBS Sports, said at a press event last week.