CONTROL OVER THE MEDIA
The NFL’s television rights are the most expensive and profitable rights of not only any American sport league, but of any entertainment company. In his essay, NFL Agenda-Setting, John Fortunato wrote, “In addition to being the NFL’s greatest revenue source, television networks are the league’s greatest source of exposure.” NFL broadcasts have become among the most viewed programs on American television (Fortunato 27-28). The Super Bowl, NFL’s championship game, is often ranked amongst the most viewed shows of the year. Four of Nielsen's top ten programs of all time are Super Bowl games. Because of the obvious financial benefits the networks gain on owning NFL broadcasting rights, NFL critics question the impartiality of the networks’ coverage and whether the networks can openly criticize the NFL without the fear.
Unlike the other major sporting leagues, the NFL negotiates and sells rights to networks as a whole. MLB teams individually negotiate their own broadcasting rights. For example, Sport Net New York (SNY) currently owns a large portion of the New York Mets’ broadcasting rights. Since the 2006 season, regular season games have been broadcasted on five television networks. Those networks are Fox, NBC, CBS, ESPN (technically a cable network), and NFL’s-owned NFL Network. Since 2006, the four non-NFL-owned networks have collectively paid a whopping $20.4 billion for the broadcasting rights. Beginning this fall and up to 2022, those same networks will pay a total of $39.6 billion for the same broadcast rights (Oriard 166 - 168). Despite as much viewership and profit broadcasting games brings to the networks and the NFL, the league enforces strict television policies to ensure that stadiums are filled w...
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...lustrated article, Mark Bechtel wrote “The league can't force ESPN to take Playmakers off the air—the show doesn't use NFL trademarks—but it could choose to not renew its broadcast deals with ESPN and ABC when they expire in 2005” (Bechtel "One and Done"). In a 2004 statement, an ESPN Vice President said “It's our opinion that we're not in the business of antagonizing our partner, even though we've done it, and continued to carry it over the NFL's objections. To bring it back would be rubbing it in our partner's face” (CITE SUMTHANG). More recently, ESPN withdrew its partnership with the PBS series Frontline on the 2013 documentary "League Of Denial." The documentary highlights the history of head injuries in the NFL and NFL’s lacking efforts to make drastic changes to avoid head injuries. ESPN claims the NFL did not influence their decision (CITE SOMETHANG HERE).
The NFL position in this article makes them look very greedy and indifferent about the overall health of their football players. One of the ethical perspectives that can be used to analyze the NFL's position in this article is deontology. Deontology is the perspective where rules is the defining factor for ethical decisions. From the deontology perspective it makes it seem that the NFL has decided not to follow the rules and even blurred the lines as to what potential injuries their players can get. They wanted their injured players to play without having to follow through the with proper procedure in verifying that the players are in conditions healthy enough to play. It looks as if the NFL cares only about bringing in money and not care about
America’s newfound favorite pastime, football, came from a bizarre chain of events. Football started when a soccer player got fed up with just kicking the ball, so he picked up the ball and ran to the goal. His actions of picking up the ball and running with it fathered a new European sport, rugby, which was soon brought over to American shores, and was altered slightly, the shape of the ball and a few other small rules. The sport became organized into a league and produced the NFL(National Football League). The NFL had a slow beginning, but has picked up popularity, currently having a $9 billion yearly revenue.
Football is a very violent sport. There is a lot of concern over the risks posed by hits that injure the head and potentially the brain. The players say they have suffered one or more brain injuries. They want the NFL and helmet maker, Riddell, to set up and pay for medical monitoring and treatment programs for all former, current and future NFL players. Liberals are big supporters of the respect for human dignity. In that case, the NFL tentatively agreed to pay $765 million to past players with health problems that can be caused by concussions. Although research and progress within the scientific and medical communities is understandably slow, the same could be said about the NFL's response to concussions and the dangers they pose to new research reveals new findings. However, some liberals believe that it has taken to long for the NFL to respond to the perceived crisis and its attempt to regulate the concussion treatments which could eventually lead to players ...
When looking into the history of our culture, there are many subtopics that fall under the word, “history.” Topics such as arts and literature, food, and media fall into place. Among these topics reside sports. Since the beginning of time, sports have persisted as an activity intertwined with the daily life of people. Whether it is a pick-up game of football in the backyard, or catching an evening game at the local stadium, sports have become the national pastime. According to Marcus Jansen of the Sign Post, more specifically, baseball is America’s national pastime, competing with other sports (Jansen 1). Providing the entertainment that Americans pay top dollar for, live the role models, superstars, and celebrities that put on a jersey as their job. As said in an article by Lucas Reilly, Americans spend close to $25.4 billion dollars on professional sports (Reilly 4). The people that many children want to be when they grow up are not the firefighters or astronauts told about in bed time stories. These dream jobs or fantasies have become swinging a bat or tossing a football in front of millions of screaming fans. When asked why so many dream of having such job, the majority will respond with a salary related answer. In today’s day and age, the average athlete is paid more than our own president. The cold hard facts show that in professional sports, the circulation of money is endless. Certain teams in professional baseball and football are worth over millions of dollars. Consequently, the teams who are worth more are able to spend more. The issue that arises with this philosophy is virtually how much more? League managers, team owners and other sports officials have sought out a solution to the surfacing problem. Is it fair to let...
The National Football League was formed decades ago by the merger of two national leagues. The Super Bowl is the traditional season-end activity that crowns the national champion. Each team represented starts with one of the original leagues.The number of teams active in the NFL does not remain the same for longr.o. the game of professional football is big business and can be highly profitable. When the NFL announces that it has approved new expansion teams, there is intense competition among team less cities to attract one of the franchises. The game is profitable for team owners and for players, but it also is profitable for the cities in which teams are centered. It contributes to the local economy and enhances the stature of the city in where a team is located.
News outlets within the United States have always formed an agenda to persuade the people to formulate their decision between the two political party systems. This essay will examine how the Federalist Papers helped shape this nation and give reason as to why this nation needed a strong federal government. Also, comparing the “agenda setting” of our earliest construction of this nation and how the news of today uses “gotcha” journalism to move the public to support the democratic process or even go against the government. News throughout the United States history has used political and economic means to move the society to achieve the elitist agenda. For instance the Federalist Papers were used to give the public a raising concern why the Articles of Confederation was failing and the need for the ratification of the United States Constitution. Today the news industries are owned by corporations that seek a rightist or leftist view and move the people to one of these views to achieve their own interest. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the overall agenda of the news to persuade the public to achieve the corporations or politicians agendas.
The NFL has produced a product that has caused long-term brain damage and needs to be liable for the compensation due to its victims. In a recent article titled “A Brain Gone Bad” finding by Dr. Bennet Omalu and Dr. Robert Cantu, case studies of the effect of concussions in ex-NFL players’ brains “presented clinical symptoms of sharply deteriorated cognitive function and psychiatric symptoms such as paranoia, panic attacks, and major depression.” These case studies took place from 2005-2007 and found that NFL concussions were the underlying cause of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) which can cause dementia and Parkinsonism but the NFL committee tried to sweep this information “under the rug” by writing a letter to the head editor of the article asking for the letter to be retracted. This kind of reaction gives the impression of guilt on the part of the NFL and its committee. Hundreds of players, past and present, have major long-lasting brain trauma that has caused their lives and their families to be negatively impacted. The NFL has shown negligence but has not stepped up in compensation to the players and their families even with the findings in these studies that prove their fault.
The National Football League (NFL) has a concussion problem. Of course, many believe they’ve known that for quite some time. That hasn’t changed the fact that football is America’s favorite pastime (sorry baseball) – and dominates the airwaves each and every Sunday while the season is in session.
Intro: In 1946 two members of the New York Giants were found associating with gamblers, trying to fix the NFL Championship Game. These members were suspended and in 1947 the NFL introduced their form of prevention, the injury report (Merritt). Every week NFL coaches have to list their injured players on the NFL Injury Report. Each player has to be listed as either “doubtful,” “questionable,” or “probable” to play that weekend. What a lot of people don’t know is that an ample amount of teams are lying on these reports. By skewing the truth on their player’s injuries it gives that team an advantage. Whether the coaches are putting healthy players on the list, injured players not on the list, or just lying about the severity of the injury, it is all affecting the teams and the fans. I have addressed the problems with the NFL injury report and focused my research on the integrity of the teams and their purpose for lying, how much lying is really going on, and the link between the injury report, the NFL, and gambling.
It is considered that football is the most viewed sport in the United States, over 200 million people watch the regular season which consists of 256 games, and about 114 million people watch the Super Bowl alone which is the final game of the season. The National Football League roughly makes over 500 million for a regular season and their players get paid an average of 2.11 million, but that is the NFL.
Spending big money on this one game seems to be no problem for the NFL or corporations that sponsor the game itself or spend money on the commercials. The average person who watches the game also spends time preparing for this event but hardly in the same manner. The average person could not even afford to attend this game according to the article “How much is The Cheaptest Ticket to Super Bowl 50?” by Jonathan Adams the cheapest ticket was $3,148. According to, the United States Census Bureau the average household income in 2014 was $53,482 which is the households that view the Super Bowl the most. That is far less than what the average NFL player makes. According to the article, “The NFL is Last Among the Four Major North American Sports in Average Player Salary” by Jason Lisk the average NFL player makes $2.11 million. This is only an average of what these players make. The top players make the most
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." -- Harry S Truman
The Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Indians did the best they could to update their followers on Twitter without the use of actual game footage. Instead, they created their own highlights using miniature football player figurines (Garcia, 2016). This display of mockery likely will not change things, and they surely did not think it would. However, it was a good way to raise awareness on this social media policy the NFL has enacted. This policy has annoyed many Twitter-friendly fans, myself included. The other three leagues allow teams to post video on their social media accounts and it greatly enhances the fan experience making it quick and easy to watch highlights from around the league. This is something the NFL now lacks, which they should realize is a disadvantage they now have compared to the other
Sports affect major institutions of society, including the mass media, politics, religion, education, and family. The Super Bowl gathers thousands of viewer’s attention, including those who do not usually watch the regular season games. Football is by all means an American sport. Since the day a baby is born in America, whether it be a boy or a girl, one of the first words they learn to say is ball, and after a few months they add the word foot in front of the word ball, and by the time you know it your baby boy is playing football, and your little girl is cheering “Go Steeler’s go!” and without intention their cultural identity starts.
Media is the most powerful sector of an economy. It is a tool to maintain a balanced society which is characterized by well informed people, effective democracy and social justice. In fact, media has unparallel influence on all aspects of human life in modern times.