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Is Goodell Picking Favorites?

The NFL’s decision to allow ABC to simulcast six extra ‘Monday Night Football’ games from sisterco ESPN has enraged executives from rival networks, prompted some pretty vicious phone calls and accusations of favoritism, and led to animus and chit-filing. It’s also the latest example of a familiar trope in the industry: The Shield can do whatever it wants.

nfl giants cowboys
Rivals hate the fact that the plan was sprung on them, and that they only found out about it on Friday—three days before the first simulcast. Photo: Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images
John Ourand
October 18, 2024

Last Friday, as NFL Media C.O.O. Hans Schroeder was sitting on the tarmac at Heathrow Airport, preparing to fly back to the States from a trip to London, he presumably knew that he had to log a couple of unpleasant calls. The league had just reached a deal that would allow ABC to simulcast six extra Monday Night Football games this season from the package owned by ESPN, its sister company, starting with the upcoming Bills-Jets game three days hence. And Schroeder found himself in the unenviable position of breaking that news to a handful of network sports heads who had spent the last year lobbying heavily against this exact move. After all, Disney had bought those games as a cable package, and now it was using them to bolster its broadcast network.