Welcome back to The Varsity, my twice-weekly private email on the personalities and deals that define the sports media business. Congrats to my hometown Commanders, who are officially in the playoffs after notching their 11th win in a Sunday Night Football overtime contest against an Atlanta Falcons team that played like it was coached by Marchand. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but the last time the District’s local team won this many games in a season was in 1991. Does anyone remember who won the Super Bowl that season? 🚨 Pod alert!: Make sure you listen to yesterday’s episode of the Varsity podcast, which features my Terp buddy and ESPN star Scott Van Pelt. Interestingly, SVP was very forthcoming about the deal points of fellow needle-movers, such as Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee, and his desire to find a contributing role on ESPN’s Inside the NBA. And look out for a new episode in your feed on Wednesday: The Ringer’s Joe House and Nathan Hubbard drop by for a deep dive into the dysfunctional world of post-LIV professional golf.

The Brady Meter: Week 17 Vikings 27, Packers 25 Grade: C

Just before the opening kickoff, Tom Brady was featured on camera performing his normal pregame soliloquy dramatizing the game between the division-rival Vikings and Cheeseheads. While talking about the Packers, in particular, Brady mentioned that the team only had four losses on the season, and all to good teams. They lost twice to the Lions, he noted, once to the Eagles, “and they lost to the… who did they lose to the other one? Anyway…” I’m going to be charitable and suggest that Fox’s $37.5 million analyst was making a joke, since that fourth loss had been at the hands of the Vikings—the very team that the Packers were about to play. It may have been a joke, but I swear I saw a lonely tumbleweed rolling through the broadcast booth. Once again, Brady was at his best when discussing in-game strategy. At the end of the first half, he questioned the Vikings’ clock management. “The general rule I always used…” he began, offering the sort of fascinating rumination that has appeared too scantily this season. Indeed, the broadcast was bemoaningly filled with the sort of pablum we’ve become accustomed to. Okay, now for some belated stocking stuffers…

The Starting Five

The NBA’s debt limit: Last week, the NBA’s board of governors officially increased teams’ debt limits from $325 million to $475 million, as predicted by Sportico’s Kurt Badenhausen. The agreement continues the NBA’s conservative approach to the debt limit, especially in comparison to the NFL, and marks the first time in more than six years that the NBA raised the bar. However, sources told me it was an open secret that the league would raise the limit once its new media deals were finalized. Of course, earlier this year the NBA nearly tripled the average annual value of its media contracts following its deals with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon.A couple of my best sources told me that they expected the teams’ debt limit to be much higher than $475 million, especially given the skyrocketing franchise values since the last debt limit raise. In 2022, Mat Ishbia bought the Suns for a record-setting $4 billion; earlier this year, Wyc Grousbeck said that he planned to sell a majority stake in the Celtics in a deal valuing the team at as much as $7 billion. I’m sure they will get there soon enough…
Back to normal: When I was reporting on the NBA’s terrible early-season TV ratings a couple of weeks ago, ESPN sources insisted they weren’t concerned, even though ESPN’s NBA viewership was down a whopping 21 percent. Network executives predicted those losses would be wiped out on Christmas Day. After all, the NBA’s day-long slate faced competition from only two NFL games, as opposed to three last year. Plus, all five games were going to be simulcast on ABC. (Last year, ESPN put only two of the five games on its sister broadcast network.) Turns out, their optimism was well-founded: ESPN’s Christmas Day NBA viewership was up 87 percent from last year, transforming that 21 percent drop into a 5 percent gain season-to-date. Through 34 games on ABC and ESPN, NBA telecasts are averaging 1.959 million viewers, and the league is hoping the turnaround will bring an end to all the bleak stories that have been a leitmotif of sports media for the past month. That’s not likely to happen, but at least the Christmas numbers will give ESPN and the NBA an opportunity to fight back.
Netflix’s next steps: By just about any measure, Netflix’s Christmas Day NFL games were a success—a demonstration that the company can handle big audiences for live events without the sort of tech snafus that plagued the Tyson-Paul boxing spectacle back in November. The streaming company’s next step in live event programming comes next week, when it kicks off its 10-year, $5 billion rights deal with TKO by carrying WWE Raw for the first time. The looming question is whether Netflix’s association with weekly live programming will turbocharge its interest in acquiring more rights. Every sports league and conference certainly hopes so. It should be noted that the first WWE show on Netflix will be broadcast from the Intuit Dome in L.A. and is expected to be attended by top executives from both TKO and Netflix. You can bet that those TKO executives will be pitching UFC rights. Their ESPN deal ends next year.
R.I.P. Greg Gumbel: When I heard that Gumbel had passed away over the weekend, my first thought was to contact Sean McManus, the executive who brought the announcer back to CBS in 1998. Of course, dozens of tributes have already poured in from all corners of the sports media universe, including The NFL Today. But few worked more closely with Gumbel behind the scenes than Sean. When I asked him for his best Gumbel story, he described what he called “one of the great nights of my life.”

Courtesy od Sean McManus

Here’s McManus: “Shortly after we brought him back to CBS Sports, I learned what a huge Rolling Stones fan he was. I confessed that one of my greatest hopes was to meet Keith Richards, who I found to be the most interesting of men. Greg said, Let me take care of it. In a few months, we were on our way to the old Spectrum in Philadelphia. Keith’s publicist Jane Rose took us to a small room deep in the bowels of the arena. There, sitting in the darkness on a small couch, smoking and talking to a pal, was the man himself. Looking ever so slight, he stood up and gave Greg a big hug, Greg introduced me as his boss, and I froze. Thinking of all the times I had seen him perform onstage, going back to 1969, all I could think of to say was, ’I am your biggest fan.’ Yikes! We talked about the great British heavyweight Lennox Lewis, Keith asked about Greg’s daughter, and I asked him how he chose the colorful shirts he wore onstage. He told me he goes into his wife Patti’s closet and picks out a few. Jane came back to tell him it was time to go on, he took out one more cigarette and posed for what may be my favorite photograph of all time (see below). Twenty minutes, later we were rocking with 20,000 other fans. Seeing Keith onstage was so surreal, as I had just been hanging out with him in that dark and quiet little room. An unforgettable night. Thank you, Greg, for making it possible.”

The Irish sports page: Most Varsity subscribers are surely familiar with the practice of pre-writing obituaries so that a deeply researched story can be ready for publication soon after a person’s death. Often that leads to interesting bylines. Take the obituaries just published for media eminence Dick Parsons in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Both carry the byline of ubiquitous media reporter Ben Mullin, a former Journal scribe who now toils at the Gray Lady. In the Journal, Mullin described Parsons as an “affable troubleshooter.” In the Times, Mullin wrote that Parsons’ “humane approach to business made him a serial troubleshooter.” I was also intrigued by the Times’s Jimmy Carter obit, which was co-bylined by Roy Reed, who died seven years ago.

And now, the main event…

What Moves the Needle-Movers?

Scott Van Pelt and Mike Greenberg on being your own brand C.E.O., the enduring thrill of getting the first shot at a newly crowned champion, and ESPN’s new open-marriage policy.

John Ourand

In the post-cable universe—where ratings declines are inevitable, streaming dreams are quixotic, and multiplatform appeal is the coin of the realm—ESPN appears to be pinning its hopes on an enormous investment in live sports rights, an even more enormous investment in new platforms (Flagship, Venu, etcetera), and the anointment of a core group of talent known in Bristol as the needle-movers. There’s Pat McAfee, whom ESPN is paying $17 million per year to license his show. There’s First Take host Stephen A. Smith, who is drying the ink on a deal that will pay him at least $20 million per year. Then there’s Get Up’s Mike Greenberg and SportsCenter’s Scott Van Pelt, two other talents for which ESPN execs would gladly back up a Brink’s truck, though both Greeny and SVP make far less than Stephen A.’s asking price and what McAfee’s show costs. McAfee’s arrangement is unique, of course, because it isn’t exclusive. The sleeveless former punter built his audience on YouTube before signing a lucrative licensing deal with ESPN. Stephen A. is a homegrown talent, but his pending deal also includes some nonexclusive opportunities—if, say, he wants to start his own lifestyle-themed radio show or pop-culture play. (Stephen A. has appeared as a guest on Fox News.) Greenberg and Van Pelt represent a slightly different tranche of talent: more old school, with radio chops, pre- and postgame bona fides, etcetera—the Posada and Pettitte of this core-four ensemble, you might say. Greeny and SVP joined me on recent episodes of the Varsity podcast, where I spoke with each about McAfee and Stephen A.’s deals and where they fit into this new ecosystem. It’s clear they believe those deals have set a precedent for ESPN’s top on-air talent, and one that should apply to them. I found their responses illuminating, so I am including them here, lightly edited, as always, for clarity.

McAfeebucks

John Ourand: What do McAfee and Stephen A.’s deals mean to you? Scott Van Pelt: First of all, Pat exists in a completely different ecosystem where he had an established relationship with an audience and was able to clearly demonstrate the value to ESPN. ESPN needs to get younger, and Pat has this massive, passionate following; so he’s able to dictate the terms to them. Then Stephen A. looks at that and says, I’d like to do the same thing. I’m a very interested party in what Stephen A. does. All of you who cover it are going to mention the numbers. But the numbers aren’t as interesting to me as what the buffet is. What I mean is: he’s going to do First Take and do something with the NBA. But what else is he doing, and is it under the ESPN umbrella? It’s a very different time now. Daytime talk and being the C.E.O. of your brand and parceling it out to however many different bidders—it could be like the NFL, where you give pieces to Netflix, Amazon, NBC, Fox, ESPN, CBS. If he’s allowed to do that, then I would be a very interested party. I root for Stephen A. the same way I rooted for Pat, the same way I root for everybody in our business to get the absolute most you can. Mike Greenberg: The business that I got into in the 1990s in Chicago is so totally different from the business that I’m in today. It’s wonderful that people have these opportunities. Stephen A. has so many diverse interests—there are so many things he wants to do and so many conversations he wants to be a part of. ESPN isn’t the right place for all of those. It’s the right place for some of them. But he is interested in political discussion, and ESPN isn’t necessarily the place for that. I think it’s fabulous that he can go and do that in other places. There was a time when that would have been completely verboten. McAfee has a million different things that he wants to do and likes to do, as well, and I think he absolutely should. What do you want to do? Van Pelt: What I love is what I think our SportsCenter has become in big-event postgames. I love being able to react in real time with the people in the booth, the men and women in the arena, and visit with them when it’s done. I can’t tell you what it’s like when you drive home after a night where a champion’s crowned and you get to talk to the athlete or the coach, when you’re the first person that gets a shot. They might still have champagne on their shoulders, but they finally sat down away from the din and the noise, and you get to really explore what just happened. Getting to go to the Masters has been a thrill of a lifetime, and I look forward to going back every year. And if it’s quote-unquote just Thursday and Friday in Butler Cabin, that’s a pretty good gig. I don’t have some burning desire to be the one in the tower on eighteen on a Sunday. Frankly, I wouldn’t want to do it, especially after Jim Nantz, because those footprints are too big. I’m lucky to be in a space where I still enjoy it. It’s never going to be old. Those moments are always new. The moment of accomplishment, of achievement, or of disappointment, those are always going to be interesting. Being the person whose job it is to document them, discuss them with our various hosts, analysts, coaches, and players, I really, really enjoy that. Greenberg: As for me, my plate is pretty full with the different ESPN responsibilities I have right now. I do have a lot of other interests. They aren’t necessarily the same as Stephen A.’s or McAfee’s. I have no idea if at some point I might have some interest in doing something that veered a little bit outside of the lane of what I’ve been doing all this time. And I think it’s great to know that if I decide I want to do that, the opportunities are there. The options are open for people like us. That wasn’t the case 20 years ago, maybe not even 10 years ago. I don’t know what the downside of it could be. Stephen A. is an incredibly important presence on ESPN, and I don’t think the fact that he’s on Fox News at night talking about politics has any impact on the overwhelming success of his daily talk show on ESPN. I’m not sure who’s being hurt by it. Let’s keep using Stephen A. as an example, because he’s a very famous person and a good friend of mine. Stephen A. does his show at 10 a.m. on ESPN, and it’s hugely successful. He has his own show that he does himself, the Stephen A. Smith Show, that only widens his appeal and grows his audience. He goes on all these other kinds of talk shows in the evening and continues to grow his audience and appeal, which brings more people to the television at 10 a.m., because more people know who he is. That’s a win for everybody. Would you want to roll in the NBA when Inside comes over? Van Pelt: I admire that show immensely. I would hate to impact that show negatively in any way, because it doesn’t need anything else or anyone else. The thing I’ve thought about out loud is, if I were there in some role of interviewing people adjacent to them. I mean, they should talk to the stars, but then, maybe, they don’t talk to everybody? I’m just spitballing, here. I’m sure we could all figure out a way because we all have a friendship with one another.

From the Cheap Seats

On Netflix’s NFL games: “Early-season NBA ratings down 20 percent = catastrophe. NFL Christmas ratings down 17 percent = historic success.” —A media executive More on Netflix and the NFL: “Best place to be an NFL fan? Canada. Bell Media is the sole rights holder and broadcasts it all on linear. We don’t care about buffering, Bezos, Peacock, NFL Net.” —A Varsity subscriber up north On the Brady Meter: “Something else to consider for Brady is to listen to how he is on the talkback with the studio after the game. Different voice, different vibe, more him. He’s trying to sound the way he thinks a broadcaster needs to sound, instead of being himself. However, I don’t think he has the confidence to be himself yet, especially when there isn’t a replay involved. I disagree completely with anyone who says those coach/player meetings don’t mean anything. That’s where you can fill all the gaps, even start a conversation, and set the expectation for the viewers. It also helps analysts confirm what they’ve seen on tape, and they like that validation.” —A broadcast talent executive On NFL rule changes: “How many NFL games have you seen this year that are a complete flag fest? I’d say the majority. It’s just completely out of hand. I know they need to create rules and ‘protect’ players, but it isn’t working. For example, the rule where an offensive lineman gets called for an illegal formation because he’s got his foot half a yard off the line of scrimmage is an example of how stupid these rules are. The NFL needs to lighten up on some of these rules. It would open up the flow of the games, make scoring higher and make things more palatable.” —A Varsity subscriber On starting the CFP a week earlier: “If you’re suggesting the CFP should move its first round a week earlier to coincide with Army-Navy, are you therefore also implying that neither Army (8-1, and won the AAC) nor Navy (7-2) will ever make the CFP as the highest-ranked Group of Five champion? Quite unpatriotic of you, John!” —A sports media analyst “The CFP absolutely should move the first round up a week. Army-Navy as a stand-alone is only like a 15-year tradition.” —A Varsity subscriber On Deion’s Barstool move: “You wrote that Deion moved to Barstool in the summer of 2000. It was 2020. I’m looking forward to finding out how Marchand is responsible for this one…” —A finance director [Ed. note: Thanks, yes, Andrew was too busy blending up my soylent half-caf to perform his fact-checking duties. Andrew, next time there won’t be a next time!] Thanks, Mom!: “As the year winds down, I just wanted to send you a quick note to say thank you for being my Lady Whistledown of sports. From the emails to the newsletter to the podcast, I truly enjoy all the weekly content you provide.” —An ESPNer who’s hooked on ‘Bridgerton’

See you Thursday, and happy new year, John

Puck sports correspondent John Ourand and a rotating cast of industry insiders take you inside the executive suites and owners boxes where the decisions that shape the entire sports business are made. You’ll hear interviews with players, network execs, and everyone in between. The Varsity is an extension of John’s private email for Puck by the same name. New episodes publish every Wednesday and Sunday.

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