Where could the NFL seek to influence ESPN coverage?

ESPN has the power, the platforms, and the partnerships to make anything a story. No single sports entity influences coverage like the Worldwide Leader. Given that ESPN and the NFL will be bound through an ownership stake commencing in 2026, this understandably raises concerns.

It’s one thing for a network to have a business relationship with a league. It’s another thing to be financially tied together. Front Office Sports reported that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has “emphasized to ESPN employees that the NFL will not get involved in the network’s journalism.” 

Still, viewers can and should legitimately scrutinize how ESPN covers hot-button topics associated with America’s most popular sport.

Here are some stories to watch as the NFL and ESPN merge:

Health and safety

The NFL has made strides with initiatives designed, at least in theory, to protect the players. They have changed the kickoff rules and have authorized the use of Guardian Caps in games. However, football is a violent game, and injuries are inevitable. Given the league’s history with concussions, it’s fair to wonder about this type of coverage moving forward. Studies are ongoing with CTE and other long-term health issues related to football. How dangerous is pro football to the human body, especially when players are bigger, stronger, and faster than they have ever been? The league might not want you to know.

Labor issues

Most fans tune out this topic. They don’t want to hear about negotiations, strikes, or lockouts. They just want their football. When they do offer an opinion, fans tend to side with management because of their aligned interests—caring more about the team than the individuals. When players hold out or hold in, fans wonder why they don’t honor their contracts. When players get cut, those same fans rarely ask why teams don’t honor those same contracts. It’s all too easy to portray the employees as the bad guys while ignoring that the average playing career is less than four seasons. Will the league ramp up its efforts for pro-management coverage?

Negative owner stories

Bad news about players seems to stick around longer than bad news about owners. Remember when Bob Kraft was charged with misdemeanor solicitation of prostitution? (Those charges were eventually dropped.) Remember when Jimmy Haslam and his brother, former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, agreed to pay a $92 million penalty for cheating customers out of promised rebates and discounts? Remember the Jerry Jones paternity lawsuit? Did these stories receive the comprehensive coverage and investigative journalism they deserved? Stories like those might be minimized even more so in the future. It often appears that details only come to light when the league seeks to remove owners who pose a risk, such as Daniel Snyder and Jerry Richardson.

Domestic violence/sexual assault

Finding up-to-date and accurate information on this topic is challenging. Generally speaking, players commit crimes at a lower rate than the general public. However, statistics on the violent crime rate aren’t as easy to find. It is crucial to keep in mind that, in certain instances, the accused have not been charged with crimes, such as Deshaun Watson and Justin Tucker, who were both suspended for violating the NFL’s personal-conduct policy. The sports media struggles to cover these issues, and the NFL would rather these cases disappear because they’re bad for the league’s public image. If anything, reporting in this area needs to be strengthened. Will it happen now with the NFL’s influence?

Roger Goodell

The role of the NFL commissioner is primarily to serve as a spokesperson for the league. He stands in front of the cameras to take the majority of the questions and absorbs all the shots so that the owners can operate in the shadows. For that, he’s compensated handsomely. Goodell does little without a consensus of his 32 bosses. But we still don’t fully understand the details behind that arrangement. Which owners most often side with Goodell? Which owners would like to have him replaced? Occasionally, we get a peek into this, such as his beef with Jerry Jones, but there is still much we don’t know. That relationship could become more opaque.

Roger Goodell may be telling the truth about staying out of ESPN’s news business. That’s today. Tomorrow, much can change. The bond between ESPN and the NFL has never been closer, and that’s cause for worry if you care about journalism.