Amid his ongoing lawsuit against the NFL for retaliation and wrongful termination, Jim Trotter joined The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz on Wednesday and described a previously unpublicized “ambush” by NFL Media executives against him and Steve Wyche over their podcast, Huddle and Flow.
In 2018, Trotter and Wyche approached their bosses asking to do a podcast “from the perspective of two Black men covering the NFL.” Executives from the media arm never responded, so it “died on a vine,” according to Trotter.
Two years later as America was dominated by conversations around racial justice, NFL Media changed its tune. Trotter and Wyche got a green light for the show.
Trotter was hesitant at first. But eventually, he and Wyche agreed the show could make an impact, so they decided to launch it.
With six weeks left in the NFL season, Intuit TurboTax approached NFL Media wanting to sponsor the show. Trotter asked for details and ultimately found out Intuit was prepared to pay $250,000 for a six-week sponsorship.
Trotter, Wyche and their producer convened and determined they would ask for a slice of that money.
“We’re putting together the show. We’re doing everything. We book our own guests. We do our own research,” Trotter explained. “The only thing the NFL does is take a link we give them and put it on some sort of social media site.”
So they met with an NFL Media executive overseeing audio and made their request. That’s when the “ambush” came.
“All of a sudden, there are five or six people, none of whom look like us, all of whom are in management. Two of whom were the top two people at the NFL Media crew,” Trotter said. “Mind you, we didn’t ask to meet with any of these people.”
Because they had gotten ahead of their skis and taken ownership over their work, Trotter felt the show of force was purposeful. By then, he had already butted heads with management over the NFL’s diversity efforts.
“I’m feeling like we’ve just been ambushed,” Trotter explained. “And we are told by (NFL VP of Creative) David Jurenka that ‘we’re not paying you for a podcast, we don’t pay for podcasts, not happening.'”
Huddle and Flow ended after that first season run.
Trotter now works for The Athletic and is in a protracted legal battle with the league over incidents like this.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is an Editorial Lead at Awful Announcing overseeing digital content and special projects. He lives in Phoenix and has covered sports media for Awful Announcing since 2023.